Shaquille O’Neal knows a thing or two about success, being a four-time NBA champion and one of the NBA’s all-time greatest, most dominant big men after a stellar 19-year career.
It seems O’Neal also knows a thing or two about investing, taking lessons from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
O’Neal was an early investor in Google, and also has money in Apple, 24 Hour Fitness and a couple of Las Vegas nightclubs in addition to owning 17 Auntie Anne’s, a Krispy Kreme franchise and a Big Chicken restaurant in Vegas.
When it comes to what he invests his money in, O’Neal said he took a cue from Bezos.
“I heard Jeff Bezos say one time (that) he makes his investments based on if it’s going to change people’s lives,” O’Neal said in a recent video interview with The Wall Street Journal. “Once I started doing that strategy, I think I probably quadrupled what I’m worth.”
O’Neal said if his heart isn’t into it, even if it’s looks like a great opportunity, he passes.
“If something comes across my desk and I don’t believe in it, I don’t even look at it,” said O’Neal, even if it looks excellent on paper. In fact, he rarely focuses on the numbers: “Whenever I do business, it’s not about the money.”
O’Neal also said he only works with companies with products he personally enjoys, hence Krispy Kreme “because I like doughnuts. Krispy Kreme is a fabulous doughnut. I was introduced to it in college and have been in love with it ever since.”
If the 7-footer could give his younger self a piece of advice, it’s exactly what he tells young people today who are coming into money.
“Alright children,” he said, holding up a blank piece of paper, according to an interview by CNBC. “This is $100. What you want to do is, you want to rip the $100 in half … (and) save it.
Take one half and “save it. Don’t ever touch it. Put it away. Don’t even look at it. Now you’ve got $50 left. Now, the smart people … the billionaires of the world, they’ll take half of that $50 and put all that away,” he says, while adding another quarter of the piece of paper to the “save pile.”
“This right here,” he says of the remaining quarter, is your fun money: “You want to buy houses, you want to buy cars, you want to buy planes, you want to travel? This right here is what you have fun with.”
