The Timeless Investor Show explores how serious thinkers build wealth, resilience, and lasting success across generations.
Hosted by Arie van Gemeren, CFA - The Timeless Investor Show connects history, philosophy, and real-world investing lessons into practical frameworks for today's investors, with a core focus on real estate investing.
We study empires, cycles, currencies, and capital stewardship - and translate timeless principles into real-world action.
Think well. Act wisely. Build something timeless.
The Timeless Investor Show explores how serious thinkers build wealth, resilience, and lasting success across generations.
Hosted by Arie van Gemeren, CFA - The Timeless Investor Show connects history, philosophy, and real-world investing lessons into practical frameworks for today's investors, with a core focus on real estate investing.
We study empires, cycles, currencies, and capital stewardship - and translate timeless principles into real-world action.
Think well. Act wisely. Build something timeless.
Harry Helmsley started as a $12/week office boy in 1925. By the 1970s, he owned more real estate than anyone in America—the Empire State Building, 60+ office buildings, 30+ hotels, over $5 billion in assets.
His strategy? Buy quality buildings in quality locations. Never sell. Just compound.
No flipping. No syndicate exits. No IRR optimization. Just 40+ years of patient accumulation.
In this episode, we break down:
→ How Helmsley learned operations before ownership (and why it matters)
→ The "refinance, don't sell" approach that avoided capital gains for decades
→ Why transaction costs destroy more wealth than most investors realize
→ The crown jewel acquisitions: Empire State Building, Helmsley Building, the hotel empire
→ What happened when it almost all fell apart (and the lesson in who you marry)
The greatest real estate fortunes weren't built by flipping. They were built by holding.
—
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Interested in investing with us? https://investors.appfolioim.com/lombardequities/investor/contact-us (accredited investors only)
—
00:00 - Introduction: $5 Billion Empire from Nothing
02:15 - The Office Boy Years (1925-1935)
05:30 - Buying the Brokerage with Sweat Equity
08:45 - The Accumulation Strategy: Buy, Hold, Never Sell
12:20 - Why Refinancing Beats Selling (The Math)
16:00 - The Crown Jewels: Empire State Building & Beyond
19:30 - The Fall: Leona and the Collapse
22:00 - Timeless Lessons for Modern Investors
#realestateinvesting #wealthbuilding #harryhelmsely #empirestatebuilding #buyandhold #passiveincome #realestate #investing #financialhistory
A SPECIAL REPORT:
Last December, I published a 23-page report predicting what would happen in 2025 — treasury yields, inflation, GDP, housing supply. Today, I'm grading myself in public.
Predicted 10Y Treasury: 4.1% → Actual: 4.11%
Predicted Seattle Permits: -36% → Actual: -50%
Predicted Inflation: 2.5% → Actual: 2.7%
Most predictions were directionally right. Some were wrong. And 2025 threw curveballs nobody saw coming — $40B in wildfire losses by Week 2, a 43-day government shutdown, and a GDP path that broke every model.
This video covers:
→ The Six Forces scorecard (with grades)
→ Black swan events that blindsided everyone
→ The behavioral finance of 2025 (anchoring, recency bias, narrative fallacy)
→ What I'm watching for 2026
00:00 - What I Predicted
02:30 - The Six Forces Scorecard
12:00 - What Nobody Saw Coming
18:00 - Behavioral Finance Audit
26:00 - The Denver Deal I Didn't Do
30:00 - 2026 Watchlist
🔔 Subscribe for the 2026 Outlook Report (dropping January)
📩 Join The Timeless Investor Newsletter:
https://lombardequities.substack.com
📈 Accredited Investors — Work With Us:
https://lombardequities.com
#realestateinvesting #2025predictions #marketoutlook #multifamily
Notre-Dame Cathedral took 182 years to build. Your iPhone is designed to die in two.
The men who laid those first stones knew they would never see the finished building. They planted trees they would never sit under. They built something timeless.
We don't do that anymore. What changed?
One concept explains it all: Time Preference — the degree to which you discount the future relative to the present. It's the single most important idea I've encountered in my study of wealth across civilizations, and almost nobody talks about it.
In this episode, I break down:
The cathedral builders knew something we've forgotten: patience isn't passive. It's the most aggressive long-term strategy there is.
What are you building that will exist in 100 years?
—
Subscribe to The Timeless Investor newsletter: https://thetimelessinvestor.substack.com
Learn more about Lombard Equities Group: https://www.lombardequities.com
1837. Banks collapse. Real estate craters 80%. Most investors are wiped out.
One 74-year-old immigrant is buying.
John Jacob Astor arrived in America with $25 and seven flutes. He scraped fur pelts in a Lower Manhattan shop. He tried — and failed — to colonize the entire West Coast, losing ships, men, and millions when his vessel exploded off Vancouver Island.
Then he pivoted to real estate and became the wealthiest American in history.
By his death, Astor owned roughly 1% of America's entire GDP — the equivalent of $276 billion today. Senator Tallmadge remarked: "One in every hundred dollars in this country ends up in J. Astor's hands."
In this episode, we trace the full arc: the cutthroat fur trade, the global China triangle, the catastrophic Tonquin massacre, the audacious Astoria gambit, and the real estate strategy that turned crisis into dynasty.
The lessons? Know when to pivot. Maintain liquidity. Follow infrastructure. And when the panic comes — be the buyer, not the seller.
First owners get destroyed. Second owners build dynasties.
Which one are you going to be?
In 1595, a desperate Sultan auctioned off the right to collect taxes. The buyer—a merchant from Thessaloniki—didn't care if the province starved. His contract was only 3 years.
This system, called Iltizam (tax farming), would hollow out one of history's most powerful empires over 300 years. By 1800, it represented 80% of Ottoman revenue—up from 36% a century earlier.
But the Ottomans weren't unique.
This episode reveals the 5-phase pattern that destroyed Rome, bankrupted Spain, ended British hegemony, and collapsed the Ottoman Empire:→ Building
→ Success
→ The Pivot
→ Decay
→ Collapse
The through-line? Societies that stop building and start extracting have begun to die.
Today, we examine America through this lens: manufacturing down from 28% to 11% of GDP, financial services up from 3% to over 20%, private equity strip-mining companies like Ottoman tax farmers stripped provinces.
Plus: A framework for investors and citizens navigating extraction economies—including why "being a second owner" may be the smartest play in a system built for liquidation.
October 1347.
Twelve ships dock in Sicily. Most of the sailors are already dead.
Within three years, half of Europe would be gone. But from that catastrophe came everything: capitalism, individual rights, the printing press, the age of exploration, the scientific revolution, the enlightenment—the very idea that tomorrow can be better than yesterday.
You and I are living in a world the plague created. We just don't know it.
This is Episode 1 of "How Plagues Transform Humanity"—a new series exploring how pandemics shaped the modern world.
TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - The Ships Arrive2:15 - The World That Was Stuck5:30 - Death Arrives9:45 - Feudalism Collapses12:30 - The Church Cracks14:20 - Innovation at Gunpoint18:00 - Why Europe and Not China?21:30 - The World It Made
COMING NEXT:
CONNECT:
📩 Newsletter: https://thetimelessinvestor.substack.com💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/arievangemeren
SOURCES:
Paul Schmelzing, "Eight Centuries of Global Real Rates" (Bank of England, 2020)
Robert Allen, "The Great Divergence" David Herlihy, "The Black Death and the Transformation of the West"
#BlackDeath #History #Economics #Capitalism #MedievalHistory
November 8th, 1890. The head of the most powerful merchant bank on earth walks into the Bank of England to confess: in 72 hours, his bank will be bankrupt—and it might take the British Empire down with it.
Barings Brothers financed the Louisiana Purchase. They were called "the sixth great power of Europe." And they had just bet everything on Argentina—the AI boom of its era—and lost.
The Bank of England had one weekend to prevent global financial collapse. Their entire gold reserve barely covered what Barings owed. If markets panicked, Britain would be forced off the gold standard. Sterling would collapse. The world economy would implode.
This is the story of the first modern bailout, the birth of "too big to fail," and the playbook the Fed would use 118 years later in 2008.
But here's the kicker: this same bank—survivor of the 1890 crisis—collapsed again in 1995. One rogue trader. One earthquake. Sold for £1. Same disease, different century.
In this episode:→ How the yield chase destroyed Britain's mightiest bank→ Why currency mismatch is a silent killer→ The Rothschilds' second owner playbook→ What 1890 teaches us about the next crisis
Read more at The Timeless Investor on Substack. Invest alongside us at lombardequities.com.
Think well. Act wisely. Build something timeless.
In 1989, the land under Tokyo's Imperial Palace was worth more than all of California. Tokyo's real estate exceeded the entire United States in value. The Nikkei hit 38,957 — and didn't reach that level again until February 2024.
This isn't ancient history. It's a warning.
In this episode, I break down the Japanese real estate bubble — the most spectacular property mania in modern history — and why the playbook Japan invented after the crash is running in U.S. commercial real estate right now.
Syndicators making capital calls instead of handing back keys. Lenders restructuring instead of foreclosing. Everyone waiting for rate cuts to bail them out. This is "extend and pretend" — and we know how it ends.
But there's something bigger happening. Japan just ended 8 years of negative interest rates. The carry trade — trillions of dollars borrowed in cheap yen and deployed globally — is unwinding. This has massive implications for capital flows, real estate, and your portfolio.
We cover:
→ How the Plaza Accord planted the seeds of Japan's bubble
→ The psychology of mania: why smart people believed absurd valuations
→ The crash: 70% declines that still haven't recovered 35 years later
→ "Extend and Pretend" — Japan's invention, America's current strategy
→ Why Japan's rate hikes in 2024-2025 matter for global investors
→ Five timeless lessons every real estate investor needs to know
Wednesday's episode dives deep into the carry trade. Stay tuned.
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Get your own copy of Timeless Wealth: Real Estate Through the Ages.
If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
In 1993, thousands of investors around the world opened letters from Lloyd’s of London demanding sums that didn’t seem real. £300,000. £1 million. £3 million. Not money they invested — money they owed.
Doctors, farmers, aristocrats, retirees… entire families financially erased overnight.
In this episode of The Timeless Investor Show, I break down one of the greatest financial catastrophes in modern history — the Lloyd’s Disaster — where 34,000 individuals were ruined by a perfect storm of hidden liabilities, insider knowledge, and a 300-year-old system that finally buckled under its own complexity.
You’ll learn:
This isn’t just a historical breakdown.
It’s a blueprint for avoiding the next great financial wipeout.
If you invest in real estate, private credit, insurance, syndications, funds, or any alternative assets — this story is essential.
Think well. Act wisely. Build something timeless.
- Arie van Gemeren, CFA
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
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If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
In 2005, Sean Dempsey tried to buy a tiny video startup on behalf of Google.
The founders laughed him off.
Eighteen months later, Google paid $1.65 billion for that same company… and the entire industry mocked the decision. Analysts called it reckless. Wall Street rolled its eyes.
Today, that acquisition is worth over $300 billion.
In this episode, Sean — now co-founder of Merus Capital and an investor in multiple unicorns — breaks down the real story behind the YouTube deal and the deeper lessons it reveals for founders and investors:
We get into:
If you care about decision-making, inflection points, and developing an investor’s mindset, this conversation is a masterclass.
👉 Watch the full interview on YouTube here
👉 Follow for more conversations on real estate, investing, and building enduring wealth
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
Follow the Timeless Investor Show if you want to hear more of our podcast content.
Get your own copy of Timeless Wealth: Real Estate Through the Ages.
If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
In 1790, revolutionary France thought it had solved its financial crisis by printing a new kind of paper money — the Assignat — backed by confiscated church land.
Within five years, it destroyed the French economy, vaporized the middle class, and set the stage for dictatorship.
In this episode, Arie Van Gemeren breaks down the world’s first great fiat collapse — how the Assignat began as “secured money” and ended as worthless paper — and what it teaches investors about modern inflation, asset bubbles, and political denial.
You’ll learn:
• How the Assignat was backed by land — and why that didn’t save it
• The psychology of inflation and why every regime thinks “this time is different”
• Why all fiat systems eventually converge toward debasement
• How to position yourself in real assets before the next currency reset
History doesn’t repeat — it just changes costume. The Assignat collapse is the blueprint for every modern inflation crisis.
🔔 Subscribe to The Timeless Investor Show for weekly deep dives into history, money, and the timeless principles of wealth.
#TheTimelessInvestor #Assignat #FrenchRevolution #Inflation #FiatMoney #HistoryOfMoney #ArieVanGemeren #RealAssets #WealthPreservation #Investing
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
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Get your own copy of Timeless Wealth: Real Estate Through the Ages.
If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
In October 1907, the U.S. banking system imploded overnight.
Knickerbocker Trust collapsed, panic spread through New York, and the entire American economy teetered on the edge of destruction.
Only one man could stop it—J.P. Morgan, a private citizen wealthier than the U.S. Treasury.
For three weeks, Morgan personally decided which banks lived and which died, locking financiers in his library until they agreed to save the system.
From the ashes of that crisis came something even more powerful: the Federal Reserve. Conceived in secret on Jekyll Island by seven men representing one quarter of the world’s wealth, the Fed was designed to stabilize the system—but it also concentrated control over money like never before.
In this episode, Arie Van Gemeren explores:
This is The Timeless Investor Show—where history, finance, and timeless wisdom converge.
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
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Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
In 1932, the world’s richest man pulled the trigger that ended an empire.
Ivar Kruger, known as The Match King, controlled ¾ of the world’s match production, financed governments across Europe, and was hailed as the “savior of Europe.” But behind the empire was one of the greatest financial frauds in history—$6 billion (2024 value) in forged bonds, fake subsidiaries, and Ponzi-style leverage.
In this episode of The Timeless Investor Show, host Arie Van Gemeren, real-estate fund manager and financial historian, unpacks how Kruger’s empire rose and collapsed—and why his methods still echo today in FTX, Theranos, WeWork, and Madoff.
You’ll learn:
📚 Inspired by true history, this is part of the Timeless Greed series—stories of financial fraud, manipulation, and the recurring patterns that shape markets and human behavior.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter → https://thetimelessinvestor.substack.com
🎧 More episodes → The Timeless Investor Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & YouTube
💬 Follow Arie on LinkedIn → https://linkedin.com/in/arievangemeren
#IvarKruger #FinancialHistory #Fraud #PonziScheme #TimelessInvestor #InvestingLessons #FinancePodcast #EconomicHistory #WeWork #FTX #Theranos #Madoff #GreatDepression
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
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If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
April 12th, 1204 AD. A 97-year-old blind man led the assault on Constantinople—the richest city on earth—and walked away with three-eighths of an empire. His name was Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice. And what happened next changed the course of Western history.
This is the story of how Venice—built on mud, wooden stakes, and 118 swampy islands—became the wealthiest trading empire in medieval history. How they lasted over 1,000 years as an independent republic. How they controlled Mediterranean trade for 600+ years. And how they invented mass production six centuries before Henry Ford.
Venice didn't conquer territory. They conquered trade routes. They didn't build armies. They built the Venetian Arsenal—the world's first factory—which could produce a fully equipped warship in a single day. When King Henry III of France visited in 1574, Arsenal workers built an entire combat-ready warship during his lunch just to flex.
But Venice's real genius was understanding that wealth isn't built on land—it's built on controlling what flows across it. Infrastructure. Capital. Network effects. Financial innovation. Information advantage.
In this episode, we explore:
If you're a real estate investor, business builder, or anyone thinking long-term about wealth creation, Venice offers a masterclass in competitive advantage, infrastructure control, and what happens when your moat disappears.
Subscribe to The Timeless Investor for weekly deep dives into the builders, empires, and timeless principles that create lasting wealth.
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
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Get your own copy of Timeless Wealth: Real Estate Through the Ages.
If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
What if China had a 100-year head start on European colonial dominance—and threw it away?
In 1405, nearly a century before Columbus, Chinese Admiral Zheng He commanded 317 ships and 27,800 men. His fleet was the largest in human history. His flagship was five times bigger than the Santa Maria. He reached East Africa, mapped the Indian Ocean, and built trade networks across three continents.
Then, within years of his death, bureaucrats burned the maps, dismantled the ships, and made it illegal to build ocean-going vessels. Europeans who came later weren't discovering new routes—they were following maps China had abandoned.
This is the story of Zheng He: a slave who rose to command the greatest fleet in history, built infrastructure that should have lasted centuries, and watched it all get destroyed by the very people he served.
In this episode, we explore six timeless investing lessons from Zheng He's treasure fleet:
Whether you're a real estate investor, private equity professional, or building generational wealth, Zheng He's story reveals what separates wealth that compounds from wealth that dissipates.
This is part of our Builders Series—exploring great builders of past and present to make ourselves better investors and more understanding of timeless principles.
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
Follow the Timeless Investor Show if you want to hear more of our podcast content.
Get your own copy of Timeless Wealth: Real Estate Through the Ages.
If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
December 27, 1772. Clifford & Co.—one of Europe's most prestigious banking houses—shuts its doors with nearly $1 billion in liabilities (in today's money). Within weeks, the contagion spreads: 20 banks collapse across Amsterdam, London, Hamburg, and beyond. The world's first global financial crisis.
The culprit? Mortgage-backed securities on Caribbean plantations, marketed as "safe and stable" to Dutch middle-class investors who trusted the reputation of shadow banks operating outside any regulation.
In 2025, history is rhyming.
BlackRock, Apollo, State Street, and KKR are packaging private credit for Main Street investors using identical structures, promises, and marketing language. The SEC just loosened restrictions. Your 401(k) provider will likely offer it soon. And credit rating agencies are already sounding alarms.
This episode breaks down:
Critical Modern Parallels: The same reputation-based investing. The same opacity. The same carry trade dynamics. The same maturity mismatches. The same "this time is different" mentality.
Except now it's being sold to your retirement account.
Key Takeaways:
Episode Resources:
About The Timeless Investor Show: Real estate fund manager and financial historian Arie van Gemeren explores the wreckage of financial catastrophes past and present, extracting timeless lessons for modern builders and investors. Because the best way to navigate the future is to understand the patterns of the past.
Think well. Act wisely. Build something timeless.
Episode Length: ~34 minutes
Topics: Financial History, Private Credit, Shadow Banking, Investment Strategy, Retirement Planning, Financial Crisis, Wealth Preservation, Amsterdam 1772, M
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
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If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
What happens when the world's most trusted currency becomes worthless overnight? Not through war or conquest, but fraud so massive it brings down an empire.
This is the story of the Potosí mines scandal - how Spanish officials debased silver coins, stole billions, and destroyed the foundation of global finance in the 1600s. The Spanish Empire went from controlling 25% of the world to defaulting repeatedly, all because trust in their currency collapsed.
But this isn't just ancient history. The patterns are repeating today with massive government debt, currency concerns, and recent financial scandals like Tricolor Holdings.
Key Topics Covered:
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Arie:
For more historical lessons on building timeless wealth, subscribe to The Timeless Investor Show.
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
Follow the Timeless Investor Show if you want to hear more of our podcast content.
Get your own copy of Timeless Wealth: Real Estate Through the Ages.
If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
In May 1866, the world's largest financial institution collapsed in a single day, triggering the first global banking crisis and reshaping modern finance forever. Overend, Gurney & Company wasn't just any bank - they were THREE TIMES larger than their nearest competitor and considered the safest institution in the world. When they fell, over 200 companies failed, the Bank of England abandoned the gold standard, and the entire global financial system nearly imploded.
In this episode, real estate fund manager and financial historian Ari Van Gemeren reveals:
From Victorian London to modern private credit funds, discover why this forgotten crisis holds the key to understanding financial collapses - and how to protect yourself from the next one.
Topics: Financial history, banking crisis, Black Friday 1866, Overend Gurney, Bank of England, shadow banking, financial collapse, Victorian era finance, bank runs, leverage crisis, real estate investing, private credit, bridge debt, financial panic, British Empire, discount houses, railway bubble, limited liability, systemic risk, too big to fail
Perfect for: Real estate investors, finance professionals, history enthusiasts, anyone interested in understanding financial crises and protecting their wealth
🎧 The Timeless Investor Show: Where history's greatest financial lessons meet modern investing strategy.
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
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If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
In 2008, Brad Minsley faced every real estate developer's nightmare: $500 million in loans called across 27 banks. Most operators would have been wiped out. Instead, Brad fought back, survived the crisis, and used those hard-won lessons to build Ten Federal - one of the most innovative self-storage companies in America.
Today, Ten Federal operates 120 facilities with revolutionary automation technology, proprietary DaVinci locks, and just 0.6 employees per store (compared to 2+ at major REITs). Their funds have consistently outperformed, with their 2019 fund finishing #1 among all commercial real estate funds that year.
In this episode, we cover:
Key Takeaways:
This conversation reveals how crisis-tested experience, combined with technological innovation and operational discipline, creates sustainable competitive advantages in real estate.
Connect with Brad Minsley:
Email: brad@10federal.com
Website: www.10federal.com
Company: Ten Federal (self-storage development, automation, and fund management)
Resources mentioned:
The Timeless Investor Show explores enduring principles of wealth creation through history, philosophy, and practical experience. Subscribe for weekly conversations with battle-tested investors and timeless market insights.
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
Follow the Timeless Investor Show if you want to hear more of our podcast content.
Get your own copy of Timeless Wealth: Real Estate Through the Ages.
If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
They called him the Rothschild of the East. But while the Rothschilds moved paper, David Sassoon built infrastructure.
In 1829, he fled Baghdad with nothing but two saddlebags of gold. By 1860, his family controlled the largest trading house in Asia. By 1940, they owned half of Shanghai.
This isn't just another rags-to-riches story. It's a masterclass in turning displacement into dynasty.
In this episode, we explore:
From the opium trade to Shanghai jazz clubs, from Bombay swampland to prime real estate - the Sassoons proved that disruption creates opportunity, displacement creates advantage, and infrastructure creates dynasties.
Whether you're a real estate investor, a student of history, or someone interested in how fortunes are really built, this episode reveals timeless principles that work in any era.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
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Get your own copy of Timeless Wealth: Real Estate Through the Ages.
If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.