Many people incorrectly assume that the success I have enjoyed is just because of my law practice.  There is no doubt that building a successful business, and keeping it successful by following the rules and trying constantly to ensure that you are the best and delivering the best service will obviously have its own rewards.  I will say however that I think that that is only part of the story and that the other part is the sacrifices that people make.

In other words, some people, when they first start earning extra money, get themselves a fancier car, a better house and give themselves the luxury holidays.  I never made those choices – I decided to invest everything into growing my business bigger and when the business started producing dividends, to put those dividends into other businesses and other shares.  

Friends told me I was gambling when I was investing money in Google when the Rand/Dollar exchange rate was R7,20 to the Dollar and when Google’s price was the equivalent, in today’s terms, of about $200.  I say in today’s terms because that had a two for one stock split since then, so that the shares that now cost $990 actually, compared to the price I paid for them, would be now be just under $2000.  The Rand price also almost doubled during that time.  The share price of Google essentially has multiplied by approximately 4 times since I first bought Google and I continued to buy since then.  In other words, the first few Google shares I bought have multiplied close to 10 times in Rand terms.  That has obviously made me a lot of money, and while that money would have originally come from my practice, a lot of the money that I have made has come from good investments. A good investment does not mean it has to be a share – now it is probably not the right time to begin investing in shares – the market is looking very expensive and South African shares have not moved much for 3 or 4 years.  I don’t think it took incredible vision or foresight to know 6 years ago that Apple was obviously a success story, that Google could not miss and that Amazon was going to become the biggest retailer in the world, but many of my friends at the time said I was gambling.  I don’t think I was – I think they were absolute guaranteed winners in my opinion.

The bigger point I am making though is somewhat different.  That is, instead of investing that money in those shares or in certain businesses that I have invested in as well as property, I could have gone on luxury holidays, I could have improved my lifestyle substantially and I could have spent more of the money on myself.  I did not, and that is probably one of the biggest differences between those who become successful and those who don’t – the ability to say that I will not reward myself right now, I will not look for instant gratification and money now, now, now, but rather be prepared to invest it again, to re-invest it and put off the material rewards until much later so that in the meantime I can continue to grow bigger and to make more money.  That is of course if you are judging success on a money basis – it is not the only basis to judge success and for people who truly want to make money, law is not exactly the right profession!  Other businesses will always be a far better way to make a lot of money than selling your services on an hourly basis – whether you do it as a doctor or as a lawyer, and quite honestly, for those who sell their services on an hourly basis, lawyers probably finish close to the bottom of the pile – in other words, accountants and specialist doctors all earn more money than lawyers generally.  You can do well as a lawyer but you won’t become truly rich like those who sell cigarettes, furniture and cellphones.