I've kept what happened on My Many Adventures to China a secret. Sure. I've talked about how I establish connections with Factory owners, creating my own products and built million dollar businesses. However, that's just scratching the surface.

The truth is, there were seven people in China that completely changed how I approached making money forever. The first was a guy called Edward whose crucial mistake taught me more about money than a semester in business school. I met Edward at the Shanghai Toy Fair on my first trip to China I was way out of my death I had no friends, was unable to speak the language and frankly shot how different the culture was to my own. I was full of ambition and ideas and I had one main objective to find a winning product to bring back and sell to the Western Market I spent all day looking around at the different stands but nothing really got me excited.

However, I needed to find something so I finally settled on a product that was just about up to standing. I Was just leaving the show trying hard to hide my disappointment when I noticed a stand that was awkwardly placed just around the corner at a few from everyone. I approached this stand as something had caught my eye. It was the most perfect model airplane.

Long story short, I managed to import the model plane and make a lot of money. However, the lesson I learned from that encounter was even more valuable. You see up until this point I thought that if you had an amazing product, then you will make lots of money. However, I nearly walked out of that building completely missing the best product and instead reluctantly nearly signing a deal with the best option that I could find at the time.

They won't teach you this in school as nowadays they reward anything and everything. However, the market doesn't care about you and your feelings. The harsh truth is you can be the best in the world at something, but if nobody knows about you then you're going to lose. The second fella was called Peter whose passion led me to making millions of dollars in a way I Never expected I Met him at the Nuremberg toy fair in Germany I had one of the best stands and was showing off my product lines to break into the European market.

He also had a stand and me being me I went over and had a chat and we got on like a house on fire and he became a very close friend of mine. One evening we were relaxing in a bar and he said Mark I have a dream to send my daughter to the top private school in the UK However, that's a big problem I was intrigued so I asked him to elaborate. He went on to say in order for her to attend I have to nominate a guardian in the UK that can be responsible for her welfare. Would you be able to help me of course I agreed I visibly saw him let out a huge sigh of relief.

It was clear that this was very important to him so I asked him why was he so passionate about sending his daughter to the UK. He revealed that although he wanted more children legally due to the one child policy, he couldn't or he'd face serious consequences from the government. He said the family is above everything and if he couldn't have any more kids then he wanted to give his daughter everything he could to make sure she had the best shot at success. In the USA and UK, we are taught that everyone should be out for themselves and that's extremely different from Chinese Culture of building your family's Legacy and honoring your elders I Really admire this as a family that sticks together will always be more successful.

Peter Taught me that Investments aren't just about stocks, shares, and business, it's also about your family. That's why I made sure to pass on my knowledge to my only son Curtis And now we're even business partners! The third person was Don whose distrust for the system forced me to make bold money moves now. Don was an extremely successful businessman valued at around 50 million dollars. One evening we were laughing and chatting about good times and then suddenly the mood entirely shifted.

He said quietly Mark can I tell you something I've never told anyone before. The look of worry on his face troubled me as Don was a friend that I really looked up to. His business was huge, he had super cars and his life looked amazing, but it was clear not everything was as perfect as he appeared. I said to share whatever was on his mind.

He then came back at me with seven words that have made me think about my money more than anything else: I don't feel like I own anything. the Communist Party in China is all seeing an all-knowing If you say anything that's slightly offends the party, then they can make you disappear without a trace. This makes me feel like I'm not even successful I merely renting all these things until a party decides to take them away from me if I get too powerful. I Initially thought it just watched too many conspiracy theories, but the more I dug into it, the more I saw his point of view.

I mean at least half a dozen billionaires in the past few years have disappeared for periods after reporting run-ins with the Communist Party The most notable in Jack Ma, the owner of Alibaba who went missing for three solid months. There was even lots of evidence pointing to the Communist Party tracking successful entrepreneurs in corrupt investigations. The biggest money secret I took away from this encounter and you should too, is to never be at the mercy of one government or one system. This has caused me to spend a tremendous amount of time diversifying my money and assets all over the world.

I Never want anyone to know exactly what I own and where it's all located I don't even know exactly how much I'm worth because I have so much spread around in different places. The fourth guy I came across was Andy whose privilege revealed the reality of money. He loved the idea of owning his own Factory and Manufacturing products. So his dad gave him about a million dollars to start one.

One day he came to me and said Mark I'm not making any money but I'm doing so much work I don't understand where I'm going wrong So I did some digging into his numbers and found out they had been making the biggest mistake possible in the manufacturing world I Set a meeting with him and told him straight: you're selling your products for less than it costs to make them to which he said we tried to break even on the main products and make all our profits on the spare parts. So I abruptly said you're not selling any spare parts Andy because it's cheaper to buy another item I Can't say that I'm surprised his business didn't last the test of time. However, before that point, I'd always been jealous of people that were given a large amount of money to start their businesses coming from absolutely nothing I thought it's such an advantage to be handed cash on a silver platter. However, looking back, I'm so glad I wasn't given anything.

The secret you should take away from this is it doesn't matter how much money you're given if you also don't have the correct skills to match it. The fifth person was Eron, whose tactical use of money maybe second guess my decisions I needed someone to produce my charges for my electronic product. so I visited Irons Factory The first time I visited, his employees would make everything by hand. It was an extremely slow and laborious process.

The second time I went, he had upgraded the factory by it in a conveyor belt that transported all the different parts of the products around the factory and automated little tasks like making sure everything was soldered together. The third time I was gobsmacked. He actually had robots assembling more than 50 percent of the products he produced and now it's completely automated and like nothing I've ever seen. Due to the sheer amount of investment in machinery and automation over the years, the products that used to take him a month to produce now only take him four days.

This may be second guess my decision to buy a jet ski in the early days when my business started making a nice bit of money. It was such an unnecessary purchase. and before I handed over the money I thought to myself, what would Eron do. The answer was, of course he'd reinvest it back into his business.

So I ended up doing the same and just used my mates jet ski until I got thick of it. If it makes it easier then try and follow the 50 30 20 rule. This is when you spend 50 of your income on needs, essential living expenses such as rent, mortgage, bills, food, and transport to work, 30 on investments. This could be paying down your debt, investing in your business or even in stocks and shares an alternative asset classes, and 20 on wants such as eating out, shopping trips and subscriptions.

The secret is don't take money from something that's doing well and waste it constantly reinvest. This could be in yourself a side hustle or a business. The sixth person you need to hear about is James whose morals and loyalty showed me that there is so much more to making money than meets the eye. I Had an amazing idea for a new product I wanted to bring to Market but it was extremely complicated and I knew that it would require a certain set of skills that only a few people possess.

I Befriended a guy called James who assured me that he could do it I Promise I Trust in him to deliver. However, after 12 months and a lot of investment, we here at Brick Wall I was ready to take the loss and not deal with him ever again. However, without me having to ask, he refunded all of my research and development money and took full responsibility because he has. He had assured me he could do it.

Ultimately, this led me to doing a lot more business with him in the future as I knew that James would always put my best interest first. The big money lesson here is that reputation is everything and a good one can make you very wealthy. It takes years to build, but just a couple of seconds to lose. People talk, make sure they speak well about you.

The seventh person I encountered was David whose plan taught me that making money isn't all about strategy. Let me tell you this one of the hardest things to do in China is to socialize. Not many people understand Western jokes, but he loved everything. European One night we ended up in an Irish bar eating Chinese fast food and laughing away.

Fast forward a few years and he decided to start his own construction material supply business. His strategy was bulletproof. He was aiming to specialize in materials for hotels. As many hotel rooms are identical.

this means he could Supply lots of the same product in bulk. He also offered to give me twenty percent of the company in exchange for my experience and connections within the UK. Market He had the right attitude, strategy, and knowledge behind him so you might think that everything went smoothly and now he's a multi-millionaire However Unfortunately, this isn't a fairy tale. this is real life just as his.

Building Company got started, covid killed his exports to Europe and the hotel. Market In general, his company was dead before it even got started. You can often have a great idea and execution, However, people might not be ready for it or an event outside of your control could shake things up. The biggest money secret I took away from this failure was that if you want to be rich, then you have to get your time in right.

If you want to get rich, then you really shouldn't start a business. I Explain why in this video but don't click on it just yet. Remember to subscribe if you want to grow your wealth. Okay, I'll see you over there.