Show notes
What happens when you go from driving a yellow Hummer that's the only one in the entire country to walking barefoot through the streets with nothing left?
In this raw and unfiltered episode of Konnected Minds Podcast, we sit down with a European entrepreneur who made 25 million euros in real estate before age 31, lost everything in the 2008 financial crisis, went to minus 7 million euros in debt, and discovered that what he thought was genius was actually just a wave he was riding without even knowing it.
From buying agriculture land around the capital city for 1,000 euros per hectare and selling it to developers for 20, 50, even 100 times more after changing the land purpose, to driving a Rolls Royce Phantom that was the only one in the country and a yellow Hummer that made him recognizable everywhere he went, to being invited to cigar clubs and golf tournaments by bankers who wanted to give him more loans even though he didn't know how to play golf, to the moment in 2008 when the Latvian government created a law that land could no longer be used as collateral in banks and the entire real estate market collapsed overnight, this is the story of wealth, ego, financial collapse, humility, and the brutal lesson that when you make money for the first time you don't know it's just a season.
Our guest breaks down why he rented a small Cessna plane and flew around the capital city looking for agriculture land that logically should be developed into estates, schools, and factories instead of potatoes, why he would knock on doors and offer farmers 3,000 euros per hectare when they had just paid 1,000 and the farmers would say "you will never see money, it is too expensive," and why he bought 50 acres for 150,000 euros, changed the purpose, and sold it for 5 million. He explains why from 2003 to 2008 in Latvia only lazy men didn't make money on real estate, why everyone in his circle became multimillionaires, and why he had access to 25 million euros cash moving from bank to bank which in 2006 and 2007 was a bunch of money in Latvia.
But we also confront the uncomfortable truth about what happens when a boy from the farms who grew up with nothing suddenly has access to millions, why he went to life's Swedish table and wanted to try everything, why he believed he was invited to big parties because of who he was when really it was because of the money he had, and why he didn't read the book Millionaire Mind that an elder man gave him because he thought "why should I read a book, I know everything, look at my car, look at me, what can this book writer tell me." We discuss why when you come from a rich family you already know how to handle money so money doesn't hit your head, but when you come from nowhere and suddenly have everything you get high every day and don't know how to handle yourself, and why he didn't have financial advisors or any strategy because he thought his genius would make money the same way every day forever.
We dive into the moment when 2008 happened and it didn't come gently like in the rest of the world, why the Latvian government created a law in the middle of the crisis that land could not be used as collateral in banks, and why his company called Land Market that only dealt with land was immediately destroyed. We break down why he went from 25 million euros to minus 7 million euros, why after the collapse when he was in rubber boots in the forest he finally understood that the money was just a season, and why he realized that what he thought was his genius was actually just an accident, just a wave that was coming and he happened to be in the right place.
We unpack why he didn't keep savings in cash or gold because saving in gold coins is boring and you cannot brag about it, why his yellow Hummer stood in the same place as his Rolls Royce and his Cayenne Turbo S 521 horsepower and people used to take pictures around the car, and why every second week his face was in the newspapers with some new story because he didn't know he should be humble. We discuss why the yellow Hummer was the only yellow car in the entire country and everybody knew wherever he went, why it was flashy and shouting, and why this was the life he thought would last forever.
This is the story of what happens when you don't know it's just a season, and why losing everything is sometimes the only way to learn that money without knowledge, humility, and strategy will disappear as fast as it came.
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🎙️ ABOUT THE HOST
Derrick Abaitey is a Ghanaian entrepreneur, podcast host, and personal development advocate.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/derrick.abaitey/?hl=en
Web: https://abaitey.com/