Transcript
Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to another what’s new at Purple Beach and things innovation will be covered today, but also wealth, failure, writing, and a whole host of other topics. I’m happy to be joined by Shake today. And in another life, we, we worked together on a really exciting initiative, which I’m sure we’ll, we’ll mention as well. But before we get started, who is Shakib? Let, let me ask. Shakib, introduce yourself. Thank you, Anemi. Well, uh, hello. Let me just start by uh saying that, you know, if you wonder where this accent is from, I’m, I’m actually from Venezuela, Latin America.
And uh I have been working in the technology sector for many years, mainly in oil and gas and the maritime industry. And through the years uh in technology, one of the things that I’ve learned is that the future of the world is being driven by technology. Now, while that is not a um A secret to anyone. I think the part that many people miss sometimes is that these technologies are driving the future economy and that’s why I decided to write a book and uh that’s a little bit about me.
Today, I live in Singapore and I go to London, what, on a monthly basis for business. Great. And uh we’ll, we’ll get to the business bit in a bit. But as we were preparing for uh today’s discussion, which really covers your latest book, You, I, I can’t help but reflect on the fact that we had some interesting conversations around your journey towards writing this book, having written other books before. And, um, yeah, so tell us what the other, the others were about, how that experience was, and then tell us about this book and how it compares and contrasts, especially the experience of creating it with those others.
OK, well, um, let me start by saying the first, the first book that I wrote. Uh, management success factors of the 255st century. It was an attempt, a learning opportunity. Uh, I, looking at it from today, looking back, I think it wasn’t the best written book in the world. I received heavy criticism for it, to be frank, but it was an opportunity to learn. I wanted to put something in paper, I wanted to share knowledge and perhaps at that time, I didn’t do a great job, but it was uh an attempt to do it.
And I did take several lessons from it. Then a couple of years later, I wrote a second book, um, the Ninja Negotiator, simply because I am passionate about negotiation and investment. And that second book was OK. I received some positive feedback, some criticism, and I tried to put all that in practise in this last new book that I wrote, uh, the wealth that You Were Never taught. And now, you know, luckily, I finally got a book that people are really enjoying and it has achieved a bestseller status as of two weeks ago.
I mean, that’s amazing, because actually, I remember you talking about the book, then it being in beta, and I, or if we can call it beta, I, I couldn’t access it. And all of a sudden, I got a note from you that says, wow, it’s a bestseller. So, tell us a little bit about This new book of yours. And I, in particular, love the, um, the title, The Wealth You Were Never, um, taught. And I also love the origin story of it. So can you maybe, yeah, please, please tell us the origin story and then a little bit about what you cover in this book. Sure.
So the book is about where to invest, where to multiply money. The truth is that the wealth game has changed, but I feel that most people didn’t get the memo. So I wrote this book because too many smart people are still playing small with their money. But let me go back to why I actually wrote the book. Since I’ve been investing, I’ve learned uh several good techniques to multiply your wealth. Uh, there was this time when I came from Wales in, in the UK to London and I remember that I took a taxi from the train station to the hotel.
And during the way, I had a conversation with a taxi driver. His name is Ben, and he was telling me how much challenges he was having even though he was working really hard and saving money. He did not know what to do with the money he saved and the cost of everything was going up so fast that him being 48 or 49, I can’t remember exactly, would have challenges retiring at 65. So, that really was an opportunity that I took, uh, I, I invited him for dinner. I told him, Ben, how about I take you for dinner and I want to explain to you what you can do with your money.
So we went for dinner, we had a very good conversation, and he understood what I was telling him. He was very interested. Today, he is now a successful investor, uh, using the techniques and the ETFs that I explained to in my book and He told me in a conversation we had later that in the past, he had tried to learn to invest. He had tried to understand finances, but unfortunately, those books were very difficult to understand using very technical terms. And he told me that if I wrote a book explaining exactly what I explained to him, In terms that someone like him could understand that many people would actually be able to learn something without having to have a master’s in finance or in investment and be able to take advantage of it.
So that was the start, uh, and that motivated me to write the book and hence the book uh that we now have in the market. Great. And tell us a little bit about it because when you told me that story, there’s, I think probably many people listening to it can identify and I’m curious about the kinds of things you explore in your book, and obviously we want to leave enough for people to read, but what are some of the themes you think that in particular hold people back?
That’s what I’m hearing from that story as well. Yeah, OK, so I feel, OK, I have built technical teams and technology and technologies at a global scale. That’s how I knew where the real value was heading. Now, let me, let me make this very simplistic. When we all look at technology today, everyone’s talking about artificial intelligence. I think it is no secret to anyone in the world today that artificial intelligence is going to continue to exponentially multiply. In the next 1015, 20 years. Now, the part that many people miss, however, is that in order for artificial intelligence to function, you need semiconductors.
Semiconductors is what is utilising processors in order for artificial intelligence to work. Now, many people want to invest in artificial intelligence companies. That’s not necessarily a mistake. The challenge with that approach is that with technology changing so fast, what is today uh Top class artificial intelligence company might not be that in 2 years because somebody might come up with something new, something that is more innovative, something that people adopt, and the ones that are on top today might not be on top tomorrow. But what we do know for sure is that regardless of which one is on top, you will need to have semiconductors powering them.
Hence, I am proposing in the book to focus on an ETF which is a diversified investment in semiconductor companies uh er uh that covers all the top semiconductor organisations in the world today. That is uh an ETF called SMH and another one called QQQ which focuses on the top. 53 technology companies in the US. And the reason that I chose that is also because these organisations are investing very heavily in data centres that will Hold the servers that will have these processors with um semiconductors. So it’s all an ecosystem and if you understand that artificial intelligence is going to exponentially grow in the next 10 years, then you will have to understand that semiconductors Data centres, robotics are going to continue to grow together with artificial intelligence and hence these investments in my view, are a no-brainer.
At least in the last 4 or 5 years, I have been able to achieve returns of minimum 20%, maximum 70, 80% in a year. And I, you know, I think what I, what I hear there is, I hear the, the subject matter, which is the, the focus area where you’re suggesting to invest in. But what are some of the, I mean, how do people find their own niche? or are you taking, saying this should be the only space where people invest in, or how can people explore and find their own investment space?
Um, how, how can they overcome the fear? Because I think for people who’ve never invested before, it is quite risky and interesting. And um I was listening this morning to News coverage in the UK about the economy and so on. And um yeah, there is a school of thought that says, um, actually encouraging people to invest in cash ISAs has actually harmed the economy as opposed to having people, because people are fearful, encouraging them to invest in stocks and share ISA. But how do we overcome that, that fear and that perception?
Because a lot of people think that investment is not for them. Well, that is a very good question, but more importantly, you need to understand that if your money is not compounding while you sleep, you’re working twice as hard for half the result. So investing is not an option. Investing is not a risk. Not investing is the one biggest risk you can take in your life today. Now, I talk about SMH and QQQ mainly in my book because I understand them as a technologist and, and because of that, I understand the fundamentals.
And by that, what I mean is when you understand the fundamentals, Then market fluctuations are not something that you are scared of, but something that you see as an opportunity. For example, today when you have geopolitic challenges, etc. sometimes the markets go down for a week, for a month. But if you understand in this case, the fundamental that AI will be 100 times what it is today in 20 years and semiconductors, therefore, will have to grow that much. Then when the prices go down, you are not In panic.
Instead, you are investing more because you know it’s going to go up and what you’re getting is a very good offer. That’s it. I always encourage people to focus on areas that they understand. At the same, yeah, no, sorry, you go because I have another follow-up question, but at the same time, however, you have to be careful because sometimes what you understand is very good today, but what is good today is not necessarily good tomorrow, and I believe the real wealth gap is a knowledge gap. And, and, and no one is closing it unless they see the map.
And that map is very clearly in my view, with investments. And I, and that, and I mean investments in ETFs in stocks. I’m not anti-property, uh, but let’s be real. Silicon scales much faster than bricks. The times have changed and silicon is the new real estate. And If we have people listening, they’re being maybe a little bit so fearful, what is the smallest first step that one can take? Well, what I, what I tell people is, you don’t need to become a master in investment first of all, yeah.
You don’t need to become someone who’s chasing the stocks on a daily basis. What you need to, what you need to do is you need to choose, I prefer to choose ETFs because ETFs diversify into a series of different stocks in a specific sector. In this case, SMH for semiconductors, QQQ for technology companies. Now, uh, if you If you are able to create a system that Helps you that, OK, if you’re sorry, if you create a system of investing a specific percentage of your earnings on a monthly basis, sometimes the markets will be up, sometimes the market will be down, but in general, you’re going to surpass the market because you’re going, it, it will all balance out.
So it’s about having a system. It’s not about chasing the market. So you do it every month rather than putting 20% in something you don’t really need. That 20% into money that will multiply itself year after year and will compound year after year. And when it’s down, you have an opportunity to buy more, assuming that you are investing in something that you understand the fundamental and that will continue to grow like SMH and QQQ. And if we just make it personal again, what would you say has been your, what’s been your biggest lesson or mistake that you’ve made in terms of your own investment journey?
Because I’m sure you, just as you say with your writing journey, you started, and then you, you know, you, you move to, um, you know, a more successful, more successful world. So how did, how did that happen? Yeah, the biggest mistake I’ve made is, uh, early on in my investment career, I, I tried to, uh, predict the market, and what I, what I came to understand is that it is not possible to predict the market. You might think you know it, you don’t. So the only way to really be successful is either if you have insider information, which most of us don’t have.
Or to have a system that allows you to level the playing field. And in this case, what I do is every month, I get a percentage of my earnings and I put it into my um ETFs. And as you know, it has worked so well for me that I am in the process of thinking of retiring, um. And then live with um dividends that I get from ETFs simply by following that specific methodology. You cannot do that if you keep your money in a savings account. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s, that, that’s so true, that’s so true. Good.
Well, um thank you very much for that. I think, I think there’s a lot to ponder on and reflect, and I’m just left with the, with this notion that the, the best we can do is take the first step, right? That is correct. Take the first step, uh, educate yourself. Make sure that you invest in things that you understand in areas that you understand. If you, if you are interested in this and you read the book, then you know, hopefully that will give you a good a good understanding of the fundamentals, but only invest in things that you really understand.
Don’t listen to people, uh. Learn yourself and make sure that you never try to predict the market. Create a system. Yeah, I think, I think that’s, and, and I think learn from others. Keep learning, right? Keep learning. I mean, we, we are learning every day. Uh, I have been doing this for years. I keep learning something new every day. But uh uh the one biggest lesson that I got from all of this is follow the system of investing on a monthly or quarterly or every 6 months. Do not try to do it based on market ups, downs, just have that system and you will be successful if you’re investing in the right stocks.
Well, thank you very, very much for that, Shakib, and I do wish you only the very best with What will come next with your book? And yeah, thank you for taking the time to speak to us today. What time is it? You’re in Singapore, so it’s, it’s ahead of us, right? I am in Singapore. It’s uh 5:55 p.m. , so it’s almost time to, uh, take a small break. Exactly, exactly. Well, thank you very much for your time and have a good rest of your day, um, and we’ll speak soon.
Thank you, Amy. Have a wonderful day. Thank you.
