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Q&A With Billionaire David McCourt on The Secret to Wealth [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors]
Rob is joined by Irish-American entrepreneur and billionaire David McCourt. David answers audience questions on how he got to be where he is today and what he hopes to do in the future, discover what it takes to solve business problems, curate and create million-pound ideas and learn how to start, grow and scale your own business. Tune in today for this insightful interview with self-made billionaire David McCourt.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Q. How do you change your thought process to help you come up with different ideas?
A. [David]I do one thing consistently, which is when approaching a problem I put myself in the future and I am able to see that problem already solved, I then turn around and look backward and I build a plan to get me to where I already am. It can be overwhelming looking at a huge problem, people say “how did you have such vision to solve the problem?” It really wasn’t that amazing at all, because when you put yourself in the future, it becomes crystal clear to you what it is going to look like and then you have to build a plan to get there.
A. [Rob] I would say, be the person that disrupts you, rather than someone else. I am very much a big believer in disrupting yourself. I want to disrupt my own patterns, behaviors, and habits before my competitors do. I am always trying to imagine, if I was a competitor of mine, what weaknesses would I see? I then try and solve those before someone else does. I challenge myself to follow people I didn’t think that I liked, to learn from people that have very different beliefs from me, because that can challenge the way I look at something.
Q. How and when do you scale?
A. [David]I personally, have never thought about business as having a goal to reach a certain size. I approach business as trying to solve a problem that I find would be interesting to solve and that the world needs to solve and through doing that you can make money. I look at it more as a problem that people say ‘that cannot be solved’ whereas I say ‘it can be solved’. I don’t initially think about the size of the business, but if it is a big problem that nobody else has been able to solve before, then by definition you will be able to scale it.
A.[Rob] There were three commonalities over the wealthiest people. One of those was the desire to serve vast amounts of people. Don’t just have a plan or a goal but if you have a genuine desire to serve vast numbers of people, then you will connect the dots along the way and take the opportunities and partnerships. The second thing, a concept called the network effect. This is essentially a way to get to as many people on the planet as quickly as possible.
Q. Who were your main mentors when you started out on your journey?
A.[David] I am the first to admit, I had a huge advantage number 1 I had an unbelievable mother and father, and I had a mother that constantly taught me that it was okay to fail, that constantly taught me that I would be something and that I would accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. Having someone that supports you in your life, gets you 80% of the way there. I have had different mentors at different stages, I was on board just after I finished college, and on that board was the first public millionaire in America. I had never met a millionaire before and he said something that was very interesting, he said: “you have to make what’s important in your life instinctive, there are certain things that you are not going to have time to process, that you have to be instinctive”. After that, there was a man named Walter Scott, who was like a father to me. He taught me that taking care of your downside is the most important thing in business and the upside will take care of itself. My third was probably Jack Welch, he taught me a lot.
A. [Rob] Out of all the successful people I know, I am one of the youngest. This is because I have pushed myself to have mentors who are 60 and 70 years old. I love having these mentors because they have so much more wisdom and experience than me so now I seek out being the youngest in a networking group. Everything that David fortunately had, you can create.
Q. Did you leave the ladder or are you continuously putting those ladders down for people?
A.[David] There is nothing that gives me more pleasure, that putting the ladder down for someone else. It is really an ugly characteristic that some people have. Once they make their money they want to distance themselves from people so that others aren't able to have it. There is nothing more rewarding than putting the ladder down for the next person to climb upon. I have made a lot of money, given a lot of money away and lost a lot of money, and I can tell you for sure, the difference between the times I have had money and when I haven't, there is no difference, if what you’re trying to do with your life is create something.
Q. What one world problem would you solve ?
A. [David] If I could only solve one problem, I think if we can instill the sense of hope and dreams that America had 50 years ago back around the world, then we could solve all the problems. The America that I grew up in is a very different place than what it is today. That country of hope and dreams where anything is possible if we worked together is what could solve problems. The big ones are healthcare, housing, and education. The costs of these three are all growing faster than wages so by definition you can’t catch up. So if you’re growing up thinking that you will never be able to catch up, that is a terrible and dangerous place to be in. That is the world that we’re living in now, and that is the problem that we need to fix.
A. [Rob] The first time I met David, he told me “The world's biggest problems are also the world's biggest business opportunities right now”. It is easy to look at people that are the champions of dramatic change globally and forget that we can make a difference ourselves. There became a point where I looked around and noticed members of staff and thought “they’ve all got jobs, they’re all paying their mortgages and they’re all receiving benefits” I think it is easy to forget the value you make as an entrepreneur, I think a company done in the right way is one of the best ways to create value.
Q. Do you ever feel that you don’t know enough to get to where you want to be? How have you dealt with it?
A. [David] I sometimes get a feeling, that time will run out before I accomplish everything that I want to accomplish. I worry about whether I have enough time to love all the people I want to love, meet all the people I want to meet and to go to all the places I want to go to. I worry about that every day, which is why I have to figure out a way to do it at scale. I don’t feel that I should be doing anything different than what I am doing or that I am wasting my life. Am I worried I don’t have enough time? Yes. Am I worried I am doing things wrong? No. I don’t have a fear of failure, because I am a happy, healthy guy so I am 99% of the way there anyway.
BEST MOMENTS
“Having someone that supports you in your life, gets you 80% of the way there.”
“Everything that is important in your life has to be as instinctive as being able to pick up a pencil when you drop ii, and that will free up your brain to be able to process the new incoming things”
“What's the worst that can happen? You could become a starving artist and you might like it!”
“I was born curious and optimistic”
[Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors]
VALUABLE RESOURCES
ABOUT THE HOST
Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors”
“If you don't risk anything, you risk everything”
CONTACT METHOD
Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979
ABOUT THE GUEST
David McCourt is an Irish-American entrepreneur with experience within the telecom and cable television industries. He was an early contributor to the development of transatlantic fiber networks and has founded and bought many companies in various countries. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Granahan McCourt, a private investment firm specializing in telecoms and media and has invested more than a €100 million in telecoms in Ireland. He made his fortune from the sale of his US phone company, Corporate Communications Network, to WorldCom for $14 billion (€12 billion) in the 1980s.
