People have this mentality that success is being a billionaire and that’s it. However, Gene Anderson believes success is when you’re happy. Marketing mogul Gene is the CEO of Moto Sign and Media Corporation and CEO of TheMillionairesClub.org. Gene opens up about how he became rich at a very young age only to lose his fortune on racehorses, and how he re-invested his money and found true happiness and success. Join host, Dr. Diane Hamilton and Gene Anderson, as they examine the billionaire’s path to achieving true happiness and how billionaires are leveraging the power of their names to make a positive impact on the world.
I’m so glad you joined us because we have Gene Anderson. Gene is the CEO of Moto Sign and Media. He’s also the CEO of TheMillionairesClub.org. He has done so many things. He’s known as the Google guy. I’m interested in hearing that story.
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The Billionaire’s Path To Achieving True Happiness with Gene Anderson
I am with Gene Anderson who is the CEO of Moto Sign and Media. He’s also the CEO of TheMillionairesClub.org. He’s a recognized marketing mogul. He’s been invited to Google and raised millions of dollars online on everything from racehorse training centers to health clubs. He has done quite a bit of work with an orphan ministry in Africa. He spoke to the largest recorded live event in Nigeria with over eight million in attendance. This is going to be so interesting. Welcome, Gene.
How are you?
I’m great. We got to chat the last time. I’m trying to recover the memories. It was so interesting because of all your work. I’ve had Sheila on the show. I’m interested in the Billionaire Foundation and the work you do. You do so many other things. What’s your main job? Is it at Moto Sign and Media?
Your curiosity topic is exciting to me because I’m that person that looks at a problem, think about it and sleep on it. It will go over and over in my mind and then I’ll come up with some type of solution. I’m an entrepreneurial inventor type. This company, which is a sign manufacturer, was originally made for hospitals. In hospitals, from what I’ve been told, you’re not allowed to put paper on the walls because of all the staff, germs and all these different things. They enclose all the notices in different things inside of these compartments, these big frames.
This guy in Oregon, and I’m from Portland, Oregon, was a sign installer in hospitals. He went through a lot of turmoil putting these big things up and getting injured. They didn’t do the job. He had an engineering background. He designed this cool frame that closes. You can easily change it. It’s light and about a third of the cost for what hospitals are using now. My friend handed me one of those. I looked at it for months. I thought, “What am I going to do with this thing?” He’s asking me, “How should we market this?” I learned a lot about how the hospital industry works and GPOs and all these things.
I’m sitting there one day. I’m looking at this board. I have a five-year-old grandson. My wife buys these scholastic puzzles and all these different games. He’ll go and do one of these mazes and mark it. If he goes off in the wrong direction, it’s ruined. I took the paper out of the coloring book. I stuck it into this board. If you want to have a description of what we make, it’s an interchangeable dry eraser board where you can snap it open, change the background and snap it closed. It’s a whiteboard that you can change. I stick the puzzle on there. Now we’re drawing the puzzle. We wipe it off and the paper is still good. This thing uses no papers. The low-hanging fruit on this product is kids and toys.
Society is not advancing; it's imploding. We need to examine ourselves and think about what we can do. Click To TweetNow we have a whole line called Hand Moto. Kids now are losing their motor skills, just spending all day on the computers and all that stuff. There’s a big movement in Silicon Valley where I’m from. I was born in Palo Alto and raised down there. I’m pretty in tune with what’s going on. A lot of the different leaders in the tech world are frustrated with what’s happening with their kids. Their kids are glued to the screens. They’re losing a lot of things that we take for granted like your motor skills, cursive and basic handwriting. There’s a new company. We have a line going. I thought I did everything but now I’m a toymaker. I’m enjoying it.
You have done everything. I was looking at your list. I was like, “Do I talk about casinos, bridges or resorts?” How did you get to be into so many different things? You’re curious.
I’m a survivor. I was raised in probably a dysfunctional family. I was the man of the house at a young age. I went to school in Mountain View, California. I went to Saint Francis. I was raised a Catholic boy and ended up having to decide between going on. I was in second-year college. It’s doing that or making the money. I went and got my contractor’s license when I was very young. In the Bay Area at that time, when you had your license, it took a four-year apprentice program and four years as a journeyman. When I was 26, I got my license. I was rocking and rolling.
We were doing big remodels in days on Los Altos, Saratoga and all that area. I didn’t want to be a builder. My father said, “You’ve got to learn a trade.” I did it. It was easy for me. My hot button is people. I was able to get good jobs, relationships and that type of a thing. When I was young, I built my first health club. I worked at European health spas when I was a young man and going to college. I ended up breaking all these records for the company and selling 50,000 memberships back in the late ‘70s. I didn’t know I have that God-given gift of sales, people and caring about people.
Through that, I ended up building health clubs. I did very well and ended up retiring at 30. I took my wife. We moved from the Bay Area to Oregon. We fished for five years on the Rogue River and had a great time. We ran out of money because I got into racehorses. You think you have money until you get racehorses. They call those hay burners for a reason. My entrepreneurial was like, “What can I do in this to make money?” My cousins from the Bay Area are three professors at Stanford. They’re writing me letters saying, “This is the worst thing you could be doing. Don’t get into this.” They were right. I ended up leasing part of Bay Meadows Racetrack. If you’re from the Bay Area, you know that it used to be a big place down there. Now it’s gone. It’s condos or something.
I remember, as a young guy in my twenties, sitting there in this big boardroom at Bay Meadows with all these guys that looked like something you’d see out of a movie with the big tall libraries. There are these guys in this big, long table. They’re all half asleep. I’m sitting there showing them why they need to have a swimming center at Bay Meadows like Santa Anita and Hollywood Park and stuff. They said it could never be done. I ended up leasing the property on the backside of Bay Meadows, building a swimming center for the horses. It was a successful business center. It ended up being taken over by a successful guy out of Woodside. There are horses that came on the bucket list. I have a lot more things that I want to do in life. I’m only 61 so I’ve got some time.
You’ve already been ranked the number one internet marketer for fastest-growing Google AdWords. You’re the Google guy. Is that what they call you?
I was the Google guy and still am, even though I don’t work for Google or haven’t. After I was fishing and doing all the stuff, I had to go back and start building. We were booming again. The big crash came and everybody in my business got wiped out. I knew I had to reinvent myself in a way because any real estate was going to be a long comeback. In doing that, before that happened, I had been involved in orphan ministries in Kenya, Africa. That’s how I met Sheila Driscoll’s The Billionaire Foundation. When I was doing that, we raised money to help these orphans. I did stuff online back when everybody had the big $5,000 Costco computer that had a whole half gig on it. I study. I love to read. I learned how Google AdWords worked, AdSense and all these things. Our organization, we’re all volunteers for all the years that we were involved. No one was paid. We raised money through the internet by doing banner advertising and AdWords on different sites to tell different churches from all denominations. “Send your kids to this orphanage. You don’t have to raise $5,000 or $10,000 to go on a mission trip. All you have to do is send them. If you send them on the plane, we’ll feed them in. They’ll be there.” It exploded. These orphan babies that were left out in the fields are now graduating from college. There are thousands of them.
It was a great experience. I was the President and the Founder of the organization. One day, I got a call from Sheila Driscoll congratulating me on the work we were doing in Africa. We got to be good friends. She asked me, “Would you like to represent the Billionaire Foundation as a speaker?” I was a public speaker in a lot of different areas. With all the things that happened, a big deal was with Google. After the crash, I went to work as a senior marketing guy at a company that was doing well. They were mainly in real estate. I brought a lot of new ideas to the table, different verticals and types of campaigns. I would write the scripts and actual ads. We got a letter from Google one day that said, “You are the number one fastest-growing agency out of 17,000,” at the time in 2009, “How are you doing it?” We had revenue charts and records. There were seven different records. I’ve broken them all. They said, “It’s Gene Anderson.” I was fortunate enough to go to Google and meet the marketing director of communications. It was cool because I’m a curiosity thinker guy like you. I told them, “I’ve been in this space for a while. You’ve got this AdWords certification thing.” In our company, we had 500 people on the phones doing sales and this type of thing. We had eight tech guys.
Google gave you the certification for the tech. I felt the sales department were disenfranchised. They felt like second-class people. I told them, “What do you think of this idea?” I told them about having a program for the sales side of Google AdWords, a training, relationship and partnership of all these companies. He asked me, “Would you like to come here to Google and work? Would you like to come work for us?” I thought about it. I said, “I’m not smart enough to work there.” I met the people. He told me he hired everyone at Google for ten years. He said, “We don’t hire you because you went to Harvard or whatever. We hire you because you were number one in your class.” They very well understood that they go after the top talent. I’ve spoken in Miami, Mexico City and different events for the elites. I’ve been asking myself in prayer life, “What should I speak onto these billionaires? I’m not one of them. What can I bring to the table that’s valuable?” What I realized was the power of their legacy, of their name.
I came up with an idea. Let’s say you were the yellow cab family. Here comes Uber. You should have known about Uber. You should have been part of that movement because your industry is changing. That’s where I started knowing Devin in Google, how they got all the top talent. The little startups couldn’t compete. You go to Google and make $250,000 a year to start. You go at this little company where they can barely raise that much. How do these little companies get the talent that they need? One way that I had thought of was if a family like the Driscoll family, the Barrys, the U-Haul family or these different companies, the Sheraton family. I know these people. They could leverage the power of their name for talent by saying, “If you have a great idea and you want to bring it to the market, we will back you.” You have to show that you can do it. Let’s say the Driscoll family was behind you. You won’t have to worry about running out of the capital in order to see your dream come true. Most of these guys that come out of Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Caltech or whatever don’t want to go work for Mark Zuckerberg. They want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. The temptation is here, “We’re going to give you the BMW. We’re going to give you the big check.” They get the talent.
A lot of these guys call them dead man walking, these young guys that plug into these big corporations. If they have a dream of their own and they know that somebody will support them, that’s where these old families and different people could say, “We will back you. We’re not going to pay you those salaries, but if you can do what you say you can do, we will be there for you.” It’s been a fun experience seeing these young entrepreneurs’ dreams come true. I helped take the company public a couple of years ago that was an artificial intelligence company, where this young man had created an algorithm that they call a search recommendation engine. Netflix is a good example. They have a story in Business Insider that their algorithm makes them $1 billion a year. It takes all the data and it learns as it’s going. That’s how it saves the company money, “These are the movies. We need to do this and that.”
The bad news is if we don't do right and live right, we will not survive. The good news is it's our choice. Click To TweetThis young man created an algorithm that could take the data of 40 million people. It runs the Amazon algorithm through it for Prime, the Netflix and his. The data doesn’t lie. I don’t know the exact number, but I was at Amazon Prime in New York City with this young man from South Africa. They were blown away. He said, “Tell him a hit movie you like.” He puts it up there. This thing, knowing his profile, recommended this movie. The guy goes, “I love that movie.” He said the next time, “I love that movie.” He did it four times. He goes, “Where did you get this?” I looked at him and said, “He built it.” That young man was not able to raise $50,000 to see his dream come true. He contacted me. We got to be friends. I worked with him with the company and took him to the bankers and stuff. He’s running now. I enjoy that stuff. I like to help young, smart people see their dreams come true.
Those are some amazing stories. You brought up a few things. I grew up next door to the U-Haul family. My best friend is one of them. It’s fun to see the success of some of these companies and young people in what they’re able to do. You were talking about what he was able to create. I had Rebecca Costa on the show. She was talking about how you can take these sensors and be able to tell if somebody’s going to trip in the next few weeks. I can’t remember what the timeframe was. You can predict so that you can save old people or having these elderly or having problems with their gait or something that you can call them and say, “You’re going to trip. Watch what you’re doing.” It’s amazing to me what technology is. I’ve worked with some people who were working with Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel with all these ideas. Patri Friedman was on the show. He’s got Peter Thiel backing something he’s working on. I’m on board with Reid Hoffman’s group. He got these cool people. You were saying you’re not a billionaire, but you live next to Nike Founder, Phil Knight.
I live on the hill where dope Phil Knight lives. I drool over his six gold streams all the time. I’ve been blessed to be around a lot of smart people and enjoy them. I had an old neighbor. Bill Checovich was the Vice President of US Bank and on the board of directors of Blue Cross. He’s a great man. I learned a lot. I loved to hear their wisdom.
It’s an unusual group. I’ve interviewed with so many of these people like Keith Krach, Craig Newmark, Ken Fisher and Jeff Hoffman. They’re all looking for philanthropy-based ways to give back. What does this Billionaire Foundation help them do?
Sheila’s vision is to be a vehicle where they can vet, discuss and collaborate on what the most impact that they can make together. There’s a principle that one can beat a thousand but two can beat 10,000. There’s real power in unity. I think that’s been her vision. It’s to see that come to pass. She’s active in film. The power of films can’t be underestimated. People that have worked hard their whole life and made a substantial amount of money get to the end of their life where they say, “What can I do? What have I done?” I was reading a statistic. 150,000 people die every day. A lot of them didn’t expect it. It’s, “How am I living right now? What’s going on?” The more that people like Jeff Bezos and those types of people take the time to think about how their life is affecting the Earth. We have this mentality that success is being a billionaire and that’s it. I don’t believe that. Success is when you’re happy. If that’s your ministry or your life is to make wealth, to help people and to move society forward, that’s your gift and your calling. The country is so divided. I call myself a social capitalist. I haven’t heard that one, but I believe in helping people and giving as much. I believe in the freedom to work, own something and not have the government tell me that this is what we’re going to do or whatever. It’s a balancing act for sure.
Working over in Africa was good because there is, and even in the news, this movement to divide races and people. There’s a principle that I try to live by. It’s that love covers a multitude of sins. When we get these attitudes towards, “They have all the money. I hate them or they’re the poor people,” we’re missing the mark. The mark is to use what gifts we have to bring joy to other people. That’s what fulfills us. It’s when we do those things. I’ve had the money, the Ferrari, the oceanfront home and all these different things in real estate. You go up and down. Some of the highlights of my life have been sitting in a little hut in Africa with this chicken in the middle of the room with a little string tied to her leg and these five women in a circle smiling at me because the poor chicken knows this is his last hour. I’m sitting here being honored to eat the only chicken in the area. I’ve had the fancy dinners than New York and everything else, but they couldn’t compare to those types of experiences I’ve had.
It’s such a different awakening of your perception of the world. I would imagine going through that. I’m writing about perception. You were talking about attitudes, missing the mark and all that. What misconceptions do we have of our perceptions of billionaires and misperceptions or perceptions of what it’s like in Africa? What have you seen in terms of how far off are we? Are we able to see the reality of the very poor and the very rich? Is there something you have to be able to appreciate it?
I’ve never been a billionaire or even close to it, but I have a lot of friends that are. One of my friends says you can only watch one TV at a time. You can only sleep in one bed at a time. Anything over $500,000 you’re spending is excess. There’s a huge responsibility on people that are gifted to make wealth. It’s important that they keep their mortality at the forefront of their life. When you’ve created all this wealth and you’re going to hand it over to the next generation that maybe didn’t have that work ethic, drive or whatever, your responsibility is to train up whoever. It doesn’t have to be your biological child. We have a daughter that we adopted from a Russian orphanage. We love her to death. It’s to train our children with the right attitudes towards people and life. We’re here for a short time. People don’t think about it but everybody on the planet, on the entire globe, is going to be gone in 120 years from now. How we live now is going to go on. There’s a real responsibility with all these people to live and do right. The athletes and the different things, young people look up to them.
I was thinking about when I was a youngster in Downtown Palo Alto into a little school named Addison when I was in kindergarten or whatever. I used to walk to school. I used to go walking down Bryant Street where I was born in University Avenue and over there. I was five years old. I would walk down the street, stop at Fran’s candy store. Fran would give us a little treat. We can’t do that now. Society is not advancing. It’s imploding. We need to examine ourselves and say, “What can we do?” I try to live by the golden rule. We have a mining company that we started called Golden Rule Limited. My business advice to people is doing to others what you want to be done to you. If I run every transaction and every deal I do through that filter, I’m a happy person. I sleep well. I don’t have to worry about what I did or what I said or whatever. I’m not perfect by any means. I make mistakes like everybody. As a Christian, I believe that’s why Jesus came. It’s to pay for my shortcomings. I have a responsibility to live right and do right. Guys like Bezos, Sergey Brin and all these people, the more they get in tune to the eternal aspects of things, whether they believe in it or not, they’re happier.
Read Phil Knight’s book Shoe Dog. He had the things he did that he wished he didn’t this and that. At the end of his life in the book, it says he’s going to mass every day or something. We don’t want to live where we look back and say, “I wish I would have done this, I wish I would have been that.” We want to start now saying, “How can I live?” I pulled next to a car and there was this road rage going on between two guys. One guy got out of the car. I’m like, “What am I going to do?” I’m usually the type to get in things. Now I’m older, I don’t want to get into those things. I thought, “I know better than those two guys.” I lose my cool and I blow it. There’s such tension in society now with all the different political things going on and things like that. I do fear for our country. If we don’t have that type of giving attitude and humility, we won’t make it. There’s been all these different, “You’re a doctor.” All these empires have come and gone or a couple of hundred years old. We don’t have some guarantee to continue. If we don’t fix it through doing and living right, we will not survive. That’s the bad news. The good news is it’s our choice.
I flew back about what we have coming, what we have facing us. I sat next to a superintendent of a school district. I was flying in from New York. She was giving me the rundown on what she sees for younger kids. How much drugs and everything that the parents are taking and the impact on the children. She was saying that the kids that had parents who were meth addicts are impetuous. They can’t control them wanting to go this way or that way. The next age, the five-year-olds or so, she said these parents have all been taking so much hydrocodone that the kids are angry and up in a certain level of destructiveness. I’m thinking, “What are we going to see from all this coming up?” Do you hear a lot about this?
Yeah. I have friends that are famous actors and actresses. They’re in and out of rehabs. I was reading a book called The Brain Warrior. It’s about how food affects our brain. It was horrifying reading about how scientists have created these ecstasy food experiences to get us hooked on fast bad foods and what it does to the brain. I’ve had the opportunity to invest in things that I thought were not good for people for their health. I’ve had to make a choice. People made a lot of money and I didn’t, but I’m happy that I didn’t, finding out that these things are not good and healthy. You’re dead on about the drugs. What it’s doing to society and our kids is going to affect the next generations. I was reading, I don’t know if this is a fact or not. I haven’t been there. In North Korea, everyone’s given marijuana. I’m not anti-marijuana. I know there are great things that they can do for certain things. We grew up in the ‘70s. Dummying down, keep them like, “Everything’s cool.” You can control the society. You can get them to not have that drive, spirit of accomplishment and entitlement mentality that we see now.
Creating jobs is one of the most rewarding things. Click To TweetI love Steve Forbes, who you know very well. I listened to some of his things. I say, “He’s so dead on these things.” If we don’t train our children that, “If you take those drugs, it’s going to affect your mind. It could affect your mind for generations. It’s not just you but also your kids.” It’s a fact. I knew a young man who was dyslexic but they didn’t know. They gave him a drug that he had a psychotic reaction to. They brought him to the hospital. This happened years ago. They put him on all these other drugs. I went and met with his doctor once and him because he was getting off them. We talked. The doctor said in front of me, “We made a mistake with you. One in 1,000 has this reaction. When you came in, they gave you this.” That young man now is on so many medications. If you look at him, you can see why most of the homeless problem we’re having and all these different things are drug-related and alcohol-related. They are unhappy people. They’re on drugs. They have these things going on in their minds. It’s a sad situation. We need a revival of the entrepreneurial spirit in this country to handle our kids or we’re going to end up like the fear that some of us have. We will not be the America that you and I grew up in.
It is a sad thing. It reminded me of the book that Patterson wrote against medical advice. There was a true story where I think the kid had like Tourette. They kept giving him medication. He’d have a worse reaction. They go, “You don’t have enough of it. We need to double your dose.” Doctors are taught certain step care things. I was a pharmaceutical rep for fifteen years. You get to see behind the curtain. It gets a little scary sometimes if you see the reality of what goes on. They’re doing the best they can. A lot of us think that they know all the answers. Sometimes it leads to worse problems.
I was a volunteer at the Oregon Youth Authority at the Maximum Security Prison for children that have done capital offenses like school shootings and stuff. At one facility, I was told that every single one of those kids that did those crimes were on some type of antidepressant or drug when they did them. Whether you want to say it’s a coincidence, it’s common sense. I’m against overmedicating.
I’m curious about the next generation. You had mentioned about the billionaires giving their money to different things. They always talk about Gates not giving their kids all of their money. Is that what the billionaires are starting to do, less of giving it to the kids and more like you should get it on your own? I’m curious what you’re saying with them.
I am such an anomaly in that billionaire world. My mantra has been, “I would rather make a thousand millionaires than one billionaire,” which is funny because of how economics work. When somebody makes so much money that they’re trying to find a way to stuff it away or hide it or do whatever they do, that’s different than somebody who’s making a good living and got extra. He’s reinvesting his building. He’s creating and starting new businesses. The billionaires, of their own free will, if they have a heart transplant, meaning if they have a revelation that, “I’ve got this money. I can do some serious good.” I’m not saying give it away. It’s the old adage, “Teach them to fish. Don’t give them fish.” That’s what I think is the most rewarding thing. Creating jobs is where it’s at. When people are working and moving towards a goal, they’re happy. That’s where the billionaires might be missing at some of them.
That’s how money works. “I’ve got a billion, now I need two billion. I’ve got two billion, now I need eight billion. I’m only number 45 on the Forbes chart.” That’s how we’re put together. That’s mankind. We have to fight ourselves. I think it’s all the individual. You can have one billionaire that’s a total mess in his mind and one that knows what life is about. I get a kick out a Chick-fil-A myself. That company is boycotted from certain groups or whatever. We have one here outside of Portland where Intel is out here in Hillsborough. It’s closed and the thing is packed. They are givers. These people are givers. There was a certain principle. Some people call it karma. We call it, “Reap what you sow.” When you give, it comes back to you. That’s where it’s at. It’s giving. You can’t take it with you. You can have as many things made about you and streets called after you and all that stuff, but the real joy is helping people. I appreciate your show and what you’re doing.
Thank you. It’s interesting you brought up Chick-fil-A. I have a lot of students who write about that in a course I teach about servant leadership and different things. They’re known for being closed on Sundays and doing what they do. We always talk about different companies and how they give back. I’ve never been to one. I want to get to one now that everybody is talking about it.
Their food is pretty good. It’s neat to see those type of things.
You’re the ambassador for this foundation, which you give talks with them. What exactly is that?
I speak at events on business principles. I like to teach and be a mentor to people. I’ve done a lot of volunteer work over my life. I’ve worked in a lot of rest homes and visiting the elderly. We put our elderly out in these places and leave them alone. I have enjoyed that servant type of work. I look at myself as the butler in the Billionaire Foundation. I want to be there to serve and be a good influence, maybe a reminder. When I give a message or a talk on things like the power of a good name or things like that, I get some frowns. I get some real people jumping out of their seat. You’re not going to please everybody. I try to stay true to myself and who I am. When we’re talking about the kids, it reminds me of being in Africa. Seeing these kids so happy and running, playing and jumping. Give a bunch of kids in Kenya a soccer ball and watch what happens. They will be the happiest kids in the world. Here we’re giving them the latest this. My house is full of toys. I think everything I spent my money on over the last few years is with toys. The kids want this and that. They’re not happy.
A friend of mine from Ireland said we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. I want to bring that reminder to that world as Sheila’s representative when I have the opportunity. I was looking at the party. They had it up on LinkedIn. They were showing pictures of it. Everybody was stuffed in this beautiful place. I was so happy I wasn’t there. It’s not that they’re bad, but it has worked to do those. It’s worth flying all over and going to these parties, dressing up and all this jazz. I do it as a friend for Sheila. Her husband passed away. He was a wonderful man. Do you know Netflix’s Reed Hastings? Her husband was his pediatrician. They’re all tied together. She’s going through that period of still moving on. I was blessed to know her husband. I’m glad that I got to know him as well. We Driscoll-Barrys every day all day.
Sheila was great on the show. I often refer people that show because she outlined in such detail in a great way how people could propose ideas to fulfilling them and what she likes to see, especially in the entertainment industry and that type of thing. I’m curious when you’re talking to these groups of billionaires. Is there a focus that they have in common?
At the end of the day, people just want to be accepted, cared for, loved, and do good things. Click To TweetI was listening to a Justin Rockefeller, Steven Kennedy and these guys. The common theme is what we’ve been talking about. It’s this impact. “How can we make the biggest impact on society?” A lot of it is going towards healthcare, discoveries and diseases. If you have all the money, you want to live as long as you can. That’s a no brainer. There’s a lot of focus on that. Generally speaking, there is a commonality with all the different religions, different countries, systems of government and things that are in the world. We’re such a global society. How do we get along? How do we move forward in peace and all these things? I have my beliefs and people have their own beliefs.
A key is no matter what somebody believes, if you love them, when you go to these different countries, whether you’re in India with Hindus, here or there, whatever the system of government, people want to have a healthy life, they want to raise their kids to be happy and successful. When we meet people at the micro, at the grassroots level, we’re all the same, even over the centuries. People are still like they were a thousand years ago. Now the toys and technology are different. I’ve liked this Moto thing we’re doing. With Moto Sign and Media, we’re trying to show the importance of not doing just typing computer stuff but experiencing things more, getting out more and things like that.
For the Billionaire Foundation, people say, “What is it? What does it do?” It’s a group of people that families have common beliefs in where the world should go and what they can do to it to help people and to take that wealth that they have and use it for what it should be used for. Nobody has the perfect answer for that. There’s a principle of, “There’s safety in a multitude of counselors.” Being a business entrepreneur, every mistake I’ve made, every blender and everything we’ve all done, we would not have made it if we would have done a little bit more due diligence. There was something out there that we didn’t want to listen to or see that would’ve told us, “Don’t make that choice. Don’t do that.”
One of the most fantastic things we can do is learn and grow between ourselves. The Billionaire Foundation of people that win the lottery or whatever how that ruins their lives. The big thing is that everybody loves you because you’ve got the money. They want to be around you. “Who are my real friends? Who comes to me for me? What if I didn’t have this money?” There is built-in anxiety with having a lot of money. That’s inherited when you reached that status. At the end of the day, people want to be accepted, cared for and loved. They want to do good things. That foundation is one of many that can do that. That’s what Sheila is trying to do.
I have a lot of people who are always saying, “It would be nice to have Sir Richard Branson speak or it would be nice to have Oprah speak.” I’m sure they have so many people wanting them to speak. What advice would you give people who think they can get these guys to speak at their events?
Go hand out on Fisher Island or something. That’s a good start. To get them to speak on your show, be real. Is that the question?
It’s not on my show, but that would be nice too.
Is it on their venues?
Yeah.
I’ll have to sleep on that one.
I go to events where you see some of the big names at these events. I’m wondering what draws them in. Do they pay these billionaires money? They don’t need money. I’m thinking that it’s probably not. I’m curious about it.
People are star struck in the way we’re put together. I was the Google guy and our company was the fastest growing. I was the highest revenue producer and all that stuff. I could go and pretty much see the president if I wanted to. Google was hot and I was the guy and all this stuff. It’s what’s in right now. If you want to pay a couple hundred thousand, you can pretty much have everybody speak. If you have something that they’re interested in, they will open up to you. I know billionaires. I give names out all the time, “Tell Jack that I sent you and tell him Gene Anderson said to call.” I don’t try and find out what they’re doing. I give people the freedom to do their best to see if they can develop a relationship. It’s all about personal relationships and trust. Trust is earned over time. People always prove who they are over time. That’s something that you can’t rush into. There are so many scammers on LinkedIn and things like that. I was communicating with somebody that I thought was Christy Walton. The only reason I found out it wasn’t her was that her pilot was a friend of my pilot on his jet. I found out that this person that impersonated these billionaires was online and doing their thing. You’ve got to be careful.
They spend as much time trying to do something real as they do scamming. There are things they could do with their lives. I appreciate all your insight on this. We had a chance to talk before. I was looking forward to having you on because a lot of people are interested in all these things. I’m glad that everything’s going well at Moto Sign and Media. Thanks for sharing all the information about the Billionaire Foundation. If anybody wants to find out more, is there a place that you want to share? Do you want to share the Billionaire Foundation site? Is there anything else you’d like to share?
They can find me online at Gene Anderson on LinkedIn. Reach out that way. Sheila Barry Driscoll is on LinkedIn. She’s very open to talk. Contact Diane. If you have somebody that wants to meet Sheila or do something like that or anybody that I know, and I’m friends with the Kennedys and stuff, I’d be glad to introduce some if it makes sense.
Martin Mongiello introduced us. He was nice to suggest that we contact each other. This has been so wonderful to have you on the show. Thank you so much.
You’re welcome.
I’d like to thank Gene for being my guest. We get so many great guests. I hope you join us for the next episode of Take The Lead Radio.
Important Links:
- Gene Anderson on LinkedIn
- Moto Sign and Media
- Hand Moto
- Patri Friedman – Previous Episode
- Keith Krach – Previous Episode
- Craig Newmark – Previous Episode
- Ken Fisher – Previous Episode
- Jeff Hoffman – Previous Episode
- Shoe Dog
- Sheila Barry Driscoll – Previous Episode
- Sheila Barry Driscoll on LinkedIn
About Gene Anderson
Gene Anderson is an accredited investor, entrepreneur and business consultant. Gene has served as CEO, Chairman, President and Adviser for both public and private companies. He is the founder of TheMillionairesClub.org, BestHomeBuilders.com, a licensed real estate broker, licensed general contractor, a due diligence advisor for family offices and a former licensed private investigator.
Gene majored in business law and received his certification in strategic marketing from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Gene also serves as the ambassador and due diligence officer for Sheila Driscoll, founder of the Billionaire Foundation.
Mr. Anderson founded and funded a non-profit organization building orphanages, medical clinics, and schools in Kenya, East Africa. (Victorious Outreach Ministries) VOM has sheltered, fed and educated thousands of children whose parents had died from AID’s. That work continues today under the name African Orphan Outreach. He served in Christian ministry for over 25 years.