Wealth Building

Yes, big profit with little effort

practice earning

In a recent study they found that what 75% of young people want most is to be rich. You can train to be a tennis player with tennis training, but you can’t train to be rich. You can practice earning. And this is where many people fall. Money is not necessarily related to wisdom or intelligence, it is related to who has “trained” in the appropriate field. It’s training that first of all requires managing money well, money drives everything in the world today, and the best training is managing your money from a young age. My dad let me manage my own money from the age of 6.

the workout

I started my training at the age of 12 when I read economics sections in newspapers. In economics sections, you learn on your own in which fields people earn good money for the effort they invest. At the time I saw that it was mainly financiers and real estate and in the 90’s I felt it was technology.

Before Plus500 I started 4 companies over 10 years and practiced making money for 20 years before starting Plus500.

After 20 years of training

Plus500 is a company that has earned over 2 billion dollars in the last decade and is traded in London, and this is actually a method we built for a big profit with little effort. The method still works, without too many changes for almost 15 years since 2009. We are no longer there to manipulate the method but we, the builders of the methods, are no longer needed, we have moved on but still enjoy the fruits of the same method.

What everyone else does means nothing

One of the most important things is to understand that if everyone is doing something, that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing. Many good people get lost in the very idea of a small effort, because they were brought up on a big effort. I do not say ‘no’ to great effort, but to see what is the smallest effort for the greatest gain. It’s elusive, because it’s important to understand that we’re looking for long-term profit, because in the long-term average my profit is bigger than the current profit usually.

Twitter started with 8,000 employees, Elon Musk bought it and runs it with 1,500 employees, it works even better. What it means? that we are based on what exists today and it is very difficult for us to imagine a different future and pursue it without fear. Try to work on yourself to exercise free thought in everything related to investments.

We work with what we have and from the end to the beginning

The sentence is a bit difficult to understand, but with an example it will be understood. Let’s say in business you need an animation of the earth.

People who don’t close tasks will start making all kinds of impractical suggestions that won’t close, like “Let’s find a company in the US that specializes in animation and ask for animation.” A honest task blocker thinks from the end to the beginning “I have an animation of the Earth” – how did I get it?. The blocker will look for animation On the network he wants and will let a freelancer copy it at the same time. This is the idea of thinking from the end to the beginning and working with what is available!

work with best friend

From the chapter on a good life, we concluded that there is a huge profit in relationships, that is, we enjoy the most just being with friends, combine this with “most of the day in our adult lives we are at work,” and then there is a completely crazy profit in working with friends or the best friend. It is a connection of two different ideas, and in life and in the exercise of free thought you see that when there is a connection of several factors together, it usually produces a good explosion. Think about how these connections work, although I don’t recommend them all, Red Bull vodka, a cigarette and coffee, ice cream on a cake or a concert at Caesarea. If you know how to make good friends at work, then even better. At Black Jack Analyzer, my first company, we started working on it, me, Uri Vichy, best friends from high school, it was really fun, today I also understand why, we both made money and worked with the people we enjoy being with the most. By the way, studies have shown that people who have a close friend at work give a much higher output than others.

Be close to where money flows

Jews

Jews like me are not just attracted to money management, gambling and insurance. The money flows there, and just like if you want to drink, and not disturb anyone, it is recommended to go to the river, that is exactly how it is worth to be near a river of money. And there are specific areas where a river of money flows among them: money management, gambling, payments and insurance. Add technology on top of that and you got what we’re always looking for – crossbreeding for big profit with little effort.

Reading economics papers is part of being close to money, for years it was my only financial education.

The “location” law in business

The law of “location” that appears in the laws of “small effort for big profit” is perfect for business and making money. The idea here is to choose a field that is easy to replicate for the whole world, or for the whole country, as well as a field in which you have some advantage.

No one will applaud you and say, “Wow, you chose a really difficult field and you succeeded in it,” it is better in advance to choose a field that is easy for you to succeed in and you earn a lot in it. Let’s say “money management” for people who want to save for their children, sounds like something that can be replicated all over the world and you should check if there are really successful companies in this.

Get an answer instead of struggling in the mud

The “location” law includes a very important thing and that is to get an answer as to whether the business is in the right direction or not. Let’s say I sell some service to businesses that will take me 5 years just to know if the business is good or not, or alternatively I invented a card game that I will know within a month if I have a good direction. Obviously, a business that gives a quick answer is better if the business is in the right direction, and that way we won’t waste years. In all the businesses I’ve chosen, I’ve always looked for a field that has a quick answer if I’m in the right direction. On the freelancer site we set up called ‘Bizrif’ within three months I saw that it was going in a completely screwed up direction, and indeed we closed it down, but we didn’t waste years struggling in the mud. The same people, plus two, a year later we built Plus500, where I received an answer, within less than 24 hours of going live, that it was going to be an excellent business, and so I also told Shlomi, Omer, Gal and Elad.

I settled in Las Vegas

I chose gambling when I saw Las Vegas. The entry threshold was really low.

The formula that I improved over the years started from an interest in the field where people deposit money into a black box from the gambling field. I wanted them to be more comfortable, because comfort is actually a business. A business makes us work less hard and feel comfortable and frictionless. Third thing, I wanted to innovate something from an existing and successful product that works.

This is the short formula: a successful similar product + a box that is deposited into it + convenience + novelty.

look for replication to other places

In a business with scale, the business can grow without investing energy or resources adapted to growth. The Internet provided just such possibilities. An example grocery store is a business without scale. And that’s exactly the point of the box, I can sell a thousand blackjack tables without work. The box in this style suits me, look for the “box” that suits you.

The genius is to find a good model that works in a certain place, let’s say some game that works in the Netherlands, and then replicate it to the rest of the world. This is roughly what we did at Plus500 after seeing other successful companies.

Focus on! To be focused on one idea, the “main idea”, and in the first years to focus only on pushing it forward and improving it by a measurable parameter. The main idea may be to replicate the business to other countries.

roll

The spiral model means when there is one measurable parameter that can be improved relatively easily. In the companies I founded, the progress was always in the spiral model – constantly closing a circle and improving from there, then going to a bigger and bigger circle. This is critical to building a great company. A small crack and then a bigger crack that way you are always connected to reality. start with a small step.

mainly to deal with and not take care of and another important thing

My profit is ours

Investing effort mainly and not in the care is exactly the minimum effort for maximum profit. It sounds corny, but not many people stop and think all the time “Am I mostly busy now or am I wasting my time?”

This is an acquired trait and you are not born with it, it is often acquired from personal experience and understanding what does not contribute to my profit, which is not necessarily financial profit.

As in books that a whole number sometimes take one sentence, that’s the main thing.

Everyone has their profit, it can be health, money or even pleasure in doing good to others, in short all these are profit. In order to get busy, you first have to think about your profit, otherwise you just gamble and usually gamble badly and scatter. Focusing mainly, from experience, is usually found in people who grew up with financial or emotional lack in their lives, and realized over the years that you can always do hundreds of things but only a few will give the maximum profit. When I was 24, I was at the house of a wealthy gambling businessman, and he talked for two hours about his website. But one sentence he said has been etched in my mind ever since: “Measuring how much a customer is worth and how much it costs me to get him is my whole business.” When he said that, I understood exactly how important it was.

The main parameter in the business is the average value of a customer

Every company or business can always measure something, look for something measurable. Preferably the most important thing for the company’s profit.

Let’s say you sell lectures, then check how much a lead interested in a lecture that buys from you costs you.

Let’s say that for every 10 interested people, you get a lecture. And a lecture is worth 1,000 NIS to you. Interested, worth 100 NIS to you.

So in the campaign you will do, it is worth it for you to get an interested person for NIS 100.

This is the most significant part of the business, it allows you to know where you stand.

Now you have a conversion rate: entering the website > interested > lecture.

It is important to know that each campaign has a different conversion rate for a lecture.

I have greatly simplified the example, but when you understand the journey of your customers and the conversion rate at each stage, it will be easy for you to understand if you have improved something. The amazing part about knowing if you have improved is knowing which direction you should go. There are no people who know “the way” without getting hints, there are people who measure and improve accordingly. From here, of course, a very important point emerges, which is to know how much money it is worth to bring a customer.

The important part in this section

The interesting part is not only to mainly deal with it, but to focus on it, embrace it, surprise it, make it apply, no matter what, make the main part happen and take care of it, and that’s the innovation. Not only to understand what is the main thing, but to be laser on it, I have already run out of images. For example, I realized at a young age that to enter the Technion, a leading university in Israel, you need math and physics, but you don’t need French. From the moment I learned this, I never set foot in French lessons.

The teacher called me with the good news of Job, as far as she was concerned, that’s what she thought, “I’m submitting you to matriculation with a score of 50 in French,” I answered her in Hebrew, because I simply didn’t know French.

Good evening Jacqueline

“I don’t need it for the Technion, good evening Jacqueline.” I knew what was important, mathematics and physics, and I was the best student in the world in them, and the worst student in the world in French. A matter of a laser on the main thing and a complete pass on the treatment.

In the matriculation exam in French, I came for fun, I copied from the dictionary that I was allowed to bring, and this is how my essay for the matriculation exam went: “This dictionary was written by Jean…” This is the only thing I saw at the end of the dictionary that can be copied. It is not enough to focus mainly, it is important to ignore the therapist.

I was injured by a nut in Shekm

Sometimes, and the truth is that most of the time it was excessive for me, it’s hard to always be on the right track. For example, in a course in the army, we did a serviceman’s exercise in the desert, when one of the girls from the company said, “I’m staying here, I can’t continue,” I answered her, “Bye!” because I knew that the exercise was individual even though I was the commander of the exercise. It’s hard to be balanced in this feature, but I’ll just tame you, if you think I’m perfect, because that’s what you usually do when telling stories, you only get the main thing that shows how great the writer is and not the treatment from the writer’s point of view and the main thing from your point of view about the failures and problematic aspects of certain features.

How does this help Plus500?

At Plus500 I was already really experienced in dealing mainly, and because I was the CEO in the first years, and after that the tone setter, not everyone was dealing mainly in terms of their nature, so we as founders took care of the entertainment. Unfortunately, the trait of distraction is evident in most people, but here you can change it, it will be a small effort for you and a big gain.

Our regular phrase when someone sneezed, was “How does that help Plus?” At the end of a conversation I would always say “So we’re closed, yes?” The other party always thought for a moment and said the things we closed or didn’t close, but that was part of the point of promoting closures. Another constant phrase of mine was “so we are in sync” meaning all the knowledge and adjustments were said. But I prefer “we are closed.”

That was our profit, Plus500, and it’s really nice when everyone has a shared profit.

Since the dawn of history we humans have come together for our common gain whether it is hunting, company, money, war or peace.

Investing is a smart gamble

Correct investment of the capital you have accumulated, which is a form of gambling, is one of the most important things in life. That’s why it’s worth learning how to do it, whether you’re a passive or active investor.

At a young age I found my direction in selling “gambling” (in games, investments and trading systems) – no inventory needed, no initial capital needed and when you are on the right side – there is a constant profit. I have always been drawn to gambling when there is a statistical profit (just like selling clothes at a profit). I started really small (a blackjack simulator) and from there I went to the biggest casino in the world, Bursa.

It is important to read the tools as part of your way to accumulate capital. Do not take everything that is said here as true, check everything with other sources and with logic. You should look at a good investment as a bet with a probabilistic advantage.

My wife Dana tells the children “Look at dad, he worked so hard, studied, started companies, and I just made the right choice for once.” And this is the most important thing in investments, to make individual investments but that you are sure of, and they can make the difference, even if This is one investment in 20 years.

Read a lot of books in all fields, you will find in them ways that others have gone through and will be able to shorten your processes. Here I have compiled recommendations on excellent investment books .

Zero friction

This business is providing greater comfort to the customer, and low friction in buying and operating the product or service is an important part that is often forgotten in the process because we constantly want to add another feature.

The main thing that any company or business does is to make people work less and feel more comfortable. This is what drives us for a large part of the day, we just want to work easier. To receive what we love without preparing it. To meet the perfect partner without being someone or something, in short to rest when everyone works for us.

We saw at Plus500 that when you put amounts by default and don’t let the user put an amount, it increases the usage and the size of the deposit, and it shows exactly the law – let users work easily without too many choices. I also think this is the difference between the iPhone and Android, the iPhone is much simpler.

In sales it can make a huge difference if you ask Miuser to send you something or put in his phone number, I’m not saying don’t do it, but a smooth and frictionless experience is important in any business. You can take it further and look for such companies and invest in them. I saw this simplicity in Tesla, there are almost no clocks and the driver’s dashboard is completely clean. It totally feels zero friction.

Apple Pay also represents zero friction – you don’t need to put an address, you press a button and boom.

Money for the young because the old are not hungry

You can profit when you realize that the rich old people are not up to date with the new technology.

The old capitalists usually control the means of money in the economy. But every few years a new technology breaks out that the “old people”, like me, no longer know how to translate it into money and they aren’t really hungry either.

In the 80s it was the personal computer, in the late 90s it was the internet, towards 2008 it was the mobile phones, and today in 2023 it is the AI that will change the way we communicate with the mobile phones and the computer. You have a tremendous opportunity to make money when such technology breaks out because the old men and the old companies do not know how to eat it and are fixed.

There is nothing to think too much here, you have to attack like hunters.

To make money, you have to ride trends and improve what is there.

Global warming and environmental destruction are becoming more and more alarming. For example, between 1880 and 2021, the Earth’s average temperature rose by more than 1 degree Celsius, leading to devastating natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes.

As medical advances continue, populations around the world are aging and life expectancy is increasing. For example, global life expectancy has increased from 66.5 years in 2000 to 72.9 years in 2021. This trend also contributes to a decrease in births, as fertility rates have decreased from 2.65 children per woman in 2000 to 2.4 in 2021.

The water shortage is intensifying, and about 1.5 billion people experience high vulnerability to water. At the same time, health problems such as obesity are on the rise and will affect over 650 million adults worldwide in 2021.

The demand for electricity is increasing due to widespread adoption of air conditioning, electric cars and other technologies. Thus the number of electric vehicles in use worldwide increased from 3.2 million in 2017 to approximately 10 million in 2021.

The middle class is expanding, especially in India and China, where the combined middle class population is expected to reach 3.2 billion by 2030. At the same time, the concentration of wealth is increasing, with the top 10% of earners now controlling 76% of global wealth.

The reliance on academic studies to accumulate capital is increasing, resulting in a more competitive educational landscape. Meanwhile, screen time is increasing, especially on mobile devices, with the average adult in 2021 spending about 3 hours and 43 minutes a day on mobile devices.

The importance of money in society is increasing, as is the trend towards individualism, when more people value the “I” over the “we”. For example, the percentage of single adults in the United States has increased from 37% in 1976 to 50% in 2021.

As digitization progresses, different systems become more efficient and more interconnected. This transformation is evident in the media landscape that has transformed from single channels to thousands of sources, including social networks.

The power of engineers is growing thanks to the rise of analytics and data-driven decision making. The radicalization of the regimes is also on the rise, with extreme ideologies taking hold in different parts of the world.

Governments choose inflation over raising taxes as a means of dealing with fiscal challenges. This preference led to the appearance of “megayas” and increased urbanization, with 68% of the world’s population expected to live in urban areas by 2050.

Energy production is shifting towards photovoltaic or nuclear power generation, with solar capacity increasing from 227 GW in 2015 to more than 700 GW by 2021. The accumulation of human knowledge continues to grow exponentially, with the Internet playing a critical role in the dissemination of knowledge.

To better understand these trends, it is recommended to explore graphical representations, such as those provided by Visual Capitalist’s Signals.

Invest in your health

The best investment with the biggest return, and a certain return, is the investment in your health. Make sure that money does not go to health services – take care of your health and those you are responsible for. You will prevent diseases (it’s cheap) and thus you won’t treat diseases (it’s expensive). Free thought on how to live well. In recent years there has been a trend of diverting funds for health care from other sources (like trips and food), don’t be there.

How not to lose

Hope is not a strategy! You have to act wisely.

Understand your list of biases .

Minimize (literally maximize) everything that is important to you and no, not just money: money-yield, the time you invest in investments, possible disappointments. I believe that most of you will come to the conclusion that long-term indices are the preferred option.

Be in a good (statistical) base – the “law of the base” basically means that you will always “stand” for statistically good percentages in front of your “competitors” in order to succeed. For example, if the finance professions bring in an average of 20,000 NIS per month, and the design professions bring in 4,000 NIS per month, if you choose a finance profession – you are already on a good starting base – 20 thousand NIS. If on average someone who starts a company makes a million shekels a month, that’s an even better basis. The basic law applies to everything in life. Here is an example of money. It can be applied to health, choosing a partner or sports.

Improve your salary (intentionally this is in the feminine, but valid for all genders) – check the market how much you earn in your type of profession and ask for a raise every year. If you don’t think you deserve a raise, act so that you get a raise: take courses, close assignments, highlight your successes.

Do not be afraid to leave the workplace – if your situation is not good and you depend on it – it means that you depend on another party, which is not yourself. Therefore, act so as not to be dependent on the workplace or any other factor that determines them, freedom of thought and action is critical for success in every parameter. Check options, learn a new degree, advance, just don’t depend on the workplace. This way your salary will also increase because a workplace that feels dependent takes advantage of it.

And the austerity is gone.

One of the things I realized not long ago with the help of free thought is that modesty is a critical value not only in matters of money, car or spirit, but is important in many areas. The advantage of being humble is that you are not dependent on getting more. You will not pursue achievements just for the purpose of the external impression created. How much we can gain if we understand the benefits of modesty.

During speech and discussion: Modesty gives you the possibility to take into account that you are wrong and change your mind. It allows you a margin of error.

Home: Modesty allows you to understand what is really important at home. A house that is too big requires a lot of maintenance and is prone to more breakdowns and breakdowns, and does not give you peace of mind.

Car and products: Modesty in purchasing a car and products disconnects the feeling of consumption and materialism. Studies have shown that materialism does not produce happiness.

Food: choosing simple and humble ingredients will make our eating healthier and more balanced.

Clothing: Modesty in our choice of clothing ultimately creates comfort in our daily life, and in addition also constitutes financial and environmental savings.

Courtesy of winners and losers: When you win with modesty, you don’t make aggressive opponents. When you lose modestly, it gives much more motivation and strength to improve.

In the job market: Modesty will help develop good and normal human relations, which can help in getting a promotion in the workplace.

In everything you do and want to find out the degree of modesty, you should ask two questions: one – if you enjoy it regardless of others. The second – if others can envy it and if you consciously make others envy it. If the answer to the first question is negative and the answer to the second question is positive, the situation is bad. You are probably doing something to be looked at.

If the answer to the first question is yes and the answer to the second question is yes, the conclusion is that you need to exercise discretion, because your enjoyment of the action may make others jealous. This is indeed a problematic situation, since the most difficult thing is not to do the action.

Hired on steroids

Are you employed and want to advance at work? Treat the company you work for as if it were your business. Change the work environment, push your ideas that you think will change the face of society, and of course quietly make sure that everyone knows it’s you pushing.

In the end, in private companies the talented people advance, and talent builds over time and with smart work, pay attention not necessarily hard work, but smart work.

Buy cheap, sell expensive

Think about the value of companies freely (independently) because (the price) the consensus is priced in the market. I’ll give you an example: you entered a store at the flea market and saw a painting. Thinking about its future potential, you assumed that it is worth 100 NIS, but in fact the price is 50 NIS – therefore from your point of view it seems worth buying, but you will always add room for error in the valuation.

Enter the mode of a hunter who is quietly waiting for prey: do not be active – one of our biggest difficulties is to wait patiently when our money does not work. Make several individual investments and wait patiently for positive results. The big difficulty is to ambush the prey without moving.

In the long term, stocks have produced the highest return of all assets, and therefore they are the best asset for long-term holding, given that they do not lose the return to trading fees. Investing in indexes through ETFs is better for 90% of people mainly because less will exit the market and re-enter. The key to success is to stay in the market for the long term and not to exit. People’s timing is often wrong. You have to take into account that there will be years when you lose even 50% of the investment. But in the long run it will probably be good.

Be hunters not prey

In hunter mode, you should wait patiently for opportunities. Sometimes months or years pass until the opportunity (you are offered to join a new company, you saw a house at a good price or there is now an opportunity to enter a new and profitable field). When she arrives, she is attacked. All you need for success in the field is a few opportunities, that’s all.

Think simply – actions that require three steps are more dangerous than actions that take one step. Let’s say the chance of getting tangled up in a step is 20%; The chance of passing three steps safely is about 48%; The chance to pass one step safely is 80%! Think simple – difficult, but worthwhile.

In every investment think and ask yourself “How can you lose here?” Try to enter investments where it is very difficult to lose – the risk is small and the profit (upside) is large.

Cash money (in the bank, in bills, in a wardrobe or anywhere that does not accrue interest above inflation) is an excellent way to lose money – every year it loses its value due to inflation.

Do Jews love money? and interest?

I am allowed to write such a title because I am Jewish.

Compound interest – this is a universal law, one of the wonders of the world and in investments – one of the most critical laws. When you invest the interest that is dividends or any other profit back in the fund, the increase in capital is tremendous. A simple example – an investment of 10,000 NIS for 25 years at 10% annual interest will yield 110,000 NIS. That’s 11 times the money. When you take a loan, the law is against you, and the lender uses the law to your detriment. This law applies not only to money, but also to knowledge, ability and career. Invest back what you have gained or what you have learned to improve your abilities, this is what smart and successful people do.

Ezekiel Bomba of a prophet

Do not try to predict the market – it is strongly recommended, but in the short term the market is random. So don’t do it.

The important game is between the short term and the long term – in the long term you can see trends and profit, but our instinct is to look at the short term and react, and this is destructive to returns. Invest for the long term.

Do not get into complicated business situations. This will save you a lot of money and headaches.

You will learn about probabilities and the difference between “there is a 10% chance that it will rain today” and “it will rain today”. A good book on the subject: Naked Statistics .

In every investment or decision you will look for and understand your statistical advantage over the other side. If I offer you half a shekel when you succeed in tossing a coin, and when you fail to guess – you lose a shekel, with each coin toss you will lose 25 shekels on average, that is, 25% of the money you invest – will disappear. It is possible that after 10 shots, you will be in profit, but this does not prove anything – understand this point and you will already have a big advantage. A big upside and a small downside are the good investments or ventures.

If you buy a ETF, stay with it until you have to get the money. The ideal is that the certificate pays a dividend and then you will use it and not the money in the basket certificate.

Do not invest in specific stocks or bonds, but only in ETFs from around the world, on all indices.

In any channel, always invest for the long term, 5 years or more. Quick profit comes in a long-term investment.

Never invest based on a guaranteed return from an unreliable source. For example: “10% return on apartments in Greece”.

Where is the interest hiding?

Completely ignore the recommendations of those with interests such as investment advisors and the like.

For reasons of commissions it is better not to mess with hedge funds and the like. Read here why ETFs are better.

Think long term and interpret trends of years and not the events of today or yesterday. It’s much easier to see year-long trends, such as declining population size, the shift to electric cars, the impact of AI on services, than – yesterday Tesla was down 15%.

Indices (by ETFs) and apartments are the best investment for inexperienced investors.

Don’t be afraid of starting a business or company. It will pay off if you persevere and sell a good product or service.

Don’t “pass by and ignore” in business situations – if there is something you don’t understand, dig deeper and understand. If you can’t understand – give up on the deal.

Imagine the investment five years ahead. What would your “me” from the future say about the investment you made: “I should have been more aggressive,” “I knew you shouldn’t trust liars.”

Good investments are usually the investment opportunities that others do not see in their future potential, such as a company that is sold cheaply and in the future can recover.

A smart partner, an unwise partner – differentiate between the partners. Let’s say the founders of company x – you shouldn’t think that all founders are strong. Usually one is the most important, sometimes it’s all of them. But it is critical to distinguish between them.

Stop screwing up your mind

The big difficulty is in implementation and not in ideas. A nice way to implement it is to write a list of tasks to be done at the beginning of each day and make sure that they are all done. all of them.

Treat the problem and not the symptom in everything. Jeff Bezos, who built the company that changed the way people shop, said this powerful sentence: “You don’t fix the symptom, you fix the problem that caused the symptom.” And this is the secret of Amazon’s success in the last 20 years” – 12:33 on YouTube this one .

Limited liability consultants – most innovative ideas will be received (or according to history have been received) with great suspicion. I’m personally not a big fan of advice on whether an idea is good or not. As Gandhi said “At first they ignore, then laugh, then fight, and in the end you win”. If it was clear that a certain idea was good – everyone would do it.

It is very important to allocate money and invest it wisely in the business. also in the country. Warren Buffett does this in the businesses in which he invests – this is a quality that few leaders and managers have.

The gift economy

Since the dawn of history, humans have engaged in give and take. Giving and receiving gifts is an important part of business, it creates trust between people.

In business, in the end, there is a connection between people, I tried all these years to keep my word even though sometimes I sinned and didn’t keep my word. Always try to stand behind what you say. It is worth giving a gift without expecting to receive a return from the other side, it adds to how the company’s staff perceives the company’s values.

The feedback

To encourage real feedback in order to constantly improve, is different from the spiral law, in the spiral there is feedback, in this law we encourage people to give real feedback to each other.

To improve we need feedback . People are afraid to give negative feedback, encourage them to do so. You can learn much more from negative feedback than positive feedback. Positive feedback is usually said to have no shame, negative feedback is harder to accept. Sometimes silence is negative feedback, but always try to be in relationships or a workplace that has full transparency, for better or for worse. If you give others negative feedback, you will also receive negative feedback, and it will really help you move forward.

Nothing comes easy

One of the things I have come across over the years is that in business nothing is simple, there are often complications that are not thought of.

Nothing comes easy to anyone. Even the best tennis players started with great difficulty. Even the simplest things encounter unexpected problems. When you know this law, then you are not surprised when you get stuck in problems, on the contrary, you smile and remember the law. The real trick is to work hard at first, and then things may come easily.

A banana makes a difference in business

“The banana effect” – in your company it is important that you always “pick up the banana”, that is, when someone from the team sees a problem or something that needs to be fixed, that they should not ignore it, but strive for a solution – not only of the problem, but also of what caused it. There is a tendency mainly in medium-sized and government companies to ignore the “banana on the floor”. It does not depend on people, but also on the spirit in society. In Plus500 and Play65 we didn’t leave any “bananas” on the floor. Many times when you work in an orderly place with clean and orderly streets it is easy to recruit people who pick up “bananas” because that is what they see everywhere and on the way to work, it is also known that it lowers crime.

Culture beats strategy every day

At Plus500 I have tried to push a culture of modesty and completing tasks perfectly as well as caring for users and never lying or promising that they will make money.

The culture was that we were doing something big and branding the business for many years.

We hired only people who wanted to do something big without showing it off, quiet people but with super abilities. This created a culture in the company of doing beautiful things and also led to a strategy of targeting and opening markets, to do what is good for society, I also repeated this sentence endlessly, “Do what is good for society”.

The strategy changed from time to time, but the culture remained.

You hear a lot of buzz words “mobile strategy” “blah blah strategy”, not interesting.

Culture beats strategy every day.

think nice and clean

Continuous reflection is key, especially for long-term success. A talented manager may spend 15 hours thinking about their company’s goals, while others may only spend 5 hours. It doesn’t make you smarter, but exposes you to more ideas. Thinking, like walking, allows you to explore new places.

I remember a time when I faced a significant challenge in my career. I spent countless hours reassessing and adjusting both short-term and long-term goals while keeping the main idea at the forefront of my mind. This approach led to my eventual success, which required ten years of persistence and dedication.

Addressing hard truths is essential, as is envisioning your business flourishing around the world. I once faced a difficult situation where I had to face an uncomfortable reality. By recognizing this and imagining the possibilities, I was able to steer the business in the right direction.

Words have the same weight as actions. Your colleagues will constantly scrutinize your behavior, especially if you hold a leadership position. It is essential to be genuine in your achievements, as fraud will eventually be discovered. I once witnessed the downfall of a colleague who faked his achievements, which ultimately led to a loss of trust and credibility.

Embrace the beauty, because it often yields positive results. I have always been drawn to aesthetic spaces and experiences, which has allowed me to create an environment that fosters creativity and success.

By consistently reflecting, reassessing goals, facing challenges head-on, and emphasizing authenticity and beauty, you can achieve long-term success in your personal and professional life.

They go on stage and betray

My 25 years of business experience shows that most people will cheat for money. Over the years I have gathered with me the people who will not betray for the sake of money or power, they founded Plus500 with me. My conclusion, which can help you too, is that if you give a person control of a business and you can’t fire them whenever you want, it is very likely that they will betray you for money. I’ve seen it in all the businesses I’ve founded and been involved in. I have helped many people become rich and I have seen it in them too. If you own the business, keep the power with you, unless you want to go out of business.

Maybe I would have cheated like that too, I’ve never been in that situation, but these are good people who cheated, a person probably changes with money, power and jealousy. There is it in the tilting of the stage , in the tools for freedom. You actually know a person who doesn’t cheat, but when he sees money and power, he changes and becomes a new person.

You can see the effect of the stage even with “friends” who are in power today.

Choose partners and give them percentages

Later you will read about my partners in Plus500, each of us brought a different ability, the combination of the abilities led us to build one of the most profitable Israeli companies. In 2020, the company earned $500 million in net profit.

Here you will find a summary of Plus500 data .

We had a history together in previous companies, and they survived me. One of the previous companies we called BizReef, a company for freelancers, it was a huge failure. With the exact same team, plus one more, we built Plus500.

One of the things I always made sure of when choosing partners were leading universities and those with good potential, not necessarily proven. I was looking for points that indicated potential: studied two degrees at the same time at Tel Aviv University, an officer in the army, was central to the development team at a start-up company, worked at Google, worked at Intel, etc. I mostly used a tip from someone who referred me to him or her.

They always had a percentage in the business, which made them give much more of themselves than usual.

Personally, when I worked at a start-up without percentages, I was not interested at all, and I was the worst employee in the world.

Every day we would come to “work”, but for us it was a battle, not work, we wanted to win. Every day we made hundreds of decisions, many of them difficult, but in the end at Plus500, at Play65 as well as at the other companies, thousands of decisions had to be made until the system was established. And when they ask me what the secret is, this is part of the secret – to make thousands of good decisions, sometimes hundreds a day.

Omar Elazari the commander of the commanders

The best CTO in Israel

Plus500 Founder and Super Partner.

I met Omar through an underground ad of mine and Elad’s on the Internet when we were looking for a founder/CTO with Elad for one of the ventures we founded after play65 and before plus500. The ad on Google Ads said something like “Stop being a screw on a slave ship, come to a startup.” After a short interview and a few logical questions, I realized that this is a man of values, determined to succeed and confident in his abilities, and the fact that he graduated with honors from the Technion and was an army officer in a combat unit, made me Trust my intuitions.

Omer proved himself, and together with Shlomi, they quickly developed an excellent product and allowed us as a company to try a wide variety of business strategies, and thus we quickly came to the conclusion that the venture we developed at the time, an arena for freelancers in a variety of services, lacked business feasibility at the same time, at least not one that made money that it wasn’t on top of investors, so we hurried to close it.

a winning team

When you have a strong and fast development team with a strong understanding of the business side, it’s the equivalent of driving a Ferrari while everyone else is crawling on tractors and plowing fields.

The work between us was conducted at the level of “what” is needed, usually in private, and from there things were done independently, when the understanding is at a high level, there is no need to define much and this saves a lot of work and unnecessary “bragging”, such as documents, meetings, summaries, etc.

It was clear to me that I wanted him to lead development at Plus500.

Plus500 was a leap forward in terms of the complexity of the development – we entered a world that is realtime – that is, everything has to be very fast and reactive, financially – everything has to be very accurate, and simple – taking a financial world that until that day was very complex, and making it simple and intuitive for the end user.

Omar and Shlomi developed the server side in a very short time, and it included many, many systems – finance, commerce, marketing, payments, customer management, many APIs and more, and everything had to work all the time, securely, and in a very accurate and fast way.

Seven months of birth

The long road since we went live, only 7 months later, was full of good decisions we made and also a lot of luck,

One of the good things we did in the development of Plus500 was to test the new features we developed or any other parameter we wanted to test using test groups and compared them to a control group, so we knew that we were constantly moving forward and that everything added to the platform necessarily improves, or at least does not harm, the business goals our.

The technological side was very significant in Plus500 and gave a huge advantage over competitors, the code was written so that processes would be automatic and simple. Human intervention was only required in places of decision making or intervention in exceptional cases – therefore there was no need for trading rooms or telephone support – something that was very unacceptable in the industry at the time.

Our technological base allowed us to make quick adjustments and changes, for example in the crisis with the British regulator, where we had to re-approve all customers, a process that could take many months for another company, took a few weeks for us, while giving clear priority to the important customers.

Stop having fun

The matter of priorities is critical and in everything that is done it is necessary to understand – what is important and what is not, what comes first and what comes after – few people know how to make these diagnoses. Omar knew how to do it perfectly and was not dragged behind technological “adventures”. He always stays on the track of what contributes to society, to use technology to achieve the goals, meaning the understanding is that technology is a means and not the goal.

When you have a strong team around you, business decisions are much better and more accurate, where there is only one decision-maker, creativity and the ability to excel decreases.

In the development of Plus500, the question from Omer was always what is next and why, there is a huge advantage when the development understands what the business needs are and does not write like a parrot.

Elad Ben Yitzhak, the marketing engineer

our friend

Plus500 Founder and Super Partner.

His name in the company is “our friend” because at the time he started conversations with “my friend”.

The big jump in the companies I founded was when we hired Elad as marketing manager at Play65. In the previous companies, there was no one designated to be really responsible for marketing. Elad had no marketing background except for the fact that he was an electrical engineer and an officer in the army with a master’s degree with honors from the Technion. Gal brought it to Play65. The beauty of Elad is that at first glance you don’t realize how strong he is, but he certainly surprised, not in the initial abilities, but in the progress.

After we left Play65 and founded Plus500, there was no doubt that Gal and Elad would continue with me to the next company. One of Elad’s nicest moves at Play65 was sending real backgammon boards to players with the Play65 logo, still seen around the world. Another strong move was commercials at Maccabi Tel Aviv games with the noise of the dice being thrown when the announcer says “Play65,” this was a genius move because the noise of the dice was immediately associated with us. Always look for moves in marketing with little energy but with a big profit.

Play six-five

We chose an excellent name for the backgammon site, an international name that was easy to write, and all the domain names were available, we called it Play65.

At Play65 we were looking for sharp and business people for marketing, because marketing was based on collaborations with small, medium and even large entities. We tried to recruit a team of pilots for marketing, and we even separated marketing as a separate unit from the company, literally as a separate office, and in addition each agent was measured in his performance as a separate entity, a separate business unit, and his salary was determined accordingly. It worked pretty well, but the pilot team didn’t prove themselves as well as the Plus500 engineering team. The goal was not to compromise on the quality of the employees – a goal that was partially achieved.

Plus500 under the branding of Coca Cola

At Plus500, marketing was based on analytics and numbers, so we recruited engineers, set metrics and built tools. When there is an engineer in marketing, then all decisions are very analytical and that makes the difference. Elad, of course, was an engineer who brought engineers under him at Plus500, not at Play65, and they saw the difference in the level of marketing. Marketing was managed in a very measured way, and unique tools of automation and calculations were developed that created a great advantage over the competitors – did we say engineers?

A “free thought” move was also in closing Plus500’s sponsorship with “Atletico Madrid”, the contract was closed within a week, and thus we bypassed companies that were in a long process of closing a contract with them – here we applied a principle that was also applied in the past in the company – “When you recognize an opportunity, seize it!” Admittedly, there was difficulty and great effort in closing the contract in a week, but later we enjoyed years of easy work with crazy branding. A small investment for a big profit!

Shlomi Weizman, officer and gentleman

The number one key

Plus500 Founder and Super Partner.

We came to Shlomi in the best way to recruit quality partners, through brilliant friends. When I and Elad recruited Omer to BizReef, a company of ours that failed that dealt in freelancers, we asked Omer if he had a strong engineer friend, that’s how we met Shlomi. Of course, Omer had an interest in bringing someone powerful to the company in which he has a stake, so he brought the person he valued the most, an outstanding president, an army officer, and Omer’s personal acquaintance with him. There is bingo.

Shlomi was an outstanding president of the Technion, he passed me because I was an outstanding dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Always try to recruit people stronger than you, it’s difficult but possible, and the second point – recruit someone strong and ask him to bring a friend or someone else strong.

Shlomi works neatly and understands exactly what he is doing, it is amazing to see his art. When I wrote code in the first companies, I immediately attacked the code, Shlomi first characterizes and understands, asks the questions, plans ahead and only then starts writing, but not only what he needs but also tools that will help him “debug” before he “releases” it. In the QA team there was great enthusiasm for whoever managed to find a bug for me.

It was amazing to see his progress also at BizReef and then at the company after that Plus500.

I could tell he was coming, by his walk, she had a special voice signature.

To his credit, an honorable part in the success of Plus500, he was an important rib in many of our hacks, among them the crypto, which we were the first in the world to offer as the horse contract. As the software architect, he designed and developed the server together with Omar. Received responsibility for the core of the server in managing all trading operations in real time. I worked closely with him in managing the financial trading tools and risks, which is the lifeblood of the system. We had good chemistry, mutual fertilization and worked excellently together.

The day Lomko no longer writes code, but enjoys life, Israel has lost one of its best developers.

His name in the company is Shlomko, from a famous speech his father gave at his wedding.

Shlomi, the best developer in Israel without a doubt, writes about how to become a software developer at a high level:

• Usually it is better to start from an early age, but never too late. If you like math and logic puzzles there is a good chance programming is for you.
• It is essential to build a comprehensive understanding and develop the entire end-to-end process, from working with databases all the way to the user interface and applications, so that everything is under your control.
• It is worth experimenting with a wide variety of different technologies and languages. From object orientation to functional programming.
• Do not focus only on a certain niche, strive to understand large systems at a high level and be close to the business side in terms of requirements and understanding.
• When characterizing a system, think as general and forward as possible, aiming for flexible code subject to future changes and requirements.
• Cultivate personal side projects and this is an excellent opportunity to develop them in languages and technologies outside your comfort zone.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment and break things. It’s always easy to roll back (e.g. by git).
• Continue to learn and stay updated in the field through social networks and technology sites (like Hacker News).
• Delve into the code of well-known libraries and learn from the code of others. Work alongside strong people, preferably with a more experienced mentor than you.
• Contribute to open source projects and be an active community member, it will contribute a lot to your personal growth. Share your knowledge through blogs or social media posts, as this encourages deeper understanding and opens you up to constructive criticism.
• Build automations of repetitive Sisyphean tasks to save time and effort.
• Embrace the AI revolution that is changing the field and the way we think.
• For the most part, developers who are constantly learning and improving will excel. They understand complex systems, interaction between components and chains of events. They anticipate edge cases and prepare for system growth, taking into account system loads, queues, data flow, complex queries and error handling.

The bar wave, 10 seconds of it is worth a lot

Plus500 founder and super partner.

His name for me is “Nis” after NIS which is New Israeli Shekel. A long distance runner, he and I are one of the oldest partners and have been running together for more than 20 years, since the internet casino days. If you compare Gal to a basketball player, then he is an All Round Player.

Gal is a product person who knows how to simplify the product for the average user. For example, for Play65 Gal brought the matching through a table that was easy for users to understand and then a similar table also in Plus and the division of the screen into two: the tools that are bought in the table above and graphs below.

One of the things we promoted over the years was simplifying the products. According to the saying “there is no such thing as too simple, there is too complicated”. This is a critical law for the success of the product.

Experience has taught us that if Gal and I agree on something, then it usually works well. This was the case with many big product, strategy and marketing questions. Gal Daf, for example, with Elad sponsored Atlético Madrid.

Gal was the face of the Plus IPO in London together with Elad Even Chen who led the business side, Gal helped convince bankers, investors, accountants and lawyers.

Gal was good at putting out fires when there were regulatory problems and revolutions had to be made.

Gal and I have known each other since high school, his brother was in my class.

Gal stood bravely in front of journalists and television. In his interview with CNBC that I watched from the side in the studio and could not speak because of excitement, I was amazed how Gal spoke so eloquently when they tried to crucify us. It was a great piece.

At Plus500 Gal was a client side developer and initially also responsible for operations, and in the process he also established the payment system, the contracts with the clearing houses, the support system… a lot of responsibility – and everything was done in 7 months!

A winning team

Relentless problem solvers are essential to the company’s success. Recognizing that every challenge is doable and taking immediate action separates successful entrepreneurs from those who fail. This is true when dealing with customers, suppliers or employees – understanding their needs is key. For example, a real estate developer once had to help a client find a new house with a better view before agreeing to sell his lot. Although the process took time, persistence paid off.

Intelligent and reliable people often make better team members than those who come with only experience. Over time, experience will accumulate, so it’s more important to work with people you trust and value. When hiring, evaluate candidates based on their potential rather than their current abilities.

Large organizations benefit from small autonomous but guided teams, as demonstrated by Spotify. Testing a candidate’s suitability by allowing them to work on a project for a week or two can be helpful. It is essential that a project team has one dedicated manager who is responsible for the success of the project.

Building and maintaining an organizational structure that allows good people to thrive and feel included is essential. Level A employees tend to hire other Level A employees, while people at Level B will hire Level C employees. Maintaining a high level of talent is challenging but rewarding.

Simple pay structures and bonuses work best, as overly complicated or high expectations can be detrimental. Adjusting the compensation to what the employees can control is more effective than linking it to external factors.

Balancing freedom and discipline through organizational culture and employing disciplined people is essential. Trust your logic when making decisions and strive for happiness in business without feeling completely satisfied.

A productive and creative work environment requires attention to detail, from the physical space to the atmosphere. Encourage a proactive and positive approach and ensure that the actions taken in the organization are in line with the company’s culture – to deal with problems head-on and always strive for progress.

Good people don’t need to be managed, but only to be guided. In this way it is possible to manage the method of the organization and not its managers.

Market like Tinder

The layer model

On Tinder they call it the tier model. People put pictures to make themselves appear to be rich, beautiful, smart and family loving. It works because it works on us on several levels.

pizza

It’s not just that pizza is considered the most delicious food in the world in some survey I read and also logically. It has carbohydrates, proteins and fats as well as crunchies. All of these work on several mechanisms with us. You don’t find such a natural food that has all of these, so it is new for us, and produces a super reactivity that evolution did not prepare for us.

The product you are marketing for whatever reason

To increase the probability that people will buy what you want to sell, play on several levels together, it will create super reactivity. Just like the pizza and the photos on Tinder. For example you will see that the product: everyone has it, will make them beautiful and in addition is going to run out of the shelves. The biases you should use. Read here the biases that you can profit from in free thinking for marketing, but be a little beyond the truth and not a lie. The really big profit is when the product or service is close to the branding we market it.

Trust only yourself

Who cares about you?

At the end of the day the one who cares about you the most is you, yes yes you. This does not mean not to trust others but it means to make the last decision and understand by yourself why you made it, and of course use free thought. There is no expert who knows better than you what is right for you in business, your money and your private life.

A business built from development, operation, finance, marketing and management. I suggest that you control the fate of all these departments. That’s how I always did in the companies I founded.

A man with gel in his hair in a tall building

What is important in establishing a company, which is a very delicate and very important step, is to make sure that there is not one factor on your way that you depend on that can fail you.

If your business depends on a certain data provider, make sure there are two of them.

If the whole business depends on a certain contract that needs to be signed in order for the business to succeed, try to bypass it.

In all the companies I founded, I didn’t want to fail because of an external factor, I wanted the people to whom I offer the product to say no, and not a senior manager with hair gel in a tall building in a big city.

That’s why I prefer to sell a product or service to private individuals rather than to companies or a specific company. It is much better to depend on many people, because it is easier to reach them. Look at the biggest companies in the world, most of them started with products for individuals and not companies, B2C.

The most important figure in almost any business

It is most important for the company to know what the average customer lifetime value is, ltv – life time value. There may be more cuts to this by country. That is, a Danish customer may be worth $5,000 compared to an Israeli customer who is worth $1,000, this means that this is the profit the company expects to earn from this customer.

In marketing “give me X and I will market your product” is basically throwing money away and it is not measurable.

Free thought is to measure in marketing how much it cost to bring a customer, how much the customer is worth and then to know how much to invest in bringing a customer and if it is possible to close a deal like this: “I will pay you on the Yahoo website 1,000 NIS per paying customer”. If you know that a paying customer is worth 2,000 NIS. Such marketing means that your destiny is in your hands. You just need to know how much your customer is worth, a system that measures how much you paid for a paying customer in marketing.

This is how you should build all your business systems, all of these only need people with the ability to learn and love for what they do, that’s it.

The entire supply chain is under your control

If you trust other companies to manage your marketing, development, finances or operations, the business is not in your hands, you will control the destiny of your business. It doesn’t have to be like this from the first day, but it’s better that over time you control the entire product chain of your business.

Look, for example, at how Tesla took over the entire chain of the business: the car, the chargers, the charging network, batteries, automatic driver, solar panels and a website that sells the car. She doesn’t trust almost any company to give her something substantial in her business.

The supply chain is important because in the end you will make it the best and most adapted to your needs.

Plans don’t mean much

Growing up, I always heard the saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” This resonated with me when I experienced a significant change in my life. I thought about a career in finance, but life had other plans, and I ended up working in the gambling industry. My plans may have changed, but I have learned that it is important to remain flexible and adapt to new circumstances.

I remember the first time I had to pitch an idea to a developer company. Instead of creating a long presentation, I wrote a few simple pages that clearly explained the concept, with simple numbers and explanations. The result? The future team members picked up the idea much faster than if I had given a presentation.

When we founded Plus500, I focused on refining measurable parameters to drive growth. For example when we launched Plus500, my focus was on growing unique traders on money. It helped me create a sustainable and scalable business model.

I have always believed in doing something the best in the world, having a clear financial engine, and being passionate about the business. This principle has guided me in building a company I love, and it’s something I strive for every day.

I also learned the importance of not blindly copying competitors. While it is fine to learn from others, it is essential to avoid simply “riding the wave” and instead focus on innovation and improvement.

Putting customers first has been a key factor in my success. By considering their needs and preferences, I have built a loyal customer base that has helped my business grow.

Throughout my career, I have seen the value of controlling critical processes in a company. For example outsourcing allowed me to create a better final product that is easier to change and improve.

In software development, I learned to minimize communication between teams and preferred to use APIs for synchronization. This approach streamlined the development process and increased overall efficiency.

I also discovered the power of working in small teams. When I was involved in a software project, we didn’t have more than three people on the team, which allowed us to work more efficiently and effectively.

One lesson that has stuck with me is the importance of simplicity. It is natural for people to complicate matters, but success often lies in distilling processes and problems down to their essence. Embracing simplicity has been an essential part of my journey.

Throughout my career, I’ve learned to focus on long-term thinking, constantly push for greatness, and only tackle tough problems when they have significant value. Reading books like Working Backwards provided me with valuable insights into how to run large organizations and disrupt industries.

Dealing with customers, collaborating with competitors, streamlining processes and knowing when to give up are all lessons I learned during my career. It’s important to define parameters for success or failure before starting a project, as it helps mitigate biases and make more objective decisions.

Finally, I learned not to worry about what others think. What really matters is how I see the world and what I want to achieve in it. This mindset has helped me stay focused on my goals and find success in my personal and professional life

I preferred to hire a woman for the position if possible

Perhaps because women are evolutionarily built to take care of children, this is also felt in the workplace.

It’s not accurate to claim that women have a “better heart” than men, but that’s how I feel. For this statement oversimplifies the complexity of human nature and perpetuates stereotypes. Both men and women have unique strengths and qualities that can contribute to the workplace. Instead, we should focus on the importance of hiring based on talent, skills and relevant experience, rather than gender, but despite all the nice words, I’ve always preferred to hire a woman for the position. They have less ego and contribute to the social fabric. I have never seen a woman steal from a business, but I have seen men like that.

However, research has shown that there are certain traits and qualities often found in women that can be beneficial in professional settings. For example, women tend to excel in emotional intelligence, empathy and communication, which can help foster a more collaborative and supportive work environment. In addition, studies have shown that women are more likely to adopt a transformational leadership style, which includes inspiring and motivating team members, as well as encouraging personal growth and development.

Ultimately, the goal should be to recruit the best candidate for the position, regardless of gender. By embracing diversity and promoting equal opportunity in the workplace, organizations can benefit from a wide range of perspectives, skills and experiences that contribute to better decision making and problem solving.

Looking for a CEO for a company is the most difficult

The main problem is that it is desirable to have a CEO who builds methods and not just manipulates an existing method.

This requires me to train someone who knows how to develop new methods and give a vision.

I have never been able to do it well, although I have tried many times.

The best is to promote someone from the business, but it seems smarter to buy a company with a CEO who knows how to develop methods and put him CEO in your company.

No debts please

I have always founded and managed companies without debts or loans. Even on a personal level, I lived with what I had. The reason I didn’t take out loans and debts is because then you have to manage the debt on a daily basis and not think and worry about the future. It is possible if this is the thinking in advance, even in real estate companies. I’ve always stayed away from real estate because it’s too slow for me. When you look around you see a lot of people who got rich from real estate so it feels like a good field to me.

I would look at the trend of working from home and how it will lead the new real estate, probably near Teva and outside the cities there will be real estate whose value will increase.

Copy a successful expert

If you want to be a successful writer, announcer or anything else that depends on you, look at who is successful in the field and try to understand what they do differently from others. Copy it and improve it in your own special way. Usually this or that expert does something that sets him apart from others. For example, if he is a successful YouTuber in the US and offers money to people to do funny things, it is worth trying the same concept elsewhere in the world, this is of course just an example. Many times it is very profitable to do the same thing in another place because there is a good chance that what works for a certain people, will work for another people.

Give the truth inside

Tell the truth inside, and that way the people who work with you will pay you back. Infinite truth flies businesses to high places. At Plus500 I always told everyone what I really thought, without embellishing too much, but yes with softening, and that’s how others treated me as well.

In business, giving and receiving honest feedback is essential to fostering growth, improving performance and maintaining a healthy work environment.

Why is yes feedback essential?

• Performance Improvement – Feedback does allow employees to identify their strengths and weaknesses and allows them to work on improving their overall performance.
• Encouraging professional development – When employees receive constructive feedback, they can focus on developing the skills they need to advance in their careers.
• Building Trust – Open communication and feedback do help establish trust between team members, managers and employees, leading to stronger relationships and a more cohesive work environment.
• Improving collaboration – Positive feedback fosters a culture of transparency and teamwork where employees feel comfortable sharing ideas and collaborating on projects.
• Increasing productivity – by addressing problems and offering suggestions for improvement, feedback can lead to increased productivity and efficiency within the organization.
• Driving innovation – Feedback does encourage employees to think creatively, challenge the status quo and offer innovative solutions to problems.

How to give honest feedback effectively?

• Be specific – clearly describe the issue or behavior you are addressing. Provide specific examples to help the recipient understand the context and impact of their actions.
• Use “I” statements – frame your feedback in terms of your perspective and feelings. For example, say “I noticed the deadline was missed,” instead of “You missed the deadline.”
• Focus on the behavior, not the person – Make sure your feedback is directed at the behavior or the issue at hand, rather than criticizing the individual’s character.
• Be timely – offer feedback as soon as possible after an incident or observation, while the situation is still fresh in everyone’s mind.
• Balance positive and negative feedback – recognize the recipient’s strengths and achievements alongside areas for improvement. This approach makes feedback more constructive and easier to receive.
• Propose Solutions – Suggest actionable steps the recipient can take to address the problem and improve their performance.
• Encourage two-way communication – invite the recipient to share their thoughts, concerns or questions about the feedback. This approach fosters an open dialogue and helps both parties gain a deeper understanding of the situation.

By incorporating these strategies, businesses can create a culture of open communication and continuous improvement that will ultimately lead to higher performance, increased productivity, and better employee satisfaction.

A financial agreement to keep the money

I haven’t had time to get divorced yet, and I don’t plan to anytime soon.

Many people lose their property and health as a result of divorce. Your profit with little effort can be if you agree in advance on a financial agreement.

In business as well as in my personal life I was looking for a small effort for a big profit. With a financial agreement, we prevent fights, put everything on the table and save lawyers. Our great gain is clear, our loss is temporary discomfort. In the financial agreement, the other party does not have to give up what is due, both parties give up fighting in the future. If the financial agreement causes you to break up, that’s good, it just shows how shaky your relationship is. Even if we argue about the financial agreement for a few days, it is worth the savings in years of strife.

Even when “divorcing” business partners, employees or founders, it is better to determine the rules for separation in advance. More than once I broke up with a partner, and everything was clear, so we didn’t fight. The co-founder did threaten me, “I’ll sue you,” but I wasn’t moved by that because I knew he was a rich man thanks to our acquaintance, so as long as I understood that I didn’t do anything unfair to him or that wasn’t in the rules, everything was fine. By the way, from the breakup he only lost honor and not money.

There is no such thing as a delay, there is a bad manager

If you want to carry out a project or a task and you see that it is not moving, intervene. Many times it is an intermediary who mediates between you and the supplier. Kick the middleman and push the supplier. Even today, I have not been involved in Plus500 for a long time, and I want, for example, to push the site of ‘Free Thought’ and there are delays in the process, so I activate the key of the site myself. And every day I ask him what’s going on and see the progress. There is a possibility that he will read this text as well, but that’s okay. Never accept delays, keep pushing, otherwise things don’t happen. I’ve never been in a company or a project where I didn’t have to push, solve problems and strive to finish like crazy.

Understand the reason for the delay and solve it.

Investment in companies

• Buying companies with good management in a crisis is usually profitable. When companies with good management are under pressure, they improve and become more efficient (Facebook), companies with mediocre management and below deteriorate when they are under pressure (Teva).
• Understanding our biases as humans and the mechanisms to correct them. Here you can read about some of them. The main biases that are important to tame in investments: ignoring new information, receiving information that matches our view, initial anchor, pain from a large loss rather than pleasure from a profit, the bias to act (it’s better not to look at flashing screens in stocks because of this), basing on information that everyone knows as if only you know something, The bias to think you are better than you really are… and much more.
• Know your limitations.
• A V marking and grading procedure prevents rash decisions. Check which investments should be sold and not just what to buy.

Remember: almost all companies will evaporate by themselves due to the following human reasons:

* They don’t want to change direction;

* They align with the CEO;

* They waste budgets on projects and purchases to the end;

* They impeccably and logically imitate the competitors and in the end do not add value.

• Look for companies that are in your comfort zone. Put everything else in the “too hard for me” basket.
• Sometimes the best way to find a good solution is to think backwards. Reverse the problem: suppose you want to help India. Now think about how to destroy it > increase the birth rate even more > stop teaching in schools. And this is how we often arrive at a solution (Invert).
• Read what the CEOs write in the reports and look for honesty and high ethics there, such as “We didn’t grow this year because we made mistakes…”
• Evolution caused progress from nothing to man. Think about your company in exactly the same way, kill unsuccessful ideas and move forward with successful ones. This process needs repeated feeding of data.
• The natural tendency is to “hit” (make an investment), and this is also the expectation of those around you – but you are rewarded for being right and not when you hit. Therefore, hit a few times a year, if at all, and not with small and urgent bets, but with large and few investments. A time when you think and wait for a hit is like free money that is given to you.
• Patience, self-control and patience again – not following the market and shares every day, it biases your decisions. Understand the flaws of humans in general, have an opinion contrary to what is accepted in the market in the right cases, develop correct expectations, understand probabilities and lay traps at the right time.
• Prepare a checklist in which a company should comply in order to check the feasibility of this investment for you.
• management board. management board. management board. A business with good management that has internal integrity will be successful for years. One of the characteristics of good management is a long-term view that makes products or services improve over the years.
• Response to the actions of the management – by the actions of the management you can tell if it is good or not. Respond and do not ignore management’s mistakes (in selling the company’s shares) or its smart successes (in buying the company’s shares).
• price! price! price! There is almost no property that is not worth buying at the right price.
• Words and actions – this point is a bit difficult to check, but it is very important: check that the management stands behind its words with actions, that is, it does not just throw sentences into the air and does not implement them.
• Look for companies with reliable, talented, humane and goal-seeking CEOs.
• improved all the time. A good business is evident in the changes that take place in it and in the improvement of the organization. For example, Google employs people who will improve productivity in meetings.
• Invest in a business you really understand. Understand the business of the company, otherwise you cannot expect profit in the long run.
• Do not tell about your investments and do not be proud of them or publish them – your decisions will be influenced by this.
• Don’t get tips on investments.
• A company should invest in its organizational structure all the time – this is a sign of good management and a good internal organizational culture.
• Formulas! Formulas! Understand the formulas and use them only if they are simple. Use them to give grades and check the feasibility of investments.
• Understand that the natural way of a company is to fade and disappear! A good business model and a management that fights for it, will make the company succeed for many years and not fade away.
• Return on invested capital is critical and so is cash flow relative to profit.
• A company may remain orderly and functional if the management constantly invests in arranging the company and the products (” disorganization” in the company always increases without investment).
• Growth in capital investment.
• Dividend distribution and buyback of shares.
• net profit to market value.
• Stock trading – how long it will take to sell and buy a stock.
• Difference between free flow and net profit.
• Always understand the value of what you invest and invest less than you think is worth it. Invest according to your value and assessment and not according to forecasts.
• Intrinsic value – margin of safety between intrinsic value and market value. Evaluate the value of the company and buy it at a 50% discount at least.
• Brand – one of the most profitable things there is. Companies that successfully brand themselves are a rare commodity because branding also means credibility in the eyes of customers.
• Beautiful products including perfection and perfectionism in service or product.
• Long-term trend – the company rides on a long-term trend.
• Long term – when buying, always look at the long term – 5+ years.
• A fence around the business – is it difficult to compete with the company in question, is there a “fence” that prevents copying from the company.
• By investing in a certain field, you will understand approximately where the field is in its cycle (in the natural cycle of the field) and also, what is the cycle of the field above it. The best investments are made at the right time in the sector’s cycle as well as in the company itself when it is below its value. Example: by investing in a real estate management software company, you will understand what stage in the cycle the real estate sector is in and where in the cycle the high-tech sector is.
• The debt cycle is the super area that affects all the sub areas. In a bicycle, as in a balloon, the air leaves faster than the air enters. There are cycles of one year (agriculture for example) and there are cycles of 10 years or more (debts of companies). In the value you give to investments, try to neutralize the profit or loss from the next cycle.
• You are allowed to change your mind when there is new information and fight our emotional bias to accept information that matches our view.
• A fence around customers – captive customers. It is difficult for the customers of the business and it is not worthwhile to switch to competitors. For example: switching from Apple to Android – it’s hard to get used to the UI.
• Buy if you understand something about the company that others ignore or don’t understand.
• Daily use of the product or services.
• Market size.
• A founder or founders manage the company – usually this is better management.
• The business you choose to invest in is simple to understand and not complicated.
• When buying: an industry or company with problems – the market tends to exaggerate these, so check carefully. Many times there is an opportunity here.
• A company that adds value – that is, it would be difficult without it. For example: Google.
• A company that controls its future – does not depend on other companies or a dangerous country.
• Many investors concentrate on the potential profit, but actually you should concentrate on the loss: examine the ways in which you can lose money and reduce them to a minimum or cancel the transaction.
• Make sure your financial statements are clear and simple.
• Connect the time to your prediction – if your prediction does not come true while you thought it would come true, it is wrong.
• There is no investment that is too risky, there is only one whose chance does not compensate for the risk.
• Even if there are “foxes”, an investor has to make the right move at the right time and hit a bull, which is very difficult. Therefore, aim for the right move as close as possible to the right time.
• The price is good when there are many sellers and they are selling under pressure – in such cases, after thorough research, the price tends to be good.
• Conscience and range and value – invest only in companies that you would recommend to your friends or family to use its services or products (tobacco companies, etc. are disqualified).
• An ideal company: the company excites customers, improves the products and constantly looks for ways to discount products.

High Level new business ideas

• A voice-only task management system like Asana is called Dodo. Give 20 fixed commands to activate the voice application. It is to invent a new voice UI. Use Google to turn voice commands into actions. “Uncle Mischa – buy bread”.
• Bet on a live poker table. Not to participate in the game, but to see a game for big money and what the players’ cards are and bet on the outcome of the game and the actions of the players (the player will bluff, raise, win).
• A system for managing conversations by activating ChatGPT with Google translation and Google reading – you can get a working conversation system in any language in a few days. It can be really good for older women or children. User says a sentence > Google translates to text > Google translates into English > Chatbot gives an answer > Translates into the desired language > Google reads.
• A private hospital specializing only in spine and orthopedics and a strong brand. one stop shop – also the tests, the consulting doctor and the surgeries. All statistics are available. They come in the morning and leave with an opinion after a short time.
• Simple non-clinical trials online. Ordering an online trial without friction. To see the effect of food, behavior on people and get their weight, blood pressure, sugar, heart rate, respirations from a smart watch they will wear. For example “How did sleeping on your back improve your sleep?” “The difference between eating fruit in the morning or in the evening on blood sugar.” To get feedback from many people without huge payments to the companies that run these experiments. On the one hand people who are paid to check things, on the other hand companies who want to check their products or what they say. You need an ethics committee before uploading an experiment.
• Company for heating ovens for fast food just like Ninja they are 10 times better than other ovens. For the engineers among you I would copy and improve them to all sizes and a strong switch. To be able to rotate food even with a little AI to know when it’s ready. make them small even for small apartments.
• For the brave among you: a small mobile that you can only talk to and hear without a screen. That will give the option to leave the house without a screen actually. Turn all the main applications into voice: WhatsApp, email, calls, opening gates. Facilitate the development only a set of voice commands that is familiar – you don’t need to understand the whole language. This is how the settings can be on the WEB. Voice app store of course. All technology is old.
• VR software that simulates for people being on a stage with a large audience. There is no stage simulator for training lectures.
• Get a franchise for this breathing clinic, translate the book and bring it to Israel. It works in the world and just like importing cars works, it should also work. Just need a Hebrew translation of the English material.
• NewSurf – to change the way people browse websites by ChatGPT-style questions and answers – each website will have a NewSurf/Website address, and instead of reading all the content it will be possible to browse it by asking a question, for example “How much does an espresso machine cost?” and you will receive an answer only from the website itself of course , or a general question like “what does the site offer”. Challenging to build, but if successful – it’s 9 zeros.