Business Fit Magazine July 2019 Issue 3 | Page 60

Interview Arnon Barnes “Success and financial freedom was my duty” Starting his first business aged eleven, Arnon Barnes reached financial independence by the age of 28. Now he is a seasoned trainer, coach and mentor in the field of entrepreneurship and success mindset. His ability to build strong partnerships, motivate and inspire people, and raise millions of Euros for investments has enabled him to be successful in other business arenas such as retail, tourism, the hospitality industry and real estate. Always look for ways to innovate, improve, do it faster, better, with more effectiveness and efficiency. Who are YOU? A proud father, business owner, international speaker and peak performance trainer who was born in South Africa and is now living in The Netherlands. My name is Arnon Barnes and my passion is to speak and inspire people about business and success. Over the last five years, I’ve been blessed to have successfully trained and mentored over 80,000 people in many different areas of business from over 65 different countries around the world. In addition, my personally designed business programs have helped business leaders increase their productivity, personal and business incomes as much as 40% in just a matter of weeks. 60 Who inspired you to take this route and why? From a young age I knew there was more to life than I was seeing. I started doing business in school, selling toys to other kids, modelling the first people who inspired me; my father and uncles, the first business owners I knew. Later in life I discovered the power of personal development and started reading books by Anthony Robbins, Napoleon Hill and Jim Rohn for example. Each book I read gave me new insights and inspiration to take more action towards my goals and especially my dreams. Then in 2011, I came across a gentleman named T. Harv Eker and I joined him, together with 2000 other people (!), to follow a three- day program he was training in Amsterdam. For the first time I felt like all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place and I signed up for his extended curriculum. Through this program I learned how to become a professional trainer and speaker. Today, I coach, teach and train business owners and empower them on subjects like entrepreneurship, business development, growth strategies, wealth creation, investing and achieving financial freedom. And as a special bonus, I also became one of only five designated Lead Trainers around the globe to teach T. Harv Eker’s exclusive three-day program. What is the single best piece of business advice which helped shape who you are now and Why? Great question and a rather difficult one to answer, as over the years I have been blessed to receive lots of life-changing business advice. If I had to choose one, it would probably be; ‘You can’t do a good deal with a bad person’. The reason this advice has been so valuable for me is; Just like most entrepreneurs, I have experienced going into partnerships or deals 61