Maximilian White started his business journey at a young age learning business fundamentals from his father. He became Britain’s youngest bar Manager at 17 with his own location. Max made his money through bars, music, tech and property investment ventures.

Maximillian is now building Europe’s largest medicinal cannabis farm and his latest business venture will be worth £3.5 billion alone in the next five years. Maximillian’s company will supply high quality medical cannabis respecting EU-GMP specifications which are the highest quality standard for the pharmaceutical industry.

We sat down with Maximillian to discuss his rollercoaster journey to becoming a billionaire entrepreneur.

Let’s start from the beginning, Your parents were wealthy but lost the majority of their money in a bad investment, which resulted in your removal from boarding school into the secular education system and leading a more normal life than you had been accustomed. What did this experience teach you and do you think this impacted you positively in the long run?

It was during the early 90’s recession. I went from going to the same school as Tony Blair Rowan Atkinson etc. to a state school. You don’t miss chocolate if you never had chocolate, so having a great childhood and then losing everything…like hero to zero. The biggest effect it had was on my family because obviously the stress of the finances was on my family and financial stress can break a family. Yes, it did teach me to be more careful there were a few things I learned from a lot of bad moves my dad made, he tried to grow too quickly and he didn’t maximise some of the stuff he had.

Did having wealth from an early age and losing that lifestyle make you strive to want to get that back as a child?

100%! Because, at that time at an early age it confused me as a young boy, being told we couldn’t have this we couldn’t have that because we didn’t have money. It just made me obsessed with money-oriented things from a young age. I’ll tell you a funny story… everyone had to dress up in school as what they wanted to be when we were older people came in as firemen, policemen and pilots, I came in a sheepskin jacket with one of them money bags from the bank and said I’m a millionaire entrepreneur! It definitely gave me a drive because at that age I felt like money could fix everything and all of the problems.

Growing up around the business and entrepreneurial mindset of your father, did that impact you in any way?

Most definitely! I was skiving from school all the time and my father asked me the question “Do you want to go to school? I said “Not really dad”[…] I felt like the things I was doing I had already done in previous classes and going to a state school was like being brought back, three classes. He said “Well don’t lie to me son, if you don’t want to go to school I’ll teach you about business, and my father educated me about business, the ethics of good business and supply/demand etc. So, I used to assist him in the rebuild of his new businesses and finances. One thing I learnt about my father was that he was good at making money, but not good at keeping it. He just wanted to grow too quickly. With small steps, you learn small lessons and small lessons are very important!

Have you ever had a regular employed job?

No. No.

What is your belief system? You’ve mentioned the law of attraction, believing in yourself, taking action and risks… could you encompass your belief system for us?

My belief system is that successful people are not successful through hard work or through being lucky. I think successful people are successful, because they are courageous and they don’t mind criticism, with success comes criticism, comes hate and a lot of other things and a normal person cannot withstand that. It takes a different kind of person to accept criticism keep going and keep pushing forward and I think it’s the courageous people that end up successful. Any worthwhile destination in life is difficult and is an uphill journey, but most people are not willing to take the hard path and prefer to take the easy option. […]

I do believe in the law of attraction to a certain degree, goals and manifestation. It’s a very strange world…you have to want something and see something to be able to achieve something.

I believe if you feel that you have it in you, you want it, you can see it, you can manifest it then you should go for it.

You posted on Instagram 1 in 10 businesses fail that’s why I started 11. You’ve opened a lot of businesses. What has business failure and successes taught you?

Every mistake is a lesson and only a fool makes the same mistake twice!

What is your favourite quote?

While you were discussing whether the glass was half empty or half full, I sold it!

Over 4 million to date follow you on your Instagram account! It features your billionaire lifestyle and business mindset what can people expect from following your account?

The Instagram account is @thatboyyouhate It’s to motivate and inspire people! A lot of people have said “I knew you, I’ve been watching you, I’ve seen how you developed and you're motivating to me” That makes me very happy, but I also get people saying to me “you’re lucky!” But I don’t believe in luck! This is not a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket Story! This has been a lot of heartbreak, sweat, sleepless nights, making good decisions, bad decisions, having a lot of conversations in which I’ve been able to take some good points from. I do it to inspire people, so the people understand you can get there[…] if I can do it anyone can!

At only 17 you became Britain’s youngest bar landlord, how did this come about and what did this experience teach you?

I was given my own bar by the brewery at 17 years old, because when my father had leukaemia and they saw that in the absence of my father being poorly, they saw that I was probably running and profiting one of the best pubs in their portfolio and my dad was on a healthy return back to recovery. They wanted to offer me a shot, but then they realised that I was only 17. They still decided that they were going to push me through for the licence making me the youngest landlord for a bar […] The opportunity was given to me by the brewery and a loan from the bank. It was a closed-down bar in a bad area and they thought I was young dynamic and had what it took to bring it back.

With any business venture there are obstacles, what business issues did you have to resolve to revitalise the bar?

The bar was in a student area, but the area had a really bad reputation. The students were being warned not to drink or socialise in the area, as there was a lot of crime. The biggest thing for me in business is profitability, we would close the bar in dead hours and just open at peak times and refocused the business to appeal to a different target audience than students.

You left Nottingham for Majorca to DJ out there in your 20s, when did you develop the skills and interest in DJing?

I was always into my music. I played several musical instruments from school and I used to be a chorister and sing in a cathedral. It was never a career step, more just a passion… I picked DJing up as a hobby. My sister persuaded me to come out to Majorca and said I could stay with her. I wanted to take some time out, as I had been doing business with my dad and for myself, for a good 10 years by the age of 20 […], I then found DJing as a job could be good money when I was out there. My father overtook the management of the bar.

You co-founded the record label Defenders Entertainment with Corey Johnson. Your label has produced tracks, including One Dance by Drake ft Wizkid and Kyla, and worked with the likes of Tinie Tempah, Cheryl Cole, Jay Sean, Alesha Dixon and Shontelle. Some have called you pioneers of “funky house music”

I met a friend through DJing we clicked and he told me about his idea to start a record label we then decided to develop our record label and what kind of music, it was the kind of music I was already playing Funky-House type of music.

You was DJing for a popular nightclub at the time and getting comfortable money, which meant you were able to make the initial investment of 37,000 euro in online music store Beatport( a website where DJs could download full tracks on to their systems) in the early 2000s, which paid enormous dividends as it was ahead of its time in digital music. How did this investment opportunity present itself and what was your thought process when putting down the cash… could you see the opportunity for success as a DJ yourself?

Between our networks, we had a massive portfolio of music, our own music from the label and it was a transition period from vinyl to what would be digital. There was a handful of people I knew that was very up in tech game; between us, we decided to create an online platform that could be available for DJ’s and it just went on from there. We built and sold it within 3 years and sold it for a profit in the tens of millions.

What was your thought process putting down that initial investment of 37k Euros?

It was everything I had to my name at the time, but I did not feel any kind of way about it, because if you can make £100 you and risk it to make £200 because you’ve already shown yourself you can make £100 again because you’ve already done it. It wasn’t a risk to me it was a calculated investment.

Your label had a massive hit with one dance could you tell us a bit about that?

Correct, that is the largest downloaded song in the world to date! More than Gangnam style. It was a team effort though for the whole thing.

Could you tell us about losing your money in the Cypriot financial crisis of 2012, which resulted in the loss of 29 million Euros in Banks there! How did you deal with this huge setback?

We moved to Cyprus I was doing a lot of property in Portugal and Eastern Europe buying renovating distressed deals etc. I turned a massive profit and then put my money in a bank that at the time was offering 7% interest a year, which I thought was reasonable[…] but from one day to another everything went and I was left with what European Insurance was, which was about 100k. I lost closer to 30 million Euros. I was very down for a few weeks, because of the circumstances. What they did was completely illegal! Even now they have made no attempts to pay anyone back, the banks were owned by the Cyprian Government, so it was a bit of a hard marble to swallow. Then I looked back on the journey and thought to myself how much fun I had getting to where I was and I would have the opportunity to do it again, so I turned a corner, changed my mindset, just cracked on again and focused on the other businesses I had left and I did it again! You know what! The journey is the most important thing, when you don’t enjoy the journey, as much as arriving at the destination that’s when you’ve got a problem.

You made your money back putting together property bonds for people and then buying up a lot of ex-government housing and renting it out. Did you already have the knowledge of property bonds at that point or did you have to teach yourself?

Not just that, also the music; I started to push really hard and started to get some international hit songs and work with some of the worlds finest[…] I always took advice from other people who taught themselves, let’s say did it the hard way. I’d listen to people’s stories, find out what they did and how they did it right. I would then formulate a way of copying people’s success, but trying to eradicate the mistakes that they made.

What are your ethics when it comes to business?

You know what, I just try to stay away from businesses that profit from the demise of others and that’s one thing I pride myself in[…] The most important opinion on yourself is the opinion of yourself if you care what other people think of you you’ll be a prisoner your whole life. I have to be comfortable with what I’m doing for myself, I don’t really care what people think about me.

Your Instagram name is @thatboyyouhate – Why do you think people’s first thought is to hate on your success rather than be inspired by it, as you said it was to inspire people?

I always used to say to my friends don’t hate me for the hours that I put in and the chances I took that you didn’t. I think jealousy is a natural thing, we do live in a materialistic world and people don’t see the hard work, it’s like an iceberg they just see the tip rather than what’s underneath. It attracts negativity, so I’ll say you hate me rather than you say it...I don’t know exactly what my mindset was when I chose it.

Do you think it’s mainly people with a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset?

Yeah, I do agree with that [...] I think we live in a disconnected world it’s not meant for the human soul with social media and all of these things, everything has to look good[..] it doesn’t have to taste or feel good[…] with everyone pretending, everything looks good even when it’s not good they look like they are having the best day of their life! Jealousy creates hate […]. I admire people that put themselves out there and take the risks that people are not prepared to take. I’m also not ignorant to pretend it doesn’t exist, I know the green-eyed monster is out there! People can decide if they want to follow my journey.

You said that more money doesn’t necessarily mean more happiness, could you give us your POV from experience?

A lot of people say this and this is what I find really silly like “I’ll be happy when I get a new job or when I get a house or when I get my car fixed etc. Then I’ll be happy.” But then you’re putting a time bracket on when you are going to be happy and then what about the meantime? People are going to say oh it’s easy for you to say that you’ve got money, but I’ve also not had money and I’ve also been happy. Some of my happiest times have been when I’ve not had money and had to think about and manifest how I was going to get it. If you judge your happiness on money and it’s never-ending figures. Look! It’s like anything if I couldn’t afford it I wouldn’t buy it, so I would never be a person being on a 1k salary buying a £200 pair of trainers, I know what my monetary worth is and I know what I’m allowed to spend within the restriction of the finances. You can have a car it will still get you from A-Z, you can have a house it will still put a roof over your head, you can have a bottle wine it will still get you drunk whether it’s cheap or expensive, but the difference in having wealth is you can have more quality things, but you’re no different to anyone else.

In another article, you said, “it’s about my children and leaving a legacy for them”. What kind of legacy do you want to leave?

Creating a medical marijuana pharmaceutical business. The other day I was in a webinar for the UN and they have now taken medical marijuana off the drug list it’s now a medicine, that’s Amazing! We have Cannabinoid receptors in our body, so it’s one of the most natural medicines. […]They changed from natural holistic plant-based medicines to “petrochemicals” - creating chemicals from oil.

Are you talking about John D. Rockefeller starting big Pharma by monopolising medicine (through the acquisition of I.G. Farben, AMA and lobbying for the standardisation of medical education and certification through AMA to sell Petro-chemical medicine)?

Correct, he changed it around. The comeback now is with the cannabis industry, there is so much that it can help with from Schizophrenia, Depression, Multiple Sclerosis, 30% of the population have glaucoma and Cannabis is a treatment for that. What I’m building now is not just for my children, but for everyone by bringing back the plant-based medicines, which is what the body needs to get well, which is something for everyone. […]

How did this new opportunity for this business venture come about?

I had a couple of Portuguese friends and business partners, doing some building together and he said that he thinks that he could have the opportunity to get a marijuana licence for us to grow medical marijuana. I said ok, let’s have a little look into this, like we do everything and when I gave the facts and figures to some of my friends in Canada and America; They said that’s amazing you need to go for this and I said I really didn’t know anything about this, but they said look max you need to, so I went for it by trial and error. I had loads of hurdles and bumps in the road. I just keep pushing forward, I kept educating myself, got a team on board that were specialists from lawyers, economists, doctors…the whole spectrum of the team on board. What we have got is definitely the largest medical marijuana operation in Europe and soon to be the largest in the world! In total, we have about 50 hectors of land in Portugal and I’ve just brought another plot!

Where is the latest Medical Marijuana business venture to date and what’s happening at the moment?

It should be the biggest in the world within a year. We’ve already raised enough money to build the facilities through strategic investors, we already have hundreds of millions of pre-orders, its already in profit, it’s already there. It’s been a no brainer for me and it’s probably one of the easiest transition businesses for me and least stressful.

As someone who owns many businesses in different market sectors, how has COVID 19 affected your business?

[…] It affected a few of my nightclubs, but I’ve still got other things going on and in a state of panic there is more demand for marijuana. This business means a lot more to me morally and financially.

How do you give back?

I give hundreds of thousands to selected charities each year. […]

What’s next?

We’re selling a lot of product to the pharma industry, but our main goal in the future is to create our own medicines and do our own trials as well. There are so many different sides to this business. We are also working with some of the largest universities in Portugal to create new strains. […]

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Interview | John Burbidge

We chat to MAXIMILIAN WHITE Music Mogul & Multi Industry Billionaire Entrepreneur About His Journey & Latest Business Venture - Medical Marijuana