After facing media backlash over a tweet about his definition of success, "Shark Tank" star and millionaire entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary, also known as "Mr. Wonderful," doubled down on his argument on "Varney & Co." Monday.
"If you're an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You're going to work 25 hours a day, eight days a week. They wrote about it when the Beatles first put it out there," O’Leary told guest host Ashley Webster. "This is what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur."
"If you can't do it, if that statement makes you uncomfortable, you are not an entrepreneur," he continued. "Don't even try."
Over the weekend, O’Leary took to Twitter where he voiced his opinion on what it takes to become financially successful.
‘SHARK TANK’ STAR KEVIN O'LEARY TRASHES BLUE STATES FOR PUNISHING SUCCESS: ‘HEYDAY YEARS’ OVER
"You may lose your wife, you may lose your dog, your mother may hate you. None of those things matter," he tweeted. "What matters is that you achieve success and become free. Then you can do whatever you like."
Users were quick to criticize O’Leary’s comments, claiming he encouraged monetary gain at the personal expense of family or quality of life. But the entrepreneur told Webster on Monday that he "100%" defends his original statement.
"You're going to sacrifice quality of life with your family in your early years. And the reason you do it, and what's inherent in that statement is, you're buying freedom for yourself and your whole family. That's the whole idea," O’Leary explained. "You sacrifice to gain this back later in life, and if you don't have the guts to do it, don't even try."
The businessman also reflected on the technology sector, noting major companies like Google missed out on the "game changer" that is AI-powered systems like ChatGPT.
"This is the proverbial Google killer," he said. "The only moonshot Google should've invested in was this – AI. They missed it. This is like Microsoft missing the Internet on the first iteration. When Gates wrote his book, he never mentioned the Internet. It nearly cleaned him out."
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Weighing in on the state of the crypto market and FTX’s collapse as well, O’Leary noted that bitcoin remains as one of his "best-performing assets" and he’s looked past the recent market downsides.
"You saw [Gary] Gensler make a move last week against staking. He's on a warpath and he's backed by a lot of people now, including people like me, who want to see regulation," O’Leary said. "We want to see some guardrails. I'm tired of going to the Hill for hearings every six months for the next crypto company that blows up and goes to zero. Everybody is sick of that. It's now time for regulation."
