💰 High-School Dropout Turned Mega Billionaire

Happy Thursday, Hard Knocks community! 💰 

Class is back in session here at the School of Hard Knocks where we fill you in on  what’s happening within the business world, lessons from today's top entrepreneurs, and actionable steps to apply in both your business and personal life.

Today’s Schedule

• High-School Dropout Turned Billionaire: How Richard Branson Overcame Setbacks to Create His Empire

• Free Game: Business Lessons From 9 Figure Entrepreneur Jeremy Perkins, CEO of Precision Medical

• From the Hard Knocks Library: Learn The Keys to Self Development in Psycho-Cybernetics

• In Case You Missed It: We asked entrepreneurs the most amount of money they have lost

Let’s get started!🔥

High-School Dropout Turned Billionaire🚀

If there is anyone out there that embodies the term "entrepreneur", it’s Richard Branson. As one of the world's most famous philanthropists and business tycoons, Branson sure knows a thing or two about building successful companies. Full of ups and downs, his life's journey is surely one for the books.

As a child in 1950's England, Branson wasn't a fan of school. He struggled due to his dyslexia so at 16, he decided to ditch school for good and set out to make a name for himself. Branson's first venture was a magazine launched in 1966 called Student, where he sold $8,000 worth of ad space to make some money.

Eventually, Branson found himself in the British music scene. He soon founded Virgin, first as a mail-order company to fund his magazine, but that quickly changed. In 1973, Branson signed his first artist to Virgin Records, Mike Oldfield. Oldfield's song topped the charts for an impressive 247 weeks! Branson then went on to sign mega artists like the Rolling Stones and Culture Club.

Virgin Records ran smoothly until 1992 when the company started to experience financial troubles.  Eventually, Branson was forced to sell the company for $1B. It was extremely hard for Branson to let go of Virgin Records, but he pressed on and started up Virgin Radio and his second record company, V2.

Branson also started up a number of other ventures that didn't see much success. Virgin Cola, Virgin Brides, and Virgin Cosmetics were some of his most memorable mishaps. However, this didn't stop Branson from experimenting with new ideas.

In 1984, Branson decided to launch Virgin Atlantic, an airline company which is still popular and running today. He's also set his sights on space travel through another company called Virgin Galactic. Their first test launch in 2014 was a failure, but they launched successfully in 2018.

What can we take away from Richard Branson's wild ride through entrepreneurship? Here are some of his core values:

Take the Risk…or Lose the Chance: Even though Branson has started multiple companies that weren’t successful he has also had numerous successes. The truth is, business is very hard and a lot of ideas will flop but as long as you can learn from previous mistakes and take those lessons into your future ventures eventually you will be successful. The best bet you can make is on yourself. 

Branson is a serial entrepreneur and loves the game of building businesses but for most people you really only need to build one business that is successful. Mark Cuban has mentioned in an interview: “You only have to be right one time”. You can be wrong 100 times but if you end up being right just that one time, you can be set for life.

Carry a Notebook: Branson is notorious for carrying a notebook everywhere he goes. He says writing everything down gives him a break from screens. Also, studies show that the act of writing things down helps your brain better process the information. It also helps you better time the market on brilliant ideas. A large problem in entrepreneurship is sometimes people have a great idea for a company but are off on the timing for product-market fit. The company does not reach it’s potential for success. By storing your brilliant ideas that come up along during your entrepreneurial journey, it will help you better gauge when to pull the idea from your think tank and execute on it!

Learn How to Say “F**K IT”: Yes, he's one of the richest people on the planet, but Branson's also one of the wildest. Known for his stunts, he's done everything from driving a tank through NYC to crossing the English Channel in a water car. Branson’s innate ability to not care what people think has proved to be a useful trait as an entrepreneur. He simply has a “F**K IT!” attitude, which when translated to entrepreneurship can help keep you from getting cold feet in the face of opportunity. Get out there and live your life to the fullest - it may just give you the courage to start your next million dollar venture!

Words of Wisdom

Free Game

With a net worth of over $110M, Jeremy Perkins has cracked the entrepreneurial code. He grew one of the largest medical device companies in the United States, Precision Medical.

But it wasn’t always this way. Jeremy comes from humble beginnings and is about as self made as it gets when it comes to entrepreneurship. So how did he get to a 9 figure net worth? We asked him all about it and his journey, so lets talk about some of the lessons we got from him.

1. Go all in. When Jeremy used to work with investors, the advice was always to diversify. However, all the billionaires he's worked with said the exact opposite. They took everything they had and put it all towards a few ideas they truly believed were going to be successful. This lesson actually originates from one of the titans of entrepreneurship Andrew Carnegie who said "Put all good eggs in one basket and then watch that basket".

The biggest lesson here? Although yes, traditionally speaking being diversified is a great thing to do, but if you want to become incredibly wealthy, put all your energy and focus into a few things and continue to double down on it. Jeremy did this himself and now, his most successful company is worth $130M. 

2. Prove the model, then duplicate it. Jeremy says two books, The E-Myth and Scaling Up, taught him the turnkey method, where you take what works and repeat it over and over. At face value this may sound like simple advice, but it’s incredibly true. Entrepreneurs often struggle to find a product or service that people actually want, but even when they do, they don’t have the systems in place to repeatedly fulfil the order. Once that foundation is figured out, opening new distribution channels to scale becomes much easier:

1. Find a product that fits the market.

2. Build systems so you can hire a team to replace you to fulfil on that product to your customers.

3. Figure out distribution and how to get more customers by opening up new sales channels.

4. Duplicate and scale by repeating step 2 for each new sales channel.

3. More companies die from indigestion than starvation. Three years ago, Jeremy hit what he says was his lowest point in his career, and it wasn't from a lack of sales. His company grew too quickly, ran out of money, and couldn't keep up with demand. Make sure your growth is sustainable and don't go too fast. The truth is scaling takes time, because even if you can scale your sales - your systems, processes and product has to be able to sustain through the growth. Generating revenue should always be at the forefront of a business owner’s mind. But does your business have the infrastructure to service new customers? That is a question that could save your business from imploding.

From the Hard Knocks Library

In Case You Missed It

We just dropped a new video today where we went all over Los Angeles, California and interviewed successful entrepreneurs and asked a question that has never been featured before on our channel - “What has been the most amount of money they have LOST in a year?” The road to success isn’t always pretty and is often times filled with obstacles and lessons along the way. So this week we tapped in to the other side of entrepreneurship. We interviewed entrepreneurs in a variety of industries such as artificial intelligence, real estate, Entrepreneurship, and sports / entertainment!🔥

Let Us Hear From You

What were your thoughts on todays newsletter? Please reply back with your thoughts and feel free to include any ideas or things you would like us to include in future newsletters.