Excuse me, sir.
Sir, how did you get rich, man?
I grew channel to 21 million followers.
I've already been 47 billionaires in the States.
How did you get rich, man?
What did you do?
I owned one of the biggest companies in the world.
Are you serious?
What was the most amount of money you made in a single year?
I sold the company in 2023 for 4.1 billion pounds.
So not dollars?
Proper money, 4.1 billion pounds.
About 5 billion.
A substantial nine-digit number.
900 million?
Double that.
You said double that?
Yeah.
Like 1.8 billion?
Of course.
That's a 10-digit number, my man.
10-digit.
That's a 10-digit number.
Did you have to ever pay a lot in taxes?
Oh, yeah.
I'm glad.
I paid nearly 100 million pounds in tax, but it was worth it because... So the taxes are crazy here.
Tax is crazy.
If I will sell my company, I will leave.
Is there a tax hack that you have for business owners?
Number one expense is... There are nine steps.
Number one is...
I've interviewed more billionaires than anybody else in the world, and I've asked every single one of them how they got rich.
But today, I'm doing something different.
I'm asking them the one question that nobody wants to ask.
Do you actually pay your taxes?
And there's no better place to ask it than here London, one of the most taxed cities in the world, a place filled with millionaires and billionaires, straight up to the richest people in the city, to ask them one of the most controversial questions out there.
So let's see what they have to say. our first interview out here.
But like I was saying earlier, man, guys, the UK taxes are out of this world.
If you're making serious money out here, you could be paying 45% in taxes.
Guys, that's half of all your money.
So I'm really curious to figure out what the richest people out here think about that, whether or not they actually pay their taxes.
Come on, excuse me, sir.
Sir, how did you become wealthy?
Sorry, i said how did you become wealthy.
He's saying life, absolutely.
Thank you guys.
Excuse me sir, i have a question for you.
How old were you when you became a millionaire?
Uh, 32.
And how did you get rich?
What line of business were you in?
Real quick, sir.
I've interviewed 47 billionaires.
Could I get one minute with you?
Real quick.
Excuse me, ma'am.
Question for you.
How old were you when you became a millionaire?
Excuse me, sir.
Sir, question for you.
How old were you when you became a millionaire?
I can't talk to you.
Real quick, sir.
I have a channel with 21 million followers.
Could I get 30 seconds with you real quick?
I can't, not today.
What line of business were you in?
What line of business were you in, sir?
You what?
No, you didn't.
Real quick, sir.
This is to help the younger generation.
I haven't gotten anybody today.
Could I get you for just 30 seconds?
Can I get your contact?
Next time?
Wow, all right, you guys look.
We have been out here for hours in london, but it's been non-stop rejection after rejection.
So we have got to change things up and we are right now heading into what is apparently the wealthiest part in all of london mayfair, the billionaire's playground out here, where all the richest people congregate to hopefully find some millionaires and billionaires to stop and give us the game for.
You guys, let's go see who we can find.
All right, guys look.
So my guy's pulling up right here.
This is like a $3 or $4 million car, you guys.
We're going to get him coming out to figure out how he got rich, man.
Come on.
Excuse me, sir.
Sir, how did you get rich, man?
I grew channel to 21 million followers.
I've already been 47 billionaires in the States.
How did you get rich, man?
What did you do?
If you think this is rich, then you've got it mistaken, mate.
What line of business were you in?
I'm a jeweler.
You're a jeweler.
How did you get into that business?
I grew up watching people hustling.
I watched people buy and sell cars.
Went hand in hand with watches, and I did watches for many, many years.
I was probably one of the biggest watch dealers at my time, 10 years ago, doing it.
Now I've just put all my time and effort into cars, hypercars.
How much did that car cost?
Today's price, four and a half million pounds.
You said four and a half million?
A pound, yeah.
As a jeweler, how important is it to keep your word in business?
Word is everything.
Word is everything?
Everything.
I deal with people who, if they break their word, they automatically pay compensation.
It's simple as that.
I won't deal with somebody the minute that they have broken their word and have done nothing to compensate.
Have you got to stand on business?
Have you ever been over in business before?
Oh, plenty of times.
Business, life, who hasn't?
You wouldn't get to where you want to get to without going through it.
Did you come from a rich family growing up?
No.
You didn't?
Nah.
Most of my family are not rich.
I'm not considered myself rich, but they don't drive regardless.
But they're happy with what they do and I'm happy for them.
What was your turning point to financial freedom?
What was that moment in your life where you were like I want to go out there and build a little bit of an empire for myself?
The turning point for me is when I probably had my son and I thought, I need to level up.
I need to set an example.
And now I've got a daughter, I'll do it even more.
I want her to be accustomed to everything I've got and not be fazed by it when somebody tries to please her in it.
So I've got to plan and prepare for that.
What was the most amount of money that you made in a single year?
About 25 mil.
$25 million.
That was during COVID.
Watches were $700,000, $800,000 each.
And I was selling two, three watches a week.
Now a lot of young people.
They think that when they start a business, once they start to make money, they're going to be able to go out and buy cars like that.
Was that the case for you in the beginning or how long was it before?
I've had a passion for cars ever since I was a kid.
Always knew I was going to have a nice car.
I worked my way to that car.
Do you think?
A lot of young people?
They go out and buy cars before they really should afford to do that.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Everyone does it.
Everyone does it.
I've done it.
We've all done it.
Do you regret it?
Do you regret it?
No, I don't regret it.
You can't regret anything in life.
Everything is a lesson.
It makes you a better person the following year.
So when I see 20-year-old kids making all this money off crypto doing their thing, a lot of hate on Instagram.
Whatever you know, they've got to learn the hard way or the easy way.
It's a lesson.
Good luck to them.
Did you have to ever pay a lot in taxes?
Oh, yeah.
Ooh.
Do you have a tax hack for anybody in business?
Was there a tax hack?
No, no, no, there's no hack.
You can't hack tax me.
You try to hack tax, you're going to jail, so it's not worth it.
Is there not like a tax code or something that you can do?
Oh, there's always something, but it's not a hack.
There's expenses.
A lot of people don't realize what their day-to-day life is an expense.
So you paid your taxes?
Yeah, of course.
Final question for you.
What keeps poor people poor in today's world?
When you look at society as a whole, what keeps people broke in today's world?
The fact that they're broke is a choice.
Black homeless people, a choice.
Not everybody, but majority have a choice.
You're born with the same hands, feet, legs, eyes as everybody else.
So why are you choosing to be broke?
Just get a job.
Broke is if you overspended your money or you up some way in life.
Sorry for me, i don't see being poor as an option.
I don't know anybody who's poor.
People i know have less money, but i don't know anybody's poor.
Thank you, my friend.
You got great advice.
Thank you for your time, my friend.
Have a great day, my man.
Thank you guys.
Look, i just went up to my guy coming out of that like four and a half million dollar car, i'm pretty sure, like he said.
He said i know you, man.
Look, he's tapped in man, he sees all the billionaires that we're interviewing and he just dropped some straight game right there.
And i love at the end of that interview when he said look, being poor is a choice guys, we were all given abilities to go out there, create wealth, create abundance for ourselves, whether it's in the form of getting a job or starting a business.
Great interview out there.
I'm taking notes on that one myself.
We got to keep this thing rolling and go get this next interview, you guys.
Come on.
Excuse me, sir.
Excuse me, sir.
Sir, how did you get rich?
How did I get rich?
Have you ever had to call a plumber?
A plumber?
I owned one of the biggest plumbing companies in the world.
Are you serious?
How big was the company?
What was the most amount of money you made in a single year?
I sold the company in 2023 for 4.1 billion pounds.
So not dollars?
Proper money.
4.1 billion pounds.
Can I interview you for a minute?
I go all over the world interviewing billionaires to help the younger generation.
I'm in a hurry, but... Just for one minute.
I can give you five minutes.
Is that okay?
Absolutely.
Did you come from a lot of money growing up?
No, I didn't.
My dad was in the civil service.
My great grandparents were mill owners in Huddersfield and West Yorkshire.
They lost all the money in the Great Depression of 1929.
So he said, don't go into business.
But...
I was inspired by Lord Hanson, famous industrialist from the 1960s.
I remember to this day my dad lifted me on his shoulders and we looked over the wall of the big house at the end of the cul-de-sac in Yorkshire and watched the helicopter land.
I remember saying, Dad, I want one of those.
He said, well, don't be in a civil service like me earning a pittance.
You need to run your own business.
That's the day I wanted to be an entrepreneur. even if I didn't know that word.
This is fascinating to me, because we're talking about plumbing, home services here.
This isn't a necessarily sexy business, but you built it into a four billion pound company.
Talk to that young person out there that thinks that they have to go invent the next Google.
There's a lot of opportunities in some of these really niche, unsexy businesses.
Yeah, you don't.
My advice to any aspiring entrepreneur would be, first of all, copy a business model.
We're taught at school that copying homework is bad.
In business, I would say copy and then improve slightly.
So don't reinvent the wheel.
Don't reinvent the wheel.
Go and buy a copy of Entrepreneur Magazine.
It's got all of the franchise businesses listed.
Run through it.
Decide which is the business you want to run.
Copy their model, but do it yourself.
Don't buy a franchise.
Hire a few people to work for you.
That's how you become very wealthy.
I'm going to challenge you, Richard.
Take me back to the most life-changing conversation you ever had.
What is the greatest piece of advice that you received throughout your career?
It was from Jim Collins who wrote the book book Good to Great, the second best business book ever written.
And he said to be successful, you need to be a hedgehog.
Entrepreneurs are like me.
We're all foxes.
We're always looking for the next opportunity.
We have an idea every day and we need to be hedgehogs moving in a methodical direction.
If somebody comes along and has a harebrained idea, we put up our prickles, we ignore it and we keep going with a very simple, clear model, without distractions.
So you said that that was the second best business book that's ever been written.
What's the first one?
Best book that's ever been written is called How to Make a Billion in Nine Steps.
It became a bestseller in the Sunday Times list when it came out in July last year.
And it's written by me, Richard Harpin.
So how does someone make a billion dollars?
Tell me right now, man.
How does somebody make a billion dollars?
There are nine steps.
Number one is copy and pivot.
Second one, get an investor to help your business to scale.
Thirdly, get a coach and a mentor.
Really important to learn from others.
Number four, have an omnichannel model.
You don't just want to be online.
You need to have stores or pop-up stands.
You can't just rely upon the internet these days.
Number five, the hardest step for any entrepreneur hire your replacement.
Hire somebody that's better than you to run the day-to-day business.
Hire a hedgehog because, as entrepreneurs, we're foxes with too many ideas.
Step Step six go global with locals.
You can't send a Brit to America.
You can't send an American to Britain.
You've got to hire a local to head up your business.
Otherwise, you won't be taken seriously.
Step number seven is evolution, not profit.
Revolution.
There is a role for revolution right at the start of a business, but thereafter keep evolving your business.
We know lots of businesses that didn't keep evolving.
Blockbuster, Nokia, Yellow Pages.
They're dead or a shadow of their former selves.
Number eight, how many people, if we asked them round here, have you got a to-do list?
Everybody would put up their hand.
Have you got a to-do list?
Everybody puts up their hand.
If you say, have you got a not-to-do list?
Nobody puts up their hand.
I do now, because I've learned that a not-to-do list is more important than a to-do list.
Final step to make a billion pounds is hone your character.
This is about forget the stuff that you're bad at and I was bad at loads of stuff and focus on the things that you're really good at and hire other people to do those other things that we don't like doing, like running the day-to-day.
Get them to do it so you can focus on the vision and the growth and the business development which is.
You know.
They don't teach this in school, right?
I wish they did.
What is the most amount of money you paid in taxes in one year?
I paid nearly 100 million pounds in tax when I sold HomeServe.
But it was worth it because I made a lot of money.
And I do believe in giving back and paying taxes.
I don't believe in running off and living in a tax-free environment.
So you think that billionaires should pay their taxes?
Absolutely.
So long as they stay relatively low and affordable, then here is a great place from which to start a business, scale a business and turn it global.
How old are you now?
61.
61 years old.
If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be?
I would say if you're thinking about setting up a business today, what's your skill?
What do you enjoy doing?
Is it sales and marketing?
Is it finance?
Is it operations?
Then go and work for a big company in an industry that you like and get experience for two or three years.
Then go and work for a smaller entrepreneurial company in that same role, whether that's sales or marketing, finance or operations.
After you've got five or six years of experience, go and negotiate with somebody else that might be retiring and say I'll buy your business but I'll pay you over three or four years out of the future profits.
So you can buy a business.
It's lower risk than setting up from scratch and you can use their money to acquire it, which is called vendor finance.
That's beautiful advice right there, sir.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
I connect with all the billionaires I interview.
Could I get your contact?
Yeah, of course.
Guys, I just finished interviewing someone who built and sold a company for over 4.1 billion pounds.
And I want you to really think about this for a second.
You're sitting here right now watching these interviews, but what if you could actually talk to these people?
What if you could ask them your questions about your business, your life and your next move and get an answer directly from someone who's already built a company worth hundreds of millions and billions of dollars?
That's exactly why I'm doing something insane.
On April 22nd in less than two weeks I'm gonna be hosting one of the craziest events of the entire year.
I'm hosting three live zoom calls with entrepreneurs who have built and sold companies at the highest level.
Now who are these people?
First we're going to have on Clint Phillips, who sold his healthcare company for 460 million.
Then, Stephen Ellsworth, the founder of Poppy.
He grew this company from zero to 500 million in less than five years and sold it to Pepsi for 2 billion.
And finally, Edward Ewing, a private equity billionaire who buys and scales companies for a living.
And here's the thing guys, this is not a podcast.
This is not some replay.
You are on the call live.
You'll be able to ask your questions and get real answers from people who have actually done it.
These are the kinds of conversations that can completely change your business and your life.
Now here's the craziest part guys.
If you join right now by going down and clicking the link in the description of this video, you can get access to this once in a lifetime event, on April 22nd, for free, and become a member of the number one entrepreneur community and network in the entire world.
The School of Mentors, where I host live Zoom calls every single week with the millionaires and the billionaires that I interview.
But there's just one catch guys be no recordings to this event.
There will be no replays, so you must be there live or you're gonna miss it.
So if you want access to the three live zoom calls on april 22nd, all you have to do is go down, click the link in the description of this video to grab your spot now and i'll see you there.
With that being said, let's go get this next interview.
Excuse me sir, how old were you when you became a millionaire?
Sorry, how old were you when you became a millionaire?
Question was long time ago.
Long time ago 26.
How did you get rich that early?
What line of business were you in?
Retail of mobile phones?
Where are you from russia?
You're from russia, So how long have you been a business owner?
From 22.
Since 22 years old?
Yeah.
Let me ask you a question.
Did you come from a lot of money?
Did you grow up with a lot of money?
No, no.
I grew up in a social house.
So what was your turning point to financial freedom?
The Soviet Union crashed when I was 17 years old.
It was a huge opportunity to grow up to make money to trade, because a lot of people Soviet people.
They have no clue how to trade.
At that time when oil prices and everything started growing up and mobile phones became very popular.
We just Catch the wave.
What was the most amount of money that you made this single year?
Total revenue in 2008 was about $5 billion.
You said $5 billion?
Yeah.
So do you live in London now?
Yeah, for 18 years.
Is this a good city to become an entrepreneur?
I live in the States, so I'm trying to learn about the business in London.
Now not.
Now everybody's going, living because of the taxes.
We have a socialist in the government.
It's like you're mayor of New York.
The same group of gangsters that take other people's money for eating rich and spreading through the poor.
Did you have to pay a lot of money in taxes?
Of course, yes.
So the taxes are crazy here.
Tax is crazy.
If I will sell my company, I will leave.
I will leave the UK.
Business owners...
51 years old today.
This year, 52.
If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be?
Read the books.
Did you read a lot of books?
Not enough.
That's why I left the Forbes list.
You were on the Forbes list at one point?
Yeah, when I was young.
Since you were a billionaire?
Young Forbes, before 30.
Wow.
Are you a billionaire?
No, no, no.
You were, though, at one point.
You was.
Let me ask you this.
What was the number one book that changed your life?
Number one books?
Yes.
What was your number one book recommendation for anybody in business?
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
What's that about?
Capitalism.
So how does money work for the people that don't know it?
Give them a quick masterclass.
Somebody wants to get rich in today's world.
Give them these last 20 seconds right here.
How does somebody become a multimillionaire in today's world?
You have to be in the right place.
Look at the cars around.
Why are you here?
Look at the cars around.
Ferrari, Ferrari, McLaren.
First of all, location when already rich people here.
So proximity is power.
Yeah.
Second one, assortment.
It has to be popular and great.
And very important to motivate your team to work.
This is my place.
You own this restaurant right here?
Thank you for your time, sir.
You're welcome.
I appreciate that.
Have a great day, my friend.
Thank you for stopping by.
I appreciate it.
Hey, look at that fit, you guys, man.
Hey, that's the $5 billion man right there, man.
He just dropped some great advice, man.
I was like, man, saw him across the street.
He had that fit going crazy, so we had to stop him.
He just gave some solid bombs, but I love what he said, man.
He said, look at the street.
You got Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Bentley all over.
Proximity is power.
The faster you can follow the money, the quicker you're going to get to it.
Great interview out here in London.
We got to keep this thing rolling and go get this next interview, you guys.
Come on.
Sir, question for you.
How old were you when you became a billionaire?
Yes, sir.
How did you get rich?
Well, I've been very fortunate as part of a family business to start with, but obviously you know still ambitious enough to build up on that.
What type of company?
Originally, we come out of the offshore energy marine services business.
And you own that business today?
We sold that business and we've set up the second iteration of that business, which is now collaborating.
How much did you all sell that company for?
North of a substantial nine digit number.
More than 100 million?
Yeah.
More than 200 million?
Significantly more than that.
900 million?
Double that.
You said double that?
Yeah.
Like 1.8 billion?
Close.
That's a 10-digit number, my man.
10-digit.
That's a 10-digit number.
So did you kind of own the company when you sold it?
Yes, we did.
Full ownership of the business.
Was it you and partners?
Just father and I. Father and you.
What's the number one piece of advice you got from your dad that helped you become a successful entrepreneur?
What did he teach you about business?
Cost.
Cost management is key to everything, right?
It's not about how much you sell it for.
It's about how much you're willing to buy the product and be able to.
You know your underlying cost right.
If you can manage your costs, you can manage to sell it in any condition. about this in business.
Yeah, 100%.
It doesn't matter if you can sell a product at $10.
If you're buying it for eight, you're only making that margin at two, right?
But if you can buy it at two, you can sell it at five, you can sell it at seven, you can sell it at 10.
This applies to any business.
Anything, literally anything in life.
A lot of people think that you shouldn't do business with friends and family.
How do you feel about I'll admit, working with family is extremely difficult, for sure, right?
Did it almost sever the relationship at any point in time?
For sure, right?
When you're going through trials and tribulations.
It was hard for him to step away from the idea of being my father and actually see me as an employee or a partner.
And at the same for me, it was hard for me to appreciate.
It took a while for me to appreciate and understand that.
You know, when he was getting tough on us and tough on me, it wasn't coming from a place that's personal, but rather because there's an ambition for a greater purpose here, which was the company.
Were you a resident of?
I'm resident of the UAE.
So when you had that big exit, you didn't have to pay UK taxes, I'm assuming.
No, no.
We're very fortunate enough not to be able to pay.
Did you have to pay a lot in taxes when you had that exit?
Without divulging too much.
No, the way that the leadership there have been able to build a country that sustains and allows, you know, free market and and entrepreneurship.
We didn't have to pay the taxes.
Of course there are.
There are other ways where you have to pay back to your community, but i think that's a personal choice of ours that we do right, whether it's in the uae or outside.
So your advice to somebody that's trying not to pay a ton in taxes is move to the uae.
I mean look, I'm pro-UAE all my life.
I was born there.
I was raised there.
We have full trust and belief in the leadership and the direction that they're going in.
So I'll always be waving that flag.
Thank you so much for your time.
Appreciate you, man.
I can't believe I got interviewed by you.
Yes, sir, man.
You gave some great advice, man.
Nice to meet you, my man.
I follow you on TikTok, dude.
It's awesome.
Your interviewing skills are pretty amazing.
Thank you, brother.
I appreciate that.
Guys, that's a wrap today's video.
I need you guys to stop right now like subscribe for amazing content, coming every week to the school of hard knocks.
But let's go even further.
Look, every single week, i host live zoom calls with the eight, nine and ten figure entrepreneurs that i interview on this channel, where you can ask your direct questions to them and get mentored every week by the millionaires and billionaires that i interview.
And you can get access right now if you go down to the link in the description of this video and join the number one most powerful entrepreneur community and network in the entire world.
It's called the School of Mentors.
I can't wait to see you on the inside.
That being said, we'll see you in the next video.
