The Way of Billionaires: DOE=Distressed or Early Assets

I’m glad Tai Lopez is back online. He disappeared for a few years after being ubiquitous all over social media. He was early to using internet marketing to build a personal brand and sell educational courses. 

He has gone on to much bigger things since then. Doing the private equity route,  investing and taking control of all kinds of businesses, even the Wilhelmina Modeling Agency and massive offline retailer Pier 1 among others. 

I like that he shares everything he has learned. But he has shared some of the wealth secrets he learned from his billionaire mentors. Billionaires are a different breed and they are tough. They are the modern day warlords who built their business empires through blood, sweat and some extreme risk. I’d even say in some cases particularly ruthless action. 

But there are things to learn from them especially for all of us in the world of business. Tai says the secret is buying DOE=Distressed Assets or buying early. Most empires were started by people who bought distressed assets with cash they had. Whether it was real estate or stocks in 2009 when they were at its nadir. Or private equity like investments in online retail companies in March/April 2020. Rupert Murdoch acquired his way into a global empire in newspapers and television media. Ray Kroc bought McDonald’s burger place from the McDonald brothers and then expanded it to the ubiquitous fast food chain we all know. 

The other way is investing early into assets or startups like Elon did in Tesla. Many of the present top seed venture investors in Silicon Valley did the same in 2009 well. Or the businessmen who invested in mining, energy and telecom companies in Russia and other Eastern European countries right after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 90s. Huge fortunes were made then. 

When things looked grim and everyone else was going to cash or sitting on the sidelines. Investing when it seems most dangerous requires guts and courage that most people do not have. It requires faith and confidence in oneself. 

We can all learn something even if we don’t want to become billionaires, but we can all do with more money. Money gives you optionality, freedom and resources to take care of your family, friends and community. So it’s important that we learn from the best money aggregators and capitalists out there.