Surviving a Tsunami in Thailand, Why Women Want a Dominant Man & Three Stocks to Buy and Hold with Benjamin Wall

My guest is Benjamin Wall. He’s originally from the UK, now living in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

The son of a former bank robber who was in-and-out of jail, my guest ironically had a successful career in finance, following work as a nightclub bouncer, debt collector and stripper.

Nowadays, Ben supports himself day-trading, which long-time listeners will know: Me, as for me, I prefer to get rich slow.

That’s not to say Ben hasn’t built wealth the long way—he’s held long-term positions in $AAPL, $AMZN & $META, and continues to buy dips.

Ben is also the co-owner & founder of a concierge service in “Playa” called Prestige Luxury Services. He’s partnered with a doctor-friend of his in paradise to provide a fully-holistic approach to tourism, health and well-being—all while vacationing (‘holidaying‘ he might say:) in PDC and surrounding areas.

A bit about the colorful life my guest has lived. For example, Ben’s resided in: Costa Rica (Manuel Antonio), South Africa (Cape Town), Thailand (Phuket), not to mention he’s from the United Kingdom (Bristol).

In this episode, we discuss Ben’s relationship with his father, who was consistently in-and-out of jail. He says although his dad was charismatic and extremely intelligent—he was also very violent and manipulative.

He says his father instilled lots of contradictory advice over the years. In fact, his dad taught him to hate those “born into money;” or those part of institutions, which of course included those in positions of authority.

While most kids bond with their fathers over hunting, fishing & other sports—Ben’s dad would tell stories about prison. Or getting stabbed.

He’d teach Ben techniques to severely wound a man—the sort of know-how you’d probably only learn behind bars—where it’s either you or the other guy headed to the great certainty.

So for a long time, Ben wrestled with who he was and what he wanted to be. He tried the corporate world. Logged 15 years in finance, Even vagabonded across SE Asia and surfed the coastlines of Costa Rica.

He visited Phuket, Thailand. Wait till you hear the story of how Ben managed to survive the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

When my wife & I visited Phuket, Phi Phi Islands, & Krabi in 2016—I must’ve watched the Youtube videos of the tsunami 15 times.

It was chilling to have the opportunity to speak with someone who was in Phuket when the tsunami hit; to chat with a man who saw dead bodies floating around him.

He’d see guys in board shorts looking like zombies, knowing they had nothing else to their name—no money, no wallet, no passport.

Ben says he won’t go back [to Thailand]. I don’t think I could either.

Luckily, Ben and his travel buddy managed to find a hotel that was at a high elevation. I’ll let him tell you the rest of the story, which he says was the most horrifying experience of his life.

Please enjoy.

(By the way, I debated calling this episode: The Most Interesting Man in the World. I explain in the Intro why I didn’t. But holey shmoley—this is worth a listen.)

Questions asked:

Who loves your accent the most?
Are you from London, originally?
Which The Office do you prefer: American or British? (Dumbest question ever asked on the pod)
[Question to Brad] Do you think the way you walk is a representation of an American attitude / [its] culture?
Is Britain getting to the point where there are words [that] you can’t say?
Did you grow up with a mother and a father in the home?
What is a “spiv?”
Do you realize that you look intimidating?
At what age are you when your father started robbing banks?
What was work for your father?
At what age did your father started sharing to you his childhood stories & experiences?
Was he not concerned that you would turn to a life of crime?
Where did you get the money to travel?
What kind of day work did you have?
Did you go to the Phi Phi Islands?
Was there any warning of the tsunami?
Why were you safe? Was the hotel at an elevation?
Do performance-enhancing drugs and cocaine affect the lungs?
Were you and your best friend the same age? How long ago did he die?
What do you pay for rent?
Do you think you’ll ever regret not having kids?
How many kids will you want when you’re 73 [years old]?
[Question to Brad] Could you not create lasting moments just with friends?
Would your friends do for you what you did for your mom?
What do you make of current events?
How many individual stocks do you own?
Give me your top 3 long-term holds.

Fun questions:

Is social media a net negative or net positive for society?
If you could go anywhere for a month at no charge, where would you go?
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the funniest, where does Trevor Noah rank on that scale?
How long do you think you could survive in solitary confinement and what would you do?
If I gave you $100,000 worth of stock in one of three companies: Spotify, Pinterest, or Meta—where would you put the money?
What % likelihood would you give the Coronavirus being deliberately unleashed on the world?
What did you make of the balloon that flew across America unabated?