Fire Meets Speed! Pt2 of The Deep Dive
Welcome back! In todays conclusion of last weeks fantastic deep dive, Pete and Gavan talks us through his transition from law to property to his new project of venture capitals as well as talking us through some of his personal struggles with the economic crash in 2007 and how he took himself from losing everything to being the success he is today.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Q. Whilst you were working in law did you still continue your side hustles?
A. I was up to 50 houses, what happened was in 2006, I had gone from double-digit yields to getting outbid all the time by people who had never been in property before and I could not face giving up the business side. My mistake was saying, I need to get into the chain earlier, to feed properties to these people so I bought four bits of land and I got my planning through but I made a few mistakes, signed personal guarantee and 14-day demand loans. My wife somehow ended up as a guarantor on one of them! That land lost 90% of its value and one of the local banks served me with a demand notice, so I then lost everything including my family home.
Q. How has your parenting style changed over the years?
A. My parenting style is based on looking back on mine. My Dad was so old school he wasn’t very touchy-feely or anything like that so you kind of fill the void. I work really hard so I might not have as much time as some others, but I work on that time and the love and connectedness is really important to me. I was to be able to have the social capital to see if they are going off the rails and be able to have a conversation with them and they will listen and I can help them. Whereas I would say my Dad didn’t have that social capital with me because that bond hadn’t been built to be able to help me when I needed it.
Q. What would it mean, someone saying you’ve got something you shouldn’t have?
A. I don’t really know, I’ve got something about it. My wife sometimes talks about doing the lottery, and I say to her “you can’t do that, what if we won?” because then that would ruin the whole thing, somebody would be able to say we had it easy. Whenever we used to drive to school in my Dad’s car, there were only two of these cars in Northern Ireland and in one way it was lovely and in another way it was too much. I want to be able to say, everything that I have created with the support of my wife and my family has been created by us rather than come from someone else.
Q. You come across as quite kinesthetic? Wanting to feel that that success is yours?
A. That maybe comes from all the stuff I was discussing before my Dad. If I make a mess, I will be the first person to put my hands up and say “I’ve made a mess” and the way that you fail, people take shortcuts when they’re starting to fail. The way that you fail is important to how you’ll come back.
Q. You mention being lucky, with your wife and kids. Where does luck come in it for you?
A. Comparison is the thief of joy, but I say that because I know that I met her at the right time. I do the work just in time, to help myself. I use the word blessed maybe sometimes rather than luck. It is probably not luck, I do push away the success a bit sometimes. I don’t like people thinking that I think that I haven’t achieved it on my own. I feel blessed.
Q. What drives you day today?
A. The goal is to have an impact worldwide, the goal is to be the most successful entrepreneur in Northern Ireland. What is success? Success is the ability to be able to make a difference to other people. I am not money-driven, I took my first ever holiday for ten days last year. When I was a barrister I used to go on nice expensive holidays and drive a Porsche, now I drive an electric car and I am happy with that. I don’t go on flash holidays or spend lots of money, the difference is being able to make a difference, the ability to say I have helped the ecosystem in Northern Ireland. I wasn't Northern Ireland to be backed like it was in the industrial revolution. I want to help Northern Ireland get back to that, and I want to have a massive funeral. I want to have made an impact on so many people and to have changed Northern Ireland for the better.
Q. Are you at your potential do you think?
A. No, there is loads more potential. I actually had imposter syndrome for the first time ever at the tail end of 2019. There is new stuff that was done with venture capital that is so outside of my comfort zone. The amount of stuff that I have learned over the last year from startups and from other people that I am meeting and you’re going into those sessions, and you’re soaking it up like a sponge because you’re being exposed to new ideas about how you look at a business cycle or business plan. In terms of potential, the look was trying to raise ten million pounds for the change, and create ten billion from that and I am not that far in my journey in comparison to what we are trying to achieve, so loads more to come.
Q. Do you see yourself retiring?
A. No, I will die in the middle of a deal! The best deal ever. I was thinking about all the things I have done since I turned 45 for the first time, definitely not retiring no way. I’ve done a lot of heavy lifting, and I will tell you my theory and it was a moment of clarity “it is all about creating value, with the power of the mind”. That's true. The lifting that you do with your mind created more value than the physical stuff you do out there in the world.
Q. When are you at your best? What is your peak performance?
A. At the minute, it is a little bit crimped. I do love trying to show other people what they can achieve, but the intensity of what they were doing at the minute because it's all so new to me, meaning I am not at my best. It is coming back a little bit better, but at the minute I am not at my best because of the workload we have to find all these startups and investments to get the FCA compliance. So all of that and the intensity to deliver that is a pretty heavy burden at the minute. Whenever we get over these hurdles and were up and running, the best of me will be back, but the ability to never give up and to dig in, that is a strong part of me. I like to show people a strong leadership and I’m not sure if I have enough of that in me at the moment because of the pressures.
Q. What do you think people's perceptions of you are?
A. I know what they say about me, “He thinks he is just going to walk into the venture capital startup world?” “He just walks in and that's the way that he does stuff, he just pivots out of something else and he is just a shopkeeper”. What they don’t really know is that maybe their perception of me but that is not really what I am like. So I am listening to less personal development stuff at the moment because I am listening to stuff about venture capital and about startups because I know that I don’t know it. I may be a bit of a peacock walking it but I am trying to learn because I want to learn it. The people that are throwing the darts at me probably haven't had as much success as they think they should’ve had because they’re not prepared to do the work that I am.
BEST MOMENTS
“My rise and success wasn’t lucked”
“To have made such a difference, those other people say ‘I want to make a difference’”
“It is all about creating value, with the power of the mind”
“You can’t expect to go into something new and be really good at it”
ABOUT THE HOST
Welcome to the Speed Mentor Podcast.
Do you want success and abundance in your life?!
Do you want to hear how to achieve it?
Then you’ve come to the right place where the world’s only Speed Mentor, Gavan Wall will mainline you with micro bite-sized chunks of inspiration fused with knowledge, built into a daily routine to help you deliver success.
After walking away, a decade ago from his gilded life as a leading Barrister and property investor, Gavan Wall started his entrepreneurial career in suspicious circumstances as he lost everything in the property crash.
But he refused to give up, re-building a financial fortress from scratch, until now he leads multiple successful multi-million £ companies across FMCG, Franchise, Tech, Property and Mentoring.
He’s the Speed Mentor and serial entrepreneur, who shares with you all the breadcrumbs of success and just as importantly the failures. If you listen you can avoid the potholes and learn to conquer your fear and live a life of success and abundance just like him.
But be warned, his message can be stark and will not be for those seeking shortcuts. If you’re wanting to be told that the law of attraction will deliver success wrapped in a bow to your front door, then this Podcast isn’t for you, as that’s never going to happen! It’s time to own your own sh#t, never blame others and take massive action to create the attraction.
The opportunities and whitespace are everywhere. Gavan will help you get outside your comfort zone, connect with others, shed the scarcity mindset, set gorilla goals and achieve so much more.
If you want to make your ideas soar…then talk to the Wall!
CONTACT METHOD
Gavan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavan-wall-b828a56b/
Gavan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gavanwall
Gavan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/gavanwall
Speed Mentor Podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpeedMentor
Subscribe to Gavan Wall’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZyfsl7Au5_tM7gKA_vuitw
Gavan Wall Official Website: www.gavanwall.com
Email him at success@gavanwall.com
