My Worst Investment Ever Podcast
Business:Investing
BIO: Riggs Eckelberry is a nationally renowned entrepreneur who deploys his personal Break To Build™ process to help rebuild the water industry, which has reached a critical breaking point in recent years despite being essential to the planet’s survival.
STORY: Riggs met this wonderful lady who asked him to sit down with her money manager. He showed up at this money manager’s office, who told him he had a great business going and advised him to go public. Riggs said that would be impossible because he wasn’t profitable yet. Turning down this opportunity turned out to be Riggs’s worst investment.
LEARNING: You have to get that monthly recurring revenue. Don’t enter any industry unprepared.
“Your greatest expense is the money you don’t make, the opportunity cost.”Riggs Eckelberry
Guest profile
Riggs Eckelberry is a nationally renowned entrepreneur who deploys his personal Break To Build™ process to help rebuild the water industry, which has reached a critical breaking point in recent years despite being essential to the planet’s survival. As the founding CEO of OriginClear, Riggs has developed innovative solutions to help businesses face rising water bills by tapping into new investment markets. He is even pioneering the development of “water stablecoins,” a cryptocurrency backed by water assets. With a diverse background in nonprofit management, oceangoing navigation, and technology disruption, Riggs is uniquely qualified to bring change to an outdated and overrun industry.
Worst investment everIn the early 1980s, Riggs realized that technology was going to be the linchpin for all change, and he wanted to be a part of it, so he moved to New York City. This was the period when companies were moving from the old safeguard ledger to microcomputer-type accounting systems. A lot of people needed help making that migration. Riggs created a series of companies that tried to help these people.
Riggs happened to meet this wonderful lady who asked him to have a sit down with her money manager. He showed up at this money manager’s office, who told him he had a great business going and advised him to go public. Riggs insisted that would be impossible because he was yet to be profitable. Turning down this opportunity turned out to be Riggs’s worst investment. Unfortunately, Riggs didn’t know that in this industry, they’re not very profitable at the outset, but the real money is in the monthly revenue.
Interestingly, Riggs gave the business to his best salesman. Years later, he told Riggs that he still had some of the accounts they opened together, and he’d become a millionaire from that recurring monthly revenue.
Lessons learnedYou need to like what you’re going into because you will be stuck with it for years, especially if you succeed. Also, have a strong familiarity with the trade’s ins and outs.
Riggs’s recommendationsRiggs recommends reading The Innovator’s Dilemma. The seed of the destruction of every enterprise is in that enterprise, and the existing business model is actively suppressing it. The book will help you liberate this seed and even create a new business.
No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsRiggs’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to pivot the mother company OriginClear, to an incubator role and move to the NASDAQ.
Parting words“Today is the best of times as the world globalizes and becomes completely chaotic. That’s an opportunity. Grab it.”Riggs Eckelberry
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Connect with Riggs Eckelberry
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ISMS 15: Top 5 DM Country Interest Rates – Steep US Inversion
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ISMS 13: Global Interest Rates - Hikes Slow, Inversion Signals Recession
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Jason Hsu – The Market Can Be Crazy for Longer than You Have the Conviction
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Jeremy Kokemor – Tread Carefully When Investing in Metals and Mining
Paul Hodges – There’s No Substitute for Judgment
Amy Minkley – What Is Your Enough?
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Michelle Leder – Read the 10-K Before You Buy That Stock
ISMS 9: Saving Silicon Valley Bank Brings New Risks
Dave Collum – What Should the US Be Doing in Ukraine?
Bill Blain – Always Sell Fast in a Difficult Market
Jeroen Blokland – Know the Actual Business Outlook Before Investing
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