The Most Interesting Trader in the World with Timothy Sykes: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:02Who's res rock today, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. are brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down the most interesting trader in the world. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought to Timothy Sykes in the EO Fire studios. Timothy is a stock trader, teacher, philanthropist, traveler, and a foodie. And he talks today about how learning has never been easier. Choose what you love and commit to it. If something doesn't fulfill you, give yourself permission to change and travel and push your limits.

0:32It will shift your perspective on life and oh so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Timothy and our sponsors. Here's something most of us don't think about until it's a problem. Our phone service. Cape is a privacy first mobile carrier built from the ground up with security as the priority. If you care about protecting your digital life without giving up your smartphone, Cape makes that possible. Visit cape.co forward slash fire and use code fire for 33 % off Cape for six months today. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies?

1:08Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Timothy, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, everybody? Thank you for having me on. The interesting thing about becoming successful is that your goals will change. And not in the way that you think. I always wanted a big house, fancy cars, boats, the big rock star lifestyle because I grew up in a small town.

1:54when I actually got it, it sucked. It sucks so bad. And I had no idea. And I wish somebody had warned me earlier on. So I'm here to warn you. What specifically sucked about it? All sorts of things. You know, from my Lambos were getting keyed. And I didn't know like, if you go away for a little while, like you have a Ferrari, like it just dies, because you're supposed to start it, you know, pretty often. I had a big place and some air conditioner coil broke and the whole living room got flooded. And I was, in Japan and I had to fly back. There was a lot of responsibility that I didn't realize. And even when there were no problems, I was like, why do I have all this stuff?

2:36It doesn't make me happy like I thought it would. Well, I will say a lot of people in Fire Nation are at least interested in getting to a point where they could afford those things. Maybe they're not going to buy those things, but they're going to at least want to be able to afford them. And since we're talking to the most interesting trader in the world. Let's start with a bang. How can we make millions in the market? By having a long-term perspective and understanding that nobody, nobody makes lasting millions in their first year or two. You might make a lot if you're in a bubble and then you'll probably lose it due to lack of knowledge.

3:10Or if you take it slow, like I think you should, then you'll do better year three, year four, year five. So everyone should be focused on building their knowledge and their foundation for future success. I know it's boring. Everybody wants, you know, fast money right away, but that is not reality. Let's talk about your first few years. What did those look like specifically? Take us through the ups, the downs, the in-betweens. You know, I was a tennis player in high school. I got started with my bar mitzvah money. I had surgery on my arm, so I couldn't play tennis. I was already into college early admission.

3:41So my parents gave me control of roughly 12 grand in bar mitzvah money. They thought I would lose it all. I thought it would be a good lesson. But I was in the right place at the right time and I was driven. So I turned the 12 grand into a little over 100 grand back in 99. Again, right place, right time. Don't think that's going to happen now. And then I had nearly a million by year 2000. And I didn't lose it, but I learned how different markets influence your earnings. In the first four months of the year 2000, I made over 700 grand. The last eight months, I lost 10 grand. the strategy just completely died and I had to adopt and you know I changed to short selling I started betting against stocks which was very different but I continued to grow my account until 2006 2007 where I was tired of just running you know I had a small hedge fund at the time and I got cocky so I invested a third of it in my best friend's dad's company and I lost a third of it losing all my industry respect, not losing all my money, but losing a lot of momentum.

4:45And that turned out to be the best lesson because it was basically a$500 ,000 personal loss to me. It made me an infinitely better trader and now teacher. Now, one thing that I want to talk about beyond what you just shared with that really brutal $500 ,000 loss that again was a good lesson learned. What's one of the more cringeworthy things that's happened to you over the years? Like when I say those words, what comes up? was cringeworthy. I was in a few reality TV shows. You might have seen some of my internet ads. I do a lot of stuff just to get the word out. But for me as a trader and now a teacher, I just got to get people studying.

5:24So I'm not proud of a lot of the stuff that I've done to get attention, but it got me as students and then the right students come forward over time. Hey, you're talking to a guy that in 2001 was on his spring break and was on Springer break for a little strip trivia. So I can probably guess that you can guess where that ended up going. So we all have these cringeworthy moments, Fire Nation. Let's embrace them. And what's one of your financial cringeworthy moments? I mean, the$500 ,000 loss sucked. That was my biggest loss ever. I haven't had, you know, as big of a loss like that anymore. But, you know, there were times, once upon a time, I lost$100 ,000 in a stock trade, and I was trading drunk.

6:09This was not with my hedge fund. This was not with me, you know, as a teacher, it was me early in my career. And I was just like, you know what, I'm doing so well. And again, right place, right time back in 99 and 2000. And I was like, Oh, I can do anything. And I started extrapolating in my head how much money I can make if I make X, you know, six figures in a day. Like, let me try that every day. But one day back then I was I was in college and I was drinking and you don't want to trade drunk. And I lost over one hundred thousand dollars before I even realized what happened. Now, on the flip side of the coin, what's one moment that comes up for you right now where you're like, wow, I just crushed that.

6:45So freshman year in college, another hundred thousand dollar game. And there's something about, you know, making or losing 100 grand in a day that just changes your mindset. But my first$100 ,000 profit day, college freshman, I bought a stock on Friday. They specifically said they were going to be on TV hyping up their product on a Sunday. I didn't know short selling back then. I was early in my career. It was a market bubble. And I was like, screw it. Let me invest three quarters of what I had at the time, which was like$250 ,000. I invested like$250 ,000 out of like$300 ,000. and I made basically 100 ,000 because the TV show was very popular and very positive and I actually sold too soon.

7:21It would have been about 200 ,000 the next day but that's trading in a bubble and I was like, wow, it's tough for me to ever even consider a nine to five job when you make a year's salary in a day. Unreal. Now, one thing that we both know is that commuting is the worst. I mean, people's happiness literally can be dependent on the length of their commute time to the job that they don't even like in the first place. So let's talk about working from our bedroom. I actually love it. I have like this curved spine because I work from my bed. And it's apparently terrible for your back. There's even like a book that links like sitting too much to cancer.

7:57But I think I've evolved like an armadillo and I have like this curved back and it's really just comfortable for me. I don't have any pain. So we'll see how long it lasts. I've adapted like an armadillo. Fire Nation, that's the core of the episode so far. Write it down. Take it to the bank. Wonderful wisdom tidbit. So let's talk about specifically how we can find what we love. How did you do this and how do you recommend others do the same? I did it in a very slow, haphazardly way where, you know, I went big and then I realized that none of it meant anything. I'll tell you that there was one moment when I got this, this is a cringeworthy soundbite.

8:35When I got my second Lambo, I felt nothing. I was like, what's wrong with me? First Lambo, I loved it. you know growing up as a kid in small town Connecticut I had all these posters of these cars on my wall first Lambo I was like yes I got it I'm amazing second Lambo I'm like and I enjoyed the car it's a beautiful piece of machinery but I felt nothing I actually went and did a cancer test because I was like I feel nothing there's something wrong with me so once I started realizing that you know cars didn't do it for me like big luxury items didn't do it for me I got rid of everything sold all the cars sold all the real estate sold everything luxurious in my life.

9:12And I actually started donating to charity and started building schools, which I love. I now have 106 schools with my charity foundation. And I don't know if I can tell you this like now, like some people are like, no, I need to go through my luxury phase. Fantastic. All I can say is that when you find what doesn't fulfill you, don't be afraid to change. I love that. And actually, you and I are both part of the same charity. I love to give them a shout out whenever possible. Pencils of Promise. In fact, I think it was about four years ago now, Right around then, we're actually you and I, Ramit Sethi and Susie, we're all sitting down having lunch at a table in downtown New York City.

9:50And it was a great time. We got to chat a little bit. I was mostly talking to Ramit, so you and I didn't get a lot of one-on-one. But it was really cool that, you know, we've all come together. Gary Vaynerchuk's another big supporter of Pencils of Promise and other charities like that too. And it's cool to see when people do give back. But before we do leave this topic, I do want to ask a question. You found what you love. how would you recommend our listeners follow a similar path and not necessarily in the same industry, but just with the same mindset for you to get to where you got? Yeah. So I think a lot of it is just testing, right?

10:23Like you, you see what works and what doesn't. And I, I, I really just had that one big like luxury thesis that was like sold to me since I was a kid. And I never really even thought about veering from it until it hit me in my head that I was like, wait a minute, there's something else out there. And then Pencils of Promise is great. You know, we have two dozen schools with them. And then there's other charities. It's not just building schools. You know, we have medical centers. I actually have a soccer field in Cambodia, which is crazy. I think really traveling and getting out there and really pushing your limits helps like travel to third world countries, even if you don't want to necessarily, even if you're like, wow, this might be a stretch.

11:01Try it. I think you'll be shocked at especially what the mindset is of people and families who have literally nothing in the third world countries and yet they're still happy because they're alive they have each other and it really puts things in perspective it really does put things in perspective because i mean you're listening fire nation to a guy who at one point had two lambos and felt nothing but can you just picture going to any third world country you can walk into any town and i've done this all over the place, Guatemala, Honduras, many other countries all over the world. And what do you hear?

11:34You hear kids laughing. You hear people talking. You see people smiling. There's happy people all over the world. So if you're feeling empty, if you're feeling dark, if you're feeling blue, then it's time to start changing things up because it doesn't take money. It doesn't take success to have that one key thing that we desire as humans, which is happiness. And we get a lot more on these topics when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, how many different systems does your business rely on just to operate day to day? Your CRM, accounting software, HR tools, spreadsheets, exports, endless back and forth, just to get one clear answer.

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15:09Seriously, every question that pops up, they will have your answer waiting. And if you visit my special partnership link, you'll get a free trial. So visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial and see why thousands of businesses are switching. That's highlevelfire.com where marketing, sales, and automation finally come together. High level, join the revolution. Timothy, we're back and we've already talked a little bit about philanthropy, but I want to go deeper here because you've really done a lot of cool things, a lot of cool areas with schools, with soccer fields and medical centers and all these different things.

15:44Have you ever thought about starting your own charity? Yeah. So I actually do have my own charity. It was the Tim Sykes Foundation, but I felt a little weird where all the schools and all the buildings had my name on it. And I was just like, I don't need this, you know, adulation. It became weirder and weirder. So I actually changed the name of my charity to Karma Gawa, took on a partner. His name is Matabad. He's a great photographer. He's Filipino. So if you're Filipino or you speak Tagalog, which is their language, Gawa means to do or to make. So we're basically going around the world making good karma because now we support a bunch of different charities, actually 95 charities.

16:18So we're kind of, you know, I donate all my trading profits to charity. We have our own charity merch. Some of my educational DVDs go to charity. but we're kind of like this pass-through charity where people can donate to us but then we work with other charities, we donate to them. We even have two documentaries made about saving the rhino and saving coral reefs because unfortunately, as much as I want to just focus purely on schooling and education because I think that matters the most, that takes decades and a lot of animals and different issues don't have decades. It's all going to be gone inside of the next decade if we're not careful.

16:50Now, what would you say to our listeners who might want to take the reins on their own philanthropic notions like you have as well and maybe start their own charity. What would be your advice, your guidance, maybe steps that you took, lessons you learned? Yeah, I would look to intern or work for a big charity at first or a bigger charity rather than trying to go on your own. It was so tough in the beginning. I made so many mistakes. You think everyone in the charity world wants to do good, but there are a few bad eggs and there's also a lot of regulations. So you really want to do it the right way and you kind of need to get a know-how for how the industry works before you can go on your own.

17:28I know a lot of people where their heart's in the right place, they start their own charity, and it just goes nowhere. They don't know how to fundraise. I don't know, even if they do fundraise, they don't know how to donate properly. There's a lot of nuances. So I think, you know, like a great charity like Pencils of Promise, get involved. Whatever your heart really tells you, whether it's animals, whether it's schools, whether it's, you know, feeding people in your local community, you don't have to start your own charity. You can also just volunteer your time A lot of charities need volunteers.

17:54So get involved, but don't think that you need to be an entrepreneur in the charity field right away. What's an example of a bad egg in the charity world? What happened? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of them where, you know, the funds aren't, you know, given properly. Like the cool thing is when you're a 501c3 charity, like you have to file all this legal paperwork and it's good and you can see exactly where all the donations go. So for me personally, with the Kermit Gowell Foundation, I personally just pay all the expenses myself. Every single dollar donated goes to charities that we donate to.

18:28So there's no issue. But there are some charities out there that have gone down, whether they spend 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, I mean, 100%. There's all sorts of that. And so you really have to look at the legal filings and you should see exactly where the money goes. This is why we both love Pencils of Promise so much. They're very transparent. Bali Children's Project is another charity that we donate to. With Bali, we have 45 schools with them. So just give, but also be a little cynical too. Let's talk about your laptop lifestyle. I mean, you have a great Instagram account, other social media channels where you share a lot of things that you do around the world, the experiences you're having.

19:09Share with Fire Nation what your laptop lifestyle looks like. The internet is only getting faster and faster. There's more and more apps and you really can travel the world. You really can just work off a laptop or if you want, just your mobile phone. I don't like the mobile phone because my hands, my fingers are clumsy. So I might type in, you know, buying, trying to buy a million shares instead of like a hundred thousand. Very, very dangerous. I don't recommend mobile phone trading yet. But, you know, on your laptop, like I trade, I have video lessons, I give webinars. I'm always looking for, you know, fastest Wi-Fi.

19:42Thank you, Elon, for Starlink, which is just starting to get mainstream. Got mine in Puerto Rico. Holla. Oh, nice. How is it? It's fast. It is fast. And even during a really cloudy day, which I was nervous about, it still makes it happen. It's very impressive. And so I was always scared to go down to Puerto Rico. I've just recently been going down there because we have some charity NFTs that we're planning. But before that, I never went down there because Tim Grittani, one of my students who I think you know, actually was down there and he had Wi-Fi interruptions because your power grid goes down.

20:14Yeah, Tim just didn't set it up right. You know, I bought a house, I put in solar, I've got a backup generator, I've got grounded Wi-Fi, I've got grounded internet. I've had zero problems in six years. And I actually have a backup Hughes internet satellite dish, which was not great, but did still get by in the pinch when it was needed. But now the Starlink's here, I've got like triple, quadruple backup and it's better internet than I had in San Diego. That's inspiring. So I need to go to Puerto Rico more. Only if you want to keep the money you make. We got 0 % capital gains. We got 4 % income tax on all things that we do.

20:47Trust me. I know. There's a lot of traders down there. There's a whole little trader community and everyone wanted to take pictures of me and I'm like, I'm good. It's okay. You guys enjoy Puerto Rico, but I'm good. Oh, we're enjoying Puerto Rico. I can tell you that. Now, what if our listeners want to have that kind of lifestyle? What would be your recommendation on the first few steps? It sounds great to be able to travel anywhere. A lot of the stuff I talk about sounds great, but you know, you really have to become a master in whatever it is that you love. Like read every single book, read every single website.

21:17You cannot overprepare enough in whatever your field is. I mean, I read 300 books on trading, not all at once, but over time, because I just wanted to learn as much as possible. And even then you're not guaranteed success, but I think a lot of people fall in love with the lifestyle and the rewards before actually putting in the hard work. So going back to what I said initially, expect a year, two years, if not three years of struggling, learning, especially now where the environment, at least economically, is not as good as it was two or three years ago where I think we're in this stimulus check funded bubble.

21:51You gotta have patience. But if you start to prepare, like you did with your own internet at your home and now you're good, if you start to prepare like that with your own education and you think, okay, what can I do today, this week, this month to best prepare for 2024, 2025, 2030? And I don't think most people think like that. Most people are thinking, how can I make a million dollars in year one or year two? Tim, you've shared a lot of value bombs today. And I think Fire Nation is going to go back over this episode with a pen and a piece of paper and take some notes that are going to impact their lives.

22:25So take the stage, share with us the one key takeaway of everything that we talked about today that you want to make sure our listeners get? We live in truly exceptional times, whether it's the internet, whether it's being able to travel around and, you know, talk with people like you've never been able to like mingle with them, not just on Zoom, but in person, go to their communities if you want. You don't necessarily have to go to third world countries, but like the more people you see, the more communities you see, the more subjects you learn about. Education has never been easier, but you need to push yourself because I'm not the one, you know, who can study for you.

23:00Like you have to choose what you love and you have to really, you know, cherish it and really get behind it. Because if you're just like, I'll learn a little here, I'll learn a little here, but you're not really a master at any craft. It's really tough to become successful. So find something that you love. If you stop loving it, find something else that you love, but just be passionate, be patient, be dedicated, because this is the time that we've never had before. Like, if you think about just a quick little history lesson, I mean, if you go back a few centuries, the smartest person in a town was somebody who had read one book.

23:35Not necessarily like a really useful book, just any book. It could have just been a fictional book because there was such limited information several centuries ago. Flashback a few decades ago, even if you had read more books, even if you had gone to college, you probably still were going into the same field as your parents. You know, it's like a family business. Some countries have caste systems. Now, none of that applies. You have endless books. You have endless opportunities to learn. You can travel the entire world for relatively cheaply. You can learn whatever you want in the fastest time in human history.