CONVERSATION WITH MY BILLIONAIRE FRIEND

Putting It All Together… On the Path to the Next Phase (3)

My meeting with my Billionaire Friend was a short one; it was essentially a review session, and we went through the entire project and looked at the feedback from the readers. My friend confirmed we needed to move to the next phase, but that would require a recap of what we have done so far to put people in the picture again. So here is the third set of recaps. Enjoy.

WHEN IT COMES TO BUILDING WEALTH, HEALTH IS EVERYTHING

“Here is the reality, from personal observations, experience and what I have also read: once your health is fundamentally assaulted, everything may come to a halt and worse, it could get to a point where you will not be able to just throw money at it. Once your health is affected, lofty dreams can vanish; great visions can perish, and the wealth you have spent your vigour to build may become meaningless. I was once told of a wealthy man who sold all his property worth quite a lot, at a fraction of the value, just to get cash, yet he could still not make it”.

“Many Nigerian wealth owners and builders have died for not paying attention to and investing in their health while being fixed and busy stashing wealth in vaults. Some of my close friends have died from lacking investment in regular medical checks and attention to their health”.

“In building wealth, wealth builders must take cognisance of the importance of their health. Otherwise, the whole effort of wealth building would end up worthless for their lives. Wealth builders must therefore be conscious of the need to regularly monitor and take care of their health, to ensure that they live and work with a sound mind, body, energy, good health, and the right mind to build their wealth”.

“Wealth builders should also invest in creating the right environment around them to avoid the possible development of chronic respiratory diseases and avoid smoking and smokers. Smoking is medically known to be carcinogenic. Wealth builders must avoid smoking since it is known to damage the lungs and lead to chronic respiratory diseases in the long run. Therefore, it is strongly recommended for wealth builders to invest in their health via regular checkups, using their recommended drugs appropriately and ensure that their medical doctors properly monitor their health performance”.

“One area of human health which wealth builders need to pay close attention to is the early detection of cancer. The symptoms of cancer for early detection include lumps or thickening of the skin, fatigue, skin changes, unexplained bleeding, etc. Once these begin to rear their heads, wealth builders must take prompt measures to invest in a thorough investigation before such early symptoms of cancer develop to advanced stages. We can go on and on about the health issues usually occurring during wealth builders’ earnest pursuit of wealth. However, the whole essence of this conversation is the need for wealth builders to invest in and pay due attention to their health while seeking wealth. Wealth without health has no value and significance because man needs a healthy life to enjoy wealth. Wealth builders’ benefits of investing in health are enormous because they need to take care of their survival, energetic body, stable health and flexible body to build wealth and make significant contributions to societal, national and human development.”

“Wealth builders who do not invest in resting, recreating, engaging in pleasurable leisure activities and some simple exercises only end up with cerebrovascular diseases. These occur more regularly with ageing wealth builders who ignore their health but spend their time solely pursuing and accumulating wealth.“

“We must realise that medical insurance companies that provide this health insurance policy coverage run for profitable goals and that they do make profits. Therefore wealth builders are encouraged to establish health insurance and health gym firms as viable opportunities for building wealth. Since health insurance is vital in the management of people’s health, then Nigerian with inferior public health facilities, over 200 million population and with only 3% of its population investing in the provision of health insurance coverage offers wealth builders a great opportunity to wealth builders to grow their wealth in such an environment.”

REGARDLESS OF THE PATHWAY CHOSEN, YOU NEED TO WORK WITH SMART ADVISERS TO BUILD ENDURING WEALTH

The conversation with my Billionaire Friend was based on the following questions:

WHY SHOULD A WEALTH HUNTER HIRE QUALITY ADVISERS?

If a wealth hunter prefers to be self-dependent, he would be heading for failure in his quest. Humans’ successes are best achieved through the utilisation and coordination of the expert inputs of others to optimally achieve set goals. Nobody should think he is a master of all; only God almighty is the master of all. – the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Therefore, wealth hunters must seek the priced expertise of professionals of all spheres in their wealth-building endeavours to optimise the expected outcomes of their search for wealth.

“Somewhere in our conversation, we had discussed the need for wealth builders to have some basic understanding and knowledge to help them appreciate and better utilise the advice of professional experts as it pertains to their wealth-building endeavours. With such basic literacy and understanding, it would thus be easier for wealth builders to make informed judgments and take appropriate decisions that will successfully catapult them to their wealth-building goals”.

“Being solely self-dependent and assuming knowledge, especially with intricate issues that would arise from time to time, could be self-destructive. Wealth builders should engage professionals for their input concerning intricate decision-making issues, promising investments, returns, compliance with existential laws and regulations, and prevention. Wealth builders in consulting and regularly paying for the quality advice of professional experts stand to gain in multiple returns of wealth, business buoyancy, enviable business reputation and the attraction of quality personnel”.

“Generally, wealth-builders stand to gain innumerable benefits in getting the best obtainable business results for their business investments and succeeding in building an enviable generational lasting successful brand.”

WHAT KEY PROFESSIONAL ADVISERS SHOULD WEALTH BUILDERS CONSIDER ENGAGING?

Without proper financial planning, wealth-builders would inevitably head for insolvency. Therefore, financial planning is key for wealth building, as this has been severally stated in our previous series. Financial planning includes good budgeting, forecasting, monitoring the cash flow of wealth builders’ entities, optimising returns on assets, proper management of company liabilities, and good investment planning”.

“Real estate valuers and planners are needed when investing in properties. These experts are needed to select the best location for wealth-builders to optimise the return of their investments. Location is the prime factor in wealth-building exercises for optimal returns. Poor locations give poor results. In essence, wealth hunters need experts during the process of wealth building. As wealth builders encounter intricate issues and have to make informed decisions, wealth-builders should seek the opinion of experts, including financial planners, lawyers, stockbrokers in terms of investing in company equities, financial planners, accountants, etc. Depending on the areas of engagement of wealth builders, these are necessary”.

“More importantly, wealth-builders must seek tax consultants. Tax consultants help to determine tax liabilities for wealth builders and look at areas where wealth builders can gain capital allowances and tax exemptions to avoid undue tax liabilities and take advantage of the provision of tax laws for optimisation of the returns on investment by wealth builders. These experts are all important in different ways depending on the wealth-building engagement of wealth builders”.

“The number of experts required is unlimited and cannot be pre-discussed. It all depends on the wealth builders’ journey. Wealth-builders should not be miserly in not wanting to pay for the services of experts, as may be necessary for wealth building. To do so would be termed foolish. Successful wealth-builders like Bill Gates, Prince Yemisi Shyllon, Aigboje Aig Imoukhuede, and industrialist Prince Adedoyin would attest to the importance of financial and other professional advisers in their wealth-building journey.”

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A WEALTH HUNTER CHOOSES TO GO INTO IT ALONE?

“This depends on the wealth-builders plan. A wealth-builder who decides to be a sole proprietor can go into it alone. A sole proprietorship offers wealth for builders who desire to do it alone. And in doing that, you can register ordinary business enterprises. But, they will not be protected against legal consequences against such sole proprietorship, thus endangering their wealth. The sole proprietorship is not a recommended model for successful wealth-builders in terms of its limitations for raising needed large capital funds and protecting wealth builders from personal liabilities if their businesses fail”.

“Successful wealth builders generally build wealth using investment vehicles such as private or public limited liability companies (LLC). And this gives them the opportunity to raise funds through capital investors (with private limited liability companies-LLC) – or long-term equity funds from the capital market, through the stock exchange, with public limited liability companies (PLLC), for zero-interest capital equity funds for their wealth-building goals. To go it alone is to achieve it alone and die alone.”

Forming wealth-building entities in companies such as PLLCs or LLCs is the best option for wealth builders who aim to grow big corporate entities and achieve long-term success. However, building wealth through LLCs and PLLCs makes wealth builders lose some degree of ownership control of their businesses. The laws guiding private limited companies(LLC), for instance, do not allow single ownership. The ownership of LLCs must be shared between a minimum of two people. You thus cannot run a sole proprietorship under a private limited liability company arrangement. Therefore, you will need to lose some element of control over other company shareholders. However, wealth-builders can arrange their wealth-building vehicles, whether private or public limited liability entities- such that their articles of association and percentage of equity holdings can allow them some varying degree of voting controls at board meetings. And this is by ensuring that they continue to control their entities along with other shareholders of their companies.”

“The issue about obtaining cheap, incompetent advisors would only lead to obtaining poor consistent results and ultimately result in insolvencies and bankruptcies. Wealth builders that run their businesses by being unduly miserly in using incompetent professional advisers would eventually have themselves to blame.”

“Another investment structure that can be used by wealth-builders outside private and public limited liability vehicles is a partnership. Partnerships can be ordinary or limited. However, partnerships do not immunise or protect partners against personal liability in case of business failures and collapse. For partnership, once the business goes into bankruptcy, the partners will be personally liable for all the losses that may have been accumulated. This same personal liability goes with a sole proprietorship.”

“Wealth-builders must use professional consultants for quality advice. Quality advisers can be obtained from the professional associations of different professions. For instance, wealth-builders that need the services of engineers should get the Nigerian Society of Engineers, and other technical advisory consultancy organisations, to give them a select list of experienced and proven engineering experts to pick from. The same applies to accounting experts from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, expert issuing houses from the Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers and the Stock Exchange.”

“The qualities of professional expertise to look out for are: proven competence, the size of projects that such advisers have handled, the length of service provided by such advisers, the quality and size of the entities that have been advised and the quality of the financial position of such professional advisers.

“In my case, even though I took the trouble to be professionally versatile, I still engage the services of professional advisers to better achieve my wealth-building projects. I cannot claim to be an expert in all the skills I have utilised in my wealth-building journey. Even with my professional competence in some areas, I still have to use professionals to help me wade through various challenges. Experts in different professions who have more experience than I have had to be consulted. However, my competence and knowledge levels in different professions have helped me to relate to and quickly understand the inputs of various professional experts. It has also allowed me to cross the t’s and dot the i’s faster and better than those wealth builders without professional versatility”.

“Therefore, I will not recommend that wealth builders assume that their knowledge is adequate for their building of wealth. In general, wealth-builders must engage the services of professional advisers, whether or not they have some level of understanding and knowledge in the areas they require expert advice. Depending on self-knowledge in the intricate decision-making journey of building wealth is suicidal.”

QUOTE 1
“Here is the reality, from personal observations, experience and what I have also read: once your health is fundamentally assaulted, everything may come to a halt and worse, it could get to a point where you will not be able to just throw money at it”.

QUOTE 2
“Once your health is affected, lofty dreams can vanish; great visions can perish, and the wealth you have spent your vigour to build may become meaningless. I was once told of a wealthy man who sold all his property worth quite a lot, at a fraction of the value, just to get cash, yet he could still not make it”.