Ziad K. Abdelnour

“Difference between rich and wealthy? Wall Street bankers are rich but they are no wealthy.Wealthy people are the ones writing their checks.”

“I believe the only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.”

“After all is said and done, a life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.”

“Fight not for your own abundance, but for the abundance of others & you'll see how your life will turn around.”

“What we think, or what we know, or what we believe in, is at the end of the day of little consequence.The only consequence is what we do.”

“All of us, try to eliminate risk from our lives. The sad thing about risk is that when you eliminate risk you also eliminate the future.”

“Building a business doesn't mean getting venture capital funding. It means finding customers and making money.”

“Real Learning comes from failures and mistakes...rarely from success.”

“Don't let someone create you, because they might just destroy you.”

“The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few, but information in the hands of many. Educate and Empower & see the results.”

“If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice of how he acts when he loses money.”

“Funny how so many rookies out there still judge condition of the US economy on the rigged "stock market". I frankly find it hilarious.”

“A lot of men have lost money chasing women. But no man has ever lost women chasing money.”

“If money can't buy you happiness then you probably aren't making enough.”

“Most leadership writing today advises us on how to prosper within the system. I believe real leadership is about transforming the system.”

“Don't think outside the box. Think like there is no box.”

“I am not in the market to create jobs, build anempire, or leave a legacy; those are the positive fallout of successfuleconomic warfare. My prime objective is wealth creation.”

“One of the advantages of living in a constitutional federal republicis that we have the ability, if not the duty, as citizens to repair orreplace those acts of legislation under which we have agreed to live.We must act when it has become evident that said legislationno longer serves us as a people or advances the principles uponwhich this nation was founded, one of these being “the pursuit ofhappiness,” which may only be secured through wealth creation.If it burdens the debt obligation of the government, it cannotbe creating wealth. If it does not advance the cause of regainingAmerican competitive dominance in the global marketplace, it is notcreating wealth. If legislation and regulation were proposed thattaught people how to fish instead of providing fish, then the unemployedwould find a way to create jobs for each other. Wealthcreation is mankind’s natural objective when given the opportunityand the tools.”

“The Boston Consulting Group recently released a study showing thatthere were 5.2 million households in America that could be classifiedas millionaires.1 I would love to see a candidate for national office,especially president, come out and announce that his platform wassquarely oriented toward creating wealth, that in 8 to 10 years wewould have 50 million millionaires in America.”

“Since the dawn of the twentieth century, we have been told thatthe federal government has the answers to solve all of society’s problems.We have been promised, by supposedly serious men who havesworn an oath before God and man, that if we just give Washington,D.C., more of our money and more of our personal freedom, theproblems of poverty, illiteracy, racism, unemployment, crime, andcorruption will all be solved. Today, each and every one of theseproblems is worse than it has ever been. The federal government andits blood-sucking bureaucracies do not have a solution to the problem,they are the problem.”

“George Bernard Shaw once said: “Capitalism has destroyed ourbelief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.”When liberals make the argument that capitalism is the cause of allof our problems, they are either speaking out of abject ignoranceor being totally disingenuous to protect their own political interests.We have not had true free-market capitalism in this country on anywide scale. Where we have had economic successes in this nation’shistory, it has been those times when people have done somethingoutside of the government’s involvement. Every single time the federalgovernment has been involved, it has created chaos, waste, andcorruption. The historical record is overwhelmingly one of grossincompetence.”

“Always remember: Business is War.At the end of the day, the one with access to the best intel wins. Thisapplies as much to business and politics as it does to the military. Askevery single billionaire and military or political strategist out there.They will all confirm that as fact.”

“This nation was founded on the principle of wealth creation. Asa young Henry Clay said in the House of Representatives in 1812,“It [wealth creation] is a passion as unconquerable as any with whichnature has endowed us. You may attempt to regulate—you cannotdestroy it.” That is supposed to be the federal government’s primary objective.It is supposed to promote the creation of an environment conduciveto the creation of wealth—not job creation, not bailouts, not subsidies,not expansion of the federal bureaucracy, and not providing lifetimesupport to those who choose not to take advantage of the innumerableopportunities that exist in this nation for them to create a better,more productive life for themselves.”

“People succeed or fail on the merits in America, not on who theyknow or whose reelection campaign they supported. This absolutelyAmerican principle must be reestablished and permanently fortified.There can be no more “too big to fail.” If you are reckless, greedy,and arrogant, the American taxpayer should not bail you out.”

“I strongly support liquidating the corporation that is the FederalReserve and returning to a monetary system based on a marketproducedprecious metal, like gold, which is represented by a currencyprinted and managed by the U.S. Treasury Department as stipulatedby our Constitution. The assets currently owned by the Fed shouldbe liquidated and parceled out on a pro-rata basis to its creditors. All we need is the will.”

“Central planning inevitably leads to economic chaos and failure.Friedrich Hayek called the delusion that a single person or a groupof government planners could possibly possess the knowledge to planan entire economy a “fatal conceit.” The overwhelming historicalevidence is that the more freedom a nation has, the more economicopportunities will exist and the more dynamic that nation’s economywill be. Likewise, the more regulations, controls, taxes, governmentrunindustries, protectionism, and other forms of interventionism thatexists, the poorer the country will become.”

“Commerce is considered by classical economists to be a positive-sumgame. The act of selling and buying always benefits both the sellerand the buyer. It is unfortunate that popular culture has propagatedthe Marxist myth that one person gains in business at the expense ofanother, that capitalism is evil because it is a zero-sum game—somebodywins while someone else loses. When liberals make the argumentthat capitalism is the cause of all of our problems, they are eitherspeaking out of abject ignorance or being totally disingenuous toprotect their interests. We have not had true free-market capitalismin this country on any wide scale. Where we have had economicsuccesses in this nation’s history, it has been those times when peoplehave done something outside of the government’s involvement. Everytime the federal government has been involved, it has created chaos,waste, and corruption.”

“We were born a nation of entrepreneurs. That is why so manypeople came to this country from so many different nations and culturesaround the globe. The entrepreneur sees the opportunity, takesaction, and successfully learns from the experience. They go on tocreate wealth. They become part of that demographic that is called“the rich.” They, not the government, drive the economy and createjobs. Only a mind with an envious, greedy perspective would considerpunitively taxing the rich as a viable solution to our fiscal miasma.This is a solution springing from the fount of ignorance and deemedwise only by fools.”

“The question is not whether we should or should not regulate; itis how much should we regulate and who the regulators shouldbe. We went overboard on deregulation under Reagan. UnderBush, many people lost in the casino. Now we have the Obamaadministration overreacting and overreaching with regulation thatdoes the exact opposite of wealth creation. If we are to have changewe can believe in, then we could start by replacing the majorityof the lawyers in regulatory agencies with actual experienced, successfulbusiness veterans. They would have recognized the early warningsigns of many of the financial debacles created by the bubble-bustcycle.”

“The only thing that is or should be equal in the creation of wealthis the opportunity to participate. Everything else is naturally and rightfullydependent on personal and often exclusively inherent advantagesand disadvantages. The imagined outcomes and side benefits areimpossible to guarantee. The shared human experience should havetaught us, by any objective standard, that making a mirage your focuswill undermine your chances of finding gold.”

“History clearlyshows that governments that have tried to contain, regulate, or otherwiseusurp capital have failed. It is the same with brainpower; noone has a monopoly on brainpower. Controlling brainpower is likeherding cats. Brainpower creates capital, and capital fuels brainpower.It is a fundamental dynamic principle. Great ideas, solutions, insights,or inventions will develop only where they are nurtured and properlyrewarded.”

“Too many people today on Wall Street go for the quickbuck at the expense of their reputation and client satisfaction, therationale being “let’s make the money while we can and retire earlyin the sun.” For me, this is not a sprint but a marathon, besides thefact that, in my definition, overnight success is 15 years. Anyone whodoes not understand the basic tenets of this philosophy is not someoneI can or will do business with.”

“I strongly believe that the best economic policyfor any administration is the one that seeks to produce more entrepreneurs,not just more minimally educated college graduates withnowhere to go. Nothing against recent college graduates, but manyof today’s best universities are no longer providing the basics of aclassical liberal education.That is why the single most important economic issue of ourtime—and one that impacts the poor and middle class alike—will behow we treat the entrepreneurs and wealth creators among us, fromboth the government and the private-sector viewpoints.”

“I strongly believe in the factthat there’s still plenty of money and plenty of private equity capitalavailable around the globe. What are in short supply are great entrepreneursand great teams. A trading opportunity or a company’s biggestchallenge is and has always been the team behind it. There’s enormouschange under way in every facet of the world. Some is technologydriven, some is market driven. All that change creates unprecedentedopportunity, but to take full advantage of such opportunities I mostlyfocus on the team. The right teams and right people behind thoseopportunities always win. There is no secret sauce. Trading and investinghas, in my experience, boiled down to building relationships andexchanging value. It consists of striking the right balance betweenbacking and interacting with the right teams with the right businessmodel at the right time and with the right amount of money.”

“I do not believe in the power of brand names or in emulatingany of the brand name investors out there. It is a fact that all—ifnot at least most—of the biggest names in American finance andindustry out there today have proven after the 2008 crisis to be someof the most incompetent people there are. Starting with the untouchableGoldman Sachs, who was bailed out by over $5 billion fromWarren Buffett, to AIG and Citibank, who were bailed out by thehundreds of billions of dollars from the Troubled Asset Relief Program(TARP), having a name and a history does not make you the brightestand the best. All it takes is one nincompoop with a huge ego or aboard of directors who think they are smarter than everyone else todestroy what has taken generations to build.”

“I do not believe in supporting bailouts without strongramifications. It is a fool’s fantasy to think we can live in a globallyconnected economy and never have a situation arise where the governmentprudently steps in to prevent a failure that might lead tocatastrophic ramifications. In most cases, I believe it would be muchbetter to let bailed-out companies fail when they have mismanagedthemselves, rather than waste taxpayer money propping up greedyidiots who are trying to salvage their own bonuses; however, thereare exceptions to almost every rule. The wiser course would be topenalize the CEO or board of directors who drove the companyto the brink of failure. The most obvious punishment would be theelimination of any “golden parachutes” or bonuses for the executiveand seizure of all company-derived assets, including any attempts tohide company assets in the spouse’s name. When C-level executivescome to the realization that managing a company is not a game andthat there are serious consequences for their actions, we will see fewerinstances of requests for bailouts.”

“I do not believe in diversification. Take a close look atsome of the greatest entrepreneurs in U.S. history. Henry Ford neverdiversified; Bill Gates didn’t diversify. I strongly believe that the bestway to create real wealth is to put one’s eggs in one basket and watchthat basket (the right one) very carefully. In fact, one can go brokediversifying.”

“Wealth creation is not a mathematical formula, as the truthseekingquant geeks still want everyone to believe. In the end, theirlack of real-world experience and pride corrupted their mathematicalgenius and destroyed them. You may be able to digitize a daVinci,but that does not make it daVinci. Creating wealth is personal. It iscreating assets, creating value, or whatever act of self-perpetuation thatdrives us to create a legacy.”

“History has shown time and time again thatthere is no such thing as all things being equal. That is why Jeffersonwrote that our inalienable rights were life, liberty, and the pursuit ofhappiness. Nothing is guaranteed in life, especially happiness.”

“I believe that to create real wealth one must be willing to abandonone’s limited thinking, remove the boundaries around our abundance,and stop outlining how it is to appear in our lives. Remember not tocreate boundaries and remember not to define the outcome. Mostimportantly, stop letting people who are motivated by jealousy andenvy dictate what your limitations are.”

“There is nothing inherently evil in the process of making money,and the notion is illogical, but that is one of the underlying tenetsin our present education system. We are taught from an early agethat making money is hard and that those who make lots of moneyare morally suspect. American culture studies programs at some ofthe nation’s leading universities have even gone so far as to teach theabsurd and illogical notion that the rich became rich because theyenjoy privilege earned on the backs of African slaves. Minoritymillionaires like entrepreneur Herman Cain, Earl Graves, Sr., andReginald F. Lewis prove the utter nonsense of this notion, yet thisis the illogical Progressive philosophy that has permeated our educationsystem.”

“Don't wait for miracles. Your whole life is a miracle. Live it up and dare to leave an impact. There is no rehearsal.”

“Letting the banks go bust instead of perpetually bailing them out is the right way to go.Iceland Did It Right; All others are doing it wrong.”

“If riding the bus or the subway doesn't incentivize you to improve your station in life, nothing will.”

“Don't blame people for who they are, blame yourself for thinking they were different.”

“Great change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over & release control over what you don't.”

“Until the Fed lets us have a real recession, as painful as that may be, we are never gonna have a recovery.”

“Advantage lies in a capacity to predict the future before your rivals can.”

“A moderate addiction to money may not always be hurtful; but when taken in excess it is always bad for your health.”

“Talent attracts capital more effectively than capital attracts talent.”