5 Life Strategies You Should Focus on According to Mr. Wonderful
How do you spend your free time? Do you spend it relaxing? Do you exercise? Do you read books? Do you lounge on the couch and watch television all night? Maybe you’re an autodidact and love reading and learning new things? Recently, I saw a video on the Mr. Wonderful (Kevin O’Leary) YouTube channel that made perfect sense, and I felt it was incredibly important to share the information.
Health, fitness, and nutrition play a vital role in all of our lives from a longevity standpoint. The healthier you are (theoretically), the longer you should live. But there’s more to life than just focusing on health and fitness, which is what Mr. Wonderful explains in his video, where he looks at some critical things you need to wrap your arms around in life.
Life is tough. And any advantage you can find to get you through some murky waters could be life-changing. In the video I’m referring to, Mr. Wonderful broke down five things that you should figure out early in your life, and I will explain them below. Let’s first dive into who Mr. Wonderful is before we jump into the list.
Table of contents
Who is Mr. Wonderful?
“Mr. Wonderful” is a nickname commonly associated with Kevin O’Leary, a Canadian businessman, investor, and television personality. He gained widespread recognition as one of the “sharks” on the reality TV show “Shark Tank,” where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of investors (the sharks) in hopes of securing funding for their ventures.
Mr. Wonderful’s Background:
- O’Leary was born on July 9, 1954, in Montreal, Canada.
- He studied at the University of Waterloo, where he earned a degree in Environmental Studies and Psychology, and later obtained an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.
- He co-founded O’Leary Funds, a mutual fund company, in 2008. The company eventually merged with Canoe Financial, another investment management firm, in 2015.
- Mr. Wonderful is also known for his involvement in the software company The Learning Company, which he co-founded in the 1980s. The company produced educational and entertainment software and was eventually sold to Mattel for over $3 billion.
Involvements and Activities:
- “Shark Tank”: Mr. Wonderful has been a regular shark on the reality TV show “Shark Tank” since its inception in 2009. On the show, he evaluates and invests in various business ideas pitched by aspiring entrepreneurs.
- Investing and Business: Mr. Wonderful is an active investor and has invested in numerous companies through his appearances on “Shark Tank” and beyond.
- Authorship: He has authored several books, including “Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women, and Money” and “Cold Hard Truth on Family, Kids, and Money,” which offer financial advice and personal insights.
- Public Speaking: Mr. Wonderful is a sought-after public speaker, sharing his expertise on business, investing, and personal finance at various events and conferences.
- Political Involvement: Mr. Wonderful briefly entered Canadian politics in 2017 when he ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. He eventually dropped out of the race and endorsed another candidate.
Mr. Wonderful is known for his straightforward and sometimes controversial opinions, which have contributed to his public image as “Mr. Wonderful.” His business acumen, investment insights, and entertaining persona have made him a well-known figure in both the business and entertainment worlds.
5 Life Strategies According to Mr. Wonderful
Below are the five life strategies you should follow according to Mr. Wonderful:
1. Have an Investment Plan
Mr. Wonderful wasn’t always wealthy. He had to make smart decisions with his money in order to build his wealth. While money isn’t everything, your finances are a vital part of your life — both currently as well as in the future. According to Fool.com, a recent study found that the average American only has $3,500 in their savings account. When looking at retirement investments on Investopedia.com, they found that those around retirement age (55-64) only had around $104,000 saved up in retirement accounts.
Think about that number. It’s not a whole heck of a lot. Consider what your yearly expenses are. How many years would you be able to go with $104,000 before you ran out of money? It’s quite scary to think about. People are looking forward to retirement but then don’t have enough saved up to actually retire and enjoy life. Many retirees end up getting jobs following their retirement because they quickly find the money they saved is not going to last long. Or, they figure this out early on and decide not to retire and keep working.
The bottom line is, you need to invest in your future NOW so that you can retire and enjoy your life. No one wants to work up until the day they die (unless you genuinely love what you are doing). Put money aside — as much as you can into your retirement and investments to allow them to compound over the years and build wealth. Compounding interest is a beautiful thing. Let your money work for you, and look at investing as a long-term strategy.
2. Have a Self-Care Plan
This is where your health comes into play. But we need to look much broader than the physical aspect of things in terms of our fitness and exercise program. While all of us should follow a weekly exercise program, we also need to look at our skincare and overall health. Your skin is your largest organ. Are you protecting your skin when you go outside with an SPF that can protect you from the sun’s harmful UV rays? Are you utilizing a high-quality multivitamin to fill in any micronutrient gaps you may have from your nutrition plan?
Many people focus strictly on what they can see on the exterior and don’t put enough time into focusing on what could be happening inside their bodies. Are you using any type of moisturizer on your skin to help keep it healthy? These are all things you should add to your daily routine to help maintain your health on top of regular physical exercise. Mr. Wonderful is no spring chicken, yet he takes care of his skin, and while he may be missing some hair on his head, the man has great skin.
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Also, are you taking time out of your day to unwind and destress? Stress can cause a whole laundry list of issues if it becomes out of control and chronic. Find ways to help alleviate stress every day — even if it’s a quick and simple 10-minute routine.
3. Find a Mentor (Like Mr. Wonderful)
They say that you are the average of the five closest people to you. If you hang out with five friends who have no goals and are ok with being average, you’ll be the sixth. If you hang out with five highly successful individuals, you’ll be the sixth. Get it?
Related Article: The Power of Mentorship — How A Mentor Can Transform Your Life
You want to have people around you who motivate you and help propel you further in life. Find yourself a mentor who can help guide you and help you sidestep issues that can arise in your life and business. If it’s business, look for someone with a solid track record in business and who has been successful.
Having a mentor around you provides you with the ability to bounce questions and scenarios off of them to gain insight and advice. Rather than falling into the many pitfalls that life can throw at you, learn how to better navigate the landscape to keep moving forward. Now, that’s not to say you won’t have failures in your life. And as Mr. Wonderful says quite often, you need to fail in order to win, which segues us nicely into our next topic.
4. Learn How to Fail
Let’s be honest, it sucks to fail. There’s no other way to put it. It stings — BAD. However, it’s through failure that you learn what NOT to do and what isn’t working. If you never fail at anything, then you aren’t challenging yourself. Mr. Wonderful has many businesses, and he’s the first to admit that not all of his business ventures ended with a big exit. In fact, some were massive failures that cost him millions of dollars. But he was willing to take on the risk in hopes that he could build the business into something spectacular.
You need to look at your own life. Where can you double-down and really push yourself? How can you take your failures, learn from them, and come back better? The only way you truly “fail” is if you don’t learn something from your failures. If you gain insight that allows you to pivot and keep moving forward, then you didn’t really fail at all.
5. Find the Right Partner
While many look at Mr. Wonderful as, well, being Mr. Wonderful, he has many partners in his life. He has his wife, who has been by his side through the thick and thin, and business partners who have helped him build multi-million-dollar businesses. It’s extremely difficult to build something by yourself — it takes a team.
Who do you have in your life right now? What partners do you have by your side? Is it a business partner? Is it a spouse? Who do you have in your corner?
Regardless of if you’re looking for a business partner or a life partner, you need to pick and choose wisely. Not everyone will be a good fit, and jumping into a partnership blindly will very rarely ever work out. Be specific in your search and find a partner that compliments you and shares the same vision and goals in life and/or business. The wrong partner will hold you back, show resentment, and cause you much unhappiness and frustration.
Mr. Wonderful states that the right partner will simplify things. Things will flow better and more easily without even really needing to work on things. Go out and find a partner that will grow with you so that both of you can win together.
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