Episode 398: 10 Ruthless Business Rules to Rule the World
Dive into the world of business empires with Adam Stott as he unveils the “10 Ruthless Business Rules to Rule the World” inspired by billionaire John Paul Getty.
In this episode, Adam dissects the strategies and principles that propelled John Paul Getty to amass vast wealth and influence, and their relevance to today’s business climate. The timeless advice is surrounded by stories of Getty’s legendary thrift and strategic genius, offering valuable lessons for entrepreneurs aiming to scale their ventures.
Adam enriches the conversation with anecdotes and modern interpretations of Getty’s principles, aiming to inspire and equip listeners to pursue greatness.
Show Highlights:
- Owning a business is the primary path to accumulating significant wealth.
- Consistently improving product value and reducing cost leads to business success.
- A sense of thrift and economic discipline are crucial for lasting prosperity.
- Exploring underexploited markets and taking calculated risks can facilitate expansion.
- Reliability and standing behind your work build trust and sustain business growth.
Links Mentioned:
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Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
[00:00:00] Adam Stott: 10 ruthless business rules to rule the world from a billionaire who did exactly that. Today we’re going to be speaking about John Paul Getty, the ruthless billionaire that ruled the world. Let’s jump into these 10 very special billionaire rules.
[00:00:24] So perhaps you know John Paul Getty from the film All the Money in the World, a Hollywood blockbuster. And if you do, you’ll remember that his grandchild got kidnapped and they demanded from this billionaire 17 million to get his grandchild back. And he ruthlessly declared I’ve got 14 other grandchildren.
[00:00:49] If I say yes to this 17 million, I’ll have 14 more requests. No, thank you. So he was ruthless. He was brutal. So a little bit more on John Paul Getty is that he started his career in the oil industry, following in his father’s footsteps. But instead of going into his father’s business, he started his own business and he made his first million by 1916.
[00:01:16] Hell of a lot of money back then. And over the years for a combination of risks, savvy business moves and strategy, he built one of the world’s most formidable oil empires, By the fifties, Getty was recognized as the richest man in America with Forbes naming him the wealthiest American in 1957. So the person that we’re about to examine these 10 rules from knows a thing or two about business and it certainly should be listened to.
[00:01:46] So we’re going to jump into these. These are ruthless rules for Well domination. So the first rule is this Hey, everyone. Hope you’re enjoying the podcast. We’ve got a free training that I’m doing right now online from the comfort of your own home called stand out brand. What this does is it shows business owners how to get noticed on social media, stand out and Get more leads and get more sales.
[00:02:10] So if you want to make more money in your business, head over to adamstop. com forward slash SOB. That’s adamstop. com forward slash SOB and join us on the free three day workshop, stand out brand. Rule number one, almost without exception, a man must own your own business. Now we’ll give that some context that that could be a man or a woman must own their own business.
[00:02:39] Now when we look at the rule and a bit further explanation from him is there’s only one way for someone to make a great deal of money in the business world and that is to own one’s business. The man who wants to go into business for himself should choose a field which he knows and understands.
[00:02:58] Obviously he can’t know everything there is to know from the beginning you. But he, she should not start until they have acquired a good, solid working knowledge of the business. I love this. I think it’s pretty straightforward, but it’s super important that if you want to make a fortune, you have to have that creativity to go and create your own fortune.
[00:03:21] And it seems that he certainly knew that, because instead of joining, Here’s father’s business. He said I’m going to go out and create my own and and that really is what everyone must do If they want to make a fortune that doesn’t mean that everybody has to make a fortune But i’m guessing if you’re watching this video You’re pretty motivated to do it and owning one’s business is the first rule So rule number two a business person should never lose sight of the central aim of a business, which is to produce more and better goods and better services at a lower cost to the end consumer.
[00:03:58] So to give an interpretation on this, it’s saying focus on making sure that the value of your product or service is there and choose the either lower cost or add more value, add more value and better quality to your consumer. That’s how you win in business. I think this is a straightforward rule. Thank you.
[00:04:17] But the one thing that I’ve learned from training thousands of businesses, is that actually, the simple rules are the important ones. Focus on making your product or service better and more valuable, and reduce the cost as well to your end consumer, and you will surely win more business. Rule number three, a sense of thrift is essential for success.
[00:04:40] in business. And this is a hard one. And actually, you know, I’ve struggled with this myself personally over the years because I’m definitely someone that likes to go and splash out and buy things and invest. And actually I’ve met many, many, I’ve interviewed now 390 plus millionaires, billionaires, a list of successful people on my podcast.
[00:05:02] Many of them had this quality. They had this quality of thrift. And if we go all the way back to the, the grandson example, he could have given the 17 million, it would have made no difference to him. But he had that thrift of, I earned my money, I’m not going to part with it, and a complete sense of thrift around what he was doing, which no doubt is going to cause controversy.
[00:05:23] The exact rule he says is the businessman must discipline himself to practice economy wherever possible. In his personal life as well as his business affairs, make your money first, then think about spending it, is the best possible credos for the man that wishes to succeed. How important is that?
[00:05:45] Especially in today’s world. Everyone wants that Ferrari. That Lamborghini, the big house, they want the Rolex watch and often they’re spending the money before they’ve even got it especially in credit and credit cards and available finances where John Paul Getty who was one of the most successful people in history is saying Make your money first before you spend it.
[00:06:08] I also like the Warren Buffett rule on this If you can’t buy it in full twice, don’t buy it at all. Which I think is a, is a nice, nice little lesson. And it’s something you see in billionaires and uber successful people. I’ve got a very good friend actually, that’s very, very, very wealthy, very successful.
[00:06:27] And I mean, in the nine figure range, hundreds of millions. And I’ve been out for dinner quite a few times with my partner and his wife, and I’ve sat down there at an amazing, um, Amazing meal, gone to great, great, great restaurants together. And let me tell you what happens when the bill comes out. He picks the bill up and goes through the bill line by line.
[00:06:48] And you might see that as a bad quality, and people see that as a bad quality, but this person, um, who is very, very successful, clearly understands financial analytics and data, and they’re bringing their habitual ways into their everyday life. So practice a sense of thrift, and you will surely be successful.
[00:07:07] be more successful. So rule number four, and this is completely contrary to the frift, because any opportunity to expand in business, so this is the rule, legitimate opportunities for expansion should never be overlooked or ignored. I like this rule because what it’s saying is, when there is an opportunity that’s legitimate, I eat the numbers stack up and you can go further and you can expand and you can build more profitability.
[00:07:35] You’ve got to take the opportunity, which is where the risk taking comes in. You’ve got the same person there’s looking through every item of the bill, worried about being charged for an extra diet. Coke is going to put 2 million pound down on a new opportunity that comes up. They can make them 10. So even though there’s a sense of thrift here, there is also the mentality to, you know, Not necessarily look at what it costs, but focus on what it makes.
[00:07:59] And if you have that entrepreneur mindset, you will create more success. John Paul Getty also says the businessman must always be on guard against the temptation to over expand and launch expansion programs blindly without sufficient justification and planning. Forced growth can be fatal to any business.
[00:08:22] Both new and old. So you’ve got to examine the opportunity. You got to take the opportunity, but never do it blindly. And you can see there’s that balancing act where you’re weighing up the opportunities. You’re looking at the numbers, making decisions based on the numbers and making sure that any decisions for expansion, any decisions for growth are planned out and executed well.
[00:08:46] So, number five, love this, a businessman must run his or her own business. He or she cannot expect his employees to think, do, as well as he or she can. If they could, they would not be. His or her employees. When the boss delegates authority or responsibility, he must maintain close supervision over the subordinates it is entrusted to.
[00:09:15] This is a really great lesson. This is a billionaire, one of the most successful people in history, and they’re still telling you take responsibility. Take responsibility for your team. Take responsibility for your delegation. Of course, you’ve got to delegate. but you’ve got to inspect what you expect and make sure that you monitor what is being done in your business.
[00:09:40] When you take your eye off the ball, you can kill the golden goose. And if you kill the golden goose, that’s how you end up in a place that you don’t want to be not getting the results that you want in your business. Rule number six, a businessman must be constantly alert for new ways to improve his products or services and increase his production and sales.
[00:10:03] He should also use prosperous periods to find the ways which techniques may be improved and costs are lowered. So this is super important. It’s saying focus on the products and service, focus on production, focus on sales, and when you’re not so busy. Make those improvements and grow the sales. It seems very simple.
[00:10:25] It is actually very simple, but often people, when they get successful, they don’t use those time periods to double down and make things better, improve things, and really streamline out. their production, their sales, their products, their services. So if you want to create more success, you’ve got to constantly be alert for ways to do that.
[00:10:47] Okay. So rule number seven, a businessman or business woman must be willing to take risks and risk his own capital and use credit to risk borrowed money as well in order to create success. his or her success. This is a controversial one, but let me tell you, you pick up any autobiography in history of anyone that’s created massive success, they have used at some point O.
[00:11:15] P. M. What is O. P. M.? Other People’s Money. Money, they’ve used credit and they’ve used risk to go out there to leverage in order to get things done And make more money and I always say to people that if you have a fear of money you have a fear of credit being in business is going to be a A bit torturous for you because it’s going to come up again and again and again.
[00:11:38] In order to win the game of business, you’ve got to be comfortable with money. You’ve got to be comfortable risking money, both your own and other people’s in order to accumulate it. The best way I can interpret this and give you a gift around money is to understand that money’s a tool. It’s simply something you use for exchange money comes and goes sometimes you’ll have more of it Sometimes you’ll have less of it.
[00:12:00] But the way that you win the game is to multiply money So he’s got to look at how can I take this money and turn it into more? So if you had to borrow a hundred thousand pounds and you’ve got a strategy to turn that into a million pounds Well using other people’s money to do that would be a sensible way provided your business strategy If you could get a 10x, even if you ended up failing and you only got to two x, you still made 200 for your 100.
[00:12:26] So understanding risks around money, getting comfortable money is crucially important. In the words of JonPaul Getty, a businessman must be willing to look at those risks. Rule Number eight. A businessman or woman must seek new horizons and under exploited markets. Now, in his words, he’s really talking here.
[00:12:48] about going to other countries, finding markets and opportunities to be able to do business in places that other people have not gone to before. And this is something that in today’s world becomes even more important than when this was written. Well, because you’ve got the internet, you’ve got an ability to go global, you’ve got an ability to talk to people on the other side of the world, and you’ve got to explore these opportunities.
[00:13:14] What you do doesn’t necessarily have to be done in your hometown. You can now go global. So look at where is your product or service going to be in high demand? Is there a bigger market or an underexploited market for your business that you can make more money in? New markets, new money. That’s one of the ruthless rules that can help you get to where you want to be.
[00:13:37] So rule number nine, nothing builds confidence and volume faster or better than a reputation for standing behind one’s work or products. Guarantees should always be honored and in doubtful cases a decision should always be in the customer’s favor. A generous service policy should always be maintained.
[00:14:02] The firm that is known for being completely reliable will have very little difficulty filling its order book and keeping them filled. I think that rule doesn’t need too much of an explanation. If you say you’re going to do something. Make sure you do it. And where possible, give goodwill. And of course, if you’ve never had a problem with a customer or a prospect, you’ve not served enough customers.
[00:14:28] You know, so you can say, yeah, I always do the right thing. But if you do the right thing by 10 people, When you get to a hundred thousand, you know, customers or people dealing with your business, your product, your service, I think this becomes way more important. And that’s where you’ve got to have systems and processes that are fair on the consumer, fair on your business.
[00:14:49] And if you side with the customer and the prospect in more cases, that will always do your reputation much more good than it will harm. So a great rule number nine there. And finally, rule number 10. No matter how many millions an individual amasses, if he is in business, he must always consider his wealth as a means for improving living conditions everywhere.
[00:15:16] He must remember that he has a responsibility towards his associates, employees, stockholders, So John Paul Getty signs off these 10 rules with a very inspiring statement. I want to share this statement with you because hopefully it will inspire you to use the 10 rules in your business and life to get more success in your life and in business.
[00:15:41] So here’s, here’s the sign off. Believe me, you can. If you are able to recognize the limitless opportunities and potentials around you and apply these rules as well as work hard for today’s alert, ambitious and able young men and women, all the ideas that glitter can truly be turned to gold. What I love about this is that a billionaire believes in you Sometimes more than maybe you even believe in yourself and having been there and done it he knew that any able man or woman that wants to create a million can certainly do it.
[00:16:28] I hope you’ve enjoyed this video. I found this one and these lessons to be very, very useful. There are some simple principles that can change your life. This probably warrants more. Listen, because this is a billionaire’s truly golden ideas for your success. So if you’re watching this on premium, maybe you download this video and come back to it.
[00:16:52] Perhaps you have a re listen if you’re on the podcast. Or maybe you just go and share this with somebody that can get some great value from it. Tell me in the comments what you enjoy and I look forward to helping you and your business in person. Hey everybody, Adam here and I hope you loved today’s episode.
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