Richard Wilson
Ep. 24 — A bored and broke undergraduate has a terrible car crash and uses it as a turning point to pursue wealth and knowledge / Richard Wilson, CEO and founder of the Family Office Club. Richard Wilson was phoning it in like many undergraduate students, feeling unmotivated and unrewarded. Then, driving home one night from college to his parent's home, Wilson hydroplaned in the rain into a cement barricade. “The car just kind of crumpled in half and it was the middle of the night, pouring rain. I just kind of stumbled out of the car and several cars stopped because my headlights were facing oncoming traffic. And some people saw my car spinning,” remembers Wilson. “And I just kind of walked away from it, luckily. And it just kind of opened my eyes to that my life could have ended right then.” That was, literally and figuratively, a turning point in Wilson's life. He started piling on more coursework to graduate early and enter the workforce. He learned how to work the phones to look for the best jobs and how to negotiate for higher salaries. And he started to look for “anomalous opportunities,” searching for “white spaces,” where there wasn’t much competition and where he could create his own brand and niche. He found it in the Family Office world, helping high net worth families find and make the right investments and connecting Family Offices to each other. He started a LinkedIn group, bought and quickly monetized a Family Office website, and spoke at 150 events over 14 countries. Today, Wilson is the author of four books and one of the global authorities on Family Offices and investment strategies for the ultra-wealthy. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Richard Wilson was driving home one night from college to his parent's home. Despite his usual pre-drive triple shot latte, Wilson hydroplaned in the rain straight into a cement barricade. That was, literally and figuratively, a turning point in his life. Today, Wilson helps ultra wealthy families create and manage their single family offices. Chitra Ragavan: Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. I'm joined today by Richard Wilson, CEO and founder of the Family Office Club. Wilson also is the author of four books on family offices. Richard, welcome to the podcast. Richard Wilson: Thanks for having me here, Chitra. Chitra Ragavan: You were an undergraduate student when that accident happened that put you on this path to wealth building, but you always were a budding entrepreneur. How young were you and what was that path? Richard Wilson: Well, just when I was maybe five to seven years old, my parents would pay me a penny per pine cone, pick them up in the yard or they'd pay me a penny per page to read books. We had Christmas wreath sales in the Boy Scouts. We did lemonade stands. I would go along with my dad to his meetings because he had his own business and I'd sit in on his meetings with him. So it was pretty early on that I got exposed to entrepreneurism and I guess capitalism. So I kind of blame my parents for that. Chitra Ragavan: And you became more successful at it as you grew older. I mean you had a lot of failed schemes and scams, but you also had some successful ones. What were those? Both of those. Richard Wilson: Sure. So I had a yard service business and we had some neighborhood clients for that. I had a radio station, internet advertising business that kind of flopped. I also had a used textbook business when I was in college. I also had a long distance telephone service business where I'd call all the parents in the school directory, and try to sell them on changing their long distance phone provider to the company I was representing, as kind of a commissioned salesperson. So a number of different things. Some worked a little bit,