CHRISTO WIESE | 17 BUSINESS LESSONS
if i could do it anybody could do it how do you go about dealing with setbacks in business a lot of extremely intelligent people make that mistake so would you say that eq is more important than iq in business hi guys welcome back to my youtube channel today i've got one of my all-time favorite people in the studio with me my father christo visa who is also known as one of the country's most legendary and iconic business people today i want to take this opportunity to share some of his top business lessons that he's learned over the years with all of you at home so i hope you enjoy dad what is the very first business lesson that comes to mind when you think of what you've learned well i think you'll find that most people who are perceived to have been successful in business if you ask them you know what's the secret or how did you manage to do it a very common response will be if i could do it anybody could do it so the lesson is that it is within the ability of most people to make a successful business career you've got to understand that there is no magic to people who become successful business people what then does it take if there is no magic and if anyone can do it well the first thing i believe is that as one should develop a philosophical framework for one's life a business should be built on a philosophy in the case of pip we had a very simple philosophy that was articulated in five terms faith positive thinking enthusiasm hard work and compassion those are the guide posts to make your business work if you stick to those rules then to come back to my opening comment anybody can make it what is the second lesson in business that you have learned that business a business career like life itself has its ups and downs and you will be measured not only by the heights you achieve but how you deal with setbacks how do you go about dealing with setbacks in business you've got to accept when the downs come and you've got to more than anything else stop and count your blessings don't roll over and die i've had friends who were very wealthy and who lost all or most of their money and i could watch how they reacted those who kind of gave up and started depending on other people and those who refused to lie down and started over again and made another success at the end of the day you have to continue to believe in yourself and you have to count your blessings dad we recently celebrated your milestone 80th birthday yeah and in the video tribute that i created for you your friends couldn't stop praising you for how you remember everyone's names and how you always show an interest in everyone from the gardener to the ceos what part of your success do you attribute to your interpersonal skills i feel very complimented that people think i have those skills i believe it's absolutely essential the way you interact with people not to just see them as you know flitting images but as human beings that have the same fears and same aspirations to an extent and treat them with respect and dignity why is it so essential well because you need to work with people one of my approaches has always been that i have tried throughout my life not to make enemies i discovered over the years that i do have enemies people that hate my guts some of whom i'd never even met for whatever reason but i've always tried not to make enemies because you never know where your path crosses another person's and how the roles may have changed so there's no point in burning bridges how do you go about making big complex decisions where the future is uncertain and there are no guarantees in business well in life there are no guarantees none whatsoever that is the beauty of life but i think the secret to [Music] making what people consider to be complex decisions is to understand that nothing is that complicated at the end of the day you apply your mind you cut to the chase try to be very logical in your approach and then things are really not as complicated as they may seem to somebody looking from the outside and what is your philosophy about making decisions in the first place because you've often taught that to us as a lesson that it's better to make a decision than to worry about making the wrong decision and fail to make a decision so if you could just illustrate that i mean you've you've put the words out there the thing about making decisions is make a decision because by not making the decision you are also making a decision but in the wrong direction rather run the risk of making the wrong decision then not taking decisions when it's required you must just always accept that things can change because there are so many things over which you have no control i often told people that to become an entrepreneur or a business person you have to be a little bit crazy because if you get out of bed in the morning and think about all the things that could go wrong that day over which you have absolutely no control then you know as a totally sane person would get back into bed because you are at risk what is the lesson to be learned or the mistake to avoid when it comes to attaining wealth and maintaining wealth because those are two very separate things yeah it's much easier to make money than to keep it keeping is another exercise all together now i think what happens to people is they become blase about it they just think well i've got so much money you know and everything always goes my way and then something happens and catastrophe follows so what is the lesson or the golden rule remain ever vigilant and don't get too impressed with your own perceived success don't start believing your own fairy tale which one quality do you think or a weakness that someone might possess they really need to combat or overcome before truly being able to achieve great success the one that i would say is certainly to my way of thinking uppermost is when people do not have a positive attitude they don't think positively it's always the glasses are half empty instead of half full that is a killer why well because what is the benefit of thinking about all the things that can go wrong and you know just how difficult it is and that you can't do it what do you gain by it and what's the point in being positive for you because positive thinking makes you achieve things that you otherwise wouldn't be able to achieve if you focus on all the things that can go wrong as i said earlier on you'll never get out of bed because that's the safest place to be and if you focus on everything that can go right that energizes you and you start going after the things that you want what misconception do people have about people that are perceived to be very wealthy when it comes to that which it took to get them there what misconception do people have they think those people had some kind of blueprint they had some kind of plan everything mapped out exactly that is not how business works business at the end of the day is opportunistic you have some kind of plan you start off and different opportunities cross your path and you assess them and decide how you want to exploit them there's no blueprint what would you say is the single biggest mistake that small businesses or startups make that cause them to never take off well the first point i want to make is that all so-called big businesses all of them no matter what their business is have one thing in common and that one thing is they all started as small businesses so what is the main reason that small startup businesses often fail within the first three years lack of passion which means sacrifice work in the sense that people normally understand it and impatience suddenly you've now got to have a bigger house and a fancier car and you've got to have your holidays not in mosul bay but in santro pay that's a killer why well i mean first of all you will find that the money doesn't last and secondly your passion for your business clearly will be impacted by by running after these things which don't necessarily contribute to the success of your business you obviously have many strengths which you are very known for respected for what would you say has been or is your biggest weakness in business and how do you combat that i had too many to mention i wouldn't select one if you had to mention a few people would really love to know what are your weaknesses i have all the weaknesses that everybody else like what suffers from like what uh you get tired you procrastinate so dad how do you deal with the weakness of procrastination i try to surround myself with people who will constantly irritate me about my procrastination i love the action of doing deals and putting them together i'm not a good crossing the t's and dotting the eyes man so i try to surround myself with people who are good at that so that's how you would combat it i mean therefore you are never a lone ranger i mean nobody will achieve success in business unless he has people around him that support and and make sure that things are tied down properly and done properly and fills the gaps that fills the gaps dad what role does timing or being in the right place at the right time play in business success enormous you know people who deny the contribution of luck in a business career are simply lying to themselves it is so that you need that break but the truth is if you're not in the game and you're not playing the game then you won't get to those opportunities or they won't cross your path you are out there so that the opportunity can hit you tell me the story about you walking across the road and the man who said you would have walked across another road i once told a colleague that you know how it happened that my family and myself got involved in pip it was because it was during a university holiday and i walked from my dad's garage across the road to another man's garage a friend and he told me about what renee van roen was doing with pip at that stage he had three or four shops which in uppington terms was a lot and i went home and spoke to my dad and said well maybe we should join rene and you know the rest is history and i said to this colleague you know i wonder how my life would have turned out had i not on that particular day walked across that street and his reply was well you one of those people who would have walked across another street we knew that neil fanduen he was married to a cousin of mine and we took note of what he was doing but not really interested until i had that discussion so what is the lesson then about your having crossed the street if you're not interested if you're not interested in what is happening in the world how will you ever find an opportunity if you just live in your little closed world and you don't talk to people or you don't read or watch tv how will you know what's happening out there and regrettably there are a lot of people who are simply not interested they focused on their own little problems and their own little world every second of every minute dad there are many people who have big dreams and aspirations but feel that they are not born into opportunity what is your advice to them you must never allow other people to dictate to you where your horizon is people will try to make you believe that because you grew up poor or because you were uneducated or because you had the wrong religion or the wrong skin color you can't make it in society that message comes across so strongly that people who are in that unfortunate position will say to themselves well you know i happen to be born on the back foot on the back foot so i'm not going to make it never allow that if other people can do it you can do it that's the first important lesson the story that my dad told me was about this man who worked for the church in a small english village he was what we call in afrikaans the koster he's like a caretaker but he couldn't read or write he was very happy in his job he was happy in the little town where he lived and then one day the church council came and said that henceforth they required him also to keep the books and collect the donations from the congregation and he said but he can't do that because he can't read or write and they said well then you've got no job and he had to pack up and he moved to london and he started on the street corner selling apples he bought apples at the market and sold the apples and gradually he started making money and then he had a little shop and then he had two shops and eventually he became one of the richest men in england then a newspaper reporter came to him to do an interview the journalist said you know it's an amazing story because look what you have achieved in spite of the fact that you came from the wrong side of the tracks and had no education can you imagine what your life would have been like if you were an educated person and the man looked at the journalist and he said you know if i were an educated person i would still be working for that church but because i couldn't read or write i was forced to take another route and i became this hugely successful person so what is the lesson the lesson is the point that i try to make earlier on you determine your own fate do not let other people tell you because you are afrikaan speaking you can't be a success or because you black you are doomed never to be a successful person it's nonsense what are the basic lessons that every child whether they go into business or not should understand about how to work with money i've often told you kids how you must look at money if you've got money you must see it as there's a little dam and the money is the water in the dam in the pool and into that pool you've got one pipe flowing in and you want another pipe flowing out if the pipe that flows out is bigger than the pipe that flows in sooner or later the dam will be dry so what is the lesson first of all you must limit the outflow as much as you can and you must work like clappers to make sure that the pipe that comes into the dam flows as strongly as it can that's the basic lesson once you understand that you understand everything you will know my hang up about having a budget that is what it means you have so much income so you can only spend so much otherwise the dam will get dry the money will run out it's a simple mathematical fact what is the lesson to be learned or the thing to understand about compound interest the late donny gordon who was one of south africa's most successful businessmen always made the comment that compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world because if you take money let's say you start with a hundred and you invest it at say ten percent return then after seven years you will have 200 that's compound interest and after another seven years you'll have 400 so it is the eighth wonder of the world and when you have money or investments you have the benefit of compound interest when you have a lot of debt on the other hand it works the other way you start off owing a hundred and you don't service your loan then seven years from now you will owe 200. so what is the lesson about debt don't have it no no no debt is not necessarily evil but you certainly have to apply it correctly i read warren buffett's book and warren buffett is hailed as an absolute genius and when i read the book i thought but there is the secret to his success whenever he bought something let's say for 1500 he would never have more than 500 debt against the 1500 asset never more than one-third now some people will never have more than one quarter but you must be sure that you've got enough protection uh buffer against your debt because the world changes currency fluctuations currency fluctuations interest rates politics war pandemic pandemics dad i remember when i was a little girl you gave a tv interview and one of the things that i really recall is you're saying a great leader gets ordinary people to do extraordinary things that is what the leader does he inspires ordinary people to do extraordinary things you take a business like pip where renee van roen who didn't have a university education because his dad died when he was in first year at university he had to go and find a job and then start a little business and i knew all the people who worked in pip stores in those days they were ordinary people but through the the leadership of a man like renee van duen he made them do extraordinary things how well i mean by having a clear plan by working as hard as everybody else did and by teaching them this philosophy of faith positive thinking hard working et cetera et cetera she said that's the way to do it what do you think makes you both an effective leader and a popular one i just believe that it is a better way of being a leader by hopefully getting people to like you and how do you think you've managed to do that over the years because you are very loved by your colleagues it's nice to hear i hope it's true but but i suppose it's just because i genuinely like people i really like people i try to treat them with respect and dignity and and humor plays a big role right you make people relax by making them laugh and if you can by poking fun at yourself never take yourself too seriously because you are but a speck in the universe you come and go i think that's another thing that's not to become arrogant and and make people feel less than what they are i have difficulty with people who are extremely intelligent and i always have to issue the warning because a lot of extremely intelligent people make that mistake they make other people feel stupid to their own detriment yeah to their own detriment if you know you're more intelligent than the next guy don't ram it down his throat because you know the difference between genius and ordinary intelligence is not great and if you lose friends in the process your intelligence is not going to get you anything yeah it's not going to get you anywhere so would you say that eq is more important than iq in business yeah i would say yes if if it's a binary choice if it is then i would say yeah eq is more important than iq because i've seen some people who are really not very bright but achieve great things in business what do you think is the single most important characteristic that you were born with that has brought you to where you are today for me it's easy to add incurable optimism incurable optimism have you always been that way always is it a choice is it a discipline or does it come naturally i suppose you're born that way or you you grow up that way that's the whole thing of positive thinking glass half full last half empty it's just how you see life [Music] you
2021-11-06 23:00
