Valuetainment - “Don’t Bet Against Musk“ - Musk's BIGGEST Believer Turned $1M Into A $150B FORTUNE

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00:00:30.740 Entrepreneur Magazine comes out with a story of a friend.

00:00:34.180 Don't pull it up yet, Rob, but I think you have it ready.

00:00:37.180 Where one of Elon's friends gave him a million dollars to invest in Tesla early on

00:00:43.200 and eventually got into SpaceX as well.

00:00:45.860 And that million dollars, Rob, if you want to pull it up.

00:00:47.860 This is the kind of stuff that it did in 10x.

00:00:51.220 It did in 100x.

00:00:53.100 Watch this.

00:00:53.660 He loaned Elon a million dollars and that million dollars now is worth over a hundred billion dollars.

00:01:01.500 Look at this.

00:01:02.780 Elon Musk's best friend, Antonio Garcia's bet early on Musk, his 7.3% SpaceX stake could soon make him one of the 50est healthiest people in the world.

00:01:18.180 They're saying it's going to be worth 150 billion dollars.

00:01:21.940 By the way, if you do some math, you know what 100x is?

00:01:25.400 You know what 100x return on an investment is on a million dollars?

00:01:27.960 You have $100 million.

00:01:29.360 A billion is 1,000x.

00:01:31.340 10 billion is 10,000x.

00:01:33.380 100 billion is 100,000x.

00:01:36.220 This guy 150,000xed the loan he gave to Elon Musk for $7.3 billion.

00:01:43.480 Tom, your thoughts on this story?

00:01:45.220 Well, it just goes to show you you can be at the right place at the right time

00:01:48.220 and you can be around the right people.

00:01:50.280 And it also proves that I'm going to make an adjustment.

00:01:54.160 There used to be an old adage that said, you know, your position in life and even your net worth will be influenced by the top five people you choose to have in your orbit as your close associations or friends.

00:02:07.320 So you take all the 20 people you know, who are the five that were really in there close?

00:02:11.780 What are they all about?

00:02:12.860 Are they racist?

00:02:13.800 Are they cool people?

00:02:14.660 Are they trying to grow out of their youth?

00:02:17.080 Are they working hard?

00:02:18.120 Are they successful?

00:02:19.420 Whoever those top five are, it'll influence where you go.

00:02:23.560 People have said that a lot, right, Pat?

00:02:25.640 Okay, this shows you that it only takes one.

00:02:29.340 It only takes one that you have one guy who was, at the time,

00:02:34.660 was a genius microdosing EV founder who was worried that he was going to lose it

00:02:41.300 and he really needed a bridge loan, and you say, okay, I'll do it.

00:02:44.540 I'll do it for this, and who knows what he got.

00:02:46.860 He got something, some percent, because over time, you know, if you own a percent of something,

00:02:52.320 Humberto, and over time they raise 50 percent in capital in round, round, round, round, round.

00:02:57.260 No, you're one percent now as a half a percent, but it's diluted as a percent.

00:03:01.920 But the total value of the company is skyrocketed.

00:03:04.580 So wherever this guy went, it went.

00:03:07.060 And it goes on the heels of the story that, you know how every now and then he made this guy.

00:03:13.300 God, God bless Antonio Gracias.

00:03:14.820 You know, he scored. But you know what also is your your friend, Elon Musk, is just tough and he's brash.

00:03:22.680 He went to the federal government to be deposed and to go through things because he sent out a tweet and he says, I've got money for Tesla.

00:03:31.260 Funding has been secured. Remember that? The famous tweet? Yep.

00:03:35.040 Well, yesterday, you know what he was musing yesterday?

00:03:37.600 And he says, well, maybe by 2027, I'll just merge Tesla and SpaceX because we have the battery technology.

00:03:43.660 We've got the satellite communications to the cars.

00:03:46.820 Maybe I'll just move both of them.

00:03:48.120 And now everybody today was like, oh, my gosh, could that be a $4 trillion company?

00:03:53.760 Suddenly we're not talking about a $1.7 trillion SpaceX.

00:03:56.780 We're suddenly talking about a $4 trillion company, which just goes to show you Musk being Musk, and it's very good to be a friend of Musk.

00:04:05.740 Snyder.

00:04:06.740 Risk-taking.

00:04:07.900 I mean, that's what really a lot of successful – you guys know this.

00:04:11.500 I mean, it's successful people take risk.

00:04:13.340 Yeah, I mean, loaning Elon Musk a million dollars is not necessarily a huge risk.

00:04:17.980 People will make a line to it.

00:04:20.400 But, I mean, the point is risk-taking and making good bets is what really separates people out.

00:04:26.300 It's about taking calculated risks that you look at a guy like Elon Musk and say he's going to make it.

00:04:32.320 So a million dollars, yeah, it may be painful in the short run, but this is a bet worth taking.

00:04:35.960 And I think that's the ultimate lesson.

00:04:37.340 Well, I think identifying and betting on talent, it is so important.

00:04:43.340 You just you look at people and you're like, OK, this guy is going places.

00:04:46.940 He's he gets it earlier.

00:04:48.820 He works harder.

00:04:50.440 He stays longer.

00:04:51.760 He innovates.

00:04:52.800 He's coming up with ideas.

00:04:53.900 And you were like, all right, I'm willing to lose a million dollars on this guy.

00:04:57.420 And, you know, like, I don't know.

00:04:59.660 I've been betting on talent for the last, you know, few months and it's been paying off massively.

00:05:05.040 Yeah.

00:05:05.460 And by the way, you're you're a pretty good developer.

00:05:07.700 You're a pretty good manager as well.

00:05:09.040 You you you pick him, you develop him, you teach him, you have that ability.

00:05:12.560 I think a part of this, I did a video, Rob, if you can pull it up in Creator Studio, see if you can find it, is about Musk.

00:05:20.220 And I said, what's more important, the horse or the jockey, right?

00:05:24.360 The horse or the jockey.

00:05:25.820 Because so many times you'll sit there and you're like, you know what, I think I'm going to bet on the jockey.

00:05:31.520 I'm going to bet on the horse.

00:05:32.580 I'm going to bet on this.

00:05:33.920 Here's the reality of it.

00:05:35.220 Never bet against a guy like Elon Musk.

00:05:38.160 Never do so.

00:05:39.420 You know who learned the hard way?

00:05:40.540 A lot of short sellers.

00:05:42.560 You know who will learn the hard way?

00:05:43.940 A lot of his competitors.

00:05:46.320 If you've ever read his book by Walter Isaacson, which if you haven't,

00:05:49.920 if you really want to understand this guy, go read that book,

00:05:54.340 and you'll see where this guy was and what he did.

00:05:56.900 Many, many years ago, people were saying, the debate was,

00:06:00.340 what's better to invest in?

00:06:02.040 Is it better to invest in Tesla or Elon long term?

00:06:05.940 I said, listen, I'm betting on Elon, whatever he's operating.

00:06:09.580 I'm betting on Elon on what he can operate and drive.

00:06:11.540 So you get judged, you said something about risk, you and I get judged based on our instinct and intuition.

00:06:19.480 And investing in certain things, I know a lot of guys that are very, very smart, Humberto, but my God, they choose the wrong investments.

00:06:26.960 I know a lot of guys that are so smart, brilliant, have read all the books, have all the fancy degrees,

00:06:32.060 but when it comes down to investing and picking the right jockeys, they're horrible at it.

00:06:37.060 They can't see the BS factor of the individual.

00:06:42.420 They can't see that this guy's not a serious guy.

00:06:45.140 They can't see through it.

00:06:45.980 They're easily naive.

00:06:47.800 And they kind of will be like, yeah, that's a guy to do this.

00:06:51.260 And by the way, none of us are 100%.

00:06:52.820 Everybody's going to fall for the trap.

00:06:54.020 It's not like anybody's going to make the right investments or not.

00:06:56.800 It's not like everyone's going to go out there and get it 100% of the time.

00:06:59.580 There's never been a person that's 100% of the time.

00:07:02.200 Rob, were you able to find that clip or not?

00:07:03.640 I can't even find it myself.

00:07:04.840 Yeah, I can't find it either.

00:07:05.700 It's a clip I did 10 years ago, nine years ago.

00:07:08.780 If you're 60% of the time, you're above average.

00:07:11.820 You are.

00:07:12.360 You are.

00:07:12.760 But you have to make a decision early on on your relationship with risk, like Jeff said.

00:07:20.340 And then at the same time, one very easy exercise to do is the following.

00:07:26.340 One very easy exercise to do is the following.

00:07:28.280 Take a sheet of paper and write down the list of people in your life that went well and didn't go well, okay?

00:07:39.860 Investments you made, people you went to business with, people you befriended, decisions you made, investments you made, and then score yourself on that.

00:07:49.660 What happened there with that relationship?

00:07:51.340 And that's a failure, 3.2.

00:07:53.480 Man, that's a this.

00:07:54.560 And then right next to it, you know what I do, Humberto?

00:07:56.640 did I have any early signs that this wasn't going to work out?

00:08:00.920 And then if I took the risk, guess what?

00:08:03.000 At least I took the risk knowing there was still early signs.

00:08:05.960 But then if I knew the early signs and it was a horrible sign,

00:08:09.100 why did I still go with it?

00:08:11.460 Why did I make that decision for it?

00:08:13.300 Why did I do that?

00:08:14.440 It wasn't worth doing that.

00:08:15.480 Why did I do it?

00:08:16.800 And then what can I do differently for the next time this comes around

00:08:19.840 to see the pattern and things like there was a kid that came to our house

00:08:23.480 with one of my kids.

00:08:26.020 And from the beginning, I just didn't like the way this guy handled himself.

00:08:29.420 I didn't like the way he talked to my wife.

00:08:31.280 I didn't like the way he talked to my kids.

00:08:33.500 And he was one of the new guys that had come in town.

00:08:36.220 And I'm like, hey, I told one of my kids, this is not a guy that's going to come to our house.

00:08:40.740 And all of a sudden, the kid, a couple years later, gets into massive trouble with the school he's in.

00:08:44.840 What happened?

00:08:45.900 There's a gut feeling. 1.00

00:08:47.040 You know, women typically have this gift.

00:08:48.620 You know how women can, your mother can kind of tell somebody.

00:08:51.900 My dad had a very good instinct with some of the friends as well.

00:08:54.080 but that instinct intuition you cannot teach it some people get this thing very very wrong with

00:09:01.620 their instinct and intuition if there's a muscle in life that you want to have your kids and

00:09:06.400 yourself get better at it's instinct intuition if you don't measure yourself and sit down and go

00:09:13.080 through it you will make a lot of wrong hires there's this book right here that you know i've

00:09:17.780 read now this is the third time i'm going through this book 5x and i've listened to the audio and

00:09:21.180 I'm going through it for a third time.

00:09:23.000 It talks about the hires you made that were good and bad.

00:09:25.620 Why did you make those bad hires?

00:09:27.420 Why is it reoccurring?

00:09:29.040 Why does this continue happening to you?

00:09:31.140 This book right here.

00:09:32.120 Not a lot of reviews.

00:09:33.460 If you're an entrepreneur, do yourself a favor and go buy this book.

00:09:35.900 I don't know the author.

00:09:37.300 I know there are two private equity guys that talk about CEOs

00:09:42.100 that on average got 5x plus on investment.

00:09:45.160 So private equity invests $10 million in the company.

00:09:47.380 The company exits.

00:09:48.560 That $10 million becomes $50 million.

00:09:49.800 dollars, the average CEO that did five plus X. It shows you patterns. You know what the

00:09:53.800 whole pattern is? Decision making, intuition, instinct, focus, being able to say no, bringing

00:10:00.680 the right person in, hiring the right person, firing the right person, not lagging on a

00:10:04.860 fire, all of that stuff. So it goes down to instinct and intuition. And this guy that

00:10:09.440 gave a million dollars to Elon, I just looked him up to see what else he did. He also invested

00:10:13.100 in Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, boring company. And he made his money early on because early

00:10:18.820 He was hired to scale a plating manufacturing company, metal plating and manufacturing company,

00:10:24.500 that he grew from $10 million to $125 million.

00:10:27.280 So it's not like this is a schlep.

00:10:28.400 He was already good.

00:10:29.160 Yeah, he was already good.

00:10:30.020 He founded a company called Valor Equity Partners in 1995.

00:10:33.380 He's also a winner.

00:10:34.660 And now you know him as a multibillionaire.

00:10:37.020 Patiently, long-term, eventually he had his hit.

00:10:38.880 One of the hardest things for people to do is just what you just did on a self-evaluation.

00:10:43.760 It's very difficult for people to do that for themselves.

00:10:45.900 And I think that's one of the skills that a lot of people are lacking.

00:10:48.260 Can you sit down?

00:10:49.320 It is because you should be your own worst critic.

00:10:52.240 It's tough.

00:10:52.960 And when we did the survey and the audience reacted to the podcast and saying this and that, it's tough to kind of go through it and get it.

00:10:58.260 But every once in a while you have to do it.

00:11:00.200 The more often you can do it, you'll have an edge over your peers and the competition.

00:11:03.340 Anyways, folks, if you're running a business and you're hiring people, there is nothing more annoying than when you hire people and it doesn't go your way.

00:11:14.340 and often it ends up costing you a ton of money.

00:11:17.800 Rob, go ahead and play this clip.

00:11:19.360 So the average bad hire a small business owner makes

00:11:21.440 costs the company $17,000.

00:11:23.380 The worst hires could cost you $240,000.

00:11:26.220 Why?

00:11:26.480 It's not just losing the employee.

00:11:28.280 Many times you lose them.

00:11:29.960 They're sitting next to somebody.

00:11:31.240 They've already infected the negativity on them.

00:11:33.180 They draw that person out.

00:11:34.240 Imagine that person was with you for two years,

00:11:36.260 and many times you knew this was not a good fit.

00:11:38.720 You knew this wasn't going to be somebody

00:11:40.100 that was going to work with you culturally,

00:11:41.840 but you looked the other way.

00:11:42.700 You didn't have a system on who to hire.

00:11:44.340 You didn't have a system of questions to ask.

00:11:46.240 Your calibration wasn't in place.

00:11:47.640 So one of the best things we're going to do this year at the Vault Conference, live in front of 12,000 people,

00:11:52.680 we're going to bring a few of our employees up there and show you how we calibrate quarterly on how we score people on five different metrics

00:12:00.120 and why this has helped our company's retention go higher as well as grow exponentially in ways we've never experienced before.

00:12:07.060 And this will only happen at the Vault Conference that we host once a year.

00:12:11.340 12,000 people from 60-plus countries will be attending the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas

00:12:15.900 August 31st through September 3rd, going through this 296-page manual together.

00:12:21.820 And if you haven't yet registered, click on the link above or below.

00:12:25.240 Get registered.

00:12:26.100 You may want to bring your team with you.

00:12:28.660 It'll be a very special event this year.

00:12:30.160 Looking forward to seeing you there.

00:12:31.280 There you go.

00:12:31.760 Go to vault2026.com.

00:12:33.880 Again, vault2026.com.

00:12:36.780 Speaker Stephen Bartlett from the Diary of the CEO.

00:12:39.140 He'll be there.

00:12:39.560 Logan Paul will be there to talk about

00:12:41.720 how to create a brand. Then we'll have

00:12:43.520 Joe Montana and Jerry Rice simultaneously 1.00

00:12:45.840 interview on how to find a running mate.

00:12:47.660 When you get a running mate, what happens to you?

00:12:49.420 And last but not least, Dan Martell, author of

00:12:51.860 Buy Back Your Time,

00:12:53.580 who has exited multiple companies. We'll discuss

00:12:55.480 how to leverage AI today. Go to

00:12:57.360 vault2026.com. Get registered.

00:12:59.420 Cannot wait to see all of you guys there.

00:13:01.360 If you enjoyed this video, you want to watch more videos

00:13:03.360 like this, click here. And if you want to watch the entire

00:13:05.500 podcast, click here.

00:13:09.560 We'll be right back.

Valuetainment - May 29, 2026

“Don’t Bet Against Musk“ - Musk's BIGGEST Believer Turned $1M Into A $150B FORTUNE

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