KEY POINTS:
The story of Tony Falkenstein's first million is not a happy one. He made it pretty quick, but lost it even quicker.
As a young high-flying corporate executive in the heyday of the 1980s, Falkenstein, now best known as majority owner and chief executive of Just Water International, went out on his own, aged 36 - his bank account filled with money earned from a rapidly rising share market.
Shares in the listed sunglass importer OSH, where he worked as chief executive, had risen from 38 cents each to $12 - shares he cashed in when he left, filling a war chest ready to be used importing the best of 1980s fashion.
It was called the "Zee Watch", imported from Hong Kong. Selling for $49, the Zee watch was $20 cheaper, and came in better colours than its closest rival, the new Swatch.
Backed by a flurry of TV commercials, Zee watches flew off the shelves, with about 27,000 sold between October and Christmas. All was looking good until people actually opened their new Christmas present watches. Turns out Zee watches were no good - they had fragile, brittle straps.
"When kids put them on on Christmas Day the strap had got brittle and broke. So they all came back. That was that money gone. It was probably the lowest point in my business life."
Sold with a two-year warranty, Falkenstein was still paying out for returned broken Zee watches months later. His first million had gone down the tubes - nearly, but not quite, wiping him out. All debts were eventually paid, but it meant a return to the life of a salaried corporate employee.
"I had made the money, but I just lost it again. I kept my house though. We didn't go under and everyone got paid. But I took a very big bath."
Falkenstein joined big property developer Unity Group, where he was put in charge of an unprofitable subsidiary. After selling off all its divisions, he took an idea to the Unity board to start renting out fax machines - then state-of-the-art, high-priced pieces of office equipment.
Unity went under in the 1987 crash and Falkenstein ended up buying the fax machine business Red Eagle for $1. Within a decade it was turning over $200 million a year.
With his stake in Just Water International currently worth $34 million, Falkenstein is known as a successful, and generous, businessman.
There's none of the bluster and bravado of other wealthy business people - Falkenstein says he is quite shy and relatively quiet, more prone to listening than dominating a room.
Asked if his initial failure with Zee watches put him off the idea of going into business for himself, Falkenstein replies "no".
"I've always looked forward and so the bad things sort of go down to the bottom of the list. I'm an opportunist.
"This opportunity came up and I went for it, but if I knew then what I know now there's no way I would have got into my own business, because I was very successful at a young age as a corporate, and then I went for seven years where I could have easily gone under. It was that close, that often."
The bad times with Zee watches did not take his confidence though, with early offers to buy big stakes in Red Eagle easily rebuffed.
Falkenstein was once offered $1 million for a 50 per cent stake, but he was surprised his accountant and adviser Roger France even suggested it.
He knew the prospects and future cash flow were so good, there was no way he'd accept it.
France, formerly a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and currently deputy chairman of Air New Zealand, is named by Falkenstein as the kind of professional adviser who made a big difference.
On one occasion time he even came in on Christmas Day to help Red Eagle work out how to stay open come January.
Asked for advice about how to become successful in business, Falkenstein points to one of New Zealand's greatest business success stories - billionaire Graeme Hart.
"If you look at Graeme Hart, I think he's gone and done it the best way.
"He's gone into the world of hard knocks and then, at 25 or 26, go and do an MBA and learn what's it's all about."
Falkenstein says one of the problems today is that the high corporate salaries can make it difficult to leave that environment and then take the risks.
"It can be bloody hard to go out and do your own thing then."
He was no great academic success story, just scraping through School Certificate and then failing University Entrance twice, spending two years in the "lower sixth form".
He left school at the end of 1963 and started work as a pastry cook with Eve's Epsom Pantry not far from his Auckland home.
Sick of early morning starts (including 2am starts during the week and midnight starts on Friday nights), Falkenstein saw his university friends enjoying a social life.
Initially he wanted to do a BA, but a friend advised him to do a bachelor of commerce because "everyone passes that".
Early years of working as an accountant did not work out, with Falkenstein moving into marketing.
"I suppose I wasn't that 'detail' person. I found out that I had ideas I suppose, I had lots of ideas."
He says he can't think of any particular personality traits common in successful business people.
"I don't think there is any one formula. I would say I'm quite a shy person, others are outwardly very confident, they come in and dominate the group - they have good presence. I'm much better one-on-one and I don't think there's any one set formula.
"Over years, it's really having your eyes and ears open all the time. That's one of the good things about being a shy person - you tend to have your ears open when other people have their mouths open - and you tend to take in a lot more."
In 2003, Red Eagle helped with $300,000 to establish Onehunga High as New Zealand's first business secondary school.
Falkenstein, now aged 60, wants to have business studies and entrepreneurship accepted as a curriculum subject in all New Zealand high schools.
Falkenstein told the NZ Listener in 2005 he was "a non-entity at school. I didn't hate school. I just cruised through".
He says: "I always knew, right through school 'jeez I know the answer to that' but I was too shy to put my hand up."
