Welcome to It's a Good Life, the podcast for entrepreneurs, where it's all about growing yourself

and your business. Here's your host, founder of America's largest business coaching company,

Brian Bafini. Well, the top of the morning to you and welcome to It's a Good Life. I'm your host, Brian Bafini.

And I've often said I have a special guest today. But this guy, I'm a fan. I'm just like a fan boy.

In fact, in 10 years of doing this show, I've never gone out the door. My wife said,

What watch are you wearing today? And she said, you better change your watch because you're about to interview Mr. Wonderful. And Mr. Wonderful is wonderful. His name's Kevin O'Leary. You know him from the Shark Tank. You know him from his many appearances on TV, basically every day. Who's also a practicing entrepreneur and a guy with great insight. I love his substance. I love his style and I love his watches,

which I probably can't afford.

Kevin O'Leary, it's an absolute treat to have you. Thanks for joining us today. Brian, wonderful beside a fellow Irishman. Luckily Irish to you, my friend. Yes, sir. It's kissed that Blarney Stone today. Yeah, yeah, it's great stuff. And you know what? again, a lot of people know your name, they know your face.

I'd love to just kind of give us a little background because I'd love to know where you grew up and what the O'Leary household was like grown up. Well, you know, a lot of immigration into Canada way back in the 50s, and my dad came over with Anthony Monk, actually, a guy there in the bottom of a ship, and he got a job selling kids' winter clothing. He was a salesman. Met my mother in the factory, owned, my mother's father owned the factory. Where did your dad come from? He came from Malahy just snored. Oh, my gosh. Right up the road. Yeah. My grandfather lived in Malahy. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I mean, that's one of the most beautiful

castles in the world. So, you know, believe me, I've had a few beer there. And then, you know, unfortunately, he passed away at a very young age. My mother remarried. We went to Champaign, Urbana. My stepdad joined the United Nations. I live in Cambodia, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Cyprus, Denmark, Switzerland, every two years they moved.

And that's sort of my, I thought everybody lived that way, but obviously it was an interesting

eclectic. You know, I went to school in Nicosia, Cyprus for a while. So I met a lot of

people all around the world. You might be interested to know that the Irish are everywhere,

everywhere. They're everywhere. Everywhere we're not supposed to be. Exactly. Rarely where we're supposed to be. I'm basically half Irish, half Lebanese. My mother came from Lebanese descent. Call me a black Irishman. I'm proud to be called one. That's great. Well, I'm called a black Irish because of the hair that used to be very black, and that's how they worked.

I don't have that problem, my friend. Well, obviously, you're a citizen of the world, which also is what gives you great perspective.

And you and I have another thing in common, not just Malahide and Dublin and Irishman by nature, is my mother played an enormous role in my life.

And she just passed away this year at 94. But she was the

spirit behind me, the wind behind the wings. And in fact, for the first 10 years, we would always

finish this podcast with her little Irish blessing. And if you look up an Irish mom in the dictionary,

her face was there. And I've often heard you talk about your mom. And it's one of the ways I really

feel connected to you. What role did your mom have? She helped you shape your investment philosophy as well,

right? Yeah, she was fiercely independent as a young woman, didn't want to ever rely on a man for money.

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