2. Every injustice is a market opportunity.
In the 2000’s, I was in the disco world.
At that time, I lived like the Vin Diesel movies Fast and Furious.
Every summer, I would travel to Ibiza to get ideas for the club I worked at.
My girlfriend at the time had an uncle living on the island, and he was a member of a world-famous biker gang.
The guys coordinated the security for many of the clubs on the island, and thanks to them, I had access to all kinds of people
- Famous DJs.
- Business people.
- Movie stars.
I won’t tell you about them; what happens in Ibiza stays in Ibiza 😉
I’ll let you know about a bum and the three lessons he taught me.
The Millionaire Hippie Tramp
After spending the day at the flea market in Es Canar buying clothes, necklaces and bracelets, the bikers took me and my ex to watch the sunset at “Café del Mar”.
There, I was introduced to an old homeless guy on the beach.
The guy invited us to dinner at a fancy “San Antonio” restaurant.
I thought, “How can a guy who lives on the street afford dinner for five people?”
It turned out that the guy owned the restaurant and many bars in the area.
There was a feeling between us, and during that summer, he shared three valuable life lessons with me.
Today, I want to share them with you.
1. What got you here won’t bring you there.
The old homeless man was of Argentinean origin; he told me he had traveled through Argentina by bicycle. And when he got to the sea, he took a plane to Europe.
The guy insisted a lot on that detail.
I didn’t understand why.
One day, he told me, “Look, AG, the bicycle made me very happy. Thanks to it, I rode around my country. But there came a time when if I wanted to come to Europe, I had to leave my bike behind and use the airplane”.
“Obvious. But I don’t understand what the moral of the story is”, I said
And the old Hippie told me, “People try to ride their bikes across the sea and then they don’t understand why they end up drowning.”
Lesson: You’ll have to use different tools at each stage of your journey. What worked for you from point A to B will probably not work for you to get to point C.
2. Every injustice is a market opportunity
The old Hippie told me that once in Europe, it was clear to him that his place was Ibiza.
But he had no job or contacts when he arrived on the island.
One night, he went out partying alone, and when he went to the toilet of a pyramid-shaped mega discotheque, he saw that the toilets had the water cut off.
A regular customer taking a leak told him, “They always do the same thing. They cut off the water, so people have to pay for it at the bar.”
At the disco, a water bottle costs the same as a drink, about $20.
An injustice.
So the guy started buying cases of bottles of water at the supermarket for 25 cents, and at night, he would go to the club’s parking lot, where people would come out to smoke or isolate themselves from the commotion and sell the bottles for 8 dollars.
He did this for the entire summer season.
When he finished, he had enough money to set up a small fast-food stand.
“I was selling an average of 100 bottles a night,” he told me one day.
Lesson: the greed of some is the market opportunity of others.
3. Don’t forget who you are
The last weekend I was on the island, he invited us to his house.
Yes, the homeless man had a house- and not just any house- one of those houses you only see in the movies.
Being in his infinity pool, I asked him, “Why do you sleep in the street, having this house.”
And the old man told me, “So I don’t forget who I am, money becomes poison if you forget”.
The Hippie spent a week touring Ibiza by bicycle every two or three months.
He would leave with the bike, some food loaded in the saddlebags, and a stove to cook.
That’s why he looked like a hobo the day I met him.
Lesson: Don’t forget where you came from, or you’ll return to the same hole you came out of. Money can be a blessing but also a curse if your ego grows.
A virtual hug
AG
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