In my decade in the insolvency business, I’ve had the privilege
of meeting a very interesting class of people known as the “minus millionaires.”
As the term implies, this group of people once had a lot of money but then lost
it all and more.
Everyone has a story. Of the many stories I’ve seen in
the last decade, there’s a common thread. The founder/director of the company
built up a very successful business. Then a bad decision or two was made and
instead of changing course when things started going south, they proceeded to dig
their heels in and throw in personal money, which eventually brings them to
personal bankruptcy along with corporate insolvency.
Why do minus millionaires do what they do? One of the
best quotes on the subject comes from a video about Mike Tyson, the former
heavy weight champion of the world, who was sent to prison in 1992 after being
accused of rape. In that video, Mr. Tyson states that “God punishes you by
giving you everything you want.” At time of his conviction, Mr. Tyson was one
of the most famous men in the world. He had literally everything a man could
desire – wealth, fame, women and so on. Then, it was all gone and he was a
convicted felon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkNeY9bs3WQ
Why is that so? Look at it this way – when you’re not
successful and striving for success, you are very aware of your weaknesses and
failures. When you are a nobody, you are very aware that its very easy to get
squashed.
However, when you become wildly successful, you start
believing that you’re in charge of a blue print of how to get there. You start
believing that different rules apply to you because you’re somebody and the
world loves somebodies the way that it doesn’t care about nobodies.
I think of the owner of a very successful business
that was shut down by order of court. We moved in and tried to explain that we had
a job to do. The owner actually told us, “Sorry guys, I got meetings to go to
and a business to run.” It took his friend, an Australian lawyer to tell him, “Mate,
you haven’t got a business anymore.”
Then there’s the fact that the path that a successful
person takes to success, becomes seen as a sacred text rather than something to
be analysed. There are times when certain actions and thoughts worked for a
certain period but may not necessarily be right for the current context. Not
many “get it.”
Interestingly enough, one of the people who got it,
was my 70-plus-year-old dad. When business at his production house started
tanking, he started teaching himself how to use software that made films. He put
it this way, “The kids these days are doing things this way and getting the
jobs.”
In a way, the one person who best explains it, is Mr.
Tyson himself. In his book, “The Undisputed Truth,” he puts down his first
professional defeat to James Buster Douglas to the fact that he was busy
partying the night before the fight, whereas his opponent was preparing for the
fight of his life. He then makes the point that Mr. Douglas lost the title in
his first defense against Evander Holyfield because for the same reason that
Mr. Tyson lost – he was too busy enjoying the good life instead of training.
Getting successful is only part of the journey. Staying
successful is another story. Think of the lottery, where people buy the lottery
in the hope of striking it rich in an instant. However, as one source states –
nearly 70 percent of lottery winners end up broke. Why is that so? The simple
answer is because they’ve not been conditioned to prepare for actually winning.
Everyone wants to be a winner. So, we work hard in the
hope that we’re going to end up as winners. However, for those of us who become
winners, we need change our focus and stay winners. Getting there and staying
there are two different things.
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