Business

Entrepreneur | Economist | Counselor | Mentor
 

As an entrepreneur and economist, he co-founded an investment advisory company, a film production company, a multimedia agency and a publishing company. As an advisor, he is a counselor of highly-achieved personalities and he works actively to improve the world.

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LET'S TALK ABOUT MONEY

First of all: the money doesn't come from our job. Our money comes from G'd. G'd chooses how much money each one of us will receive. The work we do is there to create the vessels where this type of material blessing is received. To say it in another way: our work creates the bank accounts and G'd makes the wire transfers.

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So, why do we work? We do it not only to create the vessels, most important to achieve the purpose for which we have been created. Through our work we have the possibility to interact with other people and, if we make the right decisions, we can influence them into becoming better and help them to be better. 

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Money is the most spiritual physical object in our world. So much, that when we leave our bodies and we arrive at the celestial tribunal, the first question that is asked to us is how we run our businesses. With money, we can do Tzedaká (Charity), bring food to our tables, make a roof where to live. With money, we can invest in the projects of others and help them to build their own companies and bring more of what is good into the world.

 

 So, I can't define how much money I will get every year? No, you can't, but... You can influence G'd. Yes, indeed, you can. Because G'd is personal, He is involved, He cares about us and He allows us to affect him. This means that everything we do influences G'd and his decisions about ourselves and about the world. This means that we can do things that may push G'd to desire to give us more material blessings.

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RAISED INTO BUSINESS

My first job was at home. My dad started giving small activities to do at home, to help, and offering me dos pesos (two pesos) for each of these activities. He told me to save the money and so I did. 

 

My second job came a bit later when I discovered how to make wristbands. This was a very successful short business. I did a lot and went to the street to sell them. In Mitre (the central street of Bariloche). I sold a lot. But it was short-lived because my interest went somewhere else and I left the successful startup. I was around 6 or 7 then. Then I started my acting career as a commercial actor. But I am not sure if I have been paid for that. I don't remember.

 

Let's get serious. The big first business came when I was 13 or 14. Then the big thing happened. My dad had a warehouse where the import products from China were stored and distributed. Easy-piece. I was inside the deposit and I had to help take the boxes from the containers into the palets. Then help to accommodate them into the warehouse. Then open the boxes, inspect if everything was in the right conditions, sometimes re-package something, and then get them back, this time into trucks. I learned quickly my job, and I loved it. I was the youngest of the team and everyone was giving me ideas about life. It was very inspiring.

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Sometime after, my dad let me go to the front part of the company, where the offices were located. I worked in the accounting of the film. Then in phone sales. And finally in sales in person. One day something special happened. My dad had to travel to China and asked me to be in charge of the company. I think I ws like 16 then. So young. It was very interesting to see the reaction fot the clients.

 

Then, another day, my uncle took me to the road and taught me how to sell in person. We were visiting hardware stores and offering our products. I was fascinated of how he acted. Instead of selling, we was engaging. He was asking them about their families, about their business, about futbol (soccer) or politics. And then, when talking about products to sell, most of them end up buying us something. It was wonderful.

 

In the middle of all of these, I did an internship in a data-statistical company. I was data entry. I had to go and work in a very tiny room, without windows, entering data from papers into excel spreadsheets. I did the job.

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When I was 17 and was able to get my driver's license. Automatically my dad gave me the truck and asked me to drive it and distribute products to the supermarkets. I felt huge. I was geting the truck between the big men. Truck drivers. They had the wisdom. They knew very well what they were doing. My dad knew it.

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INDEPENDENCE

When I finished school we moved to Punta del Este (Uruguay), where I worked as a computer teacher for old people. That was the last year I lived with my parent. I left home when I was 18. It was a very difficult decision. My parents didn't want me to go, but when I made the decision they supported me. My dad did something amazing: instead of giving me money he gave me a car, a container with merchandising, and a wharehouse with products. So, I became a solo show business man. In one year I sold everything in the wharehouse, the container, the car and also the apartment that my parents left in Argentina. The money of the apartment and car went to my parents, and the money of the wharehouse and container was for me. So, suddenly, I had savings. Now was the time to become professional. I enrolled to one of the top universities of economy in Argentina (CEMA University) and turned myself into study mode. In 3 years I got the bachelor degree in economics, and 2 years after I got my Master in Finance. 

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Something special happened with the money in this time, that made me smile to G'd and be aware how, always, everything ends up turning out fine. The money that I saved lasted for 3 years, exactly the time that took me get my bachelor degree in economics. The money was running out. And then, just in that moment, I got not one, but two jobs: as a financial analyist - personal assistant of the CEO and portfolio manager of Criteria Investors, Gabriel Vidal (an investment company from Argentina), and as an assistante of a group of financial advisors from a known investment bank. Also I got a job as a assistant professor of Finance in CEMA University. It was great. I was working most of the day in finance, learning a lot about the stock market and wealth management, and learning and teaching in the unviersity, that thanks G'd, was just some blocks away from my daily job.

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MY FIRST INVESTMENTS

When I was 23 years I decided to start investing in the stock market. But I didn't have savings. The money that I was making for my jobs was enought to live a good life, but not much more than that. So, I did what no one should do. The first delirious thing I did is to go to the bank and ask for a personal loan. How much? they asked me. The maximum you can give me, was my answer. They gave it to me, at a ridiculus interest rate of 30% annualy plus commissions (in total was like 32%). So, I had to make 32% annualy with my investments just to brave even, meanwhile I was working all day and studying at night. So, I did what no one should do after this. I went to collagues in the industry and I told them that I was a genious that knew where to invest, that I was going to tell them if they could loan me some money and invest for me something extra in their accounts. Now it was really crazy the situation. I owed to the bank with 32% interest rate, plus I was making people invest in my ideas and lend me money. My, nothing healthy thought process was: if the miracle happen, I will be able to pay back everyone and make some extra money. If it doesn't, maybe I should leave the country and hide. The step after that was to invest everything into options. If you don't know about financial instruments, this may be odd for you. Let me explain you in another way: what I did was basically bet as if I was in the casino. I went all in into a couple of numbers.

And, believe it or not, it worked out. 

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I remember the moment. I was in the train stop. That day I was arriving late at work because I stayed late at home (another story, this is a personal one, that one day I may tell you about). So, I was in the train stop, waiting for the train, when my phone rang. It was a good friend from the market. Man, did you invested in that company that you were talking about?, he asked me. Yes, something (I lied, when it was not something, it was everything). Man, the company was sold! The equity price is trading very high! I looked at the sky, I thought about G'd. I smiled. I thanked Him. He just did an amazing miracle for me. Something unbelievable. And it was true. 

 

The bank got their money back, the people who betted on me got a big earning, and I made several years of salaries in one trade. So, I did what everyone would do in my case: I went again all in something else, believing that my good luck was a secure thing. But it wasn't. I lost 60% of what I made. 

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I quited my jobs, every job, and decided to travel. In the middle of all of these some personal things were happening (more about the other story that I may tell you one day). And at the end of 2007, we went with my parents and friends to a mexican restaurant in Buenos Aires to say goodbye to everyone. I knew that this was going to be an important journey. My parents knew too. My friends knew too. So it was a very emotional moment. We ate, talk, laugh and hug. Then, I left Buenos Aires.

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Today is December 23, 2021. This was exactly 14 years ago. I never came back.

Actually I did. But not to live there. I went several times to say hi. But that is another story.

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STOCK MARKET, ADVISORY COMPANY & ABU DHABI

It is late, I will go to sleep now. I may continue soon with the story.

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