Entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary never feels guilty about the advice he metes out on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” though it’s often a crushing disappointment to the inventor.
Known as “Mr. Wonderful” for his dismissive attitude, O’Leary explains there’s a reason for that.
“Years ago — and I didn’t understand the value of what she said to me — my mother said to me once, when I think I was 14, ‘Kevin, always tell the truth and you’ll never have to remember what you said.’
“I didn’t put any weight on it then,” he says. “But as life went on and I started doing that and practicing that — it’s not a comfortable place because a lot of people don’t want to hear the truth, particularly in business when you're telling them their idea has no merit, they’re going to go bankrupt and waste their family’s money — it’s hard,” he says.
“But she was right. The truth in the end is the best path because you don’t get caught in a lie later. And you damage relationships so much by lying to people and I think, yeah, I get named as ‘the mean guy’ but I’m the only guy who tells the truth.”
O’Leary is telling the truth again in a new venture — this time he’s holding court on CNBC’s new show, “Money Court.” Along with former judge Ada Pozo and trial attorney Katie Phang, O’Leary presides over a litany of financial disagreements — from family disputes to company collapses. What he says, goes on this show. And that’s not always welcome.
“I know many people don’t like me,” he shrugs, “but many people trust me; they hate me, but trust me. What a weird dynamic that is! When it comes to ‘Money Court’ they’re willing to say, ‘I don’t like that guy but I'm going to do what he says, and trust him.’ It’s a good place to be.”
While truth-telling may be a good place to be in business, O’Leary says his rule applies to domestic life, like marriage, too. “I wrote a book on it called ‘Men, Women & Money,’ here’s the best analogy: when you get involved in a romantic relationship — I draw the analogy to a business partnership too. So everybody gets tempted — particularly in young relationships — and they cheat.
“That happens a lot. And you have a decision to make the next morning. Your decision is, ‘Do I tell the truth now, or do I live in the lie in the hope that it’s never discovered?’”
O’Leary says the chances are that the transgression will be discovered. “Ninety-nine percent of the time you will be found in your deceit,” he insists.
“It will happen one way or another. It’s just karma. When that occurs, you will lose. Whatever your equity was in that relationship you will lose 50% of it, and you will never get it back. Never,” he says.
Had the truth been told, it would be a different outcome, he thinks. “Had you said that you honor your relationship so much and you felt bad about what you did, and for whatever reason you did it, you don’t lose 50% of the equity.
In 1986 O’Leary co-founded a software company in his native Canada, that he eventually sold for millions. And while he’s known for his savvy business acumen, he’s made his share of mistakes, he admits.
“I’ve had many great successes and many catastrophic failures. And I think every investor does,” says the 67-year-old.
“I remember one in particular that I’ve never forgotten because it was a mistake I did to myself. I’d given $250,000 to a good friend of mine for a deal that he thought he could make work. I did it for emotional reasons which was a mistake in the first place, and then six months later, when it was on the brink of bankruptcy he asked me for another $250,000 to get him through the hurdle.
“And my gut told me: ‘Don’t do it. Write off the first $250,000, forget about it, move on. Try and keep the relationship as a friendship not as a business partnership.’ And I didn’t do that.”
O’Leary forked over another $250,000 to his friend. “Six weeks later he was bankrupt, so I lost half a million dollars. I was so pissed at myself for just not trusting my own instinct — which is really experience. I’ve never let emotions get involved in business ever again. I don’t care what the appeal is, I just won't do it. My instinct is what I trust, and I'm more often right than not.”
While he’s best known in the competitive financial world, O’Leary says his dream is to improve his facility with the guitar. “This is a skill that you can never stop learning,” he says.
“It’s about time and practice. What I do now is I have multiple guitars in all of my homes and all of my locations in hotels in New York. When I pull into my hotel, they take the amp, the guitar and put it in my room. I leave them all over the country. And I try and practice so I can be better. That’s the whole idea,” he says.
“You realize it doesn’t matter how much money you have, it’s irrelevant as to how good a guitarist you are. It has nothing to do with each other.”
‘Prison Detox’ premieres this week
A small town in Arkansas is trying a new tack to help squelch the drug problem that has been free-basing the city. Prisoners are given the opportunity to enter a three-month drug abuse treatment program for the chance to walk out of those gates, free. That experiment is being documented on the discovery+ series, “The Program: Prison Detox,” which begins streaming on Wednesday.
One of the system’s successful graduates is former inmate Barry Talley. “As far as staying sober, I've got out of prison before and I've tried to do this for my kids,” he says.
“I've tried to do this for my mom and dad. I've tried to do this for my wife. And I finally realized — for the first time in my life — that I've got to do this for me. It ain't got nothing to do with anybody else, other than I'm just tired of living that life, and this program's given me the second chance and the tools to do it.”
Netflix seeking next reality star
It seems like everybody wants to be on television these days. And Netflix is offering up a chance to make it big on that glowing tube. The streamer is longing to fill up some of its reality shows with — well, REAL people. So here’s your chance to shine. Netflix is in the process of casting such shows as “The Home Edit,” “Queer Eye,” “The Circle,” “Get Organized” and many more. Hopefuls just need to upload a classy video of themselves to the website: NetflixReality.com. A casting truck (no longer a couch) will be prowling through cities like Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Nashville, Tennessee, and New York City until Sept. 5 — so wannabes can record their videos in person. Who knows? They might find themselves the next Kardashian or Marie Kondo or hedonistic housewife who’s handy with tools.
Vampires rise again
Those fun lovin’ vampires from “What We Do in the Shadows” will be back on FX Sept. 2. Harvey Guillen, who plays the sweet and obeisant Guillermo, says that things have changed since he took on the role. “I feel like people see me as Guillermo,” he says.
“We've been in the middle of a pandemic, so I really haven't been out and about. But when I do get recognized, it’s because of Guillermo. And people are always shocked that I'm not more like him, which is a good thing. They think I should be more submissive and quiet. So when they meet me they’re like, ‘Ahh, you're talking really loud.’ And it's like, ‘Oh, this is my regular voice.’ They don't like that. They want Guillermo, so people really like Guillermo.”
Matt Berry, who plays Laszlo, is engrossed in music as well as performing. He combined the two interests in school, but not in much else, he says.
“If I wasn’t interested in the subject itself I didn’t apply myself,” he confesses. “I only applied myself to things I was interested in, so from the outside that looks like you're an underachiever. But it didn’t bother me because I knew I loved certain things and those would be the thing, with any luck, I would continue doing,” he says.
“Painting and doing music they were things I loved doing. I didn’t care for much else, so I didn’t apply myself to those other areas. I pretty much got into trouble (for it). I think that’s normal for the artistic mentalities. You can’t help it. It’s not any kind of choice that you make. It’s what I want to do, this is all that I CAN do. That’s the way that it is.”
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