00:00:03another edition of modeling the masters
00:00:04today we’re going to look at how a young
00:00:06boy from a family of ten in Mississippi
00:00:09was always looking out for opportunities
00:00:10and turned a fifteen thousand dollar
00:00:12investment into a multi-billion dollar
00:00:15empire
00:00:15this is a story of Robert Johnson and a
00:00:18top three lessons that you can learn
00:00:19from his success Robert Johnson is an
00:00:23American businessman best known for
00:00:25being the founder of television network
00:00:26block entertainment television
00:00:28eet in 2001 Johnson became the first
00:00:31African American billionaire and the
00:00:34first black person to be listed on any
00:00:35of Forbes as a world’s rich list Johnson
00:00:39was born in Mississippi and was a ninth
00:00:40of 10 children according to Johnson we
00:00:43weren’t a well firm family but we knew
00:00:45that if we wanted a bicycle and when
00:00:47somebody else wasn’t going to get
00:00:48something else if you wanted to go to
00:00:51college
00:00:51you knew your parents couldn’t pay your
00:00:53way he had an entrepreneurial Drive and
00:00:55used his $15,000 in savings to launch B
00:00:58et in 1980 it started with only two
00:01:01hours of old movies each Friday in fact
00:01:04for the first five years speed he would
00:01:06lose money soon however it began to
00:01:09expand his programming and cable
00:01:10operators jumped on board they believed
00:01:13that many of their subscribers would be
00:01:14interested in watching block oriented
00:01:16shows eleven years after its initial
00:01:19launch B et became the first black owned
00:01:21company to be listed on a New York Stock
00:01:23Exchange today B et has spin-off
00:01:26channels and is the largest black-owned
00:01:28cable company in history
00:01:30Johnson bought back all the BT stock
00:01:33seven years after went public for 1
00:01:35billion dollars he then sold it to media
00:01:37giant Viacom two years later for three
00:01:40billion dollars
00:01:44by always looking for opportunities and
00:01:47by starting small Johnson turned a
00:01:49fifteen thousand dollar investment into
00:01:51a fortune to help you build on your
00:01:53opportunities here are three action
00:01:55items you can learn from Robert Johnson
00:01:58action item number one always be growing
00:02:01as entrepreneurs we need to always be
00:02:04finding new customers and growing our
00:02:06businesses whether it’s launching new
00:02:08products offering more services
00:02:10aggressively marketing your existing
00:02:12solutions need to always be growing
00:02:15Johnson has been called a serial
00:02:17entrepreneur thanks to his love of
00:02:19starting new businesses on-the-fly
00:02:21throughout his career however if there
00:02:23has been one thing that he’s learned
00:02:25it’s this there are always new customers
00:02:27to go after according to Johnson if
00:02:31there’s something I can do and I feel it
00:02:32should be done I just want to do it I
00:02:35just don’t want to leave it undone
00:02:38because I’ll sit back and say why didn’t
00:02:40I do that why didn’t I start that
00:02:42business action item number two be
00:02:48opportunistic entrepreneurs are the
00:02:50special individuals who can spot
00:02:52opportunities and then turn them into
00:02:54profitable businesses in order to start
00:02:57a new company or grow your existing one
00:02:59you should always have an eye out for
00:03:00new opportunities where Johnson sees a
00:03:03chance to make money he jumps at it no
00:03:05if ands or buts about it
00:03:07while his critics use that fact as one
00:03:10more chance to knock him down
00:03:12Johnson attributes his success largely
00:03:14to his opportunism Johnson is an
00:03:17entrepreneur plain and simple he wants
00:03:19to make money and lots of it
00:03:22according to Johnson whenever I see an
00:03:24opportunity and a chance to change
00:03:26something I go at it be et was never a
00:03:30legacy event for me
00:03:31BT was something I started as an
00:03:33investment and I knew someday I would
00:03:35sell it
00:03:39action um number three ignore your
00:03:42critics if you’re doing something
00:03:43different then you’re gonna have your
00:03:45critics people are going to attack you
00:03:47for your ideas and try to knock you down
00:03:49it’s gonna come from our competitors and
00:03:51in many cases even come from our friends
00:03:54and family Johnson had a lot of critics
00:03:56as he built his business one of his
00:03:58greatest successes in his own mind he’s
00:04:00been in Africa merican who succeeded at
00:04:03the highest level since he felt that
00:04:05nobody expects minorities to be there as
00:04:08much as others tried to paint his career
00:04:09in terms of black and white johnson has
00:04:11refused to let others identify him as
00:04:13anything other than an entrepreneur and
00:04:15a good one at that according to Johnson
00:04:18today if I were to put on jeans and walk
00:04:21into a jewelry store and I could
00:04:23probably buy the jewelry store ten times
00:04:25over but the jeweler is gonna look at me
00:04:27as a black guy in jeans who probably
00:04:29can’t afford it and maybe who just might
00:04:31steal something so remember always be
00:04:39growing be opportunistic and ignore your
00:04:42critics to finish up this video I wanted
00:04:45to share one of my favorite true stories
00:04:47about Robert Johnson and some of his
00:04:48best quotes after being the first in his
00:04:52family to go to college
00:04:53Johnson plan to start a career as a
00:04:55government worker that all changed from
00:04:58the national cable and
00:04:59Telecommunications Association hired
00:05:01Johnson as a lobbyist for the nascent
00:05:03cable industry that experience proved to
00:05:06be a wake-up call for Johnson he began
00:05:08to think about his own opportunity to
00:05:10create a cable channel just for
00:05:12african-americans and would soon go on
00:05:14to launch be ETA
00:05:46thank you for joining me for another
00:05:48edition of modeling the masters if you
00:05:51enjoyed the video please give it a
00:05:52thumbs up I’d also love to hear thoughts
00:05:54and feedback if you want to leave a
00:05:55comment below the video and stay tuned
00:05:57to the next episode
00:06:18you
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