Dan Peña - Movie Bonus: Trophy Room

Movie Bonus: The $50 Billion Man

A Castle To Call Home

Dan Peña, also known as the $50 Billion Dollar Man, is a former CEO, mentor, business coach, and founder of Quantum Leap Advantage (QLA), his methodology for achieving financial success. In 1984, he purchased the Guthrie Castle in Angus, Scotland, where he and wife Sally raised their family. The 156 acres of meticulously-manicured grounds date back to 1614, and a 9-hole golf course was added by Peña in 1994. He allowed the public to rent the entire estate for weddings and corporate gatherings until 2017.    The castle also provides accommodations for those lucky enough to attend his week-long QLA seminar events. Costing a hefty £10,000 for a seven-day stay, QLA attendees have full-reign of the castle in between hours of business success seminars. Peña is known for his harsh, often profanity-laden presentations, where he tells his mentees what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.    As he mentions in this video, financial freedom doesn’t come easy: “The road to success is always under construction,” he says.

Dan Peña’s Personal Museum

For this interview, Dan Peña and I are back in his Guthrie Castle home. Just like every visit before, I manage to learn something new about the successful businessman.    He leads me from room to room, revealing the personal stories behind an array of photos, memorabilia, hunting trophies, and news articles. The number of fascinating experiences from Dan Peña’s life is seemingly endless.    We get to see the wall of golf pros Peña was lucky enough to work with during his golfing days, along with a collection of hats. We venture into a hall dedicated to Great Western Resources Inc (GWRI), a fully-integrated petroleum company he founded, specialising in refining and drilling. It was also considered a successful coal producer, with 22 coal mines. He was able to grow the company to $450 million in just eight years.   There’s also a plethora of framed news articles about Peña, most of them negative. When asked why he saved the unflattering headlines, he expanded on the idea that high-performance people don’t care about the opinions of others — making themselves happy outweighs the happiness of anyone else.    The big-game hunting room is by far the most interesting, as Peña reminisces on past adventures. From his encounter with a bear to stabbing a boar, he explains his mentality behind killing animals and why he ultimately decided to quit for good.    The last stop on the trophy tour leads us to Peña’s office, where he conducts business meetings and meets with QLA attendees one-on-one. We discuss his childhood, his obsession with frogs, my time at the castle attending seminars, and what a typical day is like for the millionaire.     My interview with Dan Peña was filled with exciting stories, advice, curse words, and, of course, humour. And that doesn’t even begin to sum up the extent of our conversation.     Join us as we discuss: 

• Bungee jumping in New Zealand
• Climbing Mount Everest 
• The success of Great Western Resources 
• Being a golf course “rebel”
• How boredom led to crazy adventures
• Big-game hunting
• The castle chapel
• The office where success takes place
• QLA seminars
• A day in the life of Dan Peña