Brick by Brick: Success in Business and Life by Paul Bassi

NO U T F NC OR OR SA RE LE CT OR ED DI PRO ST O RI F BU TI ON BRICK BY BRICK

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NO U T F NC OR OR SA RE LE CT OR ED DI PRO ST O RI F BU TI ON

NO U T F NC OR OR SA RE LE CT OR ED DI PRO ST O RI F BU TI ON

BRICK BY BRICK

PAUL BASSI CBE

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BLOOMSBURY BUSINESS Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA

BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY BUSINESS and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2019 Copyright Š Paul Bassi, 2019

Paul Bassi has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-­party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN:

HB: 978-1-4729-7222-4 ePDF: 978-1-4729-7219-4 eBook: 978-1-4729-7220-0

Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Printed and bound in Great Britain

To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters.

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NO U T F NC OR OR SA RE LE CT OR ED DI PRO ST O RI F BU TI ON One of the saddest things in life is to get to the end and look back and regret knowing that you could have been, done and had so much more.

ROBIN SHARMA

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NO U T F NC OR OR SA RE LE CT OR ED DI PRO ST O RI F BU TI ON

CONTENTS

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Acknowledgements viii

Introduction

1

1 Punjab to the Palace

7

2 Understanding success

33

3 Understanding successful people 4 Planning for success

51

89

5 Running a successful business

107

6 Learning how to make, save and spend money 7 Successful property investing 8 The property cycle

159

165

207

Conclusion: make a habit of success

225

Reading list 231 Index 233

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NO U T F NC OR OR SA RE LE CT OR ED DI PRO ST O RI F BU TI ON

Introduction

Success is a simple thing that most people believe to be complicated.

We look up to people at the peak of their professions and believe they must be incredible and rare talents. But it isn’t true. In the vast majority of cases, the people at the top have got there by following disciplines

that are open to everyone. Their success is far more normal, and

achievable, than is generally understood. I believe in God-­given talent,

but I also think everyone has the God-­given right to be successful.

This book has been written to show you how to achieve just that.

Normality isn’t something people usually associate with success: in

life, business or property. But success is normal, even natural, and it should be seen as just that. Too many people get told that their goals

are out of reach and they should give up or compromise on them.

Unfortunately, plenty of them take this message to heart.

People have a lot of mistaken ideas about success. Some lack

confidence and believe they don’t have it in them to be successful, thinking they are not worthy or that success is somebody else’s

domain. Others, with the opposite problem, think they can get away without putting the work in and don’t bother to lay proper

foundations. For very different reasons, both are wrong. As Henry

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2

Introduction

Ford famously said, ‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.’

More people should know the reality about success, which is that it’s closer than you think, but harder work than you expect. It’s neither

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the impossibility that some claim, nor the get-­rich-quick fantasy peddled by others.

You will be successful in life – by your own definition, which is the

only one that matters – if you set yourself a central ambition and follow some fundamental principles about how to achieve it, many of

which can be learned by studying other successful people. The advice

in this book is primarily focused on business and property, my areas of expertise, but much of it is applicable whatever life and career you

want to pursue. It’s about how you can organize your life around a

guiding purpose – what I call the ‘big picture’: set goals that are rigorous enough that you won’t give up on them; and then build a business that will underpin your success and that of your family and

your team for the long term. It is about the relentless approach needed in all aspects of work and life to achieve success.

I don’t view my own career as exceptional, or my own talents as out

of the ordinary, so the advice here is not complex or difficult to grasp.

It is straightforward, but has the virtue of having been tested over my thirty-­five-year career, as the son of immigrants who arrived with almost nothing, to becoming one of the most prominent property

investors in the Midlands. I currently lead a property and business portfolio of over £300m that has managed real estate worth more than £5bn on behalf of clients, with annual sales of over £200m.

I tell my own story in the opening chapter, before going on to outline my philosophy of success, what I’ve learned from other

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Introduction

3

successful people, how you can plan your own journey to success, followed by the principles of building a successful business and a thriving property portfolio. The intention is to provide a roadmap that can allow anyone to be successful and, most importantly, fulfilled

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in life.

The advice that follows is both what I’ve learned from experience

building those businesses, and investing in those properties, and also what I have learned by observing and working alongside those with much bigger companies and deeper pockets than me.

There are many different advice points which cover the ins and

outs of how you can set goals for yourself, go about building a business

and learn to invest well in property. But above all I will be saying two things.

The first is that you need to establish a big picture if you want to

succeed. Unless you have an overall vision – something that the career you pursue, and the businesses you may build, contribute towards – you will struggle to find the motivation and stamina required to

stay the course. As I will explain, visualizing the end game is about the context of your own life, not what others want or expect from

you. Forget other people’s benchmarks: find something that excites, challenges and scares you, a big picture that is worth living and working hard for.

The counterbalance to setting your goals and your sights high is

that you will have to work relentlessly to achieve those ambitions.

Whether you’re building a business or a career, it needs to be based on

firm foundations: a network and market intelligence, the desire to get to know everything and everyone in the professional village you have chosen. If you’re not prepared to put in this spadework, then you can

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4

Introduction

forget about achieving success on a meaningful, long-­term and sustainable level.

Don’t believe anyone who tells you there are shortcuts and easy paths to being successful. I’ve seen countless people attempt this

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road, and every single one finishes in a dead end and with the regret of unfulfilled potential. There is no short cut to achieving your big picture: you either invest the time and effort in building your

knowledge, reputation and network over many years, or you don’t achieve your goals. It’s that simple.

I knew almost none of this when I started my career, at the age of

eighteen, as the first in my family to wear a shirt and tie to work; or when I launched my first business a handful of years later. From

my parents, and through working in the corner shop they owned, I learned the importance of hard work. My career has also been

influenced by the Sikh values my grandmother taught me: respect, honesty, never fearing anyone or wanting to be feared, and sharing the proceeds of your work with others.

The rest I have had to pick up along the way, throwing myself into

an industry I knew very little about, and finding people I could learn from. I hope that by putting everything I now know about building

success in one place, I can help save you some of the trouble, and make you realize that success can be your destiny too.

The advice in this book applies to a wide range of people. It doesn’t

matter if you are right at the beginning of your career, or well advanced

in it and pondering a change of course. You might be thinking about investing a bit of spare capital in property, or starting a full-­time career as a professional investor.

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Introduction

5

What I’ve found out, from getting a tiny overdraft from a local bank, and investing tens of thousands in residential properties in the 1980s, to the last decade or so of my career, raising over £100m from institutional investors and building a portfolio worth hundreds of

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millions, is that the same principles apply however small or large the deal. Even if you are just dipping your toe into the water, it needs to be

done with much of the same care and rigour as the professionals. And while it might be your big picture to build a small but perfectly formed

business, that doesn’t make it any less of a precise and exacting art than trying to create a public company or a multinational. I believe

that the principles I outline here will be relevant to those building companies and property portfolios of all shapes and sizes, and indeed to those whose ambitions lie beyond business.

Above all, I want people reading this to understand that no one else

has the right to tell you what you should be aspiring to, or to set limits

on your ambitions. Success is normal, making money is achievable and fulfilling your dreams is doable. It won’t be easy, it won’t happen quickly (because overnight success takes fifteen years) and it won’t come without making sacrifices, but it is all eminently possible, if you

want it enough and are prepared to be disciplined and relentless in your approach. This book will show you what it takes.

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