A guy with no credentials walks into a Beverly Hills conference holding over a trillion dollars of net worth, gets turned away by security, and starts stopping billionaires on the sidewalk. Most blow him off. A few stop. And the advice the ones who stopped gave - a private equity investor, a venture capitalist, Shaquille O'Neal, a mogul who owns 50 brands, and Bill Ackman - converged on a handful of ideas worth more than the trillion dollars inside the building.
Start with the one trait every single one named, unprompted, when asked what successful people share: persistence. Ackman said it flatly - "persistence, never giving up" - and added that he comes from "a very persistent family." The VC said the one thing his winning investments had in common was "a relentless founder and a big problem." It's almost boring how unanimous it is. But the proof was standing right there: the interviewer had been rejected by Ackman in New York months earlier, flew across the country, got refused entry to the conference, worked the sidewalk for hours, and landed the interview anyway. The video is a demonstration of its own thesis. Persistence isn't the line you frame on a wall - it's the thing that got the camera in front of Ackman at all.
Then the framing worth tattooing somewhere. One investor - the one who built relationships for a living - gave the cleanest model of human dealings I've heard: "A giver and a giver is exotic. A giver and a taker is neurotic. A taker and a taker is psychotic." Most people run taker relationships, he said, then wonder why their frequency stays low. "Life gives to givers and takes from takers." "Hang around nine broke people and you'll be the tenth." His tactical version: when you meet someone powerful, don't pitch - ask about them, their family, their life. "Billionaires don't need more money. They want relationships. They want to be associated with someone valuable." The product, he kept saying, is you. Be real, because "they can see drama and games coming a million miles away."
That sits in tension with what Ackman said - and the tension is the lesson. Ackman argued the opposite priority: "What you know is more important than who you know. Ideas are more valuable than relationships. If you have a great creative, brilliant idea, the capital will find you." Build it and they will come. The VC split the difference: "ideas are cheap" is wrong, he said - "a big idea can move mountains" - but you need big ideas continuously, "around who you hire, who you partner with." So which is it, ideas or relationships? The honest answer the three sketch together: a great idea is what attracts the capital, but the giver's relationship game is what lets you execute it. Persistence and authenticity are the constants; ideas-versus-relationships is a false binary you grow out of.
A few more that landed.
On time horizon, Ackman was sharpest: "Being long-term in a world of short-term people is a huge advantage. The biggest challenge when you're young is you want to make money really fast - in investing, that's almost a guaranteed bad outcome." Think in decades.
On what to actually do right now, the agreement was striking - and specific. Ackman: "If I'm a young entrepreneur, learn everything there is to know about AI. Start learning to code using Claude Code. Build a company, build a website, build something. It's the greatest period of time in history for entrepreneurship." The brand mogul gave the product-business version: companies break, but brands have a heartbeat - "whether it's Reebok, Champion or Juicy, you buy the heartbeat." And the VC - who has owned MoviePass, invested in Ring, and now sells a connected toothbrush - said the playbook never changed across any of them: "build a great product, a great brand, and the right systems behind the business." The products differ; the playbook doesn't. "The biggest opportunities don't go to the people with the best ideas. They go to the people who execute."
And then the part that undercuts all the money talk, which is exactly why it's the part to keep. Shaq: "Money is just a scorecard. Wake up every day having a great time doing what you're doing - that's half the battle won." The private equity investor, on his nine-figure exit: "When the wire came through, I was sitting at Taco Bell ordering a number three." His message to the younger generation - "stay small enough long enough and you'll be big enough soon enough." The VC's ordering mattered too: "Know yourself, then love yourself, then be yourself - in that order." And Shaq, asked for his single secret, gave the least glamorous answer in the building: "Learn to listen. Two ears, one mouth. Surround yourself with people way smarter than you. And do what you say you're going to do - your word is your bond, even if it costs you money."
None of this is new. That's the point. A trillion dollars of net worth in one room, ambushed at random, and the answers rhyme: be persistent, be a giver, think in decades, learn AI now, execute, stay authentic, keep your word. The edge was never a secret. The edge is doing the boring, known things long after everyone else has quit - which is exactly what it took to get these people on camera in the first place.
Source: Asking Billionaires What To Invest In! - School of Hard Knocks
