Yasin’s path to success is a fascinating one. After studying art, this self-taught entrepreneur (autodidact) defied expectations by building his own investment bank from the ground up.
At the age of 29, he achieved the remarkable feat of becoming the youngest CEO and founder of an investment bank in Europe.
Starting at just 20 years old with only 10,000 Deutsche Mark saved from student side hustles, his vision was revolutionary: creating and selling AI-powered (algorithmic) trading signals online. This was back when such technology was in its early stages.
His success, however, presented a hurdle. As Yasin had also built the entire electronic trading infrastructure, German regulations mandated a banking license. Undeterred, he reinvested his profits, securing a license and transforming his venture into a fully-fledged bank, regulated across Germany, the UK, UAE, and eventually Hong Kong.
This remarkable achievement culminated in a successful public offering on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2007.
In 2014, Yasin set his sights on a new challenge: redefining financial trading. He launched naga.com, a platform dubbed the “Instagram for online trading.” His vision propelled NAGA to an IPO in record time – less than 24 months. This achievement required special permission from the German Stock Exchange, as regulations typically mandate a longer waiting period. Notably, Hauck & Aufhaeuser, Germany’s second-oldest bank, was among its early investors.
Yasin’s entrepreneurial spirit is further evidenced by his unique achievement: becoming one of the few Germans to have successfully taken two companies public in Germany. In 2019, he sold the majority of NAGA to FOSUN, China’s leading private conglomerate.
Beyond finance and technology, Yasin’s passion extends to the world of biotechnology. Since 2014, he has actively pursued investments and acted as an advisor in this sector, particularly focusing on groundbreaking cancer treatment therapies.
In parallel, Yasin has produced several internally renowned films, showcasing his creative side and expanding his portfolio of endeavors.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
Very organic, trying to receive whatever naturally arises and trying to get into a flow state with whatever unveils – yet always following a straight path of what can be beneficial to either business or what can be of service to others or the universe.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Passion, nothing else propels things as authentic enthusiasm, that creates a magnetic confidence. Only if this spark lights up this very passion in others, things can come to life.
What’s one trend that excites you?
The increasing awareness of the nondual world philosophy –the recognition that we are all one, playing out reflections of our supposedly separate selves. Understanding brings impact on how we interact with the world and treat others. Once we understand that we are all seemingly separate facets of one, trying to experience ourselves, there is hope for solving problems by other means than wars, rules and artificial lines on maps that we call countries.
Raising universal consciousness to this understanding is probably the beneficial thing we can do as individuals.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Knowledge of a higher power and the ‘frog on the butter’. Let me explain:
Two frogs fall into a barrel of milk. After hopeless attempts to escape one frog gives up and dies and drowns.
The other one, through persistent effort and determination, keeps kicking and swimming and falls asleep from exhaustion. But when he wakes up, he realizes that the milk became butter – managing to escape by kicking its legs and creating a solid platform to leap from.
It is constant reminder that if you just keep going, the universe will show you a path and support you.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Think and act long term while listening to your intuition – it is always right. It is the sum of your entire subconscious life experience, articulating itself in a subtle, yet always protective and supportive way. Listen to your intuition and if someone shows you their true face, believe them the first time!
Furthermore: Enjoy life and the present moment as much as you can while you are on this journey.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
I believe that having to work is a myth – we owe mankind a universal basic income to honor human dignity (lock down showed us that ca. 1% of work is essential, 99% are unnecessary – and for those that will argue ‘who is going to clean the toilets’ – well that is an argument that slave holders made… ).
We don’t have to work – once we would all choose to do what we love, miracles would happen.
Scarcity and fear are inventions of a perverted system, yet they fuel this system.
I further believe nation states and countries are the greatest evil that exist – John Lennon agrees with me on this (Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for)
I believe that the biggest atrocities have been committed by following orders, not by breaking rules.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Immerse yourself fully in whatever you are engaged with. Focus on that one thing that is now.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Meditate. Wim Hof Breathing. Sound meditations.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Everything is a commodity except for relationships. The only truly unique thing in this world is the relationship. It can’t be replaced. You can’t put a price on it. Work on building and maintaining relationships – quality over quantity.
You often become the sum of the 5 people that you spend most time with.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
The biggest failure in my career was choosing and working with wrong people. It is the hardest thing to do – to judge people. Misjudging people is the most costly and painful thing.
The lessons permeate throughout your life. It comes down to intuition. The lesson is stay very alert for the subtle things and listen to the signs.
The only way to overcome these failures (I prefer the term learnings) is to focus on new things and purposes and integrate those failures as valuable and necessary learnings on your (soul’s) growth path.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
That the idea absolutely doesn’t matter 😊 Take the best idea in the world and a crappy team, it will never work. Take the worst idea in the world and a brilliant team – they will tweak and pivot it until it becomes something amazing.
It is only the execution team and the execution.
Apart from the team the most important things for a business are an unfair advantage or brilliant distribution strategy and the ability to raise money.
The only exceptions are biotech, chemical industry etc. where you can patent IP.
Else your success depends on your team’s ability to sell/distribute your products or services and to raise money. Focus on strategies for those two items – it doesn’t make a difference what the product or service is, these two items are always the bottleneck.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
I would say WhatsApp as it helps me stay in touch with people which then enables me to connect in real life. As said: the only non-replicable assets for me are relationships.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
In terms of value for (my) life I would say David R. Hawkins, ‘Power vs. Force’
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I would say Mad Men.
I use TV shows/films to switch off, so anything that allows my mind to immerse – not to derive ‘entrepreneurial value’ from.
Key learnings
- How subtle, almost spiritual factors can define your path in business beyond your belief
- The value of relationships in a world where everything became a commodity
- Surprising factors and tools you would never assume to be determining factors for your success
- Two challenges that basically every business is struggling with
- The impact of your world view on your EBITDA