An Opportunity To Grasp Success and Happiness With Richard Farleigh - by The UKCo

 

 

RICHARD FARLEIGH was always the businessman with a heart as one of the fearsome BBC Dragon’s Den team.

 

His kind manner and eye for a good investment made him popular with the public and

especially the ladies, smitten with his floppy hair, shy smile and good looks, as well as his personal fortune.

 

His business acumen is phenomenal, even more so since it was largely self-taught – as a schoolboy in his native Australia Richard was labelled ‘backwards’ and plonked in the bottom class of the bottom stream.

 

Only when he learned to play chess did his confidence begin to improve, going on to beat adults in professional competitions and becoming a master of the game.

Even so, he still believed he was ‘stupid’, even when he won a scholarship to university and graduated with a first in economics and econometrics, his insecurity and lack of selfesteem reinforced by his upbringing.

 

One of eleven children of an itinerant, drunken, violent father and cleaner mother, he was put in foster care aged two and never saw his siblings again until his 20’s.

 

“My foster father never missed an opportunity to tell me how stupid I was and I guess I grew up believing that,” says Richard.

 

He also grew up knowing what it was like to have to have no money, quite literally, and to penny-pinch while working his fingers to the bone to escape the poverty trap of his youth.

 

He says: “I never worked harder in my life than when I was at University. I worked part-time for a bank in the research department and spent every spare hour studying, even at the weekends.”

 

He was offered the chance to take a PhD at Princeton but turned it down in favour of a fulltime job with the Bankers Trust Australia where, he says, he was lucky to be mentored by his woman boss.

 

“I still had very little confidence and hated taking risks,” says Richard. “It meant I made mistakes but my boss helped me, stood by me”

 

“I was forced to take risks because of the nature of my job and I learned to do so with the her help, taking calculated risks and developing my own principles. I never read a business book or conformed to convention. I trusted my own beliefs. I don’t follow guidelines; I work to my own rules.”

 

And his method paid off - Richard went on to earn $70million in profit for the bank in

three years, being made a director at the tender age of 28 and garnering an incredible

track record by making a profit every year.

 

Later, he was head-hunted to work for a secretive billionaire, running a hedge fund in

Bermuda, earning enough money himself to retire to Monaco aged 34.

“I felt I had more money than I knew what to do with until I got to Monaco,” says Richard.

 

“I was surrounded by people who were far wealthier than me and I realised that, relatively, I didn’t have that much money at all!”

 

Richard still, amazingly, lacks confidence in public speaking and is challenging himself by appearing at the Success and Happiness seminar at Westminster’s Central Hall on October 15 alongside TV talent judge Piers Morgan, NLP co-creator Richard Bandler and world famous self-help author and therapist Robert Holden.

 

“As a child, I rarely spoke because of shyness. Public speaking helps in building my

confidence in myself, not just in my business ability.”

 

Richard will share his secrets of business success on the platform and will explain how he believes making money is partly down to “common sense, hard work, good ideas and a bit of luck.”

 

“Most of all,” says Richard, “passion is important. If you are passionate about something, a hobby for example, it helps you to spot opportunities and also means you’ve enjoyed yourself on the journey, even if you don’t get rich quick”

 

“In my experience, the journey is all-important. I’ve often met wealthy people – and I feel this myself – who aren’t interested in what money can buy because once you can buy that expensive car or house or suit, you don’t really want or value it. What you want is another challenge.”

 

To that end Richard has rid himself of many of his luxury possessions – including a yacht and two Ferraris – and leads a simpler life. “I don’t even have a car of my own now,” he confesses. “I bought the Ferraris because women like them, to be honest! I found them uncomfortable.”

 

He’s never happier, he says, than when he’s with his three children Thomas, 16, Jasmine, seven and Lucas, six. Thomas is his son from his three-year marriage to former flight attendant Sharon, who now lives in Monaco.

 

Jasmine and Lucas are his children with fashion designer Camilla, who he shared an eight year relationship with. “I have two failed relationships,” he says, “and I feel that is probably because I was a bit immature and work-orientated.

 

“I’ve worked hard on my relationships and I’m still good friends with Sharon and Camilla, they are both like sisters to me now and we all see each other regularly.

 

“Effectively, I’m a single-parent dad, because my children live with me half of the time. I do have a nanny, to help with the school run, but I’m a very hands on father.

 

“I’m happy if my children are happy. I love spending time with them and watching them grow. At the moment, Jasmine thinks I am the best person who walks the earth and Thomas thinks I’m very un-cool!”

“I’m careful not to spoil my children. They understand the value of money – and also that time is priceless in relationships - and I spend it on good education and wonderful holidays for them”

 

“I’m not a shopper myself and I’m not impressed by possessions. I like investing my

money to help make other people happy”.

 

“One of my dreams would be to help find a cure for cancer for example – I wouldn’t mind if I lost most of my money in the successful pursuit of that.”

 

Richard is interested in projects – and his most fulfilling so far has been the renovation of Home House, a beautifully restored rococo private member’s club in London’s exclusive West End.

 

“I wanted to create something beautiful to share with other people,” says Richard. “The project was risky but it’s turned out well.” You can say that again – Richard sold the club for a hefty profit but remains a life-time member.

 

“Investing is like a date,” he says, “within the first five minutes you kind of know if it’s going to work and most of the time, first impressions are right.”

 

So book a date with Richard at the Success and Happiness seminar – tickets start at

£125 and the day-long event can also be viewed live on-line from £30.