Ep534: Brett King – Prepare for Bad Outcomes to Avoid Them

Andrew Stotz 00:02
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. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives to reduce risk in your life. Go to my worst investment ever.com today and take the risk reduction assessment I created from the lessons I've learned from more than 500 guests, fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests. Brett King Brett, are you ready to join the mission? I am ready. Yes, we're gonna bring out our radio voices for today. So let me introduce you to the audience. Brett King is an Amazon Best Selling Author of renowned commentator and globally respected speaker on the future of business. He has spoken in over 40 countries to half a million people on how technology is disrupting business, changing behavior and influencing society. Brett, take a minute and tell us about the value that you bring to this world.

Brett King 01:15
You know, I'm a pretty optimistic guy. But I think that technology has the ability to really change the world. And I write often about that. So I'm a techno optimist. You know, I'm also a humanist. So I believe in the human species as a whole. I'm not big on nations, I'm not big on politics. I have traveled the world my entire life, I got the travel bug young because my father owned a travel agency for a period. I was born in Australia, obviously. But I left Australia in 99. I lived in Hong Kong for six years, then move to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, I was there for five years, I've been in the US that, you know, for about 11 years, and now relocated mostly to Thailand, but still back and forth a bit because of the business in, in the US. But yeah, I'm a techno humanist. So I am trying to figure out ways that technology can solve the problems of the world.

Andrew Stotz 02:18
It's a fascinating, there's two things I'm thinking about when I listen to your background. First of all, we have a lot of listeners in Thailand. So I think that it's exciting for them to kind of hear anything related to Thailand that you've seen or been involved in number one. But the second thing is that, you know, sometimes I feel like technology is really taking us in leaps and bounds, you know, to new heights. And then sometimes I feel like technology is taking us in leaps and bounds to new depths. And I'm just curious, you know,

Brett King 02:47
I mean, bias. Yeah,

Andrew Stotz 02:48
yeah. Like, how is that? Because how are we supposed to manage that in our lives in this world? Because it's like saying, well, the advent of guns means we can hunt and get food now easily, and all that, but then there's a downside. And I'm just wondering how you look at that kind of upside versus downside relative to technology?

Brett King 03:08
Definitely, that's, you know, it part of the issue is that, you know, technology can produce inequality, you know, when it's unevenly applied. So, accessibility to new technologies is really key, obviously, you know, if you look at things like solar energy, and new battery technologies, autonomous vehicles, new methods of food production, new medical treatments, the use of artificial intelligence, all of these things could be used for the betterment of mankind. But capitalism as a model tends to skew the introduction and use of these technologies. I'm not a big fan of capitalism in its current form. That's not to suggest I'm a communist, but I do think that as technology becomes more ubiquitous and abundant, you know, we are going to find large sections of society, you know, affected by automation, in ways that our current worth that work ethic, for example, you know, won't be able to translate to so we really have to think about, you know, what economies are for, and you know, what we got, you know, how are we going to deploy these technologies, and that's where the ethical component comes in, we often don't have sort of ethical structures, or regulate things in terms of ethics. You know, we just tend to rush in deploying tech and deploying new science without thinking about the implications.

Andrew Stotz 04:44
And when I think about that, you know, capitalism as an example, there's a lot of people that will say, you know, capitalism has broken down, you know, for whatever reasons, and sometimes I think to myself, actually, it's kind of more like, big government, big business culture. collusion, and that there's an element of that, that just scares me like it can stomp out, competitors, combine them up, it can do deals with the government, it signs NDAs with the government that it never reveals what it's doing behind the scenes. And then all of a sudden you think that it's capitalism, it's failing? And then you realize, no, it's been kind of regulatory capture that's causing us to break down. I'm just curious how your thoughts on that. And also talk about tech, techno socialism? How does that all work together?

Brett King 05:37
So techno socialism is the rise of techno socialism, as my latest book that came out at the start of the year, we looked at four different future models in terms of socio political, economic organizing principles. So we looked at what happens if technology like artificial intelligence is broadly rejected in society, we looked at how you know, where economies could fail as a result of lack of policy around things like artificial intelligence and climate change. We looked at the, you know, the current system of capitalism and seeing that the inequality accelerate into sort of a NEO feudal estate, or where we use technology ubiquitously to dramatically reduce the cost of government. So that, you know, the basic needs of citizens are taken care of first and foremost in society before we worry about market and GDP growth. So it's more of an economic thesis than anything else. But that tells you sort of my, my position is I'm economically right wing, you know, I argue for more efficient resource management and government, but I'm socially left wing in that, I think that if we use our resources smarter, and we deploy technology better, then you know, for example, in the case of medical, you know, medical care or health care, we could dramatically reduce the cost of health care as a as an economic burden on society, and provide better quality health care to everybody at a fraction of the cost of today as an example, or, you know, education, you know, you know, those are areas where technology is making big advancements.

Andrew Stotz 07:21
I'm curious that there's so many questions I have, and we're going to get into the main question of this podcast. But I thought, since I've got you on the line, this one, one of my questions is at the age of 47, I decided to do my PhD in finance at a university in China. And I went back and forth to this university while I was doing my regular work and all that. And, you know, what I saw was just, in some ways, absolute free market, free for all capitalism. It was just crazy how free market it was, of course, at some point, there's an iron fist, it could come down on an industry on a company. But generally what happened was, it was just free market. In fact, at my age, having left the US when I was younger, and then here seeing China, which I thought was this communist communist country, and all that, and I see this free market capitalism, and I'm just, and then you see all the people that have been lifted out of poverty there, and all that. And then you just start to see that what's happening in the US is like, China was going the opposite way trying to free people from government controls. And the US is going through this process of kind of increasing government controls and trying to have government solve problems, whereas China was having trying to have the individual entrepreneur tried to solve problems. It was just such a conflicting thing in my head, just curious how you look at how you look at where things are going, looking at the direction of these two major models?

Brett King 08:48
Well, you know, we examine this in great detail in the new book. And, you know, ultimately, our conclusion is that, which I think most economists agree on China will be the world's largest economy by 2030. And it is much better suited for 21st century economics. They have a much higher concentration of STEM education, for example, they're investing in infrastructure, such as the Belton road and other elements. You know, they've invested $8 trillion in infrastructure already, and they continue to outpace the US in terms of r&d, and for every one PhD STEM graduate in the US, China produces three. So, you know, they are, in our view, the economy of the 21st century to watch. Having said that, you know, China does have its challenges. Obviously, I'm not a big fan of, you know, their politics. Having said that, I'm also not a fan of the politics of the US, particularly how divisive it's become and, you know, inequality in the US is a massive problem, during the pandemic, the world's billionaires accumulated $11 trillion of wealth. And in the United States, that means today that the top point 1% of Americans are in more wealth than the bottom 90%. The last time we saw this level of inequality was the Middle Ages. And, you know, historically, we've learned the lesson that this level of inequality results in revolution. So, you know, things don't look great for the US economy unless they really commit to a legislated redistribution of wealth and more, more equality. China, at least seems to have figured this out. And if you look at why the US economy was such a powerhouse in the 1950s, and 1960s, it was because of a growing middle class that consumed. And that's what China has, right now. It has the fastest growing middle class of any major economy. And as you said, they've eliminated all extreme poverty over the last 20 years. That's a fantastic achievement. I think that they're just better equipped to capitalize on the core economics of the 21st century.

Andrew Stotz 11:09
Yeah, and it's interesting, when you look back at the pandemic, I had someone say, in hindsight, it looks like shutting down the global economy may not have been the best policy. And I thought to myself, you know, during the time when I was seeing everybody go out of business in Bangkok here, but I saw all the richest developments in all the richest companies were still running, and they were still cranking away, man,

Brett King 11:37
these guys made a ton of money out of the pandemic, you know, but look, you know, ultimately, society faced with a decision as to whether the keep the economy open, and trade lives for economic return. You know, it's really no argument, you know, that there's no equivalency in dollars for human lives. And, ultimately, if if we saved, you know, if you compare this to the Spanish flu, and the sort of population growth that we've had, if we had just kept the economy open, we could have seen 50 million 100 million people die from the pandemic, and that's an unreasonable position to take that if we just let the economy keep going, we could have absorbed those deaths, and we'd all be richer for it. I mean, you know, at some point, you, we have to realize that there's no economic equivalence for human lives and for human health and prosperity. And that's really the key philosophical, you know, argument that we're going to have to have as artificial intelligence impacts the world because an AI is designed to eliminate human labor from the workforce. And right now, today, the only value we have economically on a human is their economic output. And in highly automated societies, that print basic principle breaks down human labor and human capital, no longer a factor in production. So we have to think of different ways of valuing people in the economy. And also, you know, I think philosophically saying, what's the economy for? Is it here to create GDP growth and economic return? Or, you know, to make people rich, to give dividends to shareholders? Or should the economy be tasked with caring for the basic needs of citizens first and foremost, and that's, that's my philosophical position.

Andrew Stotz 13:33
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a fascinating conversation. And if you want to learn more, go to RiSE of techno socialism.com. And you can get access to the book, you can watch a trailer, you can also I see get the book on Amazon. I'll have the links in the show notes. Download a sample chapter two. Yeah, exactly. You can get the sample chapter. So I'll have that link in the show notes. And it's a real great, it's a great precursor to the book. And it's fascinating. So now it's time to show your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it, then tell us your story.

Brett King 14:13
Yeah, um, so I was teaching MBA in Hong Kong in 99. I started teaching MBA, teaching the E commerce elective for a program put on by the Australian Graduate School of Management, which was one of the top MBA schools in Asia at the time. And I managed to get in touch with this gentleman that was running a trade association in the US for E commerce specialists. It was called the qualification he issued was the certified e commerce consultant. And, you know, the association was, you know, the I can't remember the name Have it now. But they issued this qualification. He also ran a trade association or professional association for finance. So ended up the this post normal certificate that that he issued was very successful attached to the MBO MBA program, I gave students the option to get this certification, we did the exact, you know, the examination that we did for the MBA elective, you know, qualified them to be to be accepted in this association and they paid a fee to get a certificate, and then they could use the letter C see after their name on their on their business card. I also started around that time, in the early noughties, I started doing some training in Dubai, with the informer group, their predecessor, actually, they're running a professional sort of mini MBA executive programs, five day programs. I wasn't really a trainer, but I went into that world because one of the businesses that I'd started in Hong Kong did legal CPD or continued professional development training and sort of just led to this opportunity offshore during the boom years for Dubai. So we ended up taking this professional trade association for the finance side, called the American Academy of financial management, we brought this to Dubai. And this thing exploded within a few years, we were doing, you know, three, 4 million a year in revenue, I relocated the family to Dubai, and we set up sort of basically the international operation of this business in the free zone. But, you know, to some extent, you know, we run the business in Dubai, quite separately from the US business, but we had a contractual relationship with the US business as a, as a licensed training organization, if you like. But, you know, within, you know, a couple of years of being there, we represented about 95% of the total revenue of this new professional association. So when the financial crisis hit the lawyer, who which which, on which you is the GFC, the global financial crisis of 2008 2009, when that crisis hit, the business partner we had around the trade association in in the US, was in there got into financial trouble and decided that he would take over, you know, basically do a takeover of our operation in Dubai. So overnight, sent out all of these legal notices to all of these companies that we're working with, saying, you can now buy your certificates directly off me, because he didn't understand the business. He didn't understand the business that it was actually training. And it wasn't the certificates they wanted. But in doing so, the business basically collapsed overnight. So I, you know, I mean, I put all told I put almost 10 years of my life into that business. And it, you know, if the business had survived the financial crisis, you know, it would be a two or $300 million business today, based on the trajectory we had. But, you know, I really hadn't thought structurally about how to protect the business and how to protect myself, in respect to things if a divorce situation came up in the business. And so, you know, we scrambled to try, you know, we created a new off offshore, a trade association out of Hong Kong, and we tried to sort of reinvigorate the business but reputational Lee, the entire business was in tatters. Now, because of these legal threats. This US lawyer was sending out to everybody that was even remotely involved in this business saying, don't work with Brett King again, and ultimately cost us about 300 grand in the US courts to get a resolution of that situation. And, you know, I ended up just walking away from the business, one of one of the trainers that we had ended, you know, he's continued the business and it still provides some income for him today, but it was it's never reached the potential it could have. But for me, that was a very important lesson, I tend to be quite trusting in business. And, you know, give people the benefit of the doubt. But, you know, I learned you know, as many people do that in a situation where not everything goes right if you do have a conflict that you need to have really thought through the implications of that. So,

Andrew Stotz 19:50
you know, areas can you remember the exact location you were at when that email arrived that you saw that all of a sudden this guy was sending out this message

Brett King 20:00
Absolutely I can visualize it right now sitting in the upstairs office, we converted a sunroom into an office for, for me in the, in the villa that we were renting in Dubai. And it was, it was, it was in the evening, it was about eight, nine o'clock in the evening, we had had this, the partner visit Dubai, you know, two, three weeks before and put a business plan forward to him. You know, we had spent three days trying to help him to understand the business and what it all meant. And basically, he went home and saw all of this money that we, you know, had been earning and decided, I don't need those guys. And of course, you know, it ultimately was a failure for him as well as a bad decision for him. But, you know, I guess he didn't realize that at the time. You know, in hindsight,

Andrew Stotz 20:59
it's amazing how we can remember, you know, it's like asking someone in America, an older person, can you remember where you were when you heard the news that John F Kennedy was shot?

Brett King 21:11
Well, where were you when, when the Twin Towers were hit, I remember that I was in Hong Kong, and I can, I can still remember watching the TV.

Andrew Stotz 21:19
And that's why I asked people on the show to kind of try to go to that moment. And I know that they can, because of the pain, when we have a strong emotional impact happening with a particular event. It seems to be seared in our mind. So let me ask you the next question, what lessons did you learn?

Brett King 21:38
So I mean, part of the lesson here was making sure that if you're going to work with someone in a business, you have to make sure that you really are on the same page in terms of the business strategy. You know, if you can't start off with a very clear end goal in mind, in terms of where the business is going to go, and how you're going to get there. And it's just a sort of an evolving thing, then, you know, there is potential for no divided expectations, you know, so I think being very clear. Now, obviously, businesses have to pivot and businesses change all the time. But you know, it really, you really have to think, you know, you have to be on the same page in terms of execution. And secondly, make sure that contractually, you have clear arbitration process or clear processes for dealing with conflict, that doesn't necessarily immediately jump to, you know, the nuclear option, which in this case, you know, ended up happening. And, you know, have a trusted intermediary, that if you're working with a partner, have a trusted intermediary, that you can both go to, that you can respect to resolve conflicts, but ultimately ensure that, you know, you think about the divorce implications of a business. And in the event that the business, you do decide that to exit the business, you have very clear guidelines in terms of what happens to the IP, how you deal with the employees, you know, and elements of that as part of the closure or the evolution of the business.

Andrew Stotz 23:17
So many great lessons. And maybe I'll just summarize some of the things that I took away from it. You know, first of all, the idea of having a trusted intermediary is a fascinating one. I didn't think about that. So that's something that I think is interesting for all of us. The idea, of course, arbitration, we never think something's going to go wrong, it's going to be amazing. But you know, the reality is, it's not always, you know, always, you know, fantastic times, I wrote down some things, as I was thinking about it, I thought, you know, you kind of mentioned about preparing for divorce, you know, prepare ahead of time, and this is what most people just don't do. And that means that, you know, I think one of the powerful things that we have that we can use in business is a shareholders agreement. Yes, and my business partner and I, in my coffee factory here in Thailand, we've had a shareholders agreement for a long time. And part of it is that we even have basically, given the method of VAT calculating the value of the company. And that's interesting, because I just thought, I'm an expert in valuation number one, so we don't need to go to an outside source to do some valuation. And we have a benchmark in the stock market that we can look at. So why not just put it together? And so we have come up with a valuation of what we think this the company would be worth how we would calculate that value based upon the previous audited statements relative to some multiple BaubleBar. And it's all right there. And, and then also, you know, the other question that he and I have had this business for this coffee works for nearly 30 years, and you know, there is going to come a time and something could happen to either one of them. So we've also come to an agreement that if either one of us passes away the shares of the person who passes, which would like to say we own it roughly 5050, the shares that the person who passes will go to the surviving partner, as opposed to suppose that the family or something like that, you know, our families in the US, and it's just just complicated. And this allows the surviving partner to decide, alright, do I want to just sell this whole thing? Do I want to run it? What do I want to do? And so all of those things are just some of the types of things that for the audience out there, you know, think about these things. I think that that is the biggest takeaway from what you've talked about, Brett is think about these things beforehand. Anything you would add to that? Yeah,

Brett King 25:44
I mean, what I use in my other businesses these days, is I use an advisory board, especially for the larger businesses where I have a small advisory board. And so in the event that you do have a dispute between the partners, you can bring the advisory board in, and you know, that they are typically either people that have, you know, vested some options in the company or have invested directly in the company. And so they have a vested interest, but they're independent, well, as independent as they can be, they're rooting for the business, not necessarily, you know, a specific member of the team. So that is a really useful structure, particularly for businesses that you intend to take investment in.

Andrew Stotz 26:30
Let me ask you a question for the listeners out there. And for myself, how should someone let's just say someone has a growing business, and it's going well, you know, it's not super rich, it's not like you can go out and find famous people to be on an advisory board or something like that. But you've listened to Brett talk, listen to you talk about Advisory Board, anything, I think I need to do that, what are the steps that you would that you would advise them to take to get that process going, and I'm listening personally, for myself, also. Yeah, I, you

Brett King 27:00
know, I think you could bring in, you know, you could bring in, you know, one or two people each from your network. So from both sides, you could ask them, you know, particularly in what we call a friends and family route, or in terms of seed investment, to make a small investment, you know, these are people ultimately, that will have had success in their own businesses. So, you know, ask them for an investment of 25,000, or something and startup capital in the business, you know, give them some shares at the ground floor in that respect. So they they have a vested interest, but you pick someone who has, you know, is nearing the end of their career has made some successful investments is interested in the arena, or the field that you're building in, you know, that you've met through through network, they make very good advisory board members. Additionally, you know, I do believe, particularly if you're looking at a high growth business, to try and get someone who has access to invest in markets, like venture capital firms and private equity firms, because introductions to those types of partners for your your initial seed funding, and your, you know, series A Series B, become really important ways to get in the door, you know, earning, also raising money for a business, it's a very steep learning curve, if you haven't done it professionally before. So having someone that can hold your hand through that process is very important. Just even getting advice on things like how to put stock option plans together, and you know, how to deal with members of the team in terms of, you know, vesting and things, all of that, you know, I mean, I again, I learned from making mistakes myself that, you know, you can be a little bit too generous sometimes. And you need to make sure, you know, you might have a team that comes in on the ground floor and helps you start the business. But in two years time, when you're doing, you're building the business, and you've raised additional funds, many of that core founding team may have already disappeared and gone on to the next thing. So you don't want to give away, you know, tons of equity to these people, if they're not intending to really stick around, you know, and participate in business.

Andrew Stotz 29:18
And just for clarification purposes, when we talk about advisory board, it's not an actual board of directors that they are a you're calling in a board but it's kind of you would say an advisory committee and advisory group.

Brett King 29:33
Typically, you'd bring them in on a, you know, an annual or, you know, semi annual basis to review the progress of the business, talk about the products that you're releasing your market strategy, talking about how how much money you need to raise to grow the business and just getting their advice on that. Or, you know, when you're trying to close specific deals, bring them in on those specific deals to advise to help you so You know, when your pitches or, you know, close, close your investment rounds, so, you know, they're there for a strategic reasons. And you're typically your board, you wouldn't need to put together a board a formal board until you actually take investment in. You know, so it's at that point, once you take investment in the, you know, the series, a director, or the Series C director would come in and want a board seat. And at that point, you then think about, well, how do we get the right balance in the board? You might have the CFO and the CEO or the CEOs, the chairman, you know, and then you have the investor, and then you might bring in an independent, for example, to make sure the board is sort of weighted? Well, yeah, yeah.

Andrew Stotz 30:42
I was gonna say last question about the advisory group that you're talking about, you would pay them they work for free? You'd pay them per meeting, how would you? How would you work that?

Brett King 30:52
Typically, I mean, you can pay them, but typically, you would give them some options, you give them some equity in the business, you know, early stage, it might be something like 1%, you know, you don't have to give them 50%, you might give them 1%, and offer them a discount rate on buying in or investing in the business early on. And, you know, then you might top that up over time, so they don't get diluted, you know, in the case of taking some investment in depending on again, how strategic they are. But as the business grows, you may have to offer them some sort of basic, your retainer or salary depending on their level of involvement. If, for example, you were to have quarterly board advisory meetings, and they became quite strategic, then I think, you know, there's an obligation to at least give them something, certainly, I think one of the ways you can handle it is you can sort of have the annual off site where you fly them to, you know, Phuket or something, you know, and put them up for a few days, while you guys sit in a conference room in the hotel, you know, figuring out strategy, you know, it that sort of thing may be may be enough in the early stages with some equity.

Andrew Stotz 32:09
Great. Oh, I really appreciate that discussion. I know, for the listeners out there, this is valuable advice. Because no matter what stage you're at, it can always help. And I know I've kind of, I've come from the mentality that we do it ourselves. And I don't want to bother other people. But just trust me, what Brad is talking about is valuable. In fact, it's got me thinking that I want to start talking about, learn about advisory boards and all of that stuff. Now, based upon what you learn from this story, and what you continue to learn. What action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Brett King 32:46
Oh, wow. Well, there's two things, I think, first, get some, you know, get a really good, you know, structural contract lawyer or something to help you put together the shareholders agreement and those initial structural elements of the business. But secondly, you know, mentally, I think you should prepare yourself, you should have a line in the sand as to when you decide that this is over, and I need to walk away from it. You know, part of the problem with making these investments when they turn out to be the worst investments of all time, is that sometimes you keep going too long, when you're beating a dead horse, you know, and so sometimes, you have to figure out, this ain't gonna work anymore. And it's time, you know, I walked away and did the next thing. And that can be very, very hard to do as a founder.

Andrew Stotz 33:43
You know, I'm just picturing us I've read a lot on the US Civil War, and I'm picturing the horses pulling these wagons, and one of those horses starts to fall down, and then eventually, it's dead. And they're usually whacking this horse to try to get it going faster. And there's a guy just whacking on this horse. That, and now I can visualize where beating a dead horse comes from. And

Brett King 34:06
sometimes, you've sometimes the best thing you can do is, is walk away just like just like, you know, when people say throwing good money after bad, you can throw good time after bad you know, and you can, you know, when when you've exhausted all options, but you still are emotionally attached, you can continue to invest your time and money into something that you know, is never going to really pay off. And so, understanding when is the right time to say, I've got to just make the break is it's tough.

Andrew Stotz 34:43
For the listeners out there. This is a valuable point and you need to think about it right now. Is there something in your life, business, relationship, education, or something that you just know is dead? We'll stop beating that dead horse and accept that Let's open and listen to Brett. Now, what is one resource, any resource that you would recommend that would benefit our listeners?

Brett King 35:09
Well, you could read my books. Perfect. I'm actually I'm starting a new podcast called the futurist. It's gonna start, you know, in next couple of weeks, we're launching the first episode of that. And we are interviewing some of the top thought leaders in the world, you know, in terms of what's coming next, and you know, what the future holds, I think that would be super interesting for people thinking about new ideas or new industries or new endeavors that they might want to get into. But I think I would say Learn to Research, right? Research is a very underrated skill. And not a lot of people can do that well. And just being able to distill information, and think about how it applies, I think that's a core skill. And, you know, I mean, obviously, there's, there's things like Wikipedia and other things like that you can go to, but I would say as a resource, you know, researches is really, really critical. The other thing that's always going to be important in businesses today is having someone with a good financial head, you know, that a good brain in terms of finances. And that can sort of look after that, especially if you're not, you know, you don't have a finance background. It's a very steep learning curve. And so having someone with that, that you can trust is, is important. And the same with technology. Now, if you've got a technology oriented, oriented business, choosing the right sort of lead developer or CTO or chief technologist in the business is really critical. So you know, there are a couple of tips from someone who started what is 18 businesses over the last couple of decades. Fantastic.

Andrew Stotz 36:53
And I'll include links in the show notes to the podcast, and just for everybody out there, watch for this podcast coming and listen and learn about the future. That's coming our way. Last question, what's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Brett King 37:11
Wow, that's a good question. My number one goal for the next 12 months. Probably to just get my finances back in order after a couple of years of, of, not economic hardship, necessarily, but disruption. You know, I, as you mentioned, at the start of the show, I do do a lot of speaking, generally. And obviously, the speaking business took a hit 2019 I visited third T countries in 2019. Speaking seems like another world. Yeah. And that went down to three in 2020. So you know, getting back on the speaking circuit, which I love. You know, and doing that. And as you know, I'm in the process of relocating to Thailand. So just, you know, finalizing that move, and getting the family settled is important. But um, yeah, I'm already starting to think about the next book, and maybe doing some TV, and stuff like that. So I think I'd like to just see creatively where I can, where next, I can take myself, I like to challenge myself, you know,

Andrew Stotz 38:30
that's exciting. And here's someone looking at the future and trying to grab it today. Well, listeners, there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. If you haven't yet taken the risk reduction assessment, I challenge you to go to my worst investment ever.com Right now, and start building wealth the easy way by reducing risk. As we conclude, Brett, I want to thank you again, for joining our mission. 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?

Brett King 39:06
Oh, I was gonna say live long and prosper. That's a bit cheesy. I think the thing that really makes you a person that at the end of your career or life that can look back with satisfaction is that you've done something to change the world that you've made the world a better place. And I think everyone that has that goal, I think if you start out a business just to make money, yeah, you could achieve that goal. But if you start out a business to change the lives of billion people, then I think that's far more interesting. So whatever you're going to do, do it so that it makes life better for your fellow humans.

Andrew Stotz 39:50
Wow. 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 Singh. Thank you for joining Morning our mission and I'll see you on the upside