A Billionaire Faces an Extreme Challenge in New Discovery Series

Looking as if he shopped at the Salvation Army and toting a nondescript duffle Stearns leaves behind his cushy life armed only with 100 and a mission In 90 days he must create a milliondollar company amp160At the end of the eight episodes an independent evaluator assesses if Stearns succeeded amp160If he fails even by one cent Stearns will invest 1 million of his own money into the companyWith that initial 100 Stearns must also house and feed himself amp160During that time he sleeps in the sort of hotels bedbugs wouldn39t bother infesting and he sacks out on floors amp160He takes any job that will have him including scrubbing toiletsIt39s all to prove a pointamp160amp160quotIt was years of people always saying you couldn39t do it todayquot he told MediaVillage during a leisurely interview at the Beverly Hilton amp160quotSo I would always say amp8216Give me 100 and put me on a Greyhound and I can do it39quotamp160amp160Think about that A man who owns a Caribbean island with Sir Richard Branson volunteers to return to the discomforts of being poor and go where he knows no oneClearly Stearns is not your typical pampered tycoon amp160A slight man he is open about being diagnosed with cancer five years ago amp160That prompted him to do Undercover Billionaire amp160Incidentally this isn39t his first reality rodeo Stearns won the first season of The Real Gilligan39s IslandThe main lesson is do not underestimate a man who defines selfmade amp160His trajectory though is more profound than the usual ragstoriches tale amp160Stearns is a believer amp160He believes in himself hard work and possibility amp160A relentless optimist he talks in the sort of quotes that are turned into refrigerator magnets amp160quotYou don39t give upquot amp160quotWhen you look at a goal you have to be preparedquotamp160 quotIt will never go how you plannedquot amp160quotWhen I know this will end poorly it is just a new opportunityquotStearns is proof this upbeat mindset worksamp160 Born to alcoholic parents he became a father at 14 A dyslexic who did poorly in school when he sets out to accomplish something he does not quit In 1978 the manager of a bowling alley where he worked told him that he had leadership qualities amp160Stearns clung to that encouragement and muscled on attended college earned a degree in economics then headed west amp160He slept on the kitchen floor in a onebedroom he shared with five others amp160And he worked amp160A loan officer for less than a year he founded a mortgage company Stearns Lending LLC and even flourished in the wake of the 2007 crashOn the show Stearns drives to Erie Penn where he has no connections amp160He buys cups of noodles and searches for odd jobs while on the lookout for the next big deal amp160Always knowing he could sell anything Stearns purchased a lot of St Patrick39s Day green disposables balloons shirts etc and peddled them in a bar for a profit of courseAmong the jobs he takes in the series is working for a clothing company amp160RJ Messenger the owner of that business Underdog BBQ and Iron Empire said at the Summer 2019 Television Critics Association press conference for the show quotI just thought he was some 55yearold guy that wanted to try and start a business and had no ideas amp160In my head I was like amp8216I39m going to take advantage of him because I need help at my store and he needs a job amp160He needs some money so maybe I can help him outamp8217quotYes Stearns needed a job but he needed something more a foundation upon which to build amp160All it took was sensing an opportunity where others didn39t and hard work amp160Stearns is an old hand at both amp160He made his fortune by figuring out what was missing in a market then playing the odds for the best payoff amp160His ability to do so resonated when he faced his mortalityquotWhen that cancer happened all of a sudden my life flashed before my eyesquot he recalled amp160quotI thought when I felt the most alive was when I was going through struggle and pain and adversity in my business amp160So I thought you know if I could do it all over again what would I do amp160I was kind of manifesting that ideaamp160 It came to life and I thought why not amp160Give it a shot and see if I can go through a lot of that same pain struggle adversity and funquotHis inner strengths are inherent in every frame amp160Stearns does not need the trappingsamp160 quotI have never based my happiness on moneyquot he said amp160quotIt wasn39t hard to be without luxuries amp160It was one of the best times in my life amp160I was sleeping on the floor and it was a wonderful time of discovering and learningquotUndercover Billionaire is telecast Tuesday at 10 pm on DiscoveryClick on the social media tiles above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively those of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of 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A Billionaire Faces an Extreme Challenge in New Discovery Series

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Jacqueline Cutler

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A Billionaire Faces an Extreme Challenge in New Discovery Series

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Jacqueline Cutler

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