161 - This Cab Driver Became a Billionaire with One Tactic | Harry Singh, Bolla - Making It with Jon Davids

Episode Summary: "This Cab Driver Became a Billionaire with One Tactic | Harry Singh, Bolla"

Podcast: Making It with Jon Davids
Host: Jon Davids (JD)
Guest: Harry Singh, Founder of Bola Oil
Episode Number: 161
Release Date: January 7, 2025

Introduction: The Unlikely Billionaire

[00:00] John Davids:
JD opens the episode by introducing the remarkable story of Harry Singh, a cab driver turned billionaire through relentless problem-solving. He highlights Singh's journey from driving a taxi in the 1980s to founding Bola Oil, a company that revolutionized the fuel distribution industry.

Key Quote:
"Harry's about to hit the gas. So up until now, gas sales aren't a big money maker. Remember, the gas stations are pretty small. He's making most of his money off the repair shops."
— John Davids [15:30]

Harry Singh’s Early Beginnings

From Cab Driver to Mechanic

Harry Singh immigrated to America in the 1980s and started working as a taxi driver to sustain himself. Observing that mechanics earned significantly more than drivers, Singh identified an opportunity. Unlike his peers who were frustrated by the steady stream of customers for repairs, Singh found inspiration in this niche.

Transition to Mechanic:

Trade Up:
Singh traded his taxi license for a mechanic's license, purchasing a small repair shop in Brooklyn.
Growth Strategy:
Leveraging smart marketing, such as offering discounts on oil changes to gas station patrons, Singh built a loyal customer base. This approach led to rapid expansion, with profits of $76,000 in the first year and the acquisition of additional repair shops.

Key Quote:
"Each time his business hits a bottleneck, he smashes that glass and makes a brand new bottle."
— John Davids [08:45]

Expansion and Scaling the Business

Diversification into Convenience Stores

Facing a downturn in 2001 due to dealerships capturing more of the repair business, Singh's sales plummeted by 15%. To mitigate this, he diversified by adding convenience stores to each repair shop location. This strategic move capitalized on existing foot traffic, generating an additional $50,000 a month from sales of snacks and beverages.

Introduction of Bola Oil:

Launching Bola Oil (2004):
Singh established Bola Oil as a wholesale distributor of fuel, enabling him to purchase fuel at lower costs and sell it both to his gas stations and other outlets. This vertical integration increased his profit margins and expanded his market reach.

Key Quote:
"He took a bite off every slice of the supply chain."
— John Davids [20:10]

Building Business Skills: Ladders and Bridges

Stacking Assets:

JD explains Singh's method of stacking assets by moving horizontally and vertically within his business operations. He emphasizes the importance of maximizing existing resources to generate additional revenue streams.

Frameworks Introduced:

Ladders:
- Definition: Hierarchical tiers of products or services that offer increasing value and pricing.
- Example: Airlines offering economy to first-class seats.
- Application: Singh applied this by offering various levels of services within his repair shops and convenience stores.
Bridges:
- Definition: Additional offerings before or after the primary product to enhance customer experience.
- Example: Selling car servicing when selling cars.
- Application: Combining repair shops, gas stations, and convenience stores created a comprehensive ecosystem for customers.

Key Quote:
"Ladders and bridges is a great framework, one that I created to think about how to get more out of your existing assets."
— John Davids [35:50]

Community and Audience Engagement

Social Media Impact:

JD shares his experience of discussing Singh's story across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube Shorts, garnering over a million views. He addresses audience comments, highlighting both positive feedback and misconceptions about business profits and personal income.

Addressing Misconceptions:

Profit vs. Owner’s Salary:
JD clarifies that profits should not be confused with the owner’s salary. He advocates for the "Profit First" approach, where profit is allocated before other expenses, ensuring that business owners pay themselves a living wage.

Key Quote:
"The idea that you need to have profits to pay yourself tells me that you're not thinking about business as an actual business, more of a hobby."
— John Davids [42:15]

Overcoming Challenges: Patience and Innovation

Patience as a Key Virtue:

JD emphasizes the importance of patience in building a successful business. He notes that while Singh's exponential growth appears swift in narrative form, it was the result of sustained effort over decades.

Innovation Through Sawdust Products:

Sawdust Product Concept:
Transforming waste or unused resources into profitable ventures.
Examples:
- Bola Oil: Utilizing existing real estate by adding convenience stores.
- Amazon AWS: Turning server costs into a profitable cloud service.
- Neighbor’s Firewood Business: Converting factory sawdust into fire logs sold for millions.

Key Quote:
"The idea of looking at all the different waste points in your business and cost centers and how can you make them better and better and cash neutral and then maybe cash flow positive. That is what a superstar does in business."
— John Davids [55:40]

Final Insights and Takeaways

Business Growth Principles:

Compulsive Problem Solving:
Continuous identification and resolution of business bottlenecks drive growth.
Stacking Assets with Ladders and Bridges:
Maximizing existing assets through strategic diversification and tiered offerings.
Patience and Long-Term Vision:
Recognizing that significant business achievements require time and persistent effort.
Turning Waste into Profit:
Innovatively transforming underutilized resources into revenue-generating assets.

Conclusion:

JD concludes by celebrating Harry Singh’s success as a testament to the power of strategic problem-solving and innovative thinking. He encourages listeners to apply these principles to their own businesses, reinforcing that with the right mindset, significant growth is achievable.

Closing Quote:
"I love the story of Bola Oil. I love the story of Harry Singh. I love the idea that you can solve problems and make more money when you hit a bottleneck, smash the bottle and make a new bottle for yourself."
— John Davids [60:00]

Additional Resources

JD’s Book: Marketing Superpowers – Explores frameworks like ladders and bridges in-depth.
Influicity:
JD promotes his marketing agency, Influicity, showcasing its growth and services, including a case study with Toyota.
Website: influicity.com
Newsletter:
Listeners can subscribe to JD’s newsletter for more insights and updates.
Subscribe at: JohnDavids.com

Connect with Jon Davids:
For more content, ratings, reviews, and subscriptions, visit JohnDavids.com or find him on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and other major platforms.

This summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and strategies shared in Episode 161 of "Making It with Jon Davids," providing a comprehensive overview for those who wish to understand Harry Singh’s ascent from a cab driver to a billionaire entrepreneur.

Transcript

John Davids (0:00)

I just heard about a cab driver who became a billionaire with one simple strategy. He kept solving his own problems. I was curious. I spent a couple hours digging in. His name is Harry Singh, and he owns a company called Bola Oil. And how he got there is kind of crazy, and there's a lot you can learn from it. I'm going to get into all that right now. Welcome to the podcast. My name is John Davids. You can call me JD if you're listening on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you're tuning in, make sure to leave a rating. And a review helps a lot. And of course, subscribe. Head over to JohnDavids.com to get my best stuff to your inbox. And now let's get to the show. You're listening to Making it with John Davids. So the story of Harry Singh starts in the 1980s. Harry comes to America and starts driving a taxi to pay the bills. He looks around and then he realizes something. The guys that are actually fixing the cabs are making a lot more than the guys driving them. There always seems to be a lineup outside the repair shop. And all of his taxi driver buddies are kind of annoyed by this. They're bothered, but not Harry. He's actually inspired and he wants in on the action. So Harry trades in his taxi license for a mechanic's license and buys a tiny repair shop in Brooklyn. And that little repair shop is about to get pretty big. So Harry's making money fixing cars, working round the clock. Young entrepreneur trying to make his way. He's got a little gas station also in the repair shop. And he grows fast with smart marketing. For example, when people come in and fill up their tanks, he gives them a flyer offering them a discount on an oil change. And it works. People come in, they get an oil change. Maybe they get their engine looked at, their tires changed, and. And he's getting a return customer base. People are coming back. His business is growing. In that first year, he pulls in $76,000, has a profit, and buys another repair shop. Then he does it again and again and again. And within five years, he's up to eight repair shops. And then things go bad very, very fast. It's 2001, and dealerships are grabbing more of the repair business. The OEM manufacturers want that business. They want their own service re. And it's putting pressure on indies like Harry. His sales tank 15%. So desperate for cash, guy's got to stay in business. So he starts to add convenience stores to each location, right? He's got these repair Shops. He's got little gas stations, maybe in a few of them, but he's got this extra real estate. Why not sell things to customers? After all, he's already got the foot traffic. Customers are lingering while they're waiting around for their cars. Suddenly, he's pulling in an extra $50,000 a month selling Sandw Sprites, Skittles. It's working. And Harry's about to hit the gas. So up until now, gas sales aren't a big money maker. Remember, the gas stations are pretty small. He's making most of his money off the repair shops. He's added convenience stores. But he wants to make more money off the gas stations. So in 2004, Harry starts Bola Oil. It's a wholesale distributor of oil. You know those big trucks that pull up at gas stations and refill the fuel tanks? Those are the distributors. Those are the dudes who sell gas to gas stations. Now, as a distributor, Harry can buy his own fuel at rock bottom prices, sell it at his own gas stations, increase his margins, and sell the surplus to other gas stations. He's taking a bite off every slice of the supply chain. And just like that, he's in the Tres comma club. The guy's a billionaire. From cab driver to billionaire, and it only took a couple decades. Now Harry's got one of the all time greatest business skills of all. He is a compulsive problem solver. He just can't help himself. Y'all know the feeling. I know that. I do. First he did it with the repair shops, then with the convenience stores, then gas stations, then fuel distribution. Each time his business hits a bottleneck, he smashes that glass and makes a brand new bottle. He's turning cost centers into cash cows and problems into profits. All right, so I shared this story on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn YouTube shorts. Over a million of you saw it. I got so many comments, way too many to go through. But I did my best and I want to share some of the highlights. So first off, a lot of people have either worked with Harry as business partners, as employees, a lot of good things to say. I don't have any firsthand knowledge. I never met the guy. But it's good to see that people have good things to say about someone like this because no doubt he's made a lot of enemies along the way. It's kind of hard not to if you're this successful in business. But it's nice to see that positive sentiment. There's a few comments that caught my eye. So James Thomas said, how could he reinvest all his profits, John? What does he live on air? And a few people actually said this, and it got me thinking. I think there's a big misconception out there about what it means to build and run a real business. So this kind of comment points out to me that people assume that unless you have a profit, you're not paying yourself, or that if you have a profit, it means that that money is supposed to go to the owner of the business. So the way I see it, a real business is one where the owner, who is probably employee number one, and maybe even the hardest working employee for the first while at least, should pay themselves and you should pay yourself a living wage. I'm not saying you pay yourself some luxury salary, some exorbitant amount of money, but certainly enough to live on so you could pay your bills, put food on the table, pay your mortgage, pay your rent, whatever expenses you have. And so when someone says, well, how does he have profits? What does he live on? Well, he lives on his own salary. And if you are running a business and you're paying everybody else, and then only if you have a dollar left over after all the expenses are paid, then you pay yourself. I would say you don't actually have profits, you have to pay yourself first, and then the money after that is profits. And so off $76,000. I don't know, maybe he had 10 grand or 5 grand left at the end of the year, enough to put a deposit down with a mortgage on the next property. The idea that you need to have profits to pay yourself tells me that you're not thinking about business as an actual business, more of a hobby. So think about it like this. Profit comes first. There's actually a book called Profit first by Mike Michalowicz. I read it many years ago. And the basic premise of that book is that you take a certain amount of money off the top. So you make a dollar in revenue, you take $0.05, $0.10, $0.15 off the top, put it into a separate account, or if you're making cash, take that cash, put it into a separate envelope, and that's your profit. You take your profit first and then you take all the rest of the money. You pay all your bills, you pay yourself, and so you have profit at the end of the day. The idea that you need to have a profit to pay yourself, you pay yourself and then you have profit. And if you don't have enough money, that's totally cool, you pay yourself less or you work Harder or you try to cut your costs somewhere else. But the idea that a business has profits doesn't mean that the owner hasn't paid themselves. If you haven't paid yourself, you don't actually have a profit. Quick break so I can tell you about Toyota. And no, this is not a car commercial. This is a commercial for Influicity. That's the marketing agency I created in my apartment almost a decade ago. And man, have we outgrown my apartment. You can see how we help Toyota introduce their vehicles to a brand new generation of drivers. Check out the case study@influicity.com that's inf l u I c I t y influicity.com all right, another comment that I saw. Rupan says rumor has it that Harry Singh inherited a million bucks from his father in law, which helped him open his first bola. And my response to that is, so what? Now I understand why Rupan says this. I totally get it. But I want to make this point. It's very easy to say somebody has money or somebody got money and so that's why they were able to make their business quicker, faster, easier. I totally get it. But having money in many more cases makes you lazy. I can tell you this because I know a lot of very rich people who are very, very lazy. So when someone says, oh, he was only able to build that business because he had a bit of money, cool. But it would have been easier for him to just live on the money and not build the business. I wouldn't take anything away from somebody who inherited some money, put it to good use, and then built a business that was making over a billion dollars. And by the way, just to set the record straight here, if he had a million dollars to open that first bola, that means he still went to New York, became a cab driver, then got the repair shop, then expanded the repair shops and like 22 years in, he inherits a million bucks. Cool. The guy was probably already a multi, multi millionaire, so good for him. It's great to catch a lucky break. I'd rather be lucky than smart. That's cool. But it doesn't take anything away from his success in my mind. Now I want to talk about some of the real learnings that we can get from Harry Singh's story. Number one is the idea of stacking up your assets, moving horizontally and and vertically, finding new uses for the assets, the people, the knowledge, everything you have and how you can make money with it. More money, more profits to reinvest, pay your People better and all the good stuff. One framework that I use is ladders and bridges. So I want you to think for a second about an airline. An airline, what do they sell? They sell seats on an airplane, but think about all the ways that they can dress that up and dress that down. So let's think first about a ladder. A ladder means you can go up or you can go down. You can climb the ladder up and climb the ladder down. I talk about this in my book Marketing Superpowers about the product ladder. So on an airline, you can buy a economy seat, you can buy an economy plus seat, you can buy a premium seat, you can buy a business class seat, you can buy a first class seat. That's just the airline building a ladder up, up, up, taking what is essentially the same product, a seat on an airplane, and charging more and more and more for it by giving you at least the perception of luxury. And they can do all kinds of stuff with priority, with exclusivity, with convenience, with comfort. Again, I go into all this in my book, and that's the idea of building ladders. Bridges are other things that you can sell your customers before they buy your product and after they buy your product. So a good example is cars, right? What can you sell somebody when you sell them a car? You can also sell them servicing on that car. So that would be a bridge. It's something else. You can sell them based on what you've already sold them or maybe what you're going to sell them in the future. In the case of Harry Singh, what he was doing was building ladders and bridges. So the idea of having a gas station and a repair shop and a convenience store all in one spot, that really is like a bridge, right? You already have this, maybe you'll want this, maybe you'll want that. And then the ladder would be other services, more expensive services, subscription services, better gasoline, like all that kind of stuff. So ladders and bridges is a great framework, one that I created to think about how to get more out of your existing assets. Another big takeaway from this story is the idea of patience. And this really is a mindset thing. It all seems really quick when I tell you Harry's entire story in six minutes or in one minute in the case of my Instagram reel or my TikTok. You know, it kind of hits you really quickly and it makes it feel like it's just supposed to happen in the snap of a finger. Let's be honest, it doesn't happen like that. Life is not a screenplay it's not a Hollywood movie. It takes a long time. Think about the work that has to go in to just getting that first repair shot off the ground. Think about the work that has to go in to just getting that first repair shop off the ground a full year. Then you take that money and you reinvest it. And two years goes by, three, four, five. Took him five years to get to eight locations. It takes a long time to get the thing just moving. And then finally after 5, 10, 15 years, you start to hit the gas and you can move a lot faster. And that's why you see that kind of exponential growth. But you should never be discouraged because things take time. We live in a button swipe society where when you want something, you hit a button on your iPhone and boom, it happens. You swipe this and boom, you got it. Real life is not like that. If you want something that's worth anything, you've got to work for it and you've got to wait for it. The other principle Harry uses here is the idea of a sawdust product. What product are you creating that creates sawdust? Garbage, waste product, and you can turn that trash into cash. So specifically the convenience store aspect of this, I don't know for sure because I wasn't there. But let's just say you have a piece of real estate and you've got a building where you have your repair shop, then you've got a little gas station and that's built out. And then you've got a totally vacant building or a plot of land with nothing on it, that trash, because it's doing nothing, sitting there, putting a revenue generating building on it, which is what a convenience store is, that is complete sawdust. So you're taking garbage, literally, something you have no use for, and you're creating something that generates revenue. And when you look around your business, I've done this myself, I've looked around my business, I've said, what are the cost centers that I can turn into things that are at least cost neutral or maybe even cash flow positive. Where this thing used to cost me money and now it's making me money. The most famous example probably in the world is Amazon with aws, right? They used to have to pay a lot of money for their own servers and now those servers still cost money, but with aws, they, they're actually making a profit on it cause they're selling their server capacity to everybody else. So looking around your business, trying to find those pieces of sawdust, and sometimes it's literally sawdust my neighbor's business, which I've told you about before, where they made firewood, those wood logs that you put in your fire, those are literally made of sawdust and glue. And my neighbor actually went to old factories and was able to grab the sawdust where they made furniture, take that sawdust for free, took it off their hands for free, put it together with glue, makes fire logs, and then sold that fire log business for tens of millions of dollars. So that's a literal sawdust business. But the idea of looking at all the different waste points in your business and cost centers and how can you make them better and better and cash neutral and then maybe cash flow positive. That is what a superstar does in business. I love the story of Bola Oil. I love the story of Harry Singh. I love the idea that you can solve problems and make more money when you hit a bottleneck, smash the bottle and make a new bottle for yourself. Let me know what you guys think. Of course, you can get on my newsletter@johndavids.com I'll talk to you guys next time.