Millionaire who grew up on council estate shares five simple rules for success

Hands holding £10 and £20 notes, fanned out
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A successful businessman has shared the five simple rules that helped him to become a self-made multimillionaire. Dr Byron Cole grew up on a London council estate and got his "first experience of entrepreneurship" by selling CDs and clothes on eBay.

Speaking on the Savvy Wallet podcast, Byron said he failed his GCSEs but started to "excel" in college before going to Greenwich University to study business and economics. "In school, I was always like a bit of a hustler," he said. "I would buy sweets from the local shops and sell them in school.”

Byron, who is now an author, keynote speaker and investor, said when he went to university he "got into property very early on" as he was "obsessed" with Homes Under the Hammer. He said this early step "paved the way" for a successful business career as an entrepreneur as he shared his tips for success on the podcast.

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The author, who penned the Sunday Times best-seller 'Rich Forever: What They Didn’t Teach You about Money, Finance and Investments in School' with his wife Bianca Miller-Cole, said despite having luxury cars, he doesn't have "high overheads to live", the MEN reports.

Don't overspend

Byron said: "I have a beautiful home with a swimming pool and blah, blah, blah. But like, because I've cashed out on most stuff, I don't have high overheads. So it's like, I don't need that much money to survive in a month. Your mortgage is more than mine. You know what I mean?"

He said a lot of people who made money fast also lost it fast "because they just overspend". He added: "I don't spend like that much on anything like, I don't go shopping. You are not going to catch me in Louis Vuitton.”

Unwavering commitment

Byron's said it required a lot of hard work to become a millionaire, adding: "Next thing you need to think about when you're talking about being a successful entrepreneur is the unwavering commitment, drive, determination that you require in order to be successful. Because it's not going to be easy.”

Don't do it alone

Byron's money-making advice included finding someone to work with who could help along the way. "You need to get someone," he said. "If you can solve your problem with someone, you're winning. Whether you call that your network, whether you call that your mentor, whatever you call that. If you can solve your problem with someone helping you, it just saves the pain. It takes too long to learn it.”

Weigh up risks

Byron made it clear that anyone looking to make money needed to appropriately weigh up the risk and reward involved in every decision.

"I don't think I'm a high risk taker anymore," he admitted. "I don't think I was that high risk before. I was calculated risk. Also, when you look at it, it's like, what's the worst that can happen? Like, what is the worst thing that can happen? When you go to zero. You can get a job. True. If you're living at home with mom, and you've got no bills, first of all.

"You're finding the money every month to pay for these things. So what's the worst that can happen is go and get a job. That's the worst thing that can happen."

Ask yourself 'is it scalable?'

His final business tip was to find something that was scalable and could grow easily. Byron continued: "Is it scalable? First of all, is it scalable without you? It's very important that I have found for the businesses that I've done, that have done late six figures, seven figures and above.

“And I always say, when you're looking at the pain point of a business, how urgent do you need this service? If the urgency is high, fantastic. It's so scalable and quickly scalable because when somebody comes and lands on it, when you're doing as that is, when somebody comes and looking for it, it's urgent, they need it. Like a plumber or a locksmith, the need is there, it's now. So that helped me scale my first business.

"So if you can find a scalable business that can be scaled without you, tick box number one."