Eight Bosses Share the Biggest Money Regrets in Their Careers

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2:00Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. Maybe I'm just kind of excited because we have a super favorite person in town. She's normally in London. she is known all over the world for her coverage of food beverage and restaurants knows that space so well but now ceos are also dishing it out to her we're talking about kate creator she's bloomberg pursuits food editor she's behind the ceo diet it's a monthly series in bloomberg business week in which executives from around the world tell kate how they manage their time in and out of the office is this fun it's become really fun you feel like they're you feel like a ceo therapist psychiatrist like telling you you know they're telling you like how they get through their day with their some of them are taking mushrooms that's what i like i had to google those mushrooms kate those are the legal kind of mushrooms yeah yeah exactly that you wrote about with this one ceo yeah he was um is the true true med payments their true payments ceo i think that's right yeah that's exactly right and i think what was that that was like how what was that his meditation yeah that was how he psychs up for a big ike He psyched up for a big moment.

3:16How he psyched up for a big moment. Oh my God, Tim, you're going to have to become the editor of CEO Diet now. Oh, sorry. That one just really stuck with me because they get pretty candid. You know which one was a big, like it was actually kind of fun also because it came with a picture. We did a really good one a couple months ago. Like what was your first job and what did you learn from it? And David Solomon, his first job was scooping ice cream in New Jersey, New York. No, in the Westchester County. at a Baskin Robbins. And he said it taught him to interface with people. Like he realized how much he enjoyed talking to people, but also getting the order right.

3:53So he knew he had to respond, you know, he had to like know what people were saying. And then this guy, Billy Holtz, I think he's at TradeWeb. He worked at an off-track betting and he learned, so he learned like to count money really quickly. Isn't that funny how these things that like you do young, when you're younger, that really kind of maybe kind of lay the groundwork for where you end up. And you never know, right? Like the path you never, ever know. Yeah, exactly. So there's a bunch of stories, Kate. Go where you want because it's you and you can do whatever you want. But there's how 12 bosses use AI for time-saving productivity and success, how 13 CEOs and bosses psych themselves up for their big moments, which is kind of interesting because I think sometimes you assume somebody gets to a certain position and they can, they just go for it, but they still kind of have to get the, get themselves somewhere.

4:43And then there's a biggest money regrets in their careers. What, what was. Those were, sir, those were fantastic. I do think psyching yourself up for a big moment is so helpful. There was one, and the answers range like from taking psychedelic mushrooms to like having that same sort of, some of it is like, is not surprising, right. You know, that you just have to like, know you're, you have to, it's as if you're going on stage for a concert, you know, as if you're BTS and you're going on stage for a concert and you want to like just know everything backwards and forwards and make sure that, you know, there's no room for error.

5:15And then, um, another CEO said she gets a blowout. She just makes sure she's like got her best face forward. And that's what you, that's how you do it. Um, but we had this last, the most, I have to just tell you, I officiated, I've done two of my nieces, um, Claudia and also Sarah have gotten married and I officiated and I I really, it's been quite - Carol's available for hire. Oh my God, that's good. She will travel to weddings. But it's been an honor and it's people I love tremendously. But the second one, I'm like, I need to get a blowout because I'm used to like feeling my work face and my, you know, kind of, and it was really important for me to get a blowout too.

5:57For your wedding, Sarah. Now you know. Now I know, that's the secret. All right, you'll see me on Monday. With blowouts, you could conquer the world. No, you really do feel like she was, what she said is that you have your best face forward. She felt like if you're presenting with your best, you know, with a face, you know, not with an appearance that you feel really confident in that you've worked on, then you really are. Then you're game ready. There's one person I think who talked about they have to make sure they get time to go to the gym. I think about you. You love your workout. And whether we're on a remote or something, you're like, I'm going to get a workout.

6:31Yeah. Sorry, I'm sharing. You can go do that by yourself. I'll be. I'm getting my work out. Yeah. It is important though. And I think a lot of people can relate to that. I want to talk about some money mistakes. Yeah. Because like this was. I like these ones because a lot of them are relatable. Some of them are not relatable at all. You know, selling a huge chunk of California pizza kitchen to PepsiCo for what? Almost a hundred million dollars. Yeah. I did that last week. But that, I mean, I think everybody remembers the, well, if you're of a certain age, you remember how hot Cal CPK was. Pepsi bought into it.

7:10Then Pepsi was like, we're getting out of the food business. And what that meant for the folks who founded it. Yeah, this guy Rick Rosenfield was a co-founder of it. And he comes from, he was really forthcoming with this information. He was a former attorney, defense attorney. And then he decided to help America discover gourmet pizza. And you're right. Like in the 80s, California Pizza Kitchen was huge. And I think it was in 92, they sold it to PepsiCo for, I think,$92 million and like a huge amount. And they realized they thought they had a blank check and they thought they could expand super quickly.

7:45And it ended up, you know, they lost the confidence of a lot of employees. Things, you know, you might have seen it coming. Things went wrong. And that was one of his really, it was a huge, obviously literally huge, a huge regret he has with about a huge amount of money. But there was somebody else, another CEO regrets that he didn't buy Tesla stock in what, 2010? Like he has the number down, like he would be several million dollars richer right now if he's the CEO of Red Savannah, I think. It's nice to know that they have those regrets, right? Because I think there's... That you still think about it.

8:18Yeah, George Morgan Grenville was that CEO. Yeah. But he, yeah, no, that's the fact that he knows exactly how much he was going to buy and what that stock was, you know, would have been worth when he cashed out. Well, Mark Pincus shared that story with us, his story. He was an early, he was like a seed investor in what is now Meta. And he would, he's a very wealthy man because of Zynga, but he said that was the best investment I ever made. I just sold it too early. And he, you know, he would have had more than a billion dollars worth of shares of Facebook. It's like knowing when to sell or knowing when to hold.

8:49I don't know. It's really kind of wild. Yeah, we've got about a minute or so left here. Yeah, this guy, J.B. Orichia, who has a tech platform called Savvy Money, which does credit scores. He was actually fascinating. So he, I think he produced a movie called Rock Slide, S-L-Y-D-E, that you've never heard of and I know you never saw. And he said, no, that's not my biggest money regret because I went into it with my eyes open. I knew it probably wasn't going to be a success, but it's something that I wanted to do. And what he said people should focus on is the kind of things you talk about doing but don't do, like buying a house.

9:32Like if you sort of were like, oh, we should get, you know, or refinancing your mortgage even. And you talk about it and talk about it, and all of a sudden it's too late. Like now, right, mortgage prices are climbing. And if you don't put a date on it, if you don't go into something with your eyes wide open, that's the regret that you'll have. I love that idea of not locking in a mortgage. You think these folks have figured it all out, right? We've all been there. It's like, ah, why did I wait? It's just kind of amazing. Matt Navarro of Stanley 1913 regrets not studying abroad in college. I love that one.

10:05That's one we can all relate to, right? He was like, I need to stay here. I need to build up my bank account. My fraternity brothers are going away to France, but I'm going to stay here. And now, I really feel like that's inspiring. I feel like I'm talking about my family. It's exactly why my daughter went abroad, because I didn't do it. There was a school I wanted to go to, and she's like, I'm going to do that. And she did it. You can still grow, Carol. Kate Crater. So good to see you guys. No regrets. No money regrets for us. No. Kate Crater, Bloomberg Pursuits food editor, and so much more.

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