How to Find Opportunities in Business and Life with Richard Thalheimer, founder of The Sharper Image

Much of the success of Richard Thalheimer and The Sharper Image – the $750M, 200-store retail giant he founded in 1977 and led as CEO until 2006 – can be traced to Richard’s preternatural ability to decide what people wanted often before they knew it themselves. This intuitive knack to drive market trends combined with an ability to spot products that could produce millions, combined with his lawyer’s precision, a healthy dose of entrepreneurial drive and an eternally playful outlook give Richard Thalheimer the well-deserved title, “America’s Gadget Guy.”

As a teenager, looking through the toy department of his father’s Little Rock department store, through his Yale study of Psychology and Sociology and his first successful entrepreneurial venture (selling enough Britannica Encyclopedias in his first year in college to buy a new Porsche) it was clear Richard would find a way to put his deep understanding of people to work. It was also obvious any business venture he put his mind to would be unique, life-enhancing, and on an impressive global scale. He was identified as a superstar early on in his career and is now a Living Legend and one of the great marketing visionaries of our time.

[00:01 – 09:47] Opening Segment

• Launching and managing The Sharper Image
• Management by Opportunity
• Richard tells the story of how his business started with a shoe box and a floppy disk
• You will always have doubters in any organization

[09:48 – 13:41] How to Find Opportunities in Life

• Early investing in Tesla
• Richard’s Investing Principles
• Richard’s Driving Force: A life’s work, a passion

[13:42 – 22:47] How to Find Opportunities in Business

• Building business systems
• Words of wisdom when engaging in an enterprise
• How to Look for the Right Opportunities
  • Look at the numbers
  • Ask
• It’s important to keep doing something
• Check out The Sharper Investor

[22:48 – 29:43] Closing Segment

• Quick break for our sponsors
  • The first step to growing your wealth is tracking your wealth, income spending and everything else about your finances, you can start tracking your wealth for free and get six free months of wealth advisor.  Learn more about Personal Capital at escapingwallstreet.com
• What is the best investment you’ve ever made other than your education?
  • Stocks and money
• Richard’s worst investment
  • Fortunately, none
  • Resource mentioned: One Up on Wall Street
• What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in business and investing?
  • “Never bet the entire ranch.”
  • “Don’t try and guess the bottom.”

Connect with Richard Thalheimer by visiting his websites https://www.richardthalheimer.com and https://thesharperinvestor.com.

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Tweetable Quotes:

“If you believe it’s gonna work, you got to try and the sooner you try it, the sooner you’ll find out if it’s going to fail or succeed.” – Richard Thalheimer

“When you see something you can’t get around, you have got to figure out a different course of action.” – Richard Thalheimer

“Keep doing something.” – Richard Thalheimer