Alan Sugar, Richard Branson and others

Alan Sugar, Richard Branson and others

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R11ysf

1,931 posts

181 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
GEWAGON said:
No one is knocking their achievements, but things were a lot easer then you could buy a house for 3k, walk out of a job on Monday and get another Tuesday if you had a bit of common sense you could make money. Nowadays there is too much information that every one can get so every market is saturated with amateur entrepreneurs in a lot of cases, so most business run on over-draughts or loans because of this. To be successful you need to be in a cash rich profitable business start small and build up your wealth slowly, or be extra special like inventing Facebook etc.

Today’s high street consist of, payday loans, bookies, pawn shops, food outlets or no win no fee ambulance chasers and the rest is full of companies selling you information on how to be a successful business man or get rich quick schemes.
Totally disagree. To succeed you have to be driven and determined and spot a gap in the market. Things evolve and change all the time. The Victorians set up industrial mills which you couldn't do now for pollution regs and a whole load of HSE crap. Before then people like the Rothschild's and Rockefeller's set up banks which you couldn't do today.

Bill Gates started a business by dropping out of uni because he saw something others didn't. Zuckerberg created an entire market on his own where one didn't exist before to become one of the richest people in the world and he probably couldn't replicate that in 40 years time.

Successful people think and act on the circumstances in front of them. Others look on and then say they were lucky because of the time they were in.

BoRED S2upid

19,641 posts

239 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
GEWAGON said:
No one is knocking their achievements, but things were a lot easer then you could buy a house for 3k, walk out of a job on Monday and get another Tuesday if you had a bit of common sense you could make money. Nowadays there is too much information that every one can get so every market is saturated with amateur entrepreneurs in a lot of cases, so most business run on over-draughts or loans because of this. To be successful you need to be in a cash rich profitable business start small and build up your wealth slowly, or be extra special like inventing Facebook etc.

Today’s high street consist of, payday loans, bookies, pawn shops, food outlets or no win no fee ambulance chasers and the rest is full of companies selling you information on how to be a successful business man or get rich quick schemes.
Payday loans didn't exist until a few years back people have made millions off the back of them. There are always opportunities to make millions but you have to have that entreprenurial spark to take the plunge.

Simpo Two

85,147 posts

264 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
BoRED S2upid said:
Payday loans didn't exist until a few years back people have made millions off the back of them. There are always opportunities to make millions but you have to have that entreprenurial spark to take the plunge.
Although in that case all it does is make poor idiots into even poorer idiots.

Digga

40,202 posts

282 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
StevieBee said:
I recall Sugar himself saying he wouldn't be 'as' successful today as the gaps in the market simply are no longer there and if they are there, they are unlikely to be profitable.

Difficult to be the first at anything so all you can do is be better and sell more than the next guy.
Fair play to him if he was modest enough to admit such. As I said earlier, it will be interesting to reflect on how many millionaires are minted in the UK during our lost decade. My bet is it's far fewer than was the recent norm.

mattnunn

14,041 posts

160 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
Digga said:
StevieBee said:
I recall Sugar himself saying he wouldn't be 'as' successful today as the gaps in the market simply are no longer there and if they are there, they are unlikely to be profitable.

Difficult to be the first at anything so all you can do is be better and sell more than the next guy.
Fair play to him if he was modest enough to admit such. As I said earlier, it will be interesting to reflect on how many millionaires are minted in the UK during our lost decade. My bet is it's far fewer than was the recent norm.
Lost decade? When did that happen? Are you talking about the 70s?

Digga

40,202 posts

282 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
mattnunn said:
Digga said:
StevieBee said:
I recall Sugar himself saying he wouldn't be 'as' successful today as the gaps in the market simply are no longer there and if they are there, they are unlikely to be profitable.

Difficult to be the first at anything so all you can do is be better and sell more than the next guy.
Fair play to him if he was modest enough to admit such. As I said earlier, it will be interesting to reflect on how many millionaires are minted in the UK during our lost decade. My bet is it's far fewer than was the recent norm.
Lost decade? When did that happen? Are you talking about the 70s?
Post GFC, 2008 to 2018 - we're in it.

Muzzer79

9,805 posts

186 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
It's massively over-simplifying business to say that just because outside factors - property prices, etc - are different that they wouldn't succeed now.

Entrepeneurs succeed through an ability to spot a market and exploit it. That market may change, and there is a large amount of luck involved aswell, but they will still find it.

Obviously Branson, Sugar, et al are all old now but as young men given £10k I'm sure they'd succeed. It's not guaranteed of course - as I said, there's a chunk of luck involved, but it's more likely than some on this give credit for I think.

Look at Branson and Virgin Atlantic. He essentially started the airline on a whim; the advice of a journalist and looking at Freddie Laker's story. On their first flight, before they had a licence and the corresponding insurance, they had a bird strike which wrote-off one of the engines on their only (leased) plane.

You can look at the story of VA and say it was luck and you'd never be able to do it again and probably be right. But the Richard Branson of today would, I think, be starting a different company in a different field but with a similar story.

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
Sugar is expert at stuffing his shareholders. I put £2000 in and he turned it into £200 before I could blink.

As for anything else, tell me one product of his that succeeded.

Wacky Racer

38,099 posts

246 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
mybrainhurts said:
Sugar is expert at stuffing his shareholders. I put £2000 in and he turned it into £200 before I could blink.
Even Paul Daniels couldn't do that.

There's no end to his talents.........

mattnunn

14,041 posts

160 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
coyft said:
Digga said:
Post GFC, 2008 to 2018 - we're in it.
Opportunities are everywhere, it may be a lost decade to wage earners, but not to entrepreneurs.
I'd go even further, I'd say millionaire wage earners are fairly common these days, partly due to normal inflation and partly due to wage inflation in the public sector but this will be the first generation that creates millionaire civil servants.

Your county council leaders and department heads could well becom millionaires.

Being a millionaire really ain't that special these days (he says as if he is one!) I'd say their creation follows an exponential growth. I have no data to back this up btw.

BoRED S2upid

19,641 posts

239 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
mybrainhurts said:
tell me one product of his that succeeded.
Well there was that Amstrad ... erm...

Muzzer79

9,805 posts

186 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
mybrainhurts said:
Sugar is expert at stuffing his shareholders. I put £2000 in and he turned it into £200 before I could blink.

As for anything else, tell me one product of his that succeeded.
Seriously?

Alex

9,975 posts

283 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
Branson and Virgin have been close to bust a few times and he has brought it back. Also, he switched to a completely different industry (airlines) from what he began with and made a success of it.

Wacky Racer

38,099 posts

246 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
MBH...You're fired...




mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
Wacky Racer said:
MBH...You're fired...

Lord Superspiv, just fk right off, there's a good chap...rofl

GEWAGON

Original Poster:

155 posts

175 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
This topic is getting very interesting. I love the replies and inputs how many of you are successful entrepreneurs.
And how would you base success

• Someone with a £400k house all paid of modest car no debts and £100k in the bank working 3 days a week to maintain it the rest of time spent with family.
• Or someone with a house worth £1m 800k in debts and mortgage, working 7 day a week to pay for it, don’t see the kids nice car though and can brag about the big nice house.

NorthDave

2,355 posts

231 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
Having met a few guys who are uber wealthy (100s of millions) i would say they typically have something that most people dont have, they see things differently and go for it. All the people in this thread would be in the same position but doing something different if starting today.

Some of these dragons etc are obviously wkers but you cant take their success off them or put it down to luck. The only lucky people who are wealthy in my opinion are those who are born in to it.

Tuna

19,930 posts

283 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
GEWAGON said:
This topic is getting very interesting. I love the replies and inputs how many of you are successful entrepreneurs.
And how would you base success

• Someone with a £400k house all paid of modest car no debts and £100k in the bank working 3 days a week to maintain it the rest of time spent with family.
• Or someone with a house worth £1m 800k in debts and mortgage, working 7 day a week to pay for it, don’t see the kids nice car though and can brag about the big nice house.
These days, neither of those are significantly better off than the average Joe on the street. Yes they are more comfortable, but their lifestyle is essentially the same. They both have to work, neither has the freedom to do whatever they want, they can't afford holiday homes or additional cars at will. If they came home to find their roof was leaking and needed completely rebuilding, they'd both go, "oh ***t".

The modern starting point equivalent to the old fashioned idea of a 'millionaire' must be somewhere around 4 or five million in realisable assets. It's not until you get up in that area that your lifestyle can truly change. Of course, people who've worked hard enough to get themselves there rarely just stop to enjoy it - it's difficult to just drop that sort of work ethic.

The important thing to realise is that money and personal happiness or satisfaction are not the same thing. Some people are capable of being happy with a tin shed and bread on the table, some delight in working 7 days a week and making an impact on the world. You can't condemn someone for how they live their lives just because it doesn't suit your values.


Edited by Tuna on Wednesday 3rd October 20:40

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
GEWAGON said:
This topic is getting very interesting. I love the replies and inputs how many of you are successful entrepreneurs
This question crops up time and again here.

Why does one need expertise in a field, in order to criticise another with expertise?

I don't know how to build my mobile phone, but I do know it's crap...

Mike Random

466 posts

169 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
quotequote all
These people never stop working as has been said, my employer does not work 24hrs a day but we are always passing him info, updates on proposals etc 7 days a week what ever time they come in, some cause him to stop and deal with them others he puts to one side. I am also talking the level of wealth being mentioned in this thread.

They have a different mind set and the buzz they get from life is often the deals they are involved in and chasing the next deal.

Mike