When a long-lost client called me from Washington a couple of years ago, I was delighted. He read Boat International magazine in flight and noticed that I had left my previous brokerage company to start working for Camper & Nicholsons. When the global recession began, he ordered me to sell my small fleet of yachts from 88 to 112 pounds sterling. as quickly as possible, recognizing that such assets quickly lose their value and that, by liquidating them, he will be in a strong position to survive and even thrive in turbulent times. Now, he told me, he returned to the market and would like me to help him find his next yacht.
However, there was a slight hitch. As a result of the massive growth of his business, he decided to hire someone who would cope with all his acquisitions; real estate, airplanes, enterprises and yes - boats.
This "someone" was an accountant.
Now I have nothing against accountants. They serve a useful purpose by doing the work that most of us find tedious and boring. A good accountant can save a company considerable amounts of money through sound tax planning and even the smallest advice. There are certain solutions that should not be associated with an accountant, and buying a yacht is one of them.
Honestly, I would not invite my accountant to the boat exhibition, than to invite my mother to a strip club or ask an accountant to help in buying a yacht, than to ask my mom to help me find a girlfriend. Fundamental hits, such as a magnificent body, a sexy smile and how much pleasure on her date, will be completely missed in favor of other less important attributes, such as reliability, durability and ... um ... two-year warranty period. A mother will make a decision based on thought and logic, a person, on the other hand, will base her decision on feelings and passion. A friend of mine once told me that his mother cried when he presented her to his girlfriend simply because she did not like her. Strange - this is exactly the same reaction as my accountant-client when I told him what the operating costs are for a 46-meter yacht!
And this raises a rather interesting question: “Why do financially successful people buy yachts?” How is it that a person who has spent years developing an enviable ability to create profits and in order to avoid losing money, will suddenly acquire an object that will do the opposite?
I discussed this topic with the owner of the yacht more than ten years ago, when I worked as a sales manager at the shipyard Ferretti Custom Line. The client had an insatiable appetite to negotiate the price of each change order and it was clearly felt that cost control was just as important as making a profit. One evening at dinner, the client spoke about how hard he worked to achieve his wealth, and said that as a result he did not spend money without paying enough attention to every purchase, both small and large. I ventured to ask that “due attention” led him to buy a superyacht, knowing that the annual operating costs would finance a small military coup?
I am not very diplomatic, I know, but I just had to ask.
A smile scattered across the face of the client. “David,” he said, “you just can't imagine.” “Everything you do on a yacht is much better, I eat on a yacht, and the food tastes better, I go to bed on a yacht, and I sleep better, and David,” he said when the smile spread further. Sex. much better. On a yacht ".
About a year after this conversation, I was able to put these comments to the test when, at the moment of extraordinary generosity, another client invited me to his 100-year-old yacht for a week-long vacation. Just for clarity, and knowing that my wife will probably read this article, I have to add “Yes. It was a week when we went to Majorca together. ”
People talk about spending time on “quality” with their partners, in contrast to what I imagine “bad quality” that can be transmitted in front of the TV, too exhausted to talk after a day of fighting fires in the workplace and if you have small children, perhaps in the living room. If the quality of time can be measured in the same way that we measure the quality of food and beverages, then “time for yachts” is an acorn served by Iberic Pata Negra, this is a shred of Italian white truffle from Alba on a plate of the best pasta, this is a Danish dish Oysters stuffed with a chilled Chablis bottle, an experience so pleasant that in a few short moments when you take pleasure, nothing matters anymore, no problems arise, no difficulties exist. You are here, right now, together, and happy.
The other owner of the yacht spoke well when he talked about his grandfather, a wonderful man who started his business in the barn and built it in a commercial empire, which occupied more than 50,000 people. The family had peculiar properties all over the world and regularly stayed in the best hotels that this planet has to offer, and yet he said: “The only time I see my grandfather is relaxed is on his yacht.”
This is a common topic when we talk with families of high-priority executives and business owners. They simply never disconnect from their business, not in their own city, and not in their village residence, and not in their beach house in Malibu, not even in the penthouse in Burj al-Arab. But they relax on their yacht. It may take a week to counter the responses to their mobile phone, and for another week to stop checking their email, but by the third week they are finally synchronized with the “yacht time”. Stress levels return to normal, priorities return to focus, food tastes better, sleep is deaf, and the strongest pleasures of life are increased to unpardonable proportions.
And therein lies the secret that reveals a disciplined withholding that many people with high levels of equity continue to withhold their expenses. Business success and financial rewards are exciting and leave a legacy that can benefit the generation after the generation of descendants, and also provide jobs for the army of deferred accountants. The insane intensity of this lifestyle requires balance, though, a pressure valve that returns PSI life to a safe level. A yacht is not a luxury for these men and women, but a necessity - albeit costly - to enrich their lives in ways that cannot be quantified on the balance sheet in order to receive investment income that is not measured in currency or stock value,
My advice to the worldwide UHNWI, who can read this and think about attending the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show this year, is simple.
Leave your accountant.
