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Kevin O?Leary outlines 50 common financial errors in his book Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women & Money.
Photograph by: Postmedia files , .
MONTREAL - It?s a little past 7 in the morning. Kevin O?Leary is in Regina, where it is so cold that the thermometers have given up. But don?t be thinking that the early hour or the frigid climes have numbed O?Leary. He seems always ready and willing to take up the charge at all that riles him up.
For those who haven?t caught O?Leary?s act on CBC?s The Lang & O?Leary Exchange and Dragons? Den or ABC?s Shark Tank, O?Leary doesn?t pull his punches. He is no one?s notion of liberal. He even makes Stephen Harper sound like a Marxist on some topics. Nor does O?Leary spare the banks from his wrath, either.
O?Leary?s visit to Regina is not to check out frozen wheat futures. He?s on a book tour, which brings him to Montreal?s downtown Indigo Wednesday at 7 p.m. He is promoting his latest opus, Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women & Money, wherein he outlines 50 common money mistakes and how they can be rectified.
In the book, O?Leary, who was born in Montreal but now lives in Toronto, offers his secret to becoming wealthy: ?Don?t spend too much. Mostly save. Always invest.? Sounds simple enough, except that few of us adhere to any of those three tenets. So financial consigliere O?Leary, who allows that he has made some blunders along the way, offers tips on how to attain those goals, based on his own experiences.
Well and good, but what makes O?Leary the be-all and end-all of money gurus? OK, he did create and develop the educational kids? software empire SoftKey ? later known as The Learning Company ? which he sold to Mattel in 1999 for $4.2 billion. Which makes one wonder why he would ever be shilling a book in the frozen tundra of Saskatchewan, rather than be baking on a sun-drenched beach in Bora Bora.
Turns out he did do a lot of baking in the sun for a few years, but got bored. So, in addition to being a bullish and candid entrepreneurial TV star on three shows, he is also the chairman of O?Leary Funds ? ?I challenge anyone to get returns like we had in 2012? ? and O?Leary Mortgages and the founder of O?Leary Wines.
?My real job is an investor,? says O?Leary, 58. ?I usually keep about 5 per cent of my portfolio in venture deals, which are high risk but incredibly high returns. I used to have to go and to find those deals. Now thanks to Dragons? Den and Shark Tank, they all come to me.?
It has been quite the wild ride, too. He has missed opportunities, but he has also scored big on other investments as a result of the shows, where he and other panellists are pitched by aspiring entrepreneurs on all manner of schemes.
?One can think of Dragons? Den and Shark Tank as the American Idol of venture capital,? O?Leary opines. ?Because one of the biggest challenges of startup is getting the word out. Now we put it on the shows, and 10 million people see it in a week. That saves millions of dollars in advertising over the years, because we follow these deals over the years. It?s the most incredible business model I?ve ever been involved with.?
With his brash, in-your-face manner, O?Leary doesn?t fit the usual bland Canuck stereotype.
?I don?t know what Canadian means any more. If it means globally competitive and wanting to win, that?s the kind of Canada I want to leave as a legacy. My attitude is that we need a lot more Kevin O?Learys. That sounds arrogant, but in the way that I view the world, it?s pretty binary, black and white. Either you make money or you lose money.?
And therein lies the root to his philosophy: ?Every single job that is created in the private sector by a Canadian entrepreneur is the essence of our future. We keep forgetting that government is on the back of the entrepreneur. We pay every dime of its cost. And lately, we?ve been vilifying business leaders and industries. That?s insane. That?s the backbone infrastructure of the country. We should covet it, support it. We should encourage more people to become entrepreneurs.
?I?m a vocal critic of too much government. And it?s evidenced by all the money we waste. I?m tired of it as a taxpayer. I want to rebel against it, and I want people to join me.?
Needless to say, O?Leary?s views don?t exactly dovetail with those proponents of a welfare state, including his sparring partner on The Lang & O?Leary Exchange, Amanda Lang.
O?Leary makes the assumption that one-third of every dollar the government spends is completely wasted.
?I would rather keep that money in the pockets of Canadians and Canadian companies, so they can efficiently redeploy it in creating jobs,? he says. ?Look, I have a lot of compassion for people who are struck by illness or have deficiencies which make their lives hard. I believe in supporting them. But what I don?t believe in is having able-bodied men and women supported by a state when they should be working. People need to be motivated to get out of the house and get a job ? even if it is picking up garbage or planting trees. I did all of those jobs.?
Sounds like O?Leary is ready to run for office.
?No, I?ll never do that. But I?m willing to speak my mind as a shareholder of Canada. I want the same rules to apply to government as what applies to business. If a CEO doesn?t measure up, he gets fired. We should do the same thing with our government officials. Every Canadian taxpayer is an owner of Canada. They work for us, not the other way around.?
Kevin O?Leary will be giving a talk and signing his new book, Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women & Money, Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Indigo in Place Montreal Trust, 1500 McGill College Ave.
bbrownstein@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: @billbrownstein
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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