Fielding Buck | Press Enterprise
Most people spend 40 hours a week earning money and a 128 hours spending it.
That was rock star Gene Simmons’ premise Sunday for his business symposium at Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon.
He told fans how to make those leisure hours more profitable in an hour-plus talk based on his 2014 book “Me Inc.”
It was the Kiss bass player’s second business trip to the Inland Empire in five days. On Wednesday, he and band member Paul Stanley were at San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino in Highland to announce a Rock & Brews restaurant opening there in October.
Simmons will be back at Morongo next month for a Kiss concert.
The Rock & Brews chain, a film company and more than 5,000 Kiss licensing deals are among Simmons qualifications for giving these talks.
But Simmons said in a backstage interview before the talk, “Qualification experience is highly overrated. Our president was elected twice without a resume or experience. He became the most powerful man on earth. …
“At the outset you know nothing, and you have to surround yourself with winners. Stop hanging out with guys who just want to go to the bar and get drunk. They will expect you to pick up the tab. The bar is where you unwind. It’s tough to go there and learn anything. I’d rather hang out with better looking people, smarter people, all the people who make me look better and take stock of myself.”
That’s why he encourages people to jump into the stock market, but not heedlessly.
“Know what you know, and know what you don’t know. If you like Coca-Cola, if you think it’s a good product, that’s what they always tell you, keep your snoot close to the ground, take your play money and invest in the stock market.”
He likes mutual funds because they spread risk across a number of investments. And people who don’t know what mutual funds are can ask Siri. Simmons described the Internet as one of the world’s great free resources.
Simmons said it’s selfish for people to say they just want to make enough money to get buy.
“I’d rather you say I’m insatiable and want to make as much money as possible in my lifetime so that I can have extra money to help out my fellow man.”
Your race isn’t over until you’re six feet underground, he said at the end of the interview.
“And even then, make a big footprint. … While you’re here, live it. If you only have 24 hours left in life, what are you going to do — watch ‘I Love Lucy’ reruns and wait to die? Or are you going to get up and try to do something? Make a lot more money so you can give it away or help somebody. Do something.”