x
Cliff Locks
Executive Coach & Investor — Founder, Executive Ascent
In this conversation, Cliff Locks shares his insights on building successful businesses, the importance of mentoring the next generation, and the responsibility of teaching financial literacy within families.
Only 3% of people write their goals down — and it changes everything. Cliff Locks compares written goals to programming your internal supercomputer: his son wrote 'billionaire' on a legal pad at 14 and earns near seven figures at 32, self-made.
Talk about money at the dinner table. 60–70% of family wealth is gone by the second generation and 90% by the third: walk kids through the mortgage, insurance, and utilities, record the grandparents' founding story on video, and let each generation add to it.
Build to sell. Across three exits — the last to a Fortune 5 via KKR — his formula was defining the vision of success as the exit, hiring bright people and overpaying them so 'they stay and they play', and building a bench strong enough to run without him.
Guide, don't dictate. Open doors — internships, shadowing, merit-badge-style career exploration — but let kids walk through them: it's their goals, not yours, that create ownership.
