Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary may go by the nickname Mr. Wonderful, but some folks are feeling quite the opposite about him after a controversial Feb. 11 tweet where he made some bold statements about what it takes to succeed in starting your own business.
Despite major blowback in the comments -- the tweet has 10.8 million views as of the time of this writing -- O'Leary has made it clear that he doesn't regret a word.
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In a Feb 14. appearance on Fox Business Live's "Varney & Co", the investor doubled down on his position when host Ashley Webster asked him if he still defended the tweet after all the fuss.
"100%," O'Leary said. "If you're an entrepreneur you know exactly what I'm talking about. You're going to work 25 hours a day, eight days a week. They wrote about it when The Beatles first put it out there. This is what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur. If you can't do it, if that statement makes you uncomfortable, you are not an entrepreneur. Don't even try."
"But even at the expense of family? That's the argument back -- saying wait a minute, where's your quality of life?" Webster asked.
"Look -- you're going to sacrifice quality of life with your family in your early years -- and the reason you do it and what's inherent in that statement is you're buying freedom for yourself and your whole family," O'Leary said. "That's the whole idea. You sacrifice to gain this back later in life. And if you don't have the guts to do it, don't even try."
