My companies help you buy, build and sell profitable biz’s. Investor | @CTVentureCap Owner | @contrarian @bizscout_ @resibrands @bigdeal_pod
Joined February 2011
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Reminder... no one ever got rich by playing it safe.
Elon Musk had to borrow money from friends to keep Tesla alive in 2008.
Walt Disney borrowed against his own life insurance policy to help fund Disneyland.
Daymond John mortgaged his mom's house to fund FUBU.
Sara Blakely put her entire savings into Spanx.
I know everyone hates on W-2 employees who want to have a side hustle or buy a business while they’re still working.
Everybody loves to tell you why you can’t do that. The problem is, in today’s world, you probably NEED to do that.
There’s nothing better than a $250,000-a-year job. The only problem?
The older you get, the more likely you are to be laid off. The longer it’s likely to take you to find another. The cheaper your replacements. The more AI can disrupt.
And layoffs are growing. 55% of displaced workers ages 55–64 were employed again when surveyed, compared with 75% of workers ages 25–54.
So what happens when you’re 45 or 50? Are you going to start a brand-new business and compete with everybody who’s young, has fewer responsibilities, and has an idea you’ve never even thought of?
So you can spend the first 2–3 years potentially being unprofitable, paying out of pocket to build the thing? Oh, and by the way, about HALF of new employer businesses don’t even make it to year five.
Sure, make fun of the W-2 employees in their 40s and 50s who want a side hustle. Make fun of the guy who makes $250K and wants to buy a $1M revenue plumbing business. Or the woman making $300K in consulting who wants to buy a bookkeeping firm. Or the executive who wants to own a laundromat while keeping his day job.
But what are they actually doing? Diversifying away from a single-income trap. At a time when their costs are incredibly high. They have kids to take care of. Colleges to pay for. Mortgages, health insurance, aging parents, and a lifestyle that they can’t just easily roll back.
We tell people to diversify their investments constantly.
Don’t put all your money in one stock.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
But putting 100% of your income in the hands of one employer? Apparently that’s responsible.
This is why I think acquisition, while certainly not easy, is often a pretty rational choice for people who have W-2s, work hard, and are competent. Could you fail? Yes but look at the SBI failure rate for businesses, located in our communities less than 8%.
Because a $250K salary is great.
Until someone else decides it’s $0.
Tell me where I’m wrong.
If you’re looking to buy a cash flowing business in 2026, go to bizscout.com
~20k listings. 180k buyers. Thousands of trusted brokers.
Free to list and browse.
I'm biased because this is how I bought businesses while employed but if you want to learn -> here's where we talk about it: info.contrarianthinking.co/b…
> Be Kenn Ricci
> Become an airline pilot
> Fly part time for a tiny charter company while you’re in law school
> Watch the owner get caught running a fraud
> Buy the company for $27.5k
> Build a cheaper version of NetJets selling people shares of used private jets
> Get turned down by 35+ banks
> Watch Warren Buffett buy NetJets
> Get the funding as soon as banks see Buffett betting on it
> Sell your company, then buy it back in the 2008 crash for 30 cents on the dollar
> Buy out a competitor and grow it to 365+ jets and billions a year in revenue
Some of the biggest fortunes in America started with a small business nobody wanted.
Kenn Ricci is the founder of Flexjet, a private jet company with 365 jets, billions in revenue (and growing fast), and more Gulfstreams than the U.S. government.
He bought his first aviation company for $27,500: "I didn't buy the company to be an entrepreneur. I bought it so I could still have a job."
When he was forced to sell his company, he called it the worst day of his life. Six years later, at the bottom of the financial crisis, he bought the company back.
This was a fun conversation about extreme customer service, why money can be more dangerous than sex, the benefits of being an inch wide but a mile deep, how to talk to your kids about wealth, and building a life tailor-made for you.
0:00 Kenn’s son had never flown commercial
2:34 Giving your kids their wealth while you’re alive
7:03 Charlie Munger: “You give them the money”
15:57 The rule his kids made to avoid jealousy
25:36 Buying a failed charter company for $27,500
35:05 Turned down by every bank until Buffett bought NetJets
39:33 $100 million in sales in 3 months
41:36 Why he hates mergers
42:58 Losing his company: the worst day of his life
52:15 Buying his company back in the financial crisis
56:08 The $600 million problem that led to Gulfstream
1:03:01 Father Hesburgh’s 3 rules for a life of significance
1:05:47 Why he gave away everything he owned
1:09:57 Why any employee can comp a $300,000 trip
Includes paid partnerships.
Seduction expert Robert Greene reveals how to instantly kill your charisma:
- do 95% of the talking
- brag about your accomplishments
- explain things when nobody asked you to
- tell people what you think is right and wrong
Influenced by this piece... very well written; no one wants to feel bad for earners at high levels and yet this is where all the banks lend credit and most spending in the US happens.
teapawt.org/blueprintsmb22/status/…
I'm in my 40s. The most scared/disoriented people in my network are the ones that have the following resume => went to an Ivy League school, went into consulting for Bain or BCG or investment banking for a bulge bracket bank then MBA at Harvard/Stanford and then career progression in high income tech W2 or hedge funds/private equity.
A number of these individuals in the last 5 years have been unexpectedly let go in their early 40s with 2-3 kids in private school and a burn rate they socially struggle to walk away from (kids have close friends now, business connections at the private school their kids go to, living in a high cost location makes it easier to network, etc).
These are the people literally have only been told they are excellent their entire lives and now are in year 3-4 (no exaggeration) of trying to land a new job. Some are willing to "settle" for working for mid 6 figures (some even less) just to cover their burn rate with a young family.
AI probably makes this dynamic happen earlier in one's career going forward for some of these perfect resumes individuals. Good chart from @Jack_Raines in his book Young Money
No. 1 trait of the most successful people I know, they are deeply in love with the game.
It's almost impossible to beat someone who is having fun.
The best skill you'll ever learn, how to stay positive even when you have a thousand reasons not to.
We obsess on building teams like this if you want to see how, come to hq we’ll show you live.
contrarianthinking.co/growth…
All employees come in 5 levels, choose wisely:
Level 1 - tells you there's a problem
Level 2 - tells you there's a problem and what caused it
Level 3 - tells you there's a problem, what caused it, and options to fix it
Level 4 - tells you there's a problem, what caused it, options to fix it, and which one they'd pick
Level 5 - tells you there was a problem, what caused it, how they fixed it, and future proof’d it
Before I was even pregnant, I asked my mom & dad for advice from raising me and my brother...
This is what they told me, maybe you'll find it useful too:
1. Your kids are not your friends. They’re yours to safeguard and support, but set rules. Biggest problem with most kids in our generation, their parents wanted to be liked not respected.
2. Psy ops are underrated. My mom had this line for whenever I got into trouble. She’d say, “When I ask you a question like this, I already know the answer. I am giving you a chance to come clean...” At which point I’d sing like a canary because I’m a scaredy cat. I found out today she rarely knew the answers. Brilliant and maniacal.
3. Always on the same page. My mom and dad rarely fought in front of my brother and I. They would never go back on the word of the other. United front to deal with us mini terrorists.
4. Make time. My dad had this silly line that is actually not silly: “You can make money, you can make a cake, but you can’t make time.” So they made allllll the time for us.
5. Four chairs. We have these four chairs in our living room, no tv. Growing up, we’d sit and debate and talk for hours. Politics. Opinions. Our days. Only thing not allowed was an opinion you couldn’t defend unemotionally. We still do this today.
6. Mi Sangre mi siempre. They’d always say, blood comes first. They meant it. I hired my brother, my dad, my mom, my cousin at times. We stick together and we may fight like hell but never in front of others.
7. Once you decide, you don’t quit. We could play any sport or instrument BUT if we committed we had to play the full year all out. No 3 lessons and quit. Taught us to choose thoughtfully and keep going even when it hurt.
8. Always call. They still pick up the phone nearly every time it’s family. My dad in a meeting will pause to answer my mom. My husband taught me this too, and I try to do the same. If they’re your first priority this is an easy way to prove it.
9. You’re not a princess, you’re a president. My dad always used to say that line. He told me this week that I lived up to it. Gutted me. He taught us we didn’t need to be saved, instead we could save ourselves and help others.
10. Hug often and seriously. If you’ve ever hugged my parents, they mean it when they do it. Such a simple, free gesture. My mom always gives you a hug and says vaya con dios... go with God. How can you not do big things with parents that hold you like that?
Just some lessons from parents I happen to think are some of the best in the world.
Moms & dads everywhere, I'm in awe of you.
Hardest job I've ever seen.
Hope I'm half as good at it as my parents were with us.
My golden rule is that I never trust anyone who goes around flashing fancy cars and lambos. 9 out of 10 times they are just trying to sell you a life that doesn’t exist.
So many people looking for work on LinkedIn.
Just looked it up... 220 million+ using “Open to Work," up 35% since January.
hard market.