Entrepreneurship | wealthymatters

“I can’t pick the tops, but I can pick the bottoms.”

December 24, 2015 1 Comment

Jeff Sandefer was once my teacher in school.Since graduating from Harvard Business School in 1986, Sandefer has had many successful business ventures, amassing a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Here is the story of how this Texas oilman acquired 17 billion barrels of Australian shale oil reserves in a controversial deal that eventually generated roughly $150 million for his philanthropic organizations. Those nonprofit groups now play a major role in Sandefer’s efforts to change higher education in Texas.

Confidentiality agreements prohibit Sandefer from revealing details of the Australian play. He says he can’t even confirm the identity of his partners, the Ziff brothers of New York, even though their involvement is widely known.

Some in the Australian media have portrayed Sandefer’s 2003 investment in Southern Pacific Petroleum as a calculated ploy to force SPP into liquidation and hijack the company’s vast reserves and technology. Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets, Entrepreneurship, Paper Assets, Philanthropy, Theory, Tool Kit Tagged with contrarian invester, funding a charity, Investing in oil, Jeff Sandefer, legacy, multi-millionaire, Philanthropy, postaday, Sandefer Capital Partners, valuations

Yes, Brands Are Listening.

December 18, 2015 2 Comments

Here’s what I wrote on 3Nov,2015 :

The Long And Short Of Blogging?

Hopefully.

Great to connect with Christoph Trappe, IMA Marketer of the Year – 2015,and hear my thoughts and pitches to clients repeated almost verbatim.

Pity that with most of my clients my work still gets stuck in “Approval Hell” and the end result passed by committee, lacks the fire of the original.

Old ways of marketing still work just about enough for people to continue doing more of the same and whole job descriptions and organizations remain relevant only if things continue the way they always have. So understandably the resistance is fantastic.

Here’s hoping that I too can team up with people, open enough to do things in a new way, to deliver the sort of results Christoph is able to deliver with his authentic-story telling.

But today on 18November,I can say YES brands are listening! At least some companies with receptive top managements are willing to have their marketing staff and SEO teams sit down with the likes of me and they do value our ideas on brand building via content marketing etc.

Filed under Entrepreneurship Tagged with Approval hell, Athentic Story Telling, brand building, Christoph Trappe, Content Marketing, IMA Marketer of the Year - 2015, postaday

Letting lt All Sink In

December 18, 2015 Leave a comment

wealthymatters 4Nov,2015

I always find it worthwhile talking to entrepreneurs who have been there, done that. I learn most of what I find truly worthwhile that way.

And when the entrepreneur is Bruce Dickinson of the Iron Maiden, I’ve found its really quite something!

Initially, I was inclined to downgrade any interaction with Bruce. After all what could I really have in common with the lead vocalist of a band I’ve never bothered to even listen to before? And anyways I’m not fan material .I like certain performances of a few musicians/bands here and there and that’s it. I have them stored in my i-pod/phone/you-tube account. These pieces touch me and I listen to them over and over again.

But boy was I wrong! Read more of this post

Filed under Entrepreneurship, Theory Tagged with Aviation, Bruce Dickinson, co-branding, Iron Maiden, merchandising, postaday

One Reaching For Eighteen

December 18, 2015 Leave a comment

Sometime this year, quite unremarked, wealthymatters served the one millionth reader! Pretty astonishing and quite beyond anything I could have imagined when I first started this blog.

These days, having met Jeff Bullas,I’ve a new stretch goal before me – 18 million readers.

Now if only I can find the focus to sit down and diligently do what Jeff does day and day out to achieve his numbers.

Such numbers might just turn wealthymatters from a successful blog to a formidable digital business.

Filed under Alternative Assets, Entrepreneurship, Tidbits Tagged with digital business, digital marketer, Jeff Bullas, one million, one million page views, one million readers, postaday, successful blog

The World’s Best Entrepreneurs

December 12, 2015 Leave a comment

wealthymatters

So who are the world’s best entrepreneurs?

The international consensus is – Indians.And why do international money managers hold this opinion? Kenneth Andrade, has a very interesting story. He says that time and again international fund managers and investors have repeatedly revealed that nowhere else do they find companies with 150-200 cr turnovers with offices and factories in 4-5 countries. Read more of this post