Arthur Wylie - Only the Crazy and Fearless Win BIG!: The Surprising Secrets to Success in Business and in Life

ONLY THE CRAZY AND FEARLESS

WIN
BIG!

THE SURPRISING SECRETS TO SUCCESS
IN BUSINESS AND IN LIFE

ARTHUR WYLIE

WITH BRIAN NICOL

Copyright 2011 by Arthur Wylie

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wylie, Arthur.

Only the crazy and fearless win big! : the surprising secrets to success
in business and in life / Arthur Wylie with Brian Nicol.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-935618-85-0

1. Success in business. 2. Success. I. Nicol, Brian. II. Title.

HF5386.W957 2011

650.1dc23

2011039148

Editing by Brian Nicol

Copyediting by Rebecca Logan

Cover design by Faceout Studio

Text design and composition by Neuwirth & Associates, Inc.

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D etroit?! Michigan?! Industrial has-been. Urban wasteland. The Big Three on life support. Crime out of control. Unemployment through the roof. Neighborhoods abandoned. Politicians dishonest and corrupt. The city that lost 25 percent of its population from 2000 to 2010. That Detroit, Michigan?!

Yes, said my real estate advisor, thats the one. It was late 2009, in the throes of the Great Recession, and my advisor was recommending I build my movie studio complex in the Detroit area, in Allen Park on the citys edge. Before I could lodge my protests, he rattled off the benefits of the property: buildings and warehouses already there, including a jail and a courthouse perfect for filming, and a cafeteria and classroomsa film school even. More than a hundred acresit could be the biggest studio in the country.

But its Detroit! Did he think I was crazy?!

Well, apparently I am. Because the next day I was at the site, being shown around by city officials, and within two weeks we were on the property. My Hollywood production company, Global Renaissance Entertainment Group, moved its headquarters to Allen Park and established the Wylie Institute for the Study of Entrepreneurship and Wylie Studios. Six major films were soon slated to be made at the new facility within the coming three years. Arthur Wylie, the self-made business mogul from North Carolina, had put his money and reputation on the Detroit area. Detroit, the recessions ground zero, where four-bedroom houses were listed for $5,000 and still werent selling, the place nobody wanted to move to and many wanted to abandon, if only they could.

A logical move? A smart decision? Maybe not at first blush. But my fearless and crazy instincts told me to go ahead, to strike the deal. In fact, a few of my business colleagues who admired the decision called me fearless. Many more shook their heads and called me crazy. But that decision (like this book) was based on the fact that sometimes the best decisions youll ever make are fearless or crazyor both.

Those hookers and pimps and garbage and guns I imagined everywhere on the streets of Detroit? Not so much. The city is recovering and reinventing itself. Major redevelopment projects are springing up. The downtown is revitalized and renewed. The auto industry is back with a vengeance. Detroit even promoted itself creatively during the 2011 Super Bowl and has continued since then with Chryslers Imported from Detroit commercials.

It seemed like a good time to hang up my shingle in the Motor City.

And for this fearless and crazy entrepreneur, the story gets even better. The state of Michigan welcomed filmmakers with open arms and a fistful of dollars. It had some of the most generous film industry tax incentives in the country, with a refundable tax credit of up to 42 percent for production expenses. That means if I made a $10 million movie in Michigan, I would get back as much as $4.2 million after completing the film. Now thats an incentive. I got so excited that I told my team, Were not going to Michigan just to make movies; were going to make history!

Arthur Wylie fearless and crazy? You betall the way to the bank.

Im not unique, of course, and thats the message of this book. The first question I ask any mega-successful person I meet is, Whats the craziest or most fearless thing you ever did to make money?

Do they think my question rude, intrusive? Not at all. In fact, they cant wait to tell me. And as you might expect, their answers vary widely. Yet the things these entrepreneurs have in common are striking. What I notice about these people is this:

They never settle for being just good enough.

They take advantage of opportunities they are passionate about.

They always start with small goals and build to something big.

They take chances even when the rule book tells them to play it safe.

They listen to their gut, not to what others say is proper and prudent.

Some of the most successful people I knowmost of them, in factare prouder of the fearless and crazy things theyve done than they are of all their logical, orderly, rational decisions.

Setting up shop in the Detroit area wasnt my first fearless and crazy decision. Far from it. In fact, I got my start by making such decisions. I began what eventually became my $475 million financial services company, Arthur Wylie Wealth Managementan enterprise that managed assets and transactions throughout the United Statesin my college dorm room in the 1990s. And I did it with a stack of fresh credit cards. As Im sure youll recall, credit card companies were marketing themselves everywhere and anywhere in those days, including on college campuses. You could pick up simple card applications at just about any restaurant, shop, or gas station. It was the old-school American waynot a good plan for building a satisfying, wealthy life. In fact, a warning: Kids, dont try this at home, or in your own career.

Anyway, I was sitting in a Chinese restaurant one day when I noticed my first credit card promotional flyer; it was for a MasterCard. I filled it out, placed it on the table between my wonton soup and kung pao chicken, and started doing the math. If I got a few hundred or a few thousand dollars in credit on every card I applied for, I could have access to tens of thousands of dollars in no time. By the time I bit into my almond cookie, I was hooked.

I soon noticed that every Chinese restaurant or locally owned food shop had a similar flyer offering a free application for a credit card. It seemed like each place had a different offer, and needless to say, I spent a lot of that summer eating Chinese food and filling out credit card applications.