Ep388: Chris Trikomitis – Appreciate What You Have Rather Than Chasing What You Don’t

Andrew Stotz 00:01
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. If you're not already a member of our community, go to my worst investment ever.com right now to join and receive the following five free benefits. First, you get the risk reduction checklist second, my weekly investment research email to help you increase returns. Then you get a 25% discount on all a Stotz Academy courses, instant access to the Facebook community to get to know guests and fellow listeners. And finally, you'll get access to my curated list the top 10 podcast episodes. Fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast hosts Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests, Chris trachomatous. Chris, are you ready to rock?

01:02
I'm ready, Andrew.

Andrew Stotz 01:03
Let's do it. Yeah, let me introduce you to the audience. Chris is in particularly high demand and is often requested to give informative and motivating keynote speeches at local and international events worldwide. Chris has an array of experience from the investment banking sector in London and the US as well as working in financial services for over 17 years. Now a coach investor and entrepreneur, Chris's background ranges from developing competitive business strategy sales marketing, and he has been instrumental to growing various businesses. Chris, take a minute and filling further tidbits about your life.

Chris Trikomitis 01:44
Thank you, Andrew, just thank you for having me on the show. Always great to see you. Been a great conversation prior to get on the show. Yes, a lot of tips of my life and a lot of work bad investments, I would say the worst one is definitely suited for this shop, would you like me to

Andrew Stotz 02:06
do it? To share your worst investment ever, so take it away?

Chris Trikomitis 02:12
Well, one thing I would say just don't feel bad. If any of you have had worst investments, we all do it. And this is my story. My worst investment, obviously, based on your introduction to myself, I'm mainly focused on financial investments, I decided to go into physical investments, I wanted to own a restaurant style kind of bar, restaurant and co working space, the idea was to get the CO working space that pay for the rent the restaurants or pay for the profit, and then kind of use both businesses to give people the opportunity to have a quiet place to work, like you see people and keyboards and stuff in Starbucks all the time. And then give them the opportunity to take advantage of some of our food by giving free credits, which will then encourage them to buy more, or business. I would say Andrew, that I was kind of manipulated into that kind of investment, as you probably will know, I think you do know, we've spoken about it in depth prior, I was more so than the lifestyle, I was looking at things more from a consumer perspective, rather than an actual investor. So that was my first problem. I went into it, I invested in the program, we thought it was going to make a lot of money. But whether we want to turn it into kind of like a chain, we were looking for spaces that were big enough to host both co co working and restaurants and we had dreams of you know, eventually doing hotels and all this kind of stuff. Unfortunately, I did invest after being wined and dined from morning to night breakfast, lunch and dinner in different locations owned by the same group, asking me to invest totally sold me on the lifestyle, ended up having great drinks with them bar life and everything after that invested into the program, you know, and then when it comes down to actually getting the work done, and you know, determining what the menu is going to look like the design and everything else. I think that's really where I stalled and completely failed on this investment. I didn't have the experience to do it in the first place. And I think I should have never entered this investment. But again, it's always a lesson learned. And, you know, specifically I would say that if you come from an online type of investment world, physical investments are completely different ballgame. So I think that's that's and

Andrew Stotz 04:23
and when you first went into this, was it your impression that you are going to be running it or involved in the day to day operations? Or was it that you know, you are going to be able to enjoy the profits and you know, the atmosphere and all of that stuff. So how was it?

Chris Trikomitis 04:38
Well, when you get sold on lifestyle, you kind of want to be involved, even though you don't have the experience but ultimately the goal of any investment that you do, I think for everyone speaking is that you want to make the profits right. So the idea is that you I thought that the team was going to come in guide me pushed me in the right direction. And then I was going to make the profits as an investor. I wanted it to be A silent investor. And you know, you kind of have to get involved to ensure that your investment takes off. So yeah, I was, you know, more so on the making profit side of things I would say.

Andrew Stotz 05:14
And do you think that the intent was, you know, just to get woodsy intend to get you to run it? Or was the intent just to get you invested in then it kind of stumbled into, oh, nobody's doing anything here. So yeah,

Chris Trikomitis 05:28
kind of stumbled into meat getting more involved. Again, when you're in the lifestyle, you kind of turn up to the restaurant, you want to see things happening. When you realize things are not happening, then you kind of stumble into the position of having to push things through. And I think that's what, that's where I kind of stumbled into the more operational side of things rather than just an investor.

Andrew Stotz 05:49
And before we go into the next section, where we'll talk about what you learn, maybe you could you just kind of summarize how it ended, you know, roughly like, what was the day when you realize, crap? I'm not going to get that money back?

Chris Trikomitis 06:02
Well, basically, I think it was, when we, when I realized that the money we were spending on a monthly basis didn't cover the costs. And, you know, no matter how many ideas and marketing and stuff that we did, I realized that that was a very long term process, when you do an online marketing is a long term process. And I just didn't know how long I would want to keep that investment alive, and keep investing in it. So eventually, it just hit me that, you know, it wasn't my skill set to begin with. And maybe I should just call it a day and focus my time on something that I actually generate more income on.

Andrew Stotz 06:37
And if you had decided to continue on, was the funding meant to come from you, or from new investors, or from the, you know, the people you were partnering with? What was the plan for funding if the company was not going to make money in the beginning?

Chris Trikomitis 06:50
Yeah, originally, I guess it was meant to come from me. And then I made a clear decision that I thought I didn't want to go down that route. And then it came from, you know, we started looking towards finding other investors. And that's where it got a bit challenging.

Andrew Stotz 07:06
And I'm just curious one other last thing is you used an interesting word at the beginning that he said, manipulated, when we first talked about it, I said, I kind of said, seduced, just maybe you could just explain that just a little bit. Because I know that there's some people out there that you know, maybe in a type of situation where they're, they may be able to hear what it was like for you in the say, well, maybe that that's kind of where I'm at right now.

Chris Trikomitis 07:31
Yeah, I think what happens is, when you're, I would use your terminology seduced, you eventually do become manipulated, if you participate in the seduction, right. So what happened there was I was seduced with I was wined and dined. And I really liked what I saw, I was very, very involved in that kind of lifestyle, I wanted to kind of continue being involved in that lifestyle. So the lifestyle that the other people were having. And I wanted to be a part of that. And and eventually, I put my money behind that to kind of get that dream that I wanted. What I would say is that to remember one thing is that whenever anyone's asking you for any sort of investment, it basically means two things. One, they don't have the investment and two, they will say anything to get your investment. So you've got remember sound is to sell, they're not there to tell you the bad things that and to tell you everything that's great about the investment for you to invest, they will purposely skip, let's say, the bad points that may be you should be more worried about. And that's when you have to start thinking for yourself.

Andrew Stotz 08:36
Yep. Okay, so let's let's review. What lessons did you learn from this?

Chris Trikomitis 08:41
What I learned that, basically, to stick to what I'm good at, and stop getting carried away so easily. When people show me a different perspective on life, you can earn that same lifestyle by being cautious and making your own investments a bit more carefully, and doing a lot more research. Yes, there's a lot more work involved. But ultimately, it doesn't mean you can't gain that lifestyle. Just don't try and shift too far away from what you're good at, to try and gain it because you might not have the expertise to see it through.

Andrew Stotz 09:13
Great. So maybe I've been writing down some things that you've been talking, right. Maybe I'll share some of my thoughts on this. Sure. The first thing is thinking about the business idea, and you know, really a co working space and a nice restaurant. Maybe very different things. In some ways. I feel like you're drawing. You have one arrow aimed at two targets. Yes. And you can't hit both. And if you aim for both, you're gonna hit neither.

Chris Trikomitis 09:44
Right? So I can tell you how that was actually. So to me. So what we did was, we went to Starbucks, and there's a lot of people in Starbucks with their laptop sitting down working. And then we were like, they were like, Look, you know if that person wants to go to the bathroom, right? Now, they have to take their laptop and everything with them. But in a co working space, you don't have to do that everything's secure. Right? So we're saying the younger generation wants to be able to work from Starbucks. And this is what we're trying to create a co working space Starbucks type of environment where it's safe for you to actually work there, you can still enjoy food and drinks and coffees that as you like. And that was one of the concepts behind it. It made sense to me at the time.

Andrew Stotz 10:25
Yep. And that brings me to the next thing, which is the concept of testing theories, right? Like that's a theory that they propose to you. But the only way we'll really know is if we figured out a way to test it. And the key to success in business is figuring out a way to test it without requiring a lot of money. Yes. So that's a second part. I think. The third thing that's kind of interesting about Asia is that there are certain types of people in Asia that I would call them access people. Right? Yeah, I've come across them many times in my life in Thailand, where they bring you into a world they give you access to a world that you probably never saw before. And it could be a world of, you know, nights out and fancy this fancy cars. It could be a world of beautiful women, it could be all kinds of different parts of that world. And I know, my best friend and I do we have a coffee factory here in Thailand. And both of us have been, and we've come across some access people that have invited us either personally, individually or together, the different access events they were giving us access to. And we knew, every time we went to one of these things, we just knew that, you know, there's something that's going to have us yeah, there's going to be something asked of us. Right? Yeah. And so basically, what we decided to do is just leave, we left, and on many times, we like well, I really appreciate it. And this is great. And, you know, let's keep in touch. And then we just went home. And, and then. And then we went back to building our business. And we had a lot of access people that approached us over the years, that they could give us access to customers and government this and that. And again, we just said, you know, we just don't know much about that, you know, so we really appreciate it. But no thanks. Right, the end result of that is that our business has, has not grown as big as it could have. Right? over the 26 years now that we've been in business for that business. But the good side of that is that all the revenue is ours. All the profits, all of the infrastructure of that business was built around, you know, solid, a solid foundation. So there's a trade off. And in Asia, I tell you, if you do not get involved in some of the access opportunities, you know, not all of them are rip off. Some of them are just but but everything is paid to play everywhere in the world.

Chris Trikomitis 13:05
Yes, I mean, I've been in exactly the same situations as you, Andrew, especially in Thailand, I think that's the probably the motherland of these kind of things. I've been invited to parties events, I've been invited to come just to see things and how they're operating up invited into government kind of access set networks and circles. And, you know, I always thought that, oh, it's good to know these kind of people, because you could always ask them for assistance from your side. But actually, it's always the opposite way around the agenda is always full impasse queue. So therefore, there it becomes kind of like a catch 22. And I'm exactly like you, I mean, I have a partner in Thailand that I work with still to this day, great guy. And, you know, he sometimes gets carried away and I say, and I will say template, but let's just stick to what we're good at. If we don't know enough about it. Just say no. And sometimes I can see he's a bit hurt in saying no, because he feels there's an opportunity there. But we have to say no, if we don't understand it, exactly like you, we just say no, no.

Andrew Stotz 14:10
And then I guess the last thing that you mentioned many times was the word lifestyle.

Chris Trikomitis 14:18
Yeah.

Andrew Stotz 14:20
I remember you know, I've lived in the same place for 1617 years, it's an environment it's not fancy. And I remember a friend of mine from the from the Ministry of Finance used to see me needed so you got to spend more money to get a fancier car you can't walk around with a backpack around you know, and hiking in the you know, park or whatever you got to you know, you've got to show it more. But I was just brought up on keeping my lifestyle simple. And so yeah, I have kept my license simple all my life and I haven't aspired to that type of lifestyle. Now. one additional thing is that I don't drink and so going out and drinking and partying is just not that interesting. To me at this point in my life, but the lifestyle, I think that that's where the word seduction comes in. And I think you have to be careful not to be seduced into. And that would be my last main takeaway from what you've talked about anything else you would add?

Chris Trikomitis 15:13
I would say I'm kind of with you in a certain way. Obviously, I come from a Greek heritage background, very simple. People love to enjoy life. It's all about family and spending time together, rather than where you spend that time. It's about spending it together. So I've grown up like that. When I say lifestyle, yes, is that you know, when it's something you're not used to, sometimes you can be seduced into thinking that's what you want. I think I've come to realize that it's not I mean, I have two children and my wife, I have a couple of dogs as well. I take them walking, I go hiking all the time, you know, the, you know, like, what he was saying, with a backpack. So maybe not, not the way you do it. But maybe I do it differently. I just like to go walking for an hour or two hours, or cycling and stuff like that. And I think that's the real important part is this enjoying your life with people, you know, you love and cherish rather than thinking you need more than that. And once you think you need more than that, that's when you get their say, blinded by the other side of of how things could be, let's say,

Andrew Stotz 16:21
a great, a great song by Bruce Springsteen called blinded by the light.

16:25
Yes.

Andrew Stotz 16:27
based upon what you learn from this story, and what you continue to learn. And I want you to think about young man or woman out there being seduced in some ways, what one action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Chris Trikomitis 16:41
I think I think the best thing people can learn from this is, I mean, I've learned to appreciate what I have, you know, if I want to go and buy all the nice cars and stuff today, I can, I just choose not to, I want to, I just want a simple, nice home a bit of land next to it. So my kids can play the dogs and play. And if I'm not looking beyond that, I will not get seduced. So what you're doing in essence, is you got to learn to take a step back when you're in a situation, and it's very easy to get caught up by someone else's energy. Right? They give you that high energy, that lifestyle, and you got to literally take a step back and think about the people around you that you want to spend your time we'll take a step back and say, is this going to be good for them long term? Can I do this for them? Or could I potentially risk their future, like if you have kids or stuff? And then that's the thing that I used to kind of ground myself is my children will say to myself, am I taking money away from their future by investing in something that could potentially not work? Regardless of how exciting this sounds? And regardless of how amazing this guy makes it seem? Can I just take a moment to take a step back and say, Is this really what I need to do right now? Because there's always a right time to do something. So maybe you got to play with that. Yeah, you know,

Andrew Stotz 18:03
my, my best friend from childhood is half Greek, half Italian, and his great grandfather came to America. And basically, what he did is he did create, like a trust fund for his kids. And I was always kind of amazed for that, by that because my parents didn't do that, or my grandparents didn't do that. But you know, talk about the importance of taking care of family and making sure that there's money for the future. So yes, last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months,

Chris Trikomitis 18:36
for the next 12 months, literally, I just, I've got my business to say, to where I want it to be. I'm just refining the costs and everything that we do to, to make sure that it's as profitable as I want it to be. Keep it sustainable, build and build a strong foundation. So I guess I can spend more time away from that. My goal is to build a very, very strong foundation for my company. I think if you're, if you needed to be involved in a particular business, you have to try and make yourself redundant, otherwise, you will never enjoy your life and your business will always rely on you. So my goal is really to start making myself redundant in my business. And do you know based on the last lesson that I mentioned that learning spent more time with the people that I love and enjoy, and that will keep me grounded, I believe.

Andrew Stotz 19:29
Great. Well, listeners, there you have it another story of loss. Winning. My number one goal for the next 12 months is to help you my listeners reduce risk and increase return in your life to achieve this. I've created our community where you gain the five benefits I mentioned earlier, just go to my worst investment ever.com right now, to join us. As we conclude, Chris, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy I hereby award you alumni status. for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment, do you have any parting words for the audience?

Chris Trikomitis 20:08
The only thing I would like to say is thank you for having me on the show. It's a great opportunity to actually speak about the negative side of things. And I want people to realize I want the listeners of this show. to basically just remember that always take a step back before you make a decision and think about it from an all round perspective. Not just with your, with your heart, think with your with your

Andrew Stotz 20:31
beautiful and that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.