Hi, my name is Dan, and I'm Dan Henry's dad. I'm here today to answer some questions about what he was like when he was younger and how he wound up building his wealth.
What was he like when he was a kid? Well, that's an interesting question. He was a good baby. Didn't make a lot of noise, slept through the night. In fact, he slept so well we could never wake him up in the morning. Even on Christmas morning, we had to bang pots and pans to wake him up. He wasn't much on keeping his room clean. In fact, the room sometimes would be so messy, he didn't even know where to start, but me being German, I would help him try to organize. And then it went to hell in two days. When he was younger, he didn't care much for reading until one day, his mother and I got him a set of books. I think it was the Goosebumps books by RL Stein. I think his name was, and for some reason, he caught onto those, and he started reading. Reading, and reading and reading and it was then I figured, Uh oh, he's got to do something 'cause he's reading like a mad man. And from then on, it was nuts.
Then, later on, he did well in school. Later on, I remember when he was building businesses, I walked past him one day, and he was looking at a computer screen full of numbers and codes. And I said, what are you doing? Are you reading that? And he says, yeah. And I went, Oh boy. And it, I think it was starting at that point when I figured this kid's going to make some money. Okay. He's going to make some money. Things started happening and, and he started learning. Okay. Like when he started to read like that, I figured this is going to go somewhere.
So what I discovered was whatever goal he had, if there was something he needed to know that he didn't know, he would learn about it. He would read about it and learn what he had to know to accomplish whatever it was he was trying to do. So, in a nutshell, it just kind of snowballed.
How did I raise a multi-millionaire? Well, one never knows what one's offspring is going to wind up being. So I did what my father did with me. I spent a lot of time with my son. I tried to teach him the values that I learned from my father. And some of the things that I got interested in through my father, some of the things he took to. Other things, not so much. But other things he took to quite a bit. I was in broadcasting for a lot of years. So I would try to get him involved in my studio. And I even had him on the air once or twice on my show as a kid 'cause he got to be pretty funny as he grew older. You ask him questions, and he'd give you amusing answers.
I did the things that I think any dad should do, spending a lot of time with your son or your daughter and trying to show him as much about life as you possibly can. And that's what I did. And I didn't neglect him or anything like that. I tried to make all of his ball games, you know, when it was possible for me to do so, which was most of the time. And then we got him into martial arts early when he was pretty young, and that lasted, well, it's still going on. We became not only father and son, but pals as well, because we did a lot of things together, music, recordings.
He was a great musician, had a fabulous band. So we did a lot of things together. And I think that's the real key you got to spend time with your son because eventually, like now that he's grown up, he's a busy guy, and I understand that. And so I have no worries. You know, I don't have to worry about my son.
What was the moment that I remember when things really took off for him? Well, I think it was one time in one of the early office setups that he had. I believe he called me on the phone and said, Hey dad, guess how much money I made today? And it was some incredible figure, somewhere near 50 grand or almost 50 grand. I said, What? In one day? And he said, yeah, so come on over to the office. So I did, and he, sure enough, did it. But one thing I remember that really stands out to me. One time we were talking on the phone, and he goes, yeah, Hey dad, in the five minutes I've been talking to you on the phone, I just made five grand.
So I'm going, okay, all right, I see where this is going. He's, you know, he's going to do well. You know, he's not going to work for some job that's never going to get him anywhere really, not make any money. He learned how to build wealth, and he's still doing it. He's still going.
Oh, I remember the time he had the million-dollar day. I thought he was yanking my chain. When he called me and said, hey, I made a million dollars today. I said, What, what you did, what? Really, I thought he was hot doggin me, but no, he, he did it. And I mean, I was dumbfounded, you know? I could have messed myself. I mean, it was; it took me a while, a few minutes for that to sink in and make sure wasn't, you know, yanking my chain. But when he told me that, I said, Oh, okay, all right, this is impossible, but it's possible 'cause it happened. And it's just going to keep going from there. So see, the beautiful thing about how this is turning out is I don't have to worry about my son. Okay? I don't have to worry about him at all because he's on his way. He knows what he's doing. He learned stuff that he needs to learn to do what he does. And I've seen him help other people with it.
How did I feel when he bought this nice yacht that he has? Yeah, it was pretty impressive. And of course, I went down to Lauderdale with them to take a look at a couple of boats, and you know, when I saw what he was going after, I'm going, well, wait a minute. A: I know he could afford it. And B: it's just amazing that he's taken that kind of an interest in it. And I'm sure he has his reasons. So yeah, I was impressed, not surprised, but impressed.
The first day he took me out on the yacht, let me think. That was just a few weeks ago, I think. Oh, it's a beautiful day. The vessel handles well. It's very well appointed. I believe we spent a day or two aboard. It's a beautiful yacht, cabins are nice. And the captain, he's ACEs, he knows what he's doing. And the private chef aboard. I don't think I've ever tasted food that good. That was impressive. In fact, the food was so good she asked me for breakfast, what would you like for breakfast? I'll custom make anything you want. I said, you know I'd kind of like an omelet. She says, what kind of an omelet would you like? And I said, you know, based on what I've tasted that you've made so far, surprise me. Anything you make is going to be great. And the service and everything is just primo. So, yeah, the first days on the yacht, I've seen big boats before, but this was pretty nice. And I was really pretty proud of my son that he was able to be in a position to do this.
How long did I deliver pizza with him? I worked for a long time doing that. And then my son got a job there also. So me and him were delivering pizza together at the same company, and another friend of ours, which was a member of his old band, we were all three of us. Okay? All friends, delivering pizza together. I know he likes to talk about this when he went from pizza boy to multi-millionaire I thought that was inspiring for someone, okay? To say, look, you know, I delivered pizzas, and now look where I am. And he can say to people, look, you can do the same thing.
Would I have done anything differently raising my son? I don't think so. I think I did a pretty good job as it is. So if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
What advice would I give to someone trying to raise a successful son? Well, every dad would probably like to raise a successful son, okay? And, as I said earlier, spending time with them, at least teaching them what you know, teaching them good values, okay? So they don't, you know, don't grow up to be a scumbag. You got to teach people all the right values, and you got to give them a good work ethic. That's really important. You have to teach your kid a good work ethic. That's yeah. That's probably the best advice I could give.
Okay. I've been asked to tell an embarrassing story about my son. It was when he was, I believe, it was kindergarten. He woke up from nap time, all the other kids were taking their little snooze, and I guess he had to use the bathroom. And I don't know if he wasn't sure where the bathroom was or if he was half asleep or whatever. So he walks up to a trash can in the room and takes a leak right in a trashcan. Okay? He puts his little ding-dong away and goes back to lay down. Of course, his teacher was like, what? And of course, I got spoken to when I went to pick him up from school later that day. And I just told her, I don't know, he wasn't drinking. So, you know, he probably just looked at the closest spot, half asleep, and did it. So that was pretty embarrassing.
You should always try to raise your son to do better than you did. You should try to raise your son to do better than you did. So if he does that, you know, you've done your job and never be envious or jealous or anything like that. If your son winds up being more successful than you because that just means you must have done a good job. All right. I guess that's enough for today. Once again, I'm Dan Henry's dad, and it's been a pleasure talking at all of you.