Paul Smith

Paul Smith left home at seventeen with 170 pounds and bought the cheapest flat in London. It was 1981. He spent eighteen months refurbishing it himself, sold it for more than three times what he paid, and never stopped.

For the next two decades he built a property portfolio at night and a corporate career by day, rising from a Ford-sponsored engineering degree to Managing Director of a multi-billion-pound drinks business. He left employment for good in his late thirties, by which point the assets had long outpaced the salary.

In 2014, thirty-three years after that first flat, he and his wife Aniko founded Touchstone Education. It has since trained tens of thousands of students across more than 150 countries, whose collective portfolios are valued in the billions.

He is the author of four books, including The Art of Wealth, and co-founder of the Art of Wealth Institute. He lives in Monaco. His stated mission is to create one million millionaires.