$0 To $1M: The New Rules For Building A Thriving Business - Daniel Priestley - #946

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
But yeah, it's interesting that some people coming out of the UK have sort of disproportionate results, especially given how poor the sort of entrepreneurial spirit is in the UK.

**Daniel Priestley** (0:12)
They tend to leave. Look at this, you, Jay Shetty, there's now, well, Ali Abdaal, there's now Steven Bartlett. Yeah, what's going on?

**Chris Williamson** (0:24)
What do you make of the state of the UK at the moment?

**Daniel Priestley** (0:29)
They're making every mistake. The UK should be so fundamentally strong in terms of it's a great time zone, it's got an incredible background, amazing institutions, English speaking, fast internet. There's so many great things about the UK, natural borders like it's an island, great farming and farmland. It's a very fertile place. Through policy decisions, everything is in collapse at the moment, everything's in decline. They're overtaxing people, so people are leaving. Only one percent of people pay 30 percent of the taxes, so that basically if a small group of people leave, it has a devastating impact on the finances. They've just done this terrible thing to farmers and now farmers that have been farming for generations are getting out of their farm businesses.
It's just really sad because when I arrived 20 years ago in London from Australia, London was the best place in the world. It was the place to be. It was the most entrepreneurial place in the world and all the money was there, all the talent was there, all the fun was there. London is still fundamentally a great place and it's just like, yeah, they're just ruining it.

**Chris Williamson** (1:42)
How much is this is top down versus bottom up? Because the culture in the UK, the approach that people have to risk, their preparedness to break free from the trodden path, that also seems to contribute as well.

**Daniel Priestley** (1:57)
The issue with the UK is that if you're super ambitious outside of London, you go to London. And if you're super ambitious, you go to the world. You got to remember, the UK took over the whole world. So some of the most ambitious people throughout the last couple of hundred years, they started families in Australia, in Singapore, in parts of Africa, in parts of the USA. So the British, I don't think have any fundamental flaws. It's just that the ambitious people tend to either go to London or leave.
And there is a bit of class warfare. But the Brits punch above their weight so well. I was just sitting next to a race car driver on the plane and he drives a McLaren. And he was talking about like all these incredible car companies coming out of the UK that everyone wants. It's like Rolls Royce and McLaren and Aston Martin and Bentley and Range Rover and all of this. And it's like, oh yeah, that's right. We do really good stuff.

**Chris Williamson** (2:57)
Yeah, it's a weird one, dude.
I don't like always sort of crapping on the UK, seeming as if I'm some guy that got on the last lifeboat off the Titanic. And that's not the case necessarily. But I don't know, the future doesn't seem to be particularly bright for people that are entrepreneurially minded.

**Daniel Priestley** (3:14)
It's all policy driven, so it could change. You know, it's not like there's some fundamental thing that makes, like for example, China has fundamental problems. Fundamental problem with China is that it has 14 different borders on the land and sea. So if it wants to go in any direction, it's basically bumping into its neighbors. It also imports 40 percent of its calories.
So if the world goes to custard, it doesn't have the capacity to actually feed its own people without imports, exports flowing freely. So that makes it a fundamentally difficult country to run. The UK doesn't have any of these fundamental geopolitical issues. It's just like literally sitting around shooting itself in the foot.

**Chris Williamson** (3:57)
Yeah. I wonder what the near-term future has in store and whether or not policies are going to move in one direction or another. What were your reflections after your discussion with Gary on Steven's show? What have you come to realize after that?

**Daniel Priestley** (4:14)
Main reflection is that people are really hurting and that's real. I don't particularly get along with Gary. I don't like his solution. I don't like his way of putting his solution onto the world. You know, his whole thing about just tax the rich. I'm always extremely skeptical of simple answers to complex problems. And it's already playing out. I mean, it's not even theory. It's playing out that the rich are leaving. And my big thing was, hey, I agree with you on the problem. Like, I really agree with you on the problem, but your solution is going to damage the country even more. You're going to literally make the people leave who we need to stay. But what have I taken from it? The pain is real. A lot of people at the moment are incredibly upset about the fact that you can't get a house. If you work a good job and you're a good person who follows the rules, you tend to get punished for it or you certainly don't get ahead. It feels like the services that we depend upon are breaking down. It feels like just the basics of having a fun, enjoyable life have gone away. A lot of people feel very lonely.