What I Learned From a Billionaire

Originally sent exclusively to The Letter subscribers on June 6th. Want to be the first to get my personal newsletter in your inbox every Monday at 7am? Subscribe for free here.

If you're choosing the path of an entrepreneur, you'll be a knowledge hunter with the best being exceptional at implementing that knowledge.

That’s the power of doers.

What I admire about successful people I meet is their ability to remain sponges for knowledge, regardless of the treasures and accolades they've won!

These titans never stop learning.

This week, that theory became a fact.

I sat down with one of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs for a major interview: Richard Harpin (have no fear Cupcake, I'll be releasing the chinwag on youtube soon).

This chap built a multi-billion-pound revenue company called "HomeServe".

I'm sure you’ve seen their red and white wheels dart around these islands we call home.

If building a company with more money than the king wasnt enough, Richard invested in more entrepreneurs than I’ve had cups of tea this year.

From Checkatrade to Sara Davies, he's put tens of millions of his own risk capital into businesses that are doing well, with the sole aim of turning multi-million-pound revenue companies into billion-pound-plus organisations.

During our meeting of minds, I was flabbergasted by how inquisitive Richard was, eager to learn from me about how my businesses are doing.

Richard asked how I approach content marketing, and what my favourite business model is.

I did my usual and went on about models; I can reel them off like a radio station that plays the same songs all day.

Wide-eyed and focused, Richard absorbed my words like a kid in a sweet shop.

This billionaire wanted to learn from me, a far lesser figure than this Taylor Swift of business.

This pattern isn’t unusual.

All the super-successful are like metal detectors on a beach, searching for nuggets of gold.

I do the same. I want to learn from anyone who has been there, done that, and got the T-shirt.

My question to Richard was how he hires his CEOs for his spider web of investments.

Regular readers will know I live by E + M = S for business success

(Entrepreneurship plus Management = Success).

Like a religious fanatic with prayers and rituals, I have my quotes and sayings that I pound into my noggin; these sayings of success keep me on track.

When it comes to leading our brands, I think "who not how" and "10,000 hours of mastery" with the captains I choose to lead us.

Whenever I find myself around a Richard or anyone ahead of me, I ask what they look for in their captains.

Richard gave me a great "part two" to my rituals of "who not how" and "10,000 hours of practice" on recruiting talent.

When recruiting talents, Richard uses this mantra:

“Has done, can do, and will do."

I flipping love this; it's an extension of my beliefs with much more gravitas.

Richard said he was taught this when he was an executive at one of the world's biggest companies, Procter & Gamble, before he started his own business.

You see, the world is full of lots of has-beens. People who have had a great past of success, but does that mean they can do the next thing you need them to do? And, the big winner: will they do it?

I’ve been caught out in my career. I employed an accountant once; they had done the job of accountancy before, but they couldn’t do the job I wanted them to do, in the way I wanted them to do it.

Ultimately, it didn’t work out.

I met a chap earlier this year that I think hits all three points for a project I want us to do.

They have done, they still can, and will fit with our culture and will do it again.

It's important I find people that will do things under a much smaller management structure of an entrepreneurial company that doesn’t panic but pivots in adversity, that pivots fast to win the day and won’t demand layers of resources.

We’re a company that relies on resourcefulness over waste in too many resources.

I bought a company last year, Camp Beaumont, that had more resources than it could afford; it was operations before sales for our predessesors.

We want sales bursting at the seams, then putting in operations when the business can afford it.

That’s entrepreneurship done right.

Some of my favourite quotes found their way into those final paragraphs.

When things go wrong, "don’t panic - pivot" and the corker: "it's not your lack of resources, it's a lack of resourcefulness from us to stop you getting where you want to be."

Richard really is a bloke that's made it. You should have seen his house - just his London house; it was stunning.

I reckon a £15 million London house.

He’s a nice guy too, passionate about entrepreneurs, and for that, I salute him.

We need him in our UK economy.

My conclusion of what we can understand of this entrpreneur is this:

He’s driven, with good work habits, and like many I have come across that win, put their energies into business models that work.

HomeServe is a product that gave him residual income that was predictable and needed in the marketplace, it has instant cash flow and doesnt rely on big contracts to get going. Sadly, lots of entrepreneurs have the work ethic but not the model for super success, or even the headspace to tweak and pivot the model.

Often, a slight tweak can move things forward very quickly.

In other news, I’ve decided to sell my hoover. It was just collecting dust.

To your continued success,

James

PS. Want to hear Richard’s success story in person? Come along to Business Masterclass where we will be doing a fireside chat on stage