0 (2s):
Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like Being Boss. Today, we'll be chatting with the most interesting trader in the world to live up to this hype. I have brought Timothy Sykes and the EOFire studios. Timothy is a stock trader teacher, philanthropists traveler, and a foodie. Ok we're going to start with a bang Fire Nation. How can you make millions in the markets? How can you work from your bedroom? Find what you love. Maybe even get into some philanthropy and charities and so much more. When we get back from thanking our sponsors, looking for another great podcast to add to your up next list.

0 (45s):
I'm excited to tell you about work check and original podcast from Atlassian. Listen to work, check on apple podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Business Made Simple hosted by Donald Miller, takes the mystery out of growing your business. Recent episodes, like how to attract and retain top talent and how to make more money with your current products are straight fire. Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Timothy say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 21s):
What's up everybody. Thank you for having me on the interesting thing about becoming successful is that your goals will change and you know, not in the way that you think, like I always wanted, you know, a big house, fancy cars, like boats, like the big rockstar lifestyle. Cause I grew up in a small town when I actually got it. It sucked, it sucks so bad. And I had no idea and I wish somebody had warned me earlier on. So I'm here to warn you

0 (1m 50s):
What specifically sucks about it.

1 (1m 52s):
All sorts of things, you know, from my Lambos were getting keyed. And I didn't know, like if you go away for a little while, like you're you have a Ferrari, you might get, it just dies. Cause you're supposed to start it. You know, pretty often I had a big place in the some air conditioner, coil broken, the whole living room got flooded and I was, you know, in Japan and I had to fly back. Like it was just, there was a lot of responsibility that I didn't realize. And even when there were no problems, I was like, why do I have all this stuff? It doesn't make me happy. Like I thought it was,

0 (2m 25s):
Well, I will say a lot of people in Fire Nation are at least interested in getting to a point where they could afford those things. Maybe they're not going to buy those things, but they're going to at least want to be able to afford them. And since we're talking to the most interesting trader in the world, let's start with a bang. How can we make millions in the market

1 (2m 44s):
By having a long-term perspective and understanding that nobody, nobody makes lasting millions in their first year or two. You might make a lot if you're in a bubble and then you'll probably lose it due to lack of knowledge, or if you take it slow, like I think you should then you'll do better year three, year four, year five. So everyone should be focused on building their knowledge and their foundation for future success. I know it's boring. Everybody wants, you know, fast money right away, but that is not reality.

0 (3m 14s):
Let's talk about your first few years. What did those look like specifically? Take us through the ups, the downs, the in-betweens,

1 (3m 20s):
You know, I was a tennis player in high school. I got started with my bar mitzvah money. I had surgery on my arm, so I couldn't play tennis. I was already into college, early admission. So my parents gave me control of roughly 12 grand in bar mitzvah money. They thought I would lose it all and thought it would be a good lesson, but I was in the right place at the right time. And I was driven. So I turned the 12 grand into a little over a hundred grand back in 99 again, right place, right time. Don't think that's going to happen now. And then I have nearly a million by year, 2000 and I didn't lose it, but I learned how different markets influence your earnings. In the first four months of the year, 2000, I made over 700 grand. The last eight months I lost 10 grand.

1 (4m 1s):
The strategy just completely died and I had to adapt. And you know, I, I changed to short selling. I started betting against stocks, which was very different, but I continued to grow my account until 2006, 2007, where I was tired of just running. You know, I had a small hedge fund at the time and I got cocky. So I invested a third of it and my best friend's dad's company. And I lost a third of it, losing all my industry, respect, not losing all my money, but losing a lot of momentum. And that turned out to be the best lesson because it was basically a $500,000 personal loss to me. It made me an infinitely better trader. And now teacher.

0 (4m 39s):
Now one thing that I want to talk about beyond what you just shared with that really brutal $500,000 loss. That again was a good lesson learned. What's one of the more cringe-worthy things that's happened to you over the years. Like when I say those words, what comes up

1 (4m 55s):
Cringe-worthy I was in a few reality TV shows you might've seen some of my internet ads. I do a lot of stuff just to get the word out, but you know, for me as a trader and now a teacher, I just got to, I got to get people studying. So I'm not proud of a lot of the stuff that I've done to get attention, but it got me, the students. And then, you know, the right students come forward over time.

0 (5m 19s):
Hey, you're talking to a guy that in 2001 was on his spring break and it was on Springer break for a little strip trivia. So I can probably guess that you can guess where that ended up going. So we all have these cringe-worthy moments, Fire Nation let's embrace them. And what's one of your financial cringe-worthy moments.

1 (5m 40s):
I mean the $500,000 loss sucked. That was my biggest loss ever. I haven't had as big of a loss like that anymore, but you know, there were times once upon a time I lost a hundred thousand dollars in a stock trade and I was trading drunk. This was not with my hedge fund. This was not with me. You know, as a teacher, it was me early in my career. And I was just like, you know what I'm doing so well. And again, right place, right time back in 99 and 2000. And I was like, oh, I can do anything. And I started extrapolating in my head, how much money I can make if I make X, you know, six figures in a day, like, let me try that every day. But one day back then I was, I was in college and I was drinking and you don't want to trade drunk.

1 (6m 21s):
And I lost over a hundred thousand dollars before I even realized what had

0 (6m 24s):
No on the flip side of the coin. What's one moment that comes up for you right now where you're like, wow, I just crushed that.

1 (6m 31s):
So freshman year in college, another a hundred thousand dollar game, there's something about, you know, making or losing a hundred grand in a day that just changes, changes your mindset. But my first a hundred thousand dollars profit day college freshmen, I bought a stock on Friday. They specifically said they were going to be on TV, hyping up their product on a Sunday. I didn't know, short selling back then. I was early in my career. It was a market bubble. And I was like, screw it. Let me, let me invest three quarters of what I had at the time, which was like 250,000. I, I invested like two 50 at like 300,000. And I made basically a hundred thousand because the TV show was very popular and very positive. And I actually sold two sooner. It would have been about 200,000 the next day, but that's trading in a bubble and I was like, wow, I it's tough for me to ever even consider a nine to five job when you make, you know, a year of salary in a day

0 (7m 19s):
On rail. Now, one thing that we both know is that commuting is the worst. I mean, people's happiness literally can be dependent on the length of their commute time to the job that they don't even like in the first place. So let's talk about working from our bedroom.

1 (7m 34s):
I actually love it. I have like this curved spine because I work from my bed and you know, it's, it's apparently terrible for your back. There's even like a book that like links, like sitting too much to cancer, but I think I've evolved like an Armadillo. And I have like this curve back and it's really just comfortable for me. I don't have any pain. So we'll, we'll see how long it lasts.

0 (7m 53s):
I've adapted like an Armadillo Fire Nation. That's the core of the episodes so far, write it down, take it to the bank. Let's talk about specifically how we can find what we love. How did you do this? And how do you recommend others do the same?

1 (8m 10s):
I did it in a very slow haphazardly way where, you know, I went big and then I realized that none of it meant anything. I'll tell you that there was one moment when I got this, this is a cringe-worthy soundbite. When I got my second Lambo, I felt nothing. I was like, what's wrong with me? First Lambo. I loved it. You know, growing up as a kid in small town, Connecticut, I had all these posters of these cars on my wall. First Lambo. I was like, yes, I done it. I'm amazing. Second limbo. I'm like, eh, and I enjoyed the cars, the beautiful piece of machinery, but I felt nothing. I actually went and did a cancer task. Cause I was like, I feel nothing. There's something wrong with me. So once I started realizing that, you know, cars didn't do it for me, like big luxury items, didn't do it for me.

1 (8m 52s):
I got rid of everything, sold. All the cars sold the real estate, sold everything luxurious in my life. And I actually started donating to charity and started building schools, which I love. I now have 106 schools where my charity foundation and you know, I don't know if I can tell you this. Like now, like some people are like, no, I need to go through my luxury phase. Fantastic. All I can say is that when you find what doesn't fulfill, you don't be afraid to change.

0 (9m 18s):
I love that. And he actually, you and I are both part of the same charity. I'd love to give him a shout out whenever possible. Pencils of promise. In fact, I think it was about four years ago now, right around then we were actually you and I remeet Satie and Susie, we're all sitting down having lunch at a table in downtown New York city. And it was a great time. We got to chat a little bit. I was mostly talking to her meet. So you and I didn't get a lot of one-on-one, but it was really cool that, you know, we've all come together, Gary Vaynerchuks and another big supporter of pencils, of promise and other charities like that too. And it's cool to see when people do give back, but before we do leave this topic, I do want to ask a question. You found what you love, how would you recommend our listeners follow a similar path and not necessarily in the same industry, but just with the same mindset for you to get to where you got.

1 (10m 8s):
Yeah. So I think a lot of it is just testing, right? Like you, you see what works and what doesn't. And I, I, I really just have that one big, like luxury thesis that was like sold to me since I was a kid. And I never really even thought about veering from it until it hit me in my head that I was like, wait a minute, there's something else out there. And then pencils of promise is great. You know, we have two dozen schools with them and then there's other charities. It's not just building schools. You know, we have medical centers. I actually have a soccer field in Cambodia, which is crazy. I think really traveling and, and getting out there and, and really pushing your limits helps like travel to third world countries. Even if you don't want to necessarily, even if you're like, wow, this might be a stretch.

1 (10m 47s):
Try it. I think you'll be shocked at especially what the mindset is of people and families who have literally nothing in the third world countries. And yet they're still happy because they're alive. They have each other, and it really puts things in perspective.

0 (11m 2s):
It really does put things in perspective. Cause I mean, you're listening for an, to a guy who had at one point had two Lambos and felt nothing. But can you just picture going to any third world country? You can walk into any town and I've done this all over the place, Guatemala, Honduras, many other countries all over the, all over the world. And what do you hear? You hear kids laughing. You hear people talking you're you see people smiling. There's happy people all over the world. So if you're feeling empty, if you're feeling dark, if you're, if you're feeling blue, then it's time to start changing things up because it doesn't take money. It doesn't take success to have that one key thing that we desire as humans, which is happiness. And we get a lot more on these topics.

0 (11m 43s):
When we get back from thanking our sponsors. I've found out about some of my favorite podcasts from advertisements on other podcasts and that's why I'm excited to tell you about work. Check an original podcast from Atlassian. Our workplaces today are changing fast, but what changes are actually going to serve us best or check takes your most pressing questions about the ways we work together and hashes out the best arguments on either side Kate and I just listened to the episode on whether you should connect with your teammates on social media. While we were driving through the mountains of Yosemite. Now those views are some steep competition, but we loved hearing the arguments from both sides and also had fun sharing our own 2 cents.

0 (12m 25s):
A couple of episodes I'm excited to tune into next are could the four day workweek be a game changer for your team. And should you only give your coworker feedback to their face? Listen, to work, check on apple podcast or anywhere you listen to podcasts. We'll also include a link in the shownotes, shout out to work, check for their support. Customer expectations are at an all-time high and making things easy is how you'll win. If you can accomplish easy, you'll turn one-time customers into lifetime customers. So how can you make things easy for your customers? It starts with knowledge like having a 360 degree view of how your customers have interacted with your business in the past, what their buying preferences are and how likely they are to become a repeat customer.

0 (13m 10s):
But how do you gain these insights with a HubSpot CRM platform? That's exactly what you'll get easy to use tools that give you and your teams, the full picture of your customers. Just one example of how powerful having that full picture can be. Well HubSpot's intuitive payment tools allow you to help your customers have a seamless purchase experience with full access to payment data, your teams get the full customer story, meaning they can provide the best possible service. And with directly embedded payment links, your customers can quickly and easily purchase and pay from emails, live chats, and more. Learn more about how HubSpot can help your business grow better at hubspot.com. Timothy we're back.

0 (13m 50s):
And we've already talked a little bit about philanthropy, but I want to go deeper here because you've really done a lot of cool things, a lot of cool areas with schools, with soccer fields and medical centers and all these different things. Have you ever thought about starting your own charity?

1 (14m 4s):
Yeah, so I actually do at my own charity was the Tim Sykes foundation, but I felt a little weird where all the schools and all the buildings had my name on it. And I was just like, I don't need this. You know, adulation, it became weirder and weirder. So actually changed the name of my charity to karma gala took on a partner. His name is Matt about he's a great photographer, he's Filipino. So if you're Filipino or you speak to gala, which is their language Gawa means to do or to make. So we're basically going around the world, making good karma. Cause now we support a bunch of different charities, actually 95 charities. So we're kind of, you know, I donate all my trading profits to charity. We have our own charity merge. Some of my educational DVDs go to charity, but we're kind of like this pass through charity where people can donate to us.

1 (14m 46s):
But then we work with other charities. We donate to them. We even have two documentaries made about saving the rhino and saving coral reefs because unfortunately as much as I want to just focus purely on schooling and education. Cause I think that matters the most, that takes decades and a lot of animals in, in different issues don't have decades. Like it's all gonna be gone inside of the next decade. If we're not careful

0 (15m 7s):
Now, what would you say to our listeners who might want to take the reins on their own philanthropic notions? Like you have as well and maybe start their own charity. What would be your advice, your guidance, maybe steps that you took lessons you learned.

1 (15m 20s):
Yeah. I would look to, you know, intern or work for a big charity at first or a bigger charity rather than trying to go on your own. Like it was so tough in the beginning. I made so many mistakes. Like, you know, you think everyone in the charity world wants to do good, but there are a few bad eggs and there's also a lot of regulations. So you really want to do it the right way and you kind of need to get a know-how for how the industry works before you can go on your own. I know a lot of people where their heart's in the right place, they start their own charity and it just goes nowhere. They don't know how to fundraise. I don't know. Even if they do fundraise, I don't know how to donate properly. There's a lot of nuances. So I think, you know, like a great charity, like pencils of promise, get involved, whatever your, your heart really tells you, whether it's animals, whether it's schools, whether it's, you know, feeding people in your local community, you don't have to start your own charity.

1 (16m 7s):
You can also just volunteer your time. A lot of charities need volunteers, so get involved, but don't think that you need to be an entrepreneur in the charity field right away.

0 (16m 16s):
What's an example of a bad egg in the charity world. What happened?

1 (16m 20s):
Yeah. I mean, there's, there's a lot of them where, you know, the, the funds are, you know, given properly. Like the cool thing is when you're a 5 0 1 C3 charity, like you have to file all this legal paperwork and it's good. And you can see exactly where all the donations go. So for me personally, with the current gala foundation, I personally just pay all the expenses myself. Every single dollar donated goes to charities that we donate to. So there's no issue, but there are some charities out there that have gone down, whether they spend 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, I mean a hundred percent. There's all sorts of that. And so you really have to look at the legal filings and you should see exactly where the money goes like this is why we both love pencils of promise so much.

1 (17m 3s):
They're very transparent. You know, Bali children's project is another charity that we donate to with Bali. We have 45 schools with them. So just, you know, give, but also be a little cynical to

0 (17m 15s):
Let's talk about your laptop lifestyle. I mean, you have a great Instagram, Instagram account, other social media channels, where you share a lot of things that you do around the world, the experiences you're having share with Fire Nation, what your laptop lifestyle looks like.

1 (17m 30s):
The internet is only getting faster and faster. There's more and more apps and, and you really can travel the world. You really can just work off a laptop. Or if you want just your mobile phone, I don't like the mobile phone. Cause my hands, my fingers are clumsy. So I might type in, you know, buying, trying to buy a million shares instead of like a hundred thousand is very, very dangerous. I don't recommend mobile phone trading yet, but you know, on your laptop, like I, I trade, I have video lessons. I give webinars. I'm always looking for the fastest wifi. Thank you Ilan for Starlink, which is just becoming too, you know, starting to get mainstream

0 (18m 4s):
In Puerto Rico, holla.

1 (18m 6s):
Nice. How is it?

0 (18m 7s):
It's fast. It is fast. And even during like a really cloudy day, which I was nervous about, it still makes it happen. That's very impressive.

1 (18m 14s):
And so I was always scared to go down to Puerto Rico. I've just recently been going down there cause we have some charity NFTs that we're planning. But before that, like I never went down there because you know, Tim Brittani, one of my students who I think, you know, actually was down there and he had wifi interruptions. Cause your power grid goes down.

0 (18m 30s):
Yeah. Tim just didn't set it up. Right. You know, I bought a house. I put in solar, I've got a backup generator. I've got grounded wifi, I've got grounded internets. I've had zero problems in six years. And I actually have a backup Hughes internet, satellite dish, which was not great, but did still get by in the pinch when it was needed. But now the starlings here, I've got like triple, quadruple backup and it's better internet that I had in San Diego.

1 (18m 54s):
That's inspiring. So I need to go to Puerto Rico more so

0 (18m 58s):
Only if you want to keep the money you make, you know, we got 0% capital gains. We got 4% income tax on all things that we do.

1 (19m 4s):
I know there's a lot of traders down there. There's a whole little, you know, trader community and everyone wants to take pictures of me and I'm like, I'm good. It's okay. You guys enjoy Puerto Rico, but okay.

0 (19m 12s):
Oh, we're enjoying Puerto Rico. I can tell you that. Now what if our listeners want to have that kind of lifestyle? What would be your recommendation on the first few steps?

1 (19m 21s):
It sounds great to be able to travel anywhere. It's a lot of this stuff I talk about. It sounds great, but you know, you really have to become a master in whatever it is that you love. I read every single book, read every single website. You cannot over-prepare enough in whatever your field is. I mean, I read 300 books on trading, not all at once, but over time because I just wanted to learn as much as possible. And even then you're not guaranteed success. But I think a lot of people fall in love with the lifestyle and the rewards before actually putting in the hard work. So going back to what I said initially expect a year, two years, if not three years of struggling learning, especially now that you know where the environment, at least economically is not as good as it was, you know, two or three years ago where I think we were in this stimulus check funded bubble, you gotta have patience.

1 (20m 9s):
But if you, you start to prepare like you did, you know, with your own internet at your home. And now you're good. If you start to prepare like that with your own education and you think, okay, what can I do today this week, this month to best prepare for 20 24, 20 25, 20 30. And I don't think most people think like that. Most people are thinking, how can I make a million dollars in year one or year two,

0 (20m 31s):
Tim. You've shared a lot of value bombs today. And I think Fire Nation is going to go back over to this episode with a pen and a piece of paper and take some notes that are going to impact their lives. So take the stage, share with us the one key takeaway of everything that we talked today that you want to make sure our listeners get.

1 (20m 50s):
We live in truly exceptional times, whether it's the internet, whether it's being able to travel around and talk with people like you never been able to like mingle with them, not just on zoom, but in person go to their communities. If you want, you don't necessarily have to go to third world countries. But like the more people you see, the more communities you see, the more subjects you learn about education has never been easier, but you need to push yourself because I'm not the one who can study for you. Like you have to choose what you love and you have to really, you know, cherish it and really get behind it. Because if you're just like, oh, I'll learn a little here. I'll learn a little here, but you're not really a master at any craft. It's really tough to become successful.

1 (21m 31s):
So find something that you love. If you stop loving it, find something else that you love, but just be passionate, be patient be dedicated because this is the time that we've never had before. Like if you think about just a quick little history lesson, I mean, if you go back a few centuries, the smartest person in the town was somebody who had read one book, not necessarily like a really useful book, just any book. It could have just been a fictional book because there was such limited information several centuries ago, flashback a few decades ago, even if you had read more books, even if you had gone to college, you probably still were going into the same field as your parents. You know, it was like a family business. Some countries have caste systems.

1 (22m 11s):
Now none of that applies. You have endless books, you have Emma's opportunities to learn. You can travel the entire world for relatively cheaply. You can learn whatever you want in the fastest time in human history. And you have to say, wow, this is the time right now. Let me capitalize on it,

0 (22m 29s):
Tim, you really turned up the fire at the end there that was some fire and brimstone at its best. And we appreciate that. If Fire Nation wants to connect with you, if they want to learn from you, if they want to be educated by you, what's your call to action.

1 (22m 44s):
Just go to TimothySykes.com. I'm also on YouTube. I've got over a thousand videos on YouTube. If you want to learn about trading, if you want to learn about charity, follow me on Instagram. Also karma gala on Instagram has 1.5 million followers. Cause we talk a lot about causes, not even just learning about it, but getting behind it and sharing it helps spreading awareness. I'm all over the place. Just Google, Timothy Sykes, be prepared to laugh and cry. And you know,

0 (23m 8s):
I don't know, but mostly laugh and Fire Nation. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with TS and JLD today. So keep up the heat, head over to EOFire.com type Timothy in the search bar. The show notes page will come up with links to everything that we talked about. TimothySykes.com. That's S Y K E S. Check it out. A lot of great stuff there. Timothy, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge value with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

1 (23m 38s):
My pleasure. Thank you for having me keep up the great work, man.

0 (23m 41s):
Hey, Fire Nation today's value bomb content was brought to you by Timothy and Fire Nation. Successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in a hundred days, and we're talking, step-by-step visit the freedomjournal.com and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side, looking for another great podcast to add to your up next list. I'm excited to tell you about work check and original podcast from Atlassian. Listen to word, check on apple podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Business Made Simple hosted by Donald Miller, takes the mystery out of growing your business.

0 (24m 21s):
Recent episodes, like how to attract and retain top talent and how to make more money with your current products are straight fire. Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts.