"I Thought I Had the Midas Touch": How an $80M Success Led to a Major Failure

Moneywise

Hampton

Business, Entrepreneurship, Investing

4.8 • 674 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2024

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can success create a false sense of invincibility? For Pete, it did—and it cost him millions. After selling his business for $80 million, Pete felt unstoppable. But his overconfidence led him into a risky venture that didn’t pay off. Determined to prove he wasn’t a one-hit wonder, Pete ignored the warnings, thinking his past success guaranteed future wins. Instead, he faced one of the hardest losses of his career. In this episode, Pete shares how his upbringing shaped his hunger for security, how overconfidence after a major exit led to a business failure, and how he’s rebuilding emotionally and financially. This is Moneywise, a podcast where host Sam Parr is joined by high-net-worth guests to explore exclusive insights into personal finance and lifestyle tailored for other high-net-worth people, or those on their way. They'll get radically transparent about the numbers, revealing things like their burn rates, portfolios, and spending habits. Who is Sam Parr? Sam is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of The Hustle, which he sold to HubSpot in 2021. He's also the co-host of one of the world's top podcasts for entrepreneurs, My First Million. Known for his insightful business acumen and candid communication style, Sam Parr continues to be a prominent figure in the world of media and entrepreneurship. Sam's newest and biggest venture yet is Hampton, which he co-founded in 2022. This podcast was made for the Hampton community, a private, highly-vetted, peer membership community for founders and CEOs of fast-growing, tech-enabled startups. Chapters: Pete's Humble Beginnings (01:45) Early Entrepreneurial Ventures (05:00) The Big Exit and Its Impact (07:03) Post-Exit Lifestyle and Spending (09:13) The New Venture and Its Challenges (10:56) Realizing the Mistake (22:57) Financial and Emotional Impact (23:52) Lessons Learned and Moving Forward (28:17) Redefining Success (35:31) Conclusion and Final Thoughts (36:48) This podcast was produced in partnership with Lower Street and distributed by Morning Brew.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Maybe I don't have the Midas touch.
0:03.6	Like everything I touch is going to turn to gold and then I touch something and it turned to ashes.
0:08.2	Pete was on a hot streak.
0:09.8	He sold business after business eventually maxing out in an $80 million exit.
0:13.9	That gave him a lot of confidence.
0:15.7	A bit too much.
0:17.2	I ignored the advice as well because I'm like, okay, I actually want to validate that I am an entrepreneur.
0:22.6	Like I'm not just like a one-hit wonder.
0:24.6	After his exit, Pete tried something new, but it didn't work out like he'd hoped.
0:27.6	Instead, it resulted in a hard loss both financially and emotionally.
0:31.6	I'm like, oh, am I going to end up blowing all my money because I'm going to like continuously try to do things. And then if you lose several million dollars at a time, I mean, do the math and eventually you'll end up with nothing.
0:42.0	In this episode, he tells us about how overconfidence post-exit led to that loss, what exactly that loss was, what he learned from the experience and how he's moving forward.
0:57.7	Hey, it's me, Harry Morton again, and this is Money Wise.
1:01.0	Instagram is full of quick tips on getting rich, but rarely do you find advice on handling
1:04.8	life after wealth.
1:06.2	But those conversations are happening behind closed doors, and this podcast brings those
1:09.7	private conversations to light. On MoneyWise, we talk to people who've made a ton of money and how it changed their lives.
1:15.6	They get brutally honest about their finances and their expenses and portfolios and the personal challenges that come with the success and then how they manage them.
1:23.6	Today you're also going to hear another voice, David Hauser. He collaborated with me on this episode and co-hosted the interview portion.
1:30.3	And if you're a startup CEO, you've got to check out, joinhampton.com.
1:33.3	It's a place where conversations like this about wealth are happening all of the time,
1:37.3	the kind of private conversations that just don't happen in public.
	...

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