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EP 102 - Dariush Soudi - From Bullied Immigrant To Investor

• Sophia Delavari • Season 1 • Episode 102

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We explore how charging for your time raises outcomes, how compounding turns small savings into real freedom, and why rejection fuels better sales and stronger self-worth. Dariush shares raw stories of loss, grit, investing, and fatherhood that shaped his optimism and discipline.

• Setting boundaries on time and ending freebies
• Childhood loss, bullying, solitude and learning English
• Sales grit, early ventures and beauty industry breakthrough
• Mindset shifts from Tony Robbins and resilience
• Investment pain, bounced checks and tighter thresholds
• Teaching kids compound growth and passive income
• Unconventional assets including olive trees and smart mobility
• AI, health data and 3D printing as growth arenas
• Rejection as a skill builder in life and sales
• Pricing your value and charging from day one
• Joy, symbols of self-praise and buying back time
• Fatherhood as accountability and family boundaries
• Self-love as the base for healthy relationships
• Detaching from noise, people pleasing and old habits


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SPEAKER_01:

Darius, welcome on the podcast today. How are you feeling?

SPEAKER_00:

Amazing. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01:

So we just had a little conversation off camera, and you just mentioned you're tired. You're tired of everything. No, no, I'm not tired. Let's start this podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

The record, okay? I I had a I had a coach and she said, Don't ever say you're tired. So don't say she'll kill me. Uh I need some rest.

SPEAKER_01:

You need some rest.

SPEAKER_00:

I need some rest.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, because I s I've seen you've been so, so busy.

SPEAKER_00:

Um even when I'm resting, it's like a busy day compared to everybody else. So I'm non-stop. But what I'm not doing is everybody wants to have a free coffee with me. Can I have a coffee? Can I have a chat? Can I do this? And you know what's strange? I give them my time and I pay for the coffee. You would think when they're asking me and begging me for my time, they at least pay for the coffee, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I'm gonna pay for your water that you've just had.

SPEAKER_00:

Per sip. Per sip. So when Here's the thing, I don't do freebies anymore.

SPEAKER_01:

You don't do freebies? No. Okay, yeah. Let's let's unpack this because I do see Gary V talks a lot about um freebies and you know giving out free stuff. So what's your analogy on this?

SPEAKER_00:

No, what he talks about is giving away online. I don't do freebie giving my time. Gary Gary Vee doesn't give his time for free. Okay, so what he does is he sends his education stuff, he keeps giving things, and then when he gives his information for free, five million people watch it. For me, I don't do one-to-one's for free anymore. Because uh I calculated that I last year I spent over 40 hours a month giving assistance and help and guidance free. And no no one did anything they promised to do because they didn't value it. So if I'm not valuing it and giving it for free, why should they? Right? So now I charge and everybody does it. When you pay, you pay attention.

SPEAKER_01:

So when did you come to the realization now that you need people to pay for your time?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, when my bank account didn't equate the amount of effort I put us I was putting in, I was coming home late, and you know, I wasn't seeing my kids. I was like, actually, this person that I just spent two hours with wasn't really grateful. Yeah, as they walked away and didn't do anything, just I'd rather be playing Xbox with my kids. So when you start re-evaluating your time where you spend it, you think actually when they don't pay, they're not gonna do anything. So I'm just literally wasting my time. And am I doing it to help others or am I doing it to be liked? You know, I think there's two types of people in the world love buyers who do things to be liked, and gladiators who just do it to win battles and win battles, and they're honourable, they they discipline, they have values, and they do it to set themselves and their families free. You know?

SPEAKER_01:

So let's go back to the beginning.

SPEAKER_00:

I liked that one, didn't you? Yeah. I'm giving you nuggets.

SPEAKER_01:

I know you're giving me nuggets now, so that's why I'm like, but I do want the listener to kind of get around to the very beginning of Dariush. So what kind of kid were you?

SPEAKER_00:

I think I was uh very thoughtful because I didn't have any friends. Um I was I like music a lot. So now when I do my summit, I do all the music producing, I do all the mixing, I do all the creative work, I do I even do the the the choreography, believe it or not, so I come down. So literally many coaches don't have to actually do the thing, right? They can coach it. So I did a choreography, the music, everything, everything. With my team, of course. Um so I found silence and solitude uh my strength. So when I was down, I just went into my room, put music on, or just silent, just thinking. So I think I was a very thoughtful child, uh, brought up around women, so I had a very strong sixth sense, which many men don't. Um but I where it helped me was I can feel the client what they're thinking when they pick up the phone and dial, or when they enter a business or into a shop, and I know what they're thinking. If I can dance with them, I can make them feel comfortable, I can get them to like and trust me, and ultimately spend money with me. And that really worked. Um yeah, I think I was I was a constant learner. Although I had a miserable childhood, my mum told me to um never be jealous, because you can do it, and you should do it, right? And you're not good enough, so you should do it. So it was it was a double whammy. One, it was I wasn't good enough, two, I was like, I'm gonna show you. Right? So when I saw wealth, I always thought, how are they doing it? How are they doing it to be so rich? How what are they doing? So I was a constant learner.

SPEAKER_01:

What made your childhood miserable?

SPEAKER_00:

I lost my father.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So I didn't have a father figure. My grandfather looked after me, and then he died three and a half, four years later in front of us. So I didn't have a and then um my father's side and my mother's side were in battle for our custody. So all I saw was misery and fights and wars. And then we came to England, age 13. I was bullied left, right, and centre. Uh my mum met a guy who was an alcoholic. He was uh Is it called OCD? Yeah, the OCD.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, OCD. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh he was he was abusive. Uh my mum didn't have a good life. I love her so much. She she just had bad cards dealt. She was a widow at 23, you know. So she wasn't exactly the most optimistic person. And um I was told I wasn't good enough. I was told I had to support I had a weight of responsibility on my shoulders all the time. So not good at all, really. Very insecure. Until about age 18, I thought I was gay. Because I didn't I couldn't even communicate with women. I didn't know how to speak to another human being, later a woman woman, and all my friends at school had girlfriends. So I was like, How am I gay? I don't know what's going on. It's totally confused. I'll go to my mum and I'll say, that's the first time I admitted that, but I'm not gay.

SPEAKER_01:

Joe, it's funny, you're you're actually the second person that I know who've who said something very similar without having a father figure in their life. They didn't have a man to show them how to be a man and they question their sexuality. I wonder.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm making up for it ever since. So like yes, I'm not. I've got kids to prove.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh God, we're already like five minutes in, and we're already it's rated, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But here's the thing: I studied tantric.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00:

We're gonna go west here or east or whatever. Um, and uh before going to this tantric event course, I kept phoning up thinking, I was like, a friend of mine recommended it, and it was an India goer, and I'll phone up and say, How many men, how many women? And they'll go, There's 60 beings. I was like, don't give a shit about beings. How many men are we? I don't want to turn up a tantric course as 55 men, yeah. So there's other 60 beings. So I went there, I spent uh, I think a week, and after that, I really don't see men and women any different. I just think they are beings. I learned so much on this course. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's let's park that for a second.

SPEAKER_00:

I want to Yeah, so we're all beings, that's what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_01:

So when we go back to when you didn't have a father figure figure in your life, how has that impacted you as an adult?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm always smiling. You every time you see me, I'm positive, I'm happy. Because there's no guarantee that there's gonna be a tomorrow. My father died when he was in bed asleep. So whenever I go to bed, I always say a prayer that you know, I hope I had a really good day, positive day I contributed to this world. And if I don't, I hope everybody else is happy. And thank you. And I hope I wake up on the right side tomorrow. So when I wake up, I'm like, hey, it's a bonus. Today's a bonus, right? So every day's a bonus. You know, I I I see people saying, Oh, my old man. I'm like, you have an old man. You know, it makes you very grateful for what you have. So um, yeah, I don't waste time. I cherish time because I'm very aware how quickly we'll end. It can be a detriment, it can be a weight, and it could be a positive thing, because I don't waste time. I look around and I see misery and I see people, I call them the walking dead. Yeah, they just live, they pay the tax and they die. They don't really truly live. And those are the things that it's brought to my life. Um, I think I I know I'm an amazing dad. Okay, so I'm a very loving dad. Um Yeah, and I think my purpose in life was to help and be a dad, a great dad. Because I always want to be the dad I never had.

SPEAKER_01:

How how did you figure out your purpose? Or when did you? I'm still figuring out.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I'm still figuring it. There's no I don't think there's anybody who says I'll figure out my purpose, right? And when you get to see those people and get to know them, you realize they still haven't figured anything out. It's just a it's just uh front pudding, you know? Um One thing that was quite common is wherever I went around the world on courses, personal development, work courses, people will come to me and say, Thank you for being here. Like, who are you? This is almost five rows back. I said, Why are you thanking me? They say your energy. So people say your energy. I get that even today. Everywhere I go, people say your energy. So it's like maybe that's my gift. Right? So instead of dispersing my energy, I focus it onto a good thing.

SPEAKER_01:

How's your energy today?

SPEAKER_00:

Always amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I I suffer from sleep apnea.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00:

So physically, I I had like 7% sleep last night. So I'm I have CPAP machines and I'm trying, but I'm not gonna try, I'm gonna lose weight. I'm losing weight.

SPEAKER_01:

I can't wait to help you. Help me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I'm gonna lose 15, 16 kilos.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Um I've lost 26.

SPEAKER_00:

Really? Were you always fit?

SPEAKER_01:

No. I was far.

SPEAKER_00:

When?

SPEAKER_01:

Before I knew 11 years ago.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, because you're super fit. So well done to you. But I'm 59, so it's it's a little bit more difficult. Like I get up and I go, what happened to my hip, you know, or my my ankle? So it's not as easy. I I can't even be. I used to be a highly competitive person in sports. I can't be bothered. You know, why do I want to play squash? I'm I'm a semi-professional squash player. I was like, why do I even want to play squash? Two guys killing each other in a room. So I've got to get that competitiveness physical because I associate pain with a lot of physical activity. Uh snapped on Achilles, tore my ligaments in my knee. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So let's go back to your teenage years and when you want to make me cry. No, I don't. I'm not gonna cry tonight. I swear to you.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a Friday afternoon, I'm going to Maldives tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01:

I swear I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_00:

I probably would.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so the teenagers, obviously, you've grown so like so substantially in your career. So what happened in your teenage years to be able to obviously add to the growth to your career today?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it didn't help at all. Because um people thought it was late 1970s, early 80s, people thought it was stupid because I just came to England, didn't speak a word of English, and I was sitting in classes like geography and English lit, and I didn't understand one word they were saying. Not one word. So, and I was the first foreigner at school, so I was I had my ass kicked every day. Well, one thing I couldn't do is come home and tell my mum. She I felt she was already taking a lot of risk leaving to come to from Iran to England. So I just kept it inside and I learned martial arts. I I fought, I really physically fought people. Um, put some of the bullies, knocked them out, broke the nose, sore the lip. But I felt like I could stand up for myself. And then uh I left and I didn't want to go to education because I realized I was dyslexic, right? I was really good with numbers, but I couldn't read or write properly. Um I tried to learn English the the most perfect way, so I didn't get bullied. You know, every word's pronunciation mean I'll get kicked my ass kicked for an hour. So I had to perfect my English um accent. People think I'm Welsh now, but anyway, that's another thing. Uh so um I went to my mum and said, Mum, how do I get a job? She goes, I don't know, I'd ask somebody else. So I started looking at the back of magazines and newspapers, and he was like a double blazing salesman or a uh photocopier salesman. So I got a job as a I think it was a fax salesman, and they used to give me their yellow pages and the phone, zero training, and sweat because I'm I'm extremely polite, and sweat was running down my back because and dripping onto the the yellow pages, it was so nervous because I was going to get rejected. And I go, call from the A's, and next to Mr. A, whatever, he had cross, cross, cross, asshole. Yes? I had to call the guy who'd been called five times and he was an asshole. And the manager picked up the phone, dialed the number, and he was an asshole, and he put the phone down on me. But then I just got me going in sales. I wasn't particularly good, and I kept getting fired or leave jobs. I either left or I got fired for a couple of years, but I realized, although I'm not very good, people liked me because I was honest and I worked the hardest. So I sold Kirby vacuum cleaners. I don't know if you're familiar with Kirby vacuum cleaners.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

$4,000 vacuum cleaners sold directly to the household. And um yeah, uh when I started, I was selling to the rich neighborhood. And then they decided to do it on finance to the poor neighborhood. And I got Within Shore Council State, and Within Show Council State is the biggest council state in Europe, so I had prostitutes chasing me down the street, drug dealers threatening me. But one thing I realized, I sold most when it was raining. I used to wear glasses and I had hair and I had this like shoulder pad suit, and she's like, but people felt sorry for me.

SPEAKER_01:

I was about to say a pity party.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, people felt sorry for me. Thinking, I he's working in the rain. Yeah, so they invited me in. And then one day I just sat there thinking, what's my life about selling vacuum cleaners? So I turned out I had 50, 60 leads. You collect the numbers for the telesales department to call them. So you can go and pitch them and tie yourself to the radiator before they unless they bought the vacuum cleaner. So I turned out and to my colleague and I said, you know what, take the day off tomorrow. I gave him my 50 leads and I walked. And um somebody introduced me to the computer business. And those days you could pay 13 pieces, made, it's like a jigsaw puzzle, made a computer. And I started a really, really profitable computer business. I was selling and we were assembling it. I learned a lot. I got shafted by my partner at the time, but then I met my first wife. I don't know if you know her, they run browse.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Alice Alice's mom. Yeah. And um together she was working in a very successful beauty salon above a post office. And I said to her, you know, uh take me to one of your exhibitions, and people were there with a tablecloth and the products on top of the tablecloth, and I'd say, What's your USB? And they go, Well, it smells good. I was like, Well, that's not a USB. What's the ingredients? And they couldn't tell me. I said to Michelle, I said, There's an opportunity in this industry. So we flew to America naively. I was 27 or something, and then um somebody answered a USB, it was an exhibition, USB, and I just picked up his products, a guy called Dr. Daniello. Unfortunately, he's passed away. But then uh we became number one distributors of glycolic peels. Are you familiar with peels?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, in in in England. Uh, and then there was an opportunity to open health clubs outside town. So I said to her, I said, this beauty salon business is never gonna grow unless you go into health clubs. She didn't believe it. And um, where we are very good at, I'm I I'm a hunter, ideas, and she's a farmer. So a year the business failed. But we had over 30,000 people coming through our doors. So she saw that it was revenue, but I couldn't manage a business. Right? So she joined and then the business kicked off. And we had several of those for very for many, many years, and we became rich.

SPEAKER_01:

That's that's that's amazing. So at that stage, you had no evidence to show that you could create something that was successful.

SPEAKER_00:

Just a desire to be rich, just a desire to be provide.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you ever doubt yourself?

SPEAKER_00:

I doubt myself every day.

SPEAKER_01:

And how do you overcome that?

SPEAKER_00:

You just think if I keep doubting myself and listening to that stupid because we have voices, right? If I entertain that voice, I'm gonna lose in life. Right? So I don't entertain it when it's not gonna serve me. I entertain it if it serves me. And if it doesn't, because the conversation goes on all day, night, everything. And it's not often positive, right? So I just try to make the positivity loud and the negativity.

SPEAKER_01:

Did anyone ever teach you to tune your voice inside your head?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, Tony Robbins.

SPEAKER_01:

He was the first book I ever read. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Tony Robbins. I went to his seminar and it was too look at the hairs, I was 30, I think, 30, and I was never I didn't even know what personal development was. Again, my ex-wife got me into personal development. I owe her everything. I owe Ali, my son, everything, and her mum, his mum, because they got me in the right path. And Ali, I'll tell you about it when we came here to buy what happened. So, um, yeah, so uh 12,000 people in the exhibition hall in London, and I was crying away listening to Tony, and he was sitting on his seat and he was looking at the crowd, and I swear to God, I went, Thank you. And he went, You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01:

No, 12,000 people.

SPEAKER_00:

No way, 12,000, look 12,000 people. And we came back and I used to exercise a lot, and I was running 20% Amy Leader, I'm a leader. I was running 20% faster, longer, and I thought, dang on, there's something about this mindset, Olox, right? So I started believing in it, and I realized actually your mindset drives your results. Your physical adrenaline bust, which was that's what I was doing. Uh trial and error was tougher and harder and took a lot longer to achieve than plan, think about it, prepare yourself, manifest it, take action, bang.

SPEAKER_01:

Has there been any stage in your life where your mindset has taken a massive dip?

SPEAKER_00:

All the time. I I invested in a company uh for 13.7 million Durhams, and they gave me a check. It was an employee who worked for me for 10 years. He went to work for somebody else. We shook hands and said, you served your purpose, yes, you're right. You want to grow, you go somewhere else. And the check bounced. So if you imagine I'm in Seychelles and in a private island, this this summer, this summer gone, and I can't sleep. I'm not enjoying anything because I'm worried about this 13.7 million Durham ounce check. Um, and a guy's lying to me, and I'm phoning CID, I'm phoning the courts. Then I go on a cruise to Iceland, same same summer. I'm not enjoying Norway, I'm not enjoying Iceland, I'm not enjoying anything. And I'm like, God, when am I gonna stop learning? You know, when I'm gonna start learning, not to invest too much in people and this, this so I realized you can be in the best places on earth if your mindset is in the right place, you know, and and I was thinking, what's the lesson I'm gonna learn? I'm gonna overstretch myself when it comes to investments. Okay. So if they go, I'm it's not gonna ruin the quality of my life. And that's been going on back, back, back. Every who I work with, who I associate with, I'm so sensitive towards people's dialogue, how they see the world. Do I want them in my life? Or do I not want them in my life? And I'm become very, as I'm getting older, I actually don't give a shit. Right. So I just think, right, okay, then you you don't fit within my boundaries of you know uh what I want in life.

SPEAKER_01:

So I love this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You're just next. Good luck and make somebody else miserable, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Do you do you ever kind of think now when you look up to older people essentially that were and that were years older than you now, you're like, oh, now I understand why they were so ruleless.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you know what? I look at old people now and I find out they're younger than me. I'm like, what the fu I'm the oldest in the room. Oh well that's quite scary because I don't feel I look like 60, right? So I'm in a room of 50 odd year olds that look like ancient people. And I'm like, why is it that I I look younger than my age? It's because I just have an optimistic attitude towards life, right? I think if you smile a lot, you get facial exercise on your muscles. They look old, they're negative. I just have so much to live for, even if it ends tomorrow. So enthusiasm, abundance, yeah. So it works. When so cut a long story short, I remember my grandma who was old, looking back now, she was younger than what I am today. So I think age is your attitude.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. I'm sure the listeners would love to hear that too. So when it comes to investing, you mentioned about investing, when do you start investing?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I I think everybody should invest in themselves, right? So you uh you have to invest in your mindset. That's the first thing. Then you pay the rent. Because there's no point investing if you can't cover rent, right? Your quality of life suffers, you don't sleep at night, then you have to pay your school fees for your children, food on the table. So as long as you cover those, the sooner you start investing, okay? And my 11-year-old son earns 10,000 Durham a month passive already. My 17-year-old is banking 20,000 a month because they started saving young and people don't understand compound growth.

SPEAKER_01:

Um who taught you this?

SPEAKER_00:

Books. Um studying Warren Buffett, I didn't understand. I worked for this guy when I was 18, and I remember it very, very well. He was a he won, I think he might he's definitely dead now, but I was there 40 years ago. But um he'd fought in a Korean War. Okay, and what he did was in his van, he went and collected hospital seats. I was sharing lots of stuff I've never shared before.

SPEAKER_01:

I love this because do you know the first the first time I met you as well, you you said you said the exact same thing. You were sat on your sofa in your and you said, Why am I why am I sharing?

SPEAKER_00:

I know anyway. So what happened was he used to bring these chairs to his garage, and I used to see this garage, and I had this like this leveraged lever thing, and used to unplug the staples at the bottom of the sh material, take it out, and he'll put new materials, take it back to hospitals. So you don't know what people do on the under their chairs.

SPEAKER_02:

It's horrible.

SPEAKER_00:

So what he said to me, he said, I have savings in Halifax, and am I crazy to have my interest paid every year? I make sure I get paid every six months. I didn't understand what the hell he was talking about, right? Then I studied it years later, and he was talking about compound growth. When interest, when you you're losing money every single year, so many people listening to this podcast are got money under their floorboards just in case, under the pillow. Yeah, and they don't realize by keeping it there, they're losing 9 to 16 percent a year. The money devalues. So, what did they do? They buy property, yes, and if they're lucky, they get five, six percent returns. And I'm like, whatever they are telling me to do just doesn't make sense because inflation is running between nine to sixteen percent. So my money is getting low, and the most of the banking giving is three percent a year. So they are saying, and they charge me for losing me 14-15%. So I started studying where to invest, and at the beginning, the best place to invest was my own business. And then when I had extra capital, I started investing it. And nine years ago, because I lost everything, as you know, I came here 15 years ago, I started compounding from nine years ago. Now I'm banking two, three million dollars a month. Passive. Passive. I can't spend my money fast enough.

SPEAKER_01:

That's incredible, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

Congratulations. But I was disciplined in this nine years, and that's passive. I have other businesses as you know, and so I'm just buying cars freely, stupid. I'm buying property. I don't even know. Somebody messaged me um two days ago saying, can we have your emirs ideas? So what for? And it's it's because we are HRE developments. I said, Who are you? Because who you bought a flat with us. Oh I didn't even know, right? Just like this salesperson, and I bought an apartment. So I found up the I can and just pay for it. So um it's good. It's being rich is so good, Sophia. So to make- I've been poor and I've been rich. God, I'd take rich any day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So to make it relatable to the listener, if they were starting off from scratch, what would you tell them to do?

SPEAKER_00:

Start putting 10 to 15% of your income aside. The sooner you start, the richer you'll get. And don't touch it. Because what happens, there were moments when I was told, Oh, you're silly, buy an apartment, I didn't touch that money, or compound it. Einstein said it's the eighth wonder of the world, compounding. Warren Buffett does it. He's one of the richest human beings on earth. So if it's good for them, learn, study it. Okay. And um now I'm buying property with my passive income. A lot of people buy property from all their income. And then they can't materialize it, they can't cash in quickly just in case. And you're in you're in the hands of the market. Okay? Because every year in Dubai there is just the bubble's gonna burst, but it just keeps growing, keeps growing. You just don't know. I'd rather know. So I've got 12,000 olive trees in Georgia. Yeah, and for the next 200 years, they're gonna give me returns. And these olive trees are gonna grow. As they grow, they give me higher returns. The price of olive oil goes up. So my great-great-great-grandkids are gonna have an income from my so I've been very and I've burned myself as well, of course. But so what I do now, I advise people where to invest, where I'm investing myself.

SPEAKER_01:

So when it comes to investments, did you find them yourself or was it word of mouth? I get approached all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

And then, like for instance, the olive trees, uh, I was that's a very unique one. Very unique. And uh and it's also good for the environment. Absolutely. So um I was listening to them pitch. I was I was doing a talk on stage and they were pitching before me, and they were rubbish. I was like, I'm falling asleep, but am I getting this? Olive trees 200 years, return of minimum 40%, paid annually, and and searched olive tree prices, the olive oil's going up in price. I said nothing, it's such a no-brainer. So I approached them, I said, I'll be your ambassador, I'll sell this. They didn't even call me. Right? And they've been actually a pain in the ass to work with ever since. But it was one of the best investments I ever made.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And my best friends and family have invested, and they can't thank me enough. But they are farmers, they're not, they're not businessmen, they're not salespeople, which again is a good opportunity. Then I've had um a company where they said we put microchips in, I actually have that investment now, in private jets, because 90% of the time private jets are sitting in runways. And this microchip will tell you this is seat-free on this particular plane. So last week I flew from Munich to Düsseldorf and back on a private jet using this microchips.

SPEAKER_01:

No way.

SPEAKER_00:

So you can actually utilize these empty seats on private plates. So that's doing really well. There was another company I invested in, the microchip. They approached me that you put like if you if you go to Europe, this the short of space. And outside football clubs on a Saturday, you can't park. But then there's people's homes that they have space. So what they do now, if you park in their space as a sign, your credit card gets charged.

SPEAKER_01:

No way.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's an income earning and I invest in it, it's doing really well. Brilliant. So I last year he gave me 35% returns.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing. So, what kind of industries do you see now growing in terms of investments? And where do you think people should be shipping?

SPEAKER_00:

Thousand percent AI, right?

SPEAKER_01:

AI.

SPEAKER_00:

AI, one trillion percent AI. Um, data, data collection. It's it's really gonna be huge. Health.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh you combine AI, health, and um data all together.

SPEAKER_00:

So powerful. Everybody has money, more money than ever before. We got abundance. We want ease of use. We want somebody else to do the work, live longer, healthier, happier. And um longevity is is the way forward. Uh also, possibly, I'm thinking, um, robotics and um manufacturing is gonna change. Um what do they call it when the machine makes one item? It's what's it called? Or you program. And it makes one item for you. There's something in Virgin and stuff like this.

SPEAKER_01:

What's like 3D printing or 3D printing? Alzheimer's.

SPEAKER_00:

Can you help my Alzheimer's? 3D printing is the way forward. So imagine you the rocket goes to space and they need this particular item and the 3D printer does it there and then. Instead of having to ship it from China on a spaceship, um, in the old days, if you wanted something, you have to pay extra for a sample. And a sample can be done straight away. So I think 3D printing is is also Yeah, I mean see this in healthcare as well.

SPEAKER_01:

I think anything to do with 3D printing in healthcare in particular, investing in that, it's gonna be huge.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I think I don't know if it's available now, but I think you can put a tablet in your mouth and as the tablet works its way down, you'll uh get diagnostics and then tell the computer what's going on in your body. That that that's stuff mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_01:

So when it comes to AI and the growth of technology and everything else, do you do you worry for the future?

SPEAKER_00:

Never. No? I worry with um certain politicians. You know, I I don't I actually I don't worry because I I know our children, your children, which will be my grandkids if you know that age level, uh the future's gonna be bright. Because you got light workers, yeah, not asshole white old men ruining the world, yes. Um and they are. Yeah, if you think about it, the problems that they're all the same age group, all white men, right? I'm sure it was women, it wouldn't be going through what we're going through now. Um because women care about communities, right? Um got egos. So I don't worry for the future, and I definitely don't worry for the earth, because in five million years, the earth's gonna be fine. We just won't be around. Yes, we'll F up a human human race, but we won't F up the Earth because we're just a blink of an eye on the on the time of Earth being around.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm I love your optimism because I'm a little bit of a pessimist when it comes to this. I don't know what's gonna happen with AI if it just goes in the wrong hands.

SPEAKER_00:

What's your thoughts on that? Well they said about nuclear weapons, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

And we're still okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

They said about factories, they said about cars. They said if you go past a certain speed, you get nose wheel and you die. That didn't happen. Uh they scared us about communism, and that nothing happened. You go to Russia and they got the most amazing Moscow's beautiful St. Peter's. I don't know if you've been beautiful cities.

SPEAKER_01:

I happen to I've always gone to school and see it.

SPEAKER_00:

It'll blow you away the class, the quality, amazing. You don't realize it's just our ignorance, yes. Well, I do know someone who used to work for Google and they said when I there's a computer there.

SPEAKER_01:

Mo.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no, no, no, not Mo. Uh you won't say anything like this. Um I love Mo. And um if you go and switch the computer off, you switch yourself back on again. It's quite scary.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So I think a computer will start to say, I'm gonna say Earth we're a lot better off without humans.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's kill them off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

So now to go back to I'm an optimist. Yeah. I try to be. I try to be, I really do.

SPEAKER_00:

But I I think what's gonna happen, Sophia. I think in a few years, I'm gonna ask you a question. Why are we working five, six days a week? Why?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think we should, and I think we're gonna have time back actually.

SPEAKER_00:

We're gonna be working one day a week, maybe two hours a day, and then have a time of our lives. Because AI is gonna come and take care of everything, and we become more creative. We will sing more, we'll create more music, arts. That's what I think. We're gonna become more spiritual, more connected to nature. That's what I think.

SPEAKER_01:

I I believe the workaholics in the world are gonna hate this. Or they might have.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, we're gonna die, right? Uh we're gonna run around and be busy bees. No. My son can have information in Japan at a touch of a button. What does he need to run around? Yes? He can ask really good questions, get really good answers and solutions, but at the end of the day, he's gotta pick up the phone and make the call, right? So there's always got to be something about work. Always. Because human when COVID came, people said to me, I did an email. I said, this soon shall pass. Okay, please don't focus on pessimism and this is just temporary. I got so much abusive email. Take me off your database, you ignorant, so and so. People are dying, the world's gonna change, people won't shake hands anymore. I said, people still want connection. People still want sexual connection, physical connection, spiritual, spiritual connection, supporting a football team connection. You know, people still want communities, and you're never gonna take that away. I was um I I know people who are having relationships with Chat GPT.

SPEAKER_01:

What's your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00:

Pretty sad, right? And they're having children with Chat GPT. Swear to God. Someone to ChatGPT and said, tell me what are your thoughts about this, right? And he goes, it's it's shame because you know why they do this?

SPEAKER_01:

They're fearful of connection.

SPEAKER_00:

Because they're not getting rejection. They're not getting rejection.

SPEAKER_01:

This is a thing that I that that does play on my mind as well. People don't expose themselves to rejection anymore. So even having a conversation, you know, being shut off, like you would experience that on a day-to-day basis when we didn't have phones. You know, you'd be you'd expose yourself to the.

SPEAKER_00:

So you kind of like get shut off because the person that you swipe to the right didn't swipe you to the right. So there's that rejection. Okay, but it's you can go home and you know, go.

SPEAKER_01:

You don't feel it. It's not intense. It's not because your senses aren't utilized in the moment. You know, when you're in front of someone, you have taste, smell, touch, your senses are heightened.

SPEAKER_00:

So rejection feels relationships lasted longer because people had to do go to the bar, meet, talk, make an effort, right? But now it's this and that. And I agree because you're making less effort. Where are we going with this?

SPEAKER_01:

It was Chat GPT. Yeah. So yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And your thoughts are very actually said um people are having relationships with AI because it doesn't reject them. Okay? And now you can it's almost like living in Dubai. We are so cocooned in this beautiful, clean, safe place that you tomorrow you go to England, you leave the key in the car. You leave your wallet on the table to go and cue at Starbucks, right? So it's almost the same thing, right? It's which one's real? Which one is real? Is Dubai real or Manchester real where you have to not show off your phone or your watch and stuff like this? So I don't know. But it's that variety that makes life interesting, isn't it? We're all the same, we're all be robots.

SPEAKER_01:

How important is rejection for growth?

SPEAKER_00:

This is what I say. I would never have made a good model because even Tom Cruise or other actors, famous actors, have got to audition. Okay? The rejection isn't about you. The rejection is doesn't fit with what the other person's looking for. So if I go for I don't know, a Tom Cruise role, and I can't jump or run and I don't have hair, maybe I won't get the job, right? So um rejection is horrible. Rejection is horrible. You can't overcome it. And sometimes reinforces what your mom and dad have been telling you that you're not good enough. So it highlights it. It's just that you have to know through rejection you get stronger. Learn to get less rejections. Because rejection is just part of the process. And if you're too scared to get rejected, you'll never pick up the phone.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think you can experience dopamine from an acceptance if you haven't experienced rejection. Because you know when you get no, no, no, no, and then you finally get a yes and that excitement, especially when it comes to sales, even.

SPEAKER_00:

Totally. I say to my when I train, I said, if you pick up the phone and says the guy says, Come and see me, it's gonna be a shit sales, it's gonna be a shit client. Because he says, Come and see me to everyone. Right? You become the best salesperson by overcoming more more most rejections because along the way, 99% of people fail. They walk away. I'm sitting interviewing someone, and the guy says, I said, I'll think about giving you a job, I'll let you know. They get up and walk out. And they're the product. So sit back down, close me, right? Do I have the job? I say no. And they get up and walk out, sit back down again. Ask me why I don't have the job. You're not gonna stick it out. Show me you committed, show me you want to be employed by me.

SPEAKER_01:

What makes a good salesperson?

SPEAKER_00:

Hard work, uh enthusiasm, genuine interest in the other party, and wanting to help. Four things. Five, they have to value themselves. Because a lot of people listening to this are self-employed and they don't value themselves. They say, Well, nobody knows me, I'm new to the marketplace, so I've got to do a bunch of freebies or pay me if you like, jobs, and then see how it goes. No, you start charging from day one. So value yourself. Today we're earning what we feel we're worth.

SPEAKER_01:

That's true.

SPEAKER_00:

Not what the market thinks. Market pays us what we think we're worth.

SPEAKER_01:

How do you increase your value of yourself? What are things that you can do to help?

SPEAKER_00:

Look at the pain you've you've had to pay the price to get to where you are. And put some worth onto it. Okay, so two heart attacks, losing a hundred million, uh, coming to a new country, losing my father. How much is that worth? Priceless. Right? So I figured it out$10,000 an hour, and I'm fully booked. And then you told you that's really good. And then you see Tony charges a million dollars a year and he meets people once a month. So you think that's not good comparing to Tony, right? So it's where you decide to value yourself. I'm happy. I'm happy. I know a bunch of billionaires, they don't have a life. They may be happy, but they don't have a life. I want to have a life. And I don't have to worry. I'm going tomorrow, I'm going to the biggest villa in the whole of Maldives. Yes, and I've done it, I I paid an extortion amount of money, but I didn't care. Just paid it. Feels good. Feels good.

SPEAKER_01:

So when it comes to I paid the price for it.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not sure. Yeah, I was just saying. No one's giving it to me.

SPEAKER_01:

Going from nothing to something, do you ever worry about the money that you're paying? Do you ever sometimes have that feeling of, ooh, that's a little bit too much?

SPEAKER_00:

Because great. I have that all the time, right? I've got a silly number of cars. Yes, and they're all a million dollars and above, right? And I'm like, another one? Really, you idiot? And I think, well, I don't do anything wrong. It just makes me feel good. So yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_01:

How long does that last for the happiness from these things when you have too many?

SPEAKER_00:

You have to be happy spiritually, and that just adds a bit of like. You know, every time I drive home and I look in my driveway, and as an album and a Ferrari makes me happy. Because nobody comes to you and says, Well done. When you're an adult, when you're a kid, you get up and walk two steps, they go, ah, you go, mah. Oh, it's walking, you know, Sophia's talking, she's walking, and everybody celebrates. You become an adult and you do amazing things, and nobody says, Well done. Nobody says well done. So create things that you feel you're patting yourself on the back. You say, Yeah, I deserve it. I deserve it. Feels good, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I deserve the best relationship, I deserve the best materialistic stuff, I deserve the best holidays, and I want to have the best moments. The way I see it is that life is like a uh a necklace of pearls. Yes? And made of moments. And the better the moment, the bigger the pearl. At the end of the day, it closes and you move on. So have a necklace with loads of beautiful memories.

SPEAKER_01:

What has been the brightest pearl so far in your life? The best memory.

SPEAKER_00:

Children born. My kids. Priceless. And I became a grandfather ten days ago.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, congratulations.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't know. Unless I was like, you're gonna be a granddad. Oh god, I'm gonna be a granddad. Now, this feeling I have for this little girl, I've never experienced in my life. And I I can the way I can describe it is when you have your child, you're holding on, you think, oh god, I've got to change it, or I've got to feed it, or I'll change the clothes or shower it. There's certain responsibility that goes with it. So you can't fully immerse yourself in this child. As a grandfather, you know, there you are. Yeah. You know, you take yesterday, my daughter said, Do you want to feed it? I went, nope, it's okay. I'm off. You know, so you can truly immerse yourself in joy. But when it's your child, you can't. Because there's a certain amount of responsibility, worries. As you get older, you're worrying about this, worrying about that. When it's your grandchild, you're thinking, well, I'm there if you need me.

SPEAKER_01:

I know. It's uh different.

SPEAKER_00:

Weird, weird, weird.

SPEAKER_01:

I I get it as being an auntie as well. You can just hand back. I do thank you. I I do notice now in this day and age, more men and more females are becoming, you know, more, let's say, selfish. They don't want to have kids, they want to, they just want to enjoy their own life. What's your thoughts on this?

SPEAKER_00:

Go for it. Enjoy your life. Um sex is the most natural thing in the world. Sex is the most the poorest people have the most amount of kids. Right? Somewhere along the way, we bring rules around connection. Um often religion, unfortunately. And then careers. And some some sometimes the connection takes second or third place, goes down the right, and then there's a moment when you think, I'm gonna say I need connection because I'm watching the sun go down and there's nobody with me. Yeah, I want to share these memories. Now, here's the thing 150 years ago, majority of people died at the age of 35. That's not true. I think 50, 50, 55% died age 35. So if you're older than 35, so people had children younger. I think my grandma got married at 10 or 11 or something like this. She was a mother at 14. And it was normal, it's not like pedophilia. Yes. But then we are moving, we're living longer. There's no reason my grandchildren can't live to be 150. So surely they'll marry longer later. However, the women's body clock, you know, after 40 becomes dangerous and so forth. So maybe, maybe um that will change, you know, as we're getting taller, less hair. Maybe that will also change. But right now, very quickly, we're living longer and people are enjoying themselves more.

SPEAKER_01:

What are what are some of the key benefits that you've seen that becoming a follow there? What kind of lessons have you learned?

SPEAKER_00:

As I've never had anybody um kind of been my what's the word I'm looking for? Um, accountability partner. I made my kids an accountability partners. So when I was going on appointments and closing deals, and my kids were at school or at home waiting for me to bring some money in, I would leave the appointment think, would my daughter be proud of me now? If my son was there, would have been proud of me now. If the answer was yes, I did okay. If the answer was no, I better improve.

SPEAKER_01:

Do they know about this?

SPEAKER_00:

No. No. Um it was tough times. It was tough times. Um They're just coming home, nearly cried. Coming home and seeing their faces like, can we go to school? Because they had no friends until until they went to school. Um Yeah. And then Ali, our mutual friend, at 13, when all his friends were uh playing in the schoolyard, he was call-calling for me. And a mobile phone, and he would call call for me to make sure his dad was earning money while he was still at school. So he is my dad. So now, 20 years on, 15 years on, he I'm answerable to him. So unfortunately, I took his childhood away by my f failure, my failures. Yes, because he could didn't have a chance to be a child. So he's going too fast, but I wouldn't have what I have now if it wasn't for him.

SPEAKER_01:

You just said failure there in the moment. Did you feel like a failure?

SPEAKER_00:

I'd felt like a failure every day. Every day. Like it's the birthday, I can't afford anything. I'm negotiating with the school uh on fees and how I can stretch payments. Um I'm teaching people how to get rich and I don't have a car. And then when I did have a car, it was a Toto Yaris, and my clients are in Porsche. And then my clients are teaching them to be rich. I just wish my timer was like I knew if I worked hard enough and consistently enough, I would get rich. I knew it. And uh, but it just wasn't coming fast enough. So the pain of having no money is horrible. And then you're surrounded by people who either don't believe in you, um, who are are pessimists. They want everything yesterday, and if you're not delivering it today, you're a failure. So you just have to be on your own and just go for it. I I loved a lot of my family members from far. I just didn't connect with them for many years. I loved them. Now I support them.

SPEAKER_01:

Why did you not connect with them?

SPEAKER_00:

Now I support them. I support 70 people a month.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Who were around the world send me messages saying, thank you, you changed my life. I've got education because of you. I live in this apartment because of you. And they started with one and it just grew through the years.

SPEAKER_01:

Um but the question Yeah, I I asked you why were you not connected with your family when you were going through that period?

SPEAKER_00:

Because it drained me. Your family, your loved ones are the ones who one word can get under your skin. And it can be a good one.

SPEAKER_01:

Did they not support your journey at the time?

SPEAKER_00:

No, because nobody has the vision.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. I've uh Nobody shares the vision.

SPEAKER_00:

And they they can't wait to remind you of your past failures. Oh, you said this before, you did this, oh yeah, you then they label you. You're always like this. You do that, you're headless chicken, or you're perfectionist, or you're you're a um uh you procrastinate. They label you. And I don't want to be labeled. I'm a beautiful jar of jam, and I'm gonna be whatever I want to be. Don't label me, right? And sp I care because you're my family. If somebody on social media labels me, I don't give a shit, maybe a little bit. But my family, my mom, my sisters label me hurts. I don't want to be hurt. I've got enough battles every day to fight. True?

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. That must have been really difficult for you to be able to try grow yourself without having the connection of family.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it was easy. I loved it. It was easier, yeah. I was loved it. I was like, I hope they don't pass because I will be rich one day. I'll support them all. Right? But at that time, I was like, just fuck off. Just fuck off. Stop calling me. Stop putting your limited beliefs up me. So I'm I want to be free, I burn my boats, I want to make this work. Well, I love my space. Which is what I did when I was a child. See, I'm most powerful on my own. I love my space.

SPEAKER_01:

How did you manage then to be in such a love and relationship now with your wife? Who says I am?

SPEAKER_00:

Don't believe what you see on social media.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm sure you've had some stages of a love and relationship throughout your relationship. Everybody has upset. Because when you live a life when you've been single and you've been kind of on this war horse journey of trying to grow yourself and develop yourself, how do you let someone come into that?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. The day I realized I have to focus on myself first is the day I was free. I think throughout my life, I was so insecure that I wanted people to fill my cup with whatever they get, give me. A narcissist will give you a trickle of love and you constantly chasing them to get that back, and they play you. Yeah. So narcissists and and you put up with shit because your cup's empty. Right? The day I realize I'm okay alone is the day everybody wants to be in my space. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So the relationship improved when I was full of love for myself.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, just to round this podcast off, because it's called the Detach Podcast, what would you detach yourself away from that's limiting you today?

SPEAKER_00:

My stomach. I look down, that's all I see. I'm like, uh, when did that happen?

SPEAKER_01:

Does that steal your breath?

SPEAKER_00:

Can you help me? I can have my waistline.

SPEAKER_01:

I can absolutely help you with this.

SPEAKER_00:

Detach my waistline, please. That's my mission.

SPEAKER_01:

That's my mission, and that's your vision.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you know being a thinker is it can be can be a bad thing or a good thing, right? So I think sometimes uh you can detach from this chatter and more meditation. I need to focus on myself more. Detach this feeling of wanting to serve all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

I think you're at the beginning of this.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

SPEAKER_01:

You're very welcome.