With all the regulatory actions and anti-climactic cable television appearances last week, you may have missed some telling news from two of the cryptocurrency space's bonafide unicorns.
First, Coinbase announced two high-profile hires: Emilie Choi, formerly of LinkedIn, who is charged with scouting out acquisitions and partnership opportunities; and Eric Scro, a former executive at the New York Stock Exchange, who will focus on institutional clients and financial and regulatory matters.
And while Chief Operating Officer Asiff Hirji's unveiling of the Coinbase Index Fund on CNBC may have been a letdown to those who were sure he was going to announce the exchange would be listing a new token (SFYL), taken together with the hires, the new product suggests this company has longer-term horizons than many people in the space assumed. (Hirji, it should be noted, is himself a recent hire who came on board in January.)
In other words, Coinbase may not be just a seven-year startup that aims to get acquired by PayPal. Rather than merger bait, it sees itself as a consolidator.
Consider Choi's comments in a Fortune interview.
"There were just a bunch of really interesting startups that helped Google take things to the next level," she told the magazine, adding "So it feels like that kind of an atmosphere. We're seeing so much, so many interesting startups and entrepreneurs in the space...and Coinbase wants to capitalize on that." To be sure, Coinbase still has significant issues to work through. Customer service complaints are a longstanding problem, one that Twitter veteran Tina Bhatnagar, another January hire, surely can't fix overnight. Also, the resolution of Coinbase's fight with the IRS, while providing valuable certainty going forward, is likely to leave a sour taste with many of the thousands of cryptocurrency users whose account information will now be reported to the tax collector.
And once the only game in town for retail purchase of digital assets, Coinbase faces new competition in that field from Square and Robinhood.
Still, all things considered, the narrative that Coinbase is simply looking for an exit is a lot harder to support now. Taking on the Fed? Similarly, Bitmain last week revealed a somewhat out-of-left-field plan to invest in blockchain-powered "private central banks" - a signal that the company's controversial co-founder, Jihan Wu, has bigger ambitions beyond its flagship businesses of mining cryptocurrency and manufacturing the tools for it. With China recently becoming less hospitable to miners, Bitmain has also quietly been setting up a subsidiary in the U.S. But Wu's comments at the D.C. Blockchain Summit made it clear that he has a lot more on his mind than running a back office for bitcoin. "Since blockchain technology has been established for nine years, the technical barriers to running a central bank and issue a kind of private money [have fallen]," he said. Such private money "may not be accepted but is at least theoretically easy to issue and use worldwide."
That sounds closer to John D. Rockefeller or J. Pierpont Morgan than one of the green eyeshades those tycoons employed - much less a modern-day techbro looking to cash out.
All this talk of emulating Google or the Fed makes an awkward fit with the ethos of decentralization that inspired the technology that made Coinbase and Bitmain the companies they are today. But say what you will about these two startups, you can't accuse them of thinking small.
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Project will create as many as 100,000 jobs and shave $40 billion off power costs, according to SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son
Saudi Arabia and SoftBank Group signed a memorandum of understanding to build a $200 billion solar power development that’s exponentially larger than any other project.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, known for backing ambitious endeavors with flair, unveiled the project Tuesday in New York at a ceremony with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The powerful heir to the throne of the world’s largest crude exporter is seeking to diversify the economy and wean off a dependence on oil.
At 200 gigawatts, the project planned for the Saudi desert would be about 100 times larger than the next biggest proposed development, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Son said he envisions the project, which runs the gamut from power generation to panel and equipment manufacturing, will create as many as 100,000 jobs and shave $40 billion off power costs. The development will reach its maximum capacity by 2030 and may cost close to $1 billion a gigawatt, he said.
“The kingdom has great sunshine, great size of available land and great engineers, great labor, but most importantly, the best and greatest vision,” Son told reporters at a briefing. Deepening ties The agreement deepens SoftBank’s ties with the Saudi Arabia, and advances the crown prince’s ambition to diversify its economy.
“SoftBank seeks investment and Saudi needs energy, so it may make sense to sort the financing out in a large block and then separately hammer out the phases and the technical details,” said Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis at BNEF.
“It is worth noting that many of these memorandums of understanding do not result in anything happening.” SoftBank was said to be planning to invest as much as $25 billion in Saudi Arabia over the next three to four years. That’s a boost for Prince Mohammed, who’s been at the forefront of the Vision 2030 campaign to diversify the kingdom’s economy away from oil by that year.
SoftBank is said to have aimed to deploy as much as $15 billion in a new city called Neom, which the crown prince plans to build on the Red Sea coast.
The Japanese company’s Vision Fund is also said to plan investments of as much as $10 billion in state-controlled Saudi Electricity Co. as part of efforts to diversify the utility into renewables and solar energy. Vision, investments Son, who is known as a savvy investor with a flair for the spotlight, has been promoting clean energy since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and recently completed a 50-megawatt wind power farm in Mongolia. He has also pushed a plan dubbed “Asia Super Grid,” a plan to connect Asian nations by grids and undersea cables to distribute clean energy.
The kingdom’s deal-making has quickened as it pursues Prince Mohammed’s diversification goals. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, which has more than $224 billion in assets, spent about $54 billion on investments last year.
The sale of about a 5 percent stake in oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is expected to provide more funds. Saudi Arabia also plans to build at least 16 nuclear reactors over the next 25 years at a cost of more than $80 billion. Electricity demand in the country has risen by as much as 9 percent a year since 2000, according to BNEF.
He may have given his name to one of the most iconic designs of the 20th century, the Dyson bagless vacuum, but the road to success has not always been smooth for James Dyson. The British inventor is now worth billions but to amass his fortune he's faced pitfalls, rejection and personal tragedy.
The youngest of three children, Dyson was born on May 2, 1947, in the seaside town of Cromer, Norfolk, on the east coast of England. His father, Alec, taught classics at the prestigious Gresham’s School in Holt (where Dyson was christened and whose former pupils include poet W. H. Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten). But Alec died when James was 9 years old, having been treated for throat and lung cancer for three years.
Dyson attended the fee-paying Gresham’s School as a boarder and was allowed to continue his studies there after his father's death. However, the Dyson family faced financial concerns and his mother, Mary, took on work as a dressmaker before later training to be a teacher.
After leaving Gresham's, James moved to London to study painting at the Byam Shaw School of Art, where he his met his future wife, Deirdre Hindmarsh. At the time this was an independent art school, but in 2003 it became part of the University of the Arts London Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, pictured here. James spent a year here and then moved on to study furniture and interior design at the Royal College of Art in London.
It was at the Royal College of Art (RCA) that Dyson became interested in the link between engineering and design. This opened up a world of creative possibilities for improving everyday products by enhancing their design. Dyson began studying engineering alongside design at the RCA. For his final year project he built a high-speed, flat-hulled fiberglass landing craft, encouraged by his mentor at the college, the inventor Jeremy Fry. James and Deirdre got married in London in 1968. At the time Dyson was still studying at the Royal College of Art and Deirdre had moved on to study graphics at Wimbledon School of Art. They moved into a house in Fulham in need of refurbishment and survived off the proceeds of their student grants. To bring in some extra cash Dyson took an evening job at a local petrol station.
In 1971 the Dysons became parents with the arrival of their daughter, Emily. When she was just a few weeks old, the young family left London for Bath in the west of England. Here Dyson went to work at Rotork Controls, which was headed by Jeremy Fry, his mentor from the RCA. Dyson worked on the design of an amphibious landing craft, the Sea Truck. Fry went on to sell about 200 of these a year.
Daughter Emily was soon joined by brothers Jake and Sam. Meanwhile Dyson had left the world of regular employment to work on various inventions in a garden outbuilding at their home. To help make ends meet Deirdre taught art and is even reported as saying she once taught a life drawing class in the kitchen to keep the bailiffs away. She also said that the pair became adept at surviving on very little. Dyson's first commercial invention moved from idea to reality in 1974. The Ballbarrow was a version of the traditional wheelbarrow that featured a ball in place of the standard narrow wheel, making it much easier to maneuver. Dyson was said to be inspired to design this after seeing a standard wheelbarrow get stuck in mud. He has gone on to use the ball for maneuverability in other Dyson product designs.
After his father’s death Dyson used to help with chores at home and discovered he hated the vacuum cleaner. Thirty years later his opinion of the gadget hadn’t improved and, during a house renovation in 1978, he realized it was still ineffective at sucking up dirt. Inspiration came from an industrial sawmill that used a cyclonic separator to remove dust from the air. He hit on the idea of applying the same technology to a vacuum cleaner and he began working on a prototype.
Over a period of five years Dyson made 5,127 prototypes of his vacuum, including this early version (pictured), made from cardboard. His former employer Rotork funded the first production of the Rotork Cyclon 1000A. Dyson initially licensed it to an American appliance company, but it proved too expensive for the mass market, retailing at around $1,400. A revised version, however, did have some success in Japan. Fed up with relying on other people to make his inventions a success, Dyson decided to manufacture his next vacuum cleaner himself. Using the money he'd made from the Japan sales and a further loan of around $900,000, against which he reportedly put up his house, he found the money to fund his dream.
The Dyson DC01 vacuum cleaner launched in Britain in 1993. Its revolutionary bagless design and distinctive yellow and gray coloring ensured that it stood out from the crowd and guaranteed that it would catch shoppers' eyes in stores and catalogs. With the first models rolling off the production line, Dyson then set about selling it to retailers.
Mail order catalogs were the first to show interest in the first Dyson-produced vacuum cleaner and once Dyson had got the product into a couple of brochures he also managed to get it into a few small retailers. Just two years after launch the Dyson DC01 vacuum cleaner was the best-selling vacuum cleaner in the UK, despite being priced considerably higher than the competition. It has won many awards and is displayed in museums around the world. With the company's almost overnight success, Dyson found himself having to spend most of his time managing the business. He hated being drawn away from his first love, design and engineering, so in 2001 he bought in Martin McCourt as CEO. McCourt launched the vacuum cleaner in the U.S. and developed the manufacturing arm, and Dyson had a little more time to return to the drawing board to improve on the original vacuum cleaner and come up with other inventions. After his vacuum success, Dyson began looking at other home appliances to improve upon, setting his sights on the washing machine next. His ContraRotator washing machine had two rotating drums that moved in opposite directions and, just like his vacuum cleaners, had a striking design. Priced at $1,400 the machine was expensive and was not a commercial success. It ended up being discontinued.
Dyson's designs for air treatment purifiers, humidifiers, fans and heaters proved much more successful than his washing machine. Dyson also turned the hand dryer design on its head and the sleek Dyson AirBlade energy-saving hand driers boast of being able to dry hands in less than 10 seconds. This invention helped Dyson gain a strong foothold in the commercial appliance market.
Dyson launched his first cordless vacuum cleaner in 2006. Dyson now has a range of cordless cleaning options, including a robot cleaner, and has reportedly sold more than 100 million cordless vacuum cleaners. Dyson announced that he is ending the production of plug-in cleaners in March 2018 to concentrate on the company's cordless offering. James Dyson became Sir James Dyson in 2006 when he was knighted for his services to business. He thanked his 1,500-strong workforce at the time for their part in turning his bagless vacuum cleaner into an international success story and hoped that his honor would encourage other engineers and inventors to go on to find commercial success.
Ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, the firms said in a statement on Monday, marking the U.S. company's second retreat from an Asian market.
The deal is the industry's first big consolidation in Southeast Asia, home to about 640 million people, and puts pressure on Indonesia's Go-Jek, which is backed by Alphabet Inc's Google and China's Tencent Holdings Ltd.
A shake-up in Asia's fiercely competitive ride-hailing industry became likely earlier this year when Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund made a multi-billion dollar investment in Uber. SoftBank also invested in Grab.
As part of the transaction, Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Singapore-based Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab's board.
"It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology," Khosrowshahi said in a statement. For Grab, the deal is a boon for its meal-delivery service, which will now merge with Uber Eats. A more robust food service will give Grab an advantage over Go-Jek, according to a person close to Grab. "It was really a very independent decision by both companies," Grab President Ming Maa told Reuters, adding that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son was "highly supportive".
In addition to its stakes in Uber and Grab, SoftBank is also one of the main investors in several other big ride-hailing firms including China's Didi Chuxing and India's Ola.
Ride-hailing companies throughout Asia have relied heavily on discounts and promotions, driving down profit margins and increasing pressure for consolidation. Uber, which is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost $4.5 billion last year and is facing fierce competition at home and in Asia, as well as a regulatory crackdown in Europe. Uber invested $700 million in its Southeast Asia business, less than the $2 billion it burned through in China before ceding its operations there to Didi.
Find out how to get into real estate investing today.
Only 15 percent of Americans are investing in real estate other than their primary residence, according to a real estate investing study by Realty Shares. In fact, two-thirds of Americans believe that investing in real estate is too difficult, too costly or beyond their capabilities. This might be true if they were considering commercial real estate investing, which can be a risky move for new investors, but there are safer options. Read on to learn how to invest in real estate now.
What Is Real Estate Investing?
Investing in real estate means buying property to earn income and build wealth, either on your own or with the help of real estate investment companies. Many investors own more than one property, and their earnings include rent paid by tenants and the equity they build through appreciation. Investment-property owners have different tax considerations for their investment properties than they do for their primary residence. Investing in real estate doesn’t have to be intimidating. Here are seven ways to start investing in real estate now: 1. Rental Properties Buying rental property is one way to get started in real estate investing. Buying a rental property starts with choosing the right property, and then finding renters, maintaining the property, dealing with tenants and collecting rent each month. One stumbling block might be locating an affordable property worth investing in. “Traditional real estate investing is alive and well, although it’s largely dependent on geography,” said Aaron Milledge, founding partner and chief compliance officer of Targeted Wealth Solutions, LLC. “In some places, home prices have appreciated so much that it may be difficult to find a lucrative deal.”
Rental properties not only provide rental income but also tax benefits not available with other investment opportunities. An additional advantage is that you have more control over your rental property than you do over investments such as the stock market.
2. Live-In Flips House flipping involves buying a property at a discount, improving it for the purpose of appreciating its value, and then selling it at a profit. A live-in flip is a property the investor lives in while renovating it. Living in your flip benefits you in two ways: First, you can make money when you sell the house later. Second, you avoid having to pay for a separate home to live in. “Flipping a house — acquiring, repairs, and selling — can be completed in six months and result in a substantial payday,” said Lucas Machado, real estate investor and founder of Home Heroes, LLC. “Flips can earn tens of thousands of dollars in a short time frame. It’s the best strategy for those that need capital in the near future.”
3. Multifamily Homes
Multifamily properties are buildings that house more than one family. The fact that people always need a place to live results in consistent demand for rental units regardless of the overall economic environment. Investing in multifamily homes can be lucrative if it’s done properly. Justin Taber, real estate investor and a licensed realtor in Ohio, recommends living onsite. “While you live in this property, you will be living either for free or heavily subsidized by renters,” he said. “When you move out, you will be making money. In about 30 years, once this property is paid off, your cash flow will be quite substantial — just in time for you to start thinking about retirement.”
4. Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is one of the newest and easiest ways to access the real estate markets. Rather than buying an entire property or financing a development project on your own, you can buy into a very small share of a property or project using a real estate crowdfunding platform. Not all platforms are created equal. Look for one led by real estate professionals qualified to screen investments. From there, you can choose which specific real estate investments you want to buy into. Distribution of future gains is proportionally based on the ownership shares investors purchased. “These private placements are illiquid, though, meaning that you may have a hard time selling your investment if you need to raise cash quickly,” said Milledge. 5. REITs Real estate investment trusts are a special form of security that invests in real estate. Unlike most other investment vehicles, REITs must pay out at least 90 percent of their taxable income as dividends to investors. When you invest in a REIT, you’re essentially paying a professional management team to do the work of investing your money in real estate while you reap the profits of REITs.
REITs are an easy way to invest in real estate because you don’t need tons of money. “The initial contribution to invest in a REIT is very low,” said John Barnes, certified financial planner and founder of The Annuity Assistant. “For example, you could buy shares of a REIT which manages apartment complexes for $500. Contrast this with a direct purchase in an apartment building, which might cost you $500,000 and the many risks that go with it.”
6. Real Estate Wholesaling Real estate wholesaling is when there is a middleman involved in the transaction between the seller and the buyer, with the wholesaler serving as the middleman. Kyle Alfriend, owner of Alfriend Real Estate Group, sums up what it’s like to be the middleman. “You focus on only finding the property, negotiating the price, and then selling that agreement to another investor,” he said. “This is called wholesaling and requires no out-of-pocket money from you.”
The fine line of separation between real estate wholesaling, which doesn’t require a real estate license, and real estate brokering, which does require a license, has led some states to set guidelines for wholesaling activities. Texas law, for example, requires that unlicensed wholesalers disclose their financial interest to prospective buyers.
7. Rent Out a Space in Your Home or on Your Property Renting out part of your home or property is probably the most immediately lucrative investment you can make, and you won’t need outside funding or a new piece of property. Instead, find opportunities within the property you already own. Perhaps you’re a homeowner with a garage apartment that only needs a bit of TLC to make it ready for renters. Or maybe you have a spare room in your home that’s sitting empty. With a little bit of money up front, you can start renting it to a tenant almost immediately. Alternatively, advertise the room as a vacation rental on an online booking site such as Airbnb.
Amazon has been awarded a patent that will let its package delivery drones recognize human movement and voice.
The online-shopping giant wants to shave delivery times down to just 30 minutes and plans to take to the sky to achieve it. Awarded on Tuesday (March 20), the patent would allow for drones to identify gestures such as a thumbs-up, frantic waving, shaking fists and a shooing motion.
Filed in July 2016, the patent also identifies voice recognition as a future control input for strangers. Someone who is bothered by a nearby drone would be able to shout for it to leave.
The drones would use a combination of depth, auditory and light sensors along with infrared and visible light cameras. They would also be capable of learning how best to deliver packages based on human interaction.
“In some examples, when in the learning context, a human operator may interact with the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) in order to ‘teach’ the UAV how to react given certain gestures, circumstances, and the like,” the patent reads.
One of the images attached to the patent shows a man shouting and waving his hands at a drone outside a house. Another picture shows that drones would launch from nearby delivery trucks instead of directly from the factory.
Amazon delivered its first package by drone in December, 2016 under the name Amazon Air. It shipped an Amazon Fire TV and some popcorn to Cambridge, England, in just 13 minutes.
Amazon is no stranger to ambitious ideas. Earlier this year, the company was granted a patent for a smart mirror that could show you how you would look in clothing purchases. Using a combination of cameras and projectors, the mirror can theoretically map your body and let you “try on” the clothes.
At the beginning of 2017, Amazon was even awarded a patent for drone ‘bee-hive' towers that would become the base of completely independent delivery UAVs. Instead of returning to a truck, like in the most recent patent, these drones would operate without human assistance. Amazon describes the tower concept as a “multilevel fulfillment center for unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Entrepreneurs are often visionaries who identify an under-served area and turn it into a business. Just think of some of the tools you use in your daily life—smart phones, portable GPS systems, cloud-based storage, Facebook, LinkedIn and more—someone invented each one of these devices or services and they became indispensable to many of us in our daily lives. However, entrepreneurs face many challenges and can fail if they don't start with a solid business plan.
Why Small Businesses Fail
There is a lot of misinformation about how many businesses fail in their first year. The fact is only about 20% fail in year one. That level of failure has remained largely static for the past few decades according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, 50% of businesses fail between years 4 and 6.1,2 The majority of the time, failure can be attributed to lack of profits and insufficient funding.
Many entrepreneurs are so confident they leap before they look. They don't like to sit down and draw up a business plan, or assign numbers and projections to their “great idea.” Sometimes, they are simply enamored with their concept and fail to really consider demand, competitors, distribution channels, etc. Or the business owner runs a successful enterprise and comes up with an idea for a new product, service or offshoot venture but doesn't determine if the market truly values this product or service, how to get demand going and what costs or lead time are involved.
Failure Is Not Fatal Winston Churchill famously stated “Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.” Sir James Dyson, the creator of the now ubiquitous bright-yellow Dyson vacuum cleaner made 5,126 prototypes before coming up with the one he sells now. He went on to create other products, including a washing machine with two tubs, which also took years of mistakes before a version worked as Dyson wished.
Would you have had the fortitude to continue after failing over 5,000 times? Failure is painful, no doubt. If the failure is a public event, it is even more agonizing. We can berate ourselves endlessly. Failure of a new venture, if executed judiciously, does not have to financially devastate the entrepreneur. However, if you staked your personal fortune on the venture, you may be jeopardizing your family’s security, feel judged, depressed, angry and more.
In the stock market, one guiding principle is to limit losses. If you lose 10%, you need 12% to recover. If you lose 25%, you need 37% to get back to even. However, once you allow losses to draw down 50%, you need 100% in gains to get back to even. It is much easier to earn 12% than 100% so minimizing loss by being unemotional and pragmatic can help us stay on track. Risk in Business When you are in a business, risk can arise in many forms. Undercapitalization is a huge reason for failure. I have seen businesses with pending orders from major potential vendors but not enough capital to produce the inventory to meet the demand. Financing for production can be challenging as the company's track record and ability to execute may not be proven.
Any seasoned potential investor or capital source recognizes there are many areas to navigate in executing and running a successful enterprise besides production in delivering units to a distribution center. Without a track record, a financial backer may not be confident the entrepreneur is capable of pricing, sourcing, shipping, quality control, customer service and the many other variables that go into running a profitable enterprise.
Access to Capital Getting capital for a startup is hard. Banks typically lend to businesses with a minimum of three years of profitable operating experience. Very often sales need to be seven figures and a personal guarantee is also required. If an owner is starting out and doesn’t want to risk his or her own capital, others may question how vested they are in the enterprise. Friends and family are more trusting and supportive, therefore that circle is the most-often suggested first step. Angels do exist, however these groups see many deals and getting in front of them and actually acquiring enough funding from an angel group can be challenging if not impossible. Angel groups are often comprised of other entrepreneurs who built successful enterprises and in some cases, had a liquidity event and love investing in other entrepreneurial ventures. However, they often wish to give advice to the business owner, which may fall on deaf ears. Another issue is angels often invest as a group and must agree on an enterprise to support.
Have a Business Plan
Creating a business plan and doing research in advance is really the best way to be prepared. Hiring a market research firm or running tests on targeted customers provides hard data. You can even execute a “pop-up shop” online or in a brick-and-mortar location to test out demand, cost of acquisition, average size of orders and more. Running a beta test is critical, and many investors won’t consider a deal until they see results. This is known as “proof of concept.” A well-written business plan can serve as a guide to realistic projections. Running your business plan by seasoned entrepreneurs or business advisors is another way of finding the flaws and working to button up the plan before going live. We all have blind spots, so having an outsider who is knowledgeable about your sector or some subset of your distribution channel is a great idea. Building your network in advance, speaking with many different types of experts and hiring a profitability consultant, business coach or business advisor can be worth the financial outlay. (For more from this author, see: The Importance of Small Business Forecasting.)
Failure is painful but we can learn from our mistakes. If you are judicious in your launch and open-minded to critiques, you can tweak a plan before going full-scale. Nothing ever works exactly as we plan, but it's still important to have a plan we can adjust. It's like going on a road trip with young kids. If you are driving from New York to Florida, you would map out the planned route, assume how many hours you might drive each day and have an idea of where you may stay each night. You’ll have an ultimate destination, itinerary and approximate costs assigned. Once you start out, weather, your children’s temperament and health during the drive, and detours can impact the overall trip, but you can adjust since you have an overall plan.
Having a macro plan for your new venture provides a baseline but can allow for shifts as opportunities or challenges present themselves. The key is to plan and keep failures small so you can recover and try again if necessary until you succeed.
Most individuals take money cues from their parents.
For Josh Robbins, those lessons came from his father, Tony Robbins, a life and business strategist who has published best-selling books on managing money. Josh Robbins, chief strategy officer at America's Best 401k, said he still applies those values to how he approaches money.
First, "get in the game," Robbins said. Actively set money aside for future expenses. Think of saving as paying your future self.
Second, practice emotional fitness. Stay focused on your goals even when the market hits bumps. "The stock market is the only thing in America that people don't like when it's on sale," Robbins said.
If you see a car or outfit you like on sale, you'd run to it, Robbins said. But many people get spooked when the stock market is down and the same discounts apply to equities.
"Understand that corrections are a constant, crashes are a constant, and those are opportunities," Robbins said. Last, don't forget to give back. "Understand that living is giving, as cliche as it might sound," Robbins said. "You've got to give back, and really getting outside of yourself is ultimately where true wealth is found."
Robbins said he imparts those values to his own children by having them divide money that is given to them into buckets devoted to investing, saving and giving.
"They get to divide it up however they wish: How much do they want to give, how much do they want to save, how much do they want to invest and how much do they want to spend," Robbins said. "I think that balance helps them understand money."
This week the Japanese financial services management group SBI Holdings has announced that it has acquired 40 percent of the Taiwanese digital currency hardware wallet startup Coolbitx. Over the past few months, SBI has been entrenched within the virtual currency industry as the bank plans to incorporate multiple types of cryptocurrency business models.
Japan’s Strategic Business Innovator Group (SBI) is a financial services company launched in 1999 and is headquartered in Tokyo. Over the past year or more the banking firm SBI has increased its interest and ownership of businesses that have a focus on cryptocurrency solutions. This past October news.Bitcoin.com reported on SBI investing in eight types of crypto-related business models including hedge funds, derivatives, remittance, storage, exchange platforms, and mining. Now earlier this week SBI revealed it has purchased a large portion of a Taiwanese hardware wallet company called Coolbitx.
Coolbitx and the ‘Coolwallet’ has been around since 2015 and introduced a hardware wallet that looks like a credit card by utilizing near-field-communication (NFC) and Bluetooth technology. The card pairs with a phone in order to initiate the transfer of funds such as litecoin, bitcoin core, ripple, and ethereum. When the company launched the card, the startup’s founder, Michael Ou explained, “Our wallet gives you the convenience of a credit card, but with a better security.” SBI believes hardware wallet technology is important to the bank’s research and development in the digital currency environment. “We have been looking for security sophistication by capturing advanced technologies of external companies in addition to thorough risk management within the company, making the protection of customer assets the top priority,” SBI’s translated Coolbitx purchase announcement details.
SBI says the business move is meant to meet the needs of the company’s investors while aiming to establish a robust “ecosystem” with virtual currency related businesses. The Japanese finance firm says Coolbitx’s wallet has received positive attention due to the recent cryptocurrency exchange hacks. SBI believes that Coolwallet’s card feature and its connectivity with both iOS and Android operating systems will be something cryptocurrency proponents will utilize for a hardware wallet solution.
“SBI Group’s ownership in Coolbitx will be 40% as a result of this investment,” SBI emphasizes. What are the three most important characteristics an investor looks for in a CEO during a pitch?3/14/2018
The best investors look for CEOs that have extraordinary strengths. The mediocre investors look for CEOs that have a lack of weaknesses.
You want to find someone that has some unbelievable strengths — they should be in the top five people you have ever met in at least one category. Maybe they are technically brilliant (like Bill Gates). Maybe they have a unique ability to see the future (like Mark Zuckerberg). Maybe they can build and motivate an amazing team. Maybe they are an incredible marketer (like Marc Benioff). Maybe they a genius salesperson. The CEO has to be great at something.
The CEO will almost certainly have some serious flaws. Read the biography of any great person and their flaws are obvious. You cannot read anything about Steve Jobs without seeing obvious glaring flaws. Investors need to understand the weaknesses of the CEOs and make sure they can live with those weaknesses. All CEOs have huge weaknesses … so it is important to go into the investment being aware of the weaknesses. (The worst investment is one where you do not have a good sense of the weaknesses … as that CEO is likely trying to con you).
As an aside, almost every time a venture board replaces a founder CEO, they opt for someone that has a lack of weaknesses rather than a few amazing strengths. This is a bad strategy. Picking a CEO to run a company is like making an investment … you need someone that has very big strengths.
Of course, many great CEOs work on their weaknesses and become better at them … but almost no one goes from terrible to great at something (that almost never happens). Usually, at best, someone goes from terrible to mediocre.
As an investor your goal should be to invest in people that are GREAT at something rather than good at lots of things. |
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October 2021
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