That are Car dealers The Specialist Car Dealers The reciprocard dealers and there's Tom Hartley The world's upon this is Tom Hartley Middle School Dropout turned billionaire Who Sold Over 5 billion dollars worth of cars to the Rich and Famous making in Britain's top Supercar dealer I wasn't learning at school I was called a dance, couldn't read. It was always my desire and my dream to be the most famous and the best of what I do. And that's exactly what we are today. This complex costs totally. The latent system was three hundred thousand Olympus, 300 or 275 000. this building has been with handmade bricks. the two pounder brick, two pound a brick we can anyone time Curry stroke from 40 million to 100 million. Money is not everything. Well everywhere I Go. Money is everything I Founded this business on my own back. The business is worth it. well over 300 million today. As a mature man, yourself and and a successful person yourself, you're going to get doubted in life. And if you can't handle rejection, you're not. You're never going to make it in life. This is the story of how a young man went from nothing to becoming a millionaire only to lose it all and then go bigger and better than before with its estimated net worth now sitting at around a billion dollars, right? So today we're setting off to visit Tom Hartley He sent me the address to his estate and I'm not really sure quite what to expect, but I am certainly very excited. I've always put my success down to Passion as I believe This is the key to pushing yourself past your limits in business and in life as well. So I'm really interested to see what Tom thinks the next time you see me. I'll be sat down with the man himself. So did you ever feel different to the others at school? I wasn't learning this girl I was called a dance I couldn't read. that was an interesting thing and I was told by a school teacher called Mrs McDonald that I was going to struggle in my life I'd start dodging school and a friend my father's joined a taxi business. he was taking me to the auctions and um and I and I'd watch what was happening because I was interested in watching Cars be sold and bought and how auctions worked. So the first deal I'd done I was just before I was 12 years old so you sold your first car at 12 years old I bought and saw my first car 12 years old I bought it from a guy called uh Billy Barty He had a new Range Rover coming and it was 1950 pounds I Also knew a relative from my fathers who wanted to buy a new Range Rover and you couldn't get them I put the deal together. it's called supply and demand I know 250 pounds and it was a lot of money. 250 pounds in 1971 was a lot of money and that was the start of the journey. So um, over the years they're amazing. aren't they? Yeah, you name you name him. Do you want to name them or been in this office? There's no computers on here. Yeah, it's a telephone, piece of paper and a pen. That's what I rely on. You know everything. Everybody from underlog Weber to the south of the Brunei Rod Stewart Elton John Yeah, they've all been here. They're all there. So when you were a youngster, could you really see that you'd have all your family around you as well as these beautiful showrooms? Yeah, I mean I division of that and I'm living it now I'm living my dream. My son Tom passed his driving test of Ferrari and to set up the full television station yet and filmed their life Amazing from here. Yeah, gone away coming back a 17 year old. so would you say uh, the drive to be the best you could be is what pushed you forward. like everything in life to be successful you have to take risks I broke a few rules. uh at that age you know I drove I drove on the road at 14 so did you get stopped by the police at all? Yeah I'd be stopped I was 14 I drove a Rolls Royce So back in the 70s guys when you got stopped by the police uh the routine check is nothing like it is today. Uh, you could give your name to be Peter Johnston 17 Main Street to that name address down and they said they'd write you. That was it. You never heard no more because I was in such a rush to get to where I wanted to get to in life and in business. With the ambition that I had and the dream that I had I wanted to get there quickly and I had to break some rules I discovered a loophole in importing cars to an extent. It was like a cartel in the business I was importing at that time probably 10 or 15 cars per week. When I was importing cars in 1978, you got four and a half Deutsche marks to one pound. So the point I'm making for usual can't calculate I was able to buy cars from the factory, import them, and sell them to dealers in this country. It was just an unbelievable loophole I found in at the age of 17 just before my 17th birthday. Um, I was just helping millionaire So the classic territory I recognized this Porsche I had one of these back in the day equal the whale tail 1976 Carrera Yeah and this Ferrari here. Yeah, Is this the most expensive car you've currently got on stock? No, we've got. uh, we've got Carlos too. which is three million. This is 1.7 1.6 million. So when you'd made that first million, was it all plain sailing? from there on, it just went Crush and my world was turned upside down I Didn't lose a million because I gambled it all right I wasted it I lost a million because it was a technicality brought out because of My Success The manufacturers the Giants BMW Mercedes and Porsche got together on this young kid 16 year old the facial lawyer that you can only face one car one person and we're talking about a lot of money on deposit here. A big part of the million here is a young guy who's made a million and lost a million and he's not 20 yet. How did you feel when these car companies started ganging up on you? I was overwhelmed because I was out of my control I couldn't take off and see these bins I couldn't take on a Porsche cars I couldn't take on BMW cars I stood I stood the pain of loss for my reputation. it could be chalked up sometimes. talked about this: I went back to living in the Caravan with my wife arriving over there with that McLaren is I pulled the Caravan there. my wife told me I could do it all again. So what steps did you take to build your net worth? Back up back to the drawing board. Traveling on down the motorways, collecting, delivering washing, polishing I've done it all. We rebuilt it. The business rebuilt the name I Always think that an entrepreneur is willing to risk his shirt on his back. or as a businessman, calculates everything that. I Couldn't have just said it any better. I Forgot the pain but remembered the lesson. It Made Me Stronger I Knew it was easier to get there the second time. that was the first time already been there. Once you've tested honey, it tasted a lot nicer than summer Milk. Well, I Want a piece of quietness this year? I Come too. Yeah, it's been concentrated in the hospital. so as you made it back, were you worried that your enemies would take you down again? Oh yeah, I mean look, when you're successful and like you've always got enemies, that's a fact. Whoever you are in life, if you're successful, you've always got jealous people out there who try to be critical and it's sad that we live in that type of world. As a mature mind yourself and and a successful person yourself, you you're going to get doubted in life. And if you can't handle rejection and failure and mistakes, you know you're never going to make it in life. Thousands of deals later and Tom has gone from strength to strength, which just goes to show his resilience in the face of failure. I Then wanted to dive a little deeper into how a business of this size actually operates, what separates the winners from the losers and the vital traits needed for Success So what is the breakdown of your business? If we have to get right down to the nitty-gritty you know we can any one time Curry stock from 40 million to 100 million Peter on the floor the valuation of the business today as an independent family business. We don't declare our we treat as a private company so there's definitely access to our wealth, but the business is worth well over 300 million today as a brand name. That's just the car business, not the park home business or the Holiday Park business. Everything I've ever made about reinvested and reinvesting, reinvested, talking about investing. A great way to get your journey kick-started is by grabbing your free stock. worth all the way up to a thousand dollars from public.com I'll leave a link in the description I've never um portrayed to be perfect in everything I do but buying and sell and luxury performance and classic cars. There's Nobody Does it Better I approved it I've done it I've lived it. We're actually sat on a glass floor above multi-million pound cars in your basement. Yeah, it was SATs on top of a glass floor which was a creation unlike any other in the showroom. and we have a famous uh car stage known as the Lake where we would drive cars in the middle of water and we photograph them as something that we're We're branded for all over the world. How did you come up with the idea of the car stage on the lake I Created the the Lake I former Sun color at two o'clock in the morning four or five years ago I said Carl I've got an idea He said, what's that Dad I said we could put a bridge in the middle of the lake and we could photograph cars in the middle of the water and he actually said to me that he said you sound like you're pissed with an idea like that and he put the phone down So I thought I said to his mother, I'm going to do it It proved to be one of the best things I've ever done in my life. And these photographs on the wall that have been taken on the bridge or on the stage. as I should put it, they're like a history of all the cars that Tom's owned and we've got a car going back on the glass screening. How about that? So you can get a look at the underneath of your Lambo and as I'd expect, just as pristine underneath as they are on top. Absolutely gorgeous. What did the showroom cost? Because you're throwing out numbers quarter of a million pounds, Quarter of a million pounds on the lake? You know all these are big numbers added up. They've got to make a huge numbers. This This complex costs 10 million. The latent system is 300 000. The lift was 300 or 275 000 is halfway if I understood your items. Air conditioning sound system Italian Marble Italian Floor Tire Just there's no entry. Hand me. this building's made with handmade bricks. The two-pounder brick. Two pound a brick. Yeah, excuse me one second. sorry hello. I'll take your details. We'll take your details. GT2 RS Yeah, lots of carbon. Yeah, what's the sort of value on that time? 350 000. I Need to see the value in the back? Yeah, yeah. so you were an entrepreneur before the the phrase even really came about. what would be the best advice or single piece of advice you could give a youngster nowadays. I would say to be the best at what you want to be, you have to be single-minded. Start thinking about your dream, what you want to be, what you want to do. Start focusing on that. Spend more time concentrating on that. It was always my desire and my dream to be the most famous and the best of what I do being a luxury performance at Classic Cars and that's exactly what we are today. I Think you've had a fantastic life.