Billionaire?
One billion dollars is what my companies have been worth.
And Billionaire is the title of his brand new autobiography.
And because Forbes magazine ranked me as the 2,670th richest man in the world.
Not anymore? Tell me your current fortune.
Today a little less, but I don’t look at my bank accounts: almost everything is in assets.
When did you make your first million?
In pesetas, in 1998: at the age of 22 I made graduation certificates for students at the faculty where I studied electrical engineering.
What did you do with that million pesetas?
I started as an electrical installer. My company had 70 employees.
What is it to be an entrepreneur?
You detect a need and solve it in exchange for money, and you pay taxes and help people live better.
Do you defend taxes?
They cover public health and education. I attack superfluous political expenses. And I ask to reduce tax pressure on workers: that would strengthen the economy.
Three virtues of a good businessman.
Unawareness, resilience and resolution.
Did your parents help you?
As a child I lived in a construction shed in Badalona. My father was an electrician, a worker, a good person… and a disaster with money. My mother did look at the cent. I retain that poor mentality.
They live?
My mother died when I was 19: what a great void… My father died when I was 23. I covered my pain with work… and my brain forgot. And today I do hypnotic regression.
So that?
I talk to my mother: we talk about my children, who she was not able to meet… I have cried a lot and that has relieved me a lot.
Did you do well as an electrical installer?
There were setbacks, debts… The tax collector came to chase me… I closed, I stopped installing… to buy and sell electricity.
Did you have an electric company?
In Orus there were mistakes and I applied what I learned at Audax, another electricity company.
How many companies do you have now?
I control 180 companies. From the ages of 33 to 45 I invested 550 million euros, and today I prefer to consolidate them.
How much are your companies worth today?
800 million euros.
With how many employees?
Ten thousand people.
How much do you bill annually?
2.7 billion euros.
Highlight an important day.
The day I went public: Audax, first; then Atrys (oncology technology) and Ezentis (telephone technology).
What day have you earned the most money?
One day I sold 5% of Audax: 56 million euros were transferred to my account in five minutes. I immediately reinvested them.
And he bought the La Sirena chain.
You know this from my videos on social networks, right?
I’ve seen him fish for salmon in Norway…
The best salmon! And in Iceland. And shrimp in Patagonia…
What need do you have?
If a businessman is not in networks, in ten years he will be dead!
Yeah?
Today we buy to identify with something or someone: young people see me on social networks… and that is why they enter my stores.
He’s an influencer: he gives advice, I see.
I am the most viewed entrepreneurship KOL (key opinion leader) in the Spanish-speaking world, with already 14 million visits.
What do you advise your children?
I let them make mistakes and learn.
What material good would you not give up?
I would give up my jet and my helicopter, although I fly them with pleasure… But I would always maintain domestic service.
And so?
No investment provides a higher quality of life! And avoid marital arguments. You arrive home and everything is in order. Payment to a person who lives at home: it’s worth it!
Would you invest in cryptocurrencies?
I see that as gambling. Something in bitcoin…
He endorsed Laporta: 40 million euros.
And then I felt used: Laporta passed me by like shit. He has nothing at stake in his position. I saw that Barça does not put in place means to prevent bad things from happening.
Did you glimpse any of those bad things?
I didn’t start looking, and it’s better that way. The fact is that Barça is not where it deserves to be.
Will it end up in Saudi hands?
That is still avoidable. But the risk of being an SA increases: let’s anticipate that so that the member’s vote controls the club!
Now give some advice for the economy of Spain.
Millions of euros fall to us from the sky: let’s collect them as photovoltaic energy! We would have the cheapest energy in Europe and that would attract factories, investments…
