For this investor life is good. At the age of 28 he’s built up a portfolio of rent to rent properties, established two joint venture partners with similar values, and he has just won an award for HMO deal of the year after buying a pub and converting it into HMO rooms, flats and a commercial space. However, as Ryan admits his life has been made up of a “series of unfortunate events which have led to a series of fortunate events.” After that comment I am keen to know what twists and turns have helped Ryan achieve the success he has.
Whist at university studying business Ryan encountered his first unfortunate event; he was involved in a car crash. After spending two days in hospital and receiving physiotherapy he decided to change course and train as a physiotherapist. It was at university that Ryan got his first taste of business; “I started to trade on the Betfair exchanges from the age of 18 as this provided me with an income to help support my studies. Betfair works just like the stock market, although instead of investing in companies you invest in athletes. I was also given some money by my dad when at university to start ‘something’. So I bought make-up and sold it to the girls at my campus, it was a great little business.”
During Ryan’s time at University his dad, who owned a window cleaning company, paid for his studies and living expenses, so
it is no surprise Ryan refers to him as his ‘hero’. This father son relationship is important to understand as it plays into what Ryan describes as the second ‘unfortunate event’; his father discovering a cancerous growth.
“My father got sick when I was away at university so I decided to try and do both university and run his business. “I got the call from my mother saying that dad had been to the hospital and I needed to come home. He was poorly and had a pretty nasty cancerous growth in his ear. My work ethic comes from my dad as at the age of thirteen he dragged me out of bed on a Saturday morning and took me to clean windows with him (it was his company so he could do as he liked!). So finding out he was poorly and it might impact the business he worked so hard to build hit me hard. I stepped into the business and decided to run it for him and I kicked the business on by acquiring commercial contracts and additional properties - he came back to full health and didn’t want the monster I had created for him!
