worth reading The Great Australian Capitalist

Golf design must seem like really small potatoes to Greg Norman these days.

His more lucrative career as an international conglomerate -- as a “living brand,” as he calls it -- has been well-documented, including his corporate diversification into sales of wine, meat, clothing, sunglasses, and other consumables.

But what you may not know is that Norman nowadays spends a lot of time with investment bankers, getting Wall Street-certified advice on how he might further diversify into bigger and better things, such as casino operations and even lending.

Norman recently made an appearance on Fox News’ “Kilmeade & Friends,” where he discussed a variety of topics that concern him, from his relationship with Bain Capital to the problems of excess wealth to the death of American entrepreneurialism to the change he wants to see in the White House. It’s a fascinating glimpse into his mind.

Here’s an edited version of Norman’s conversation with Brian Kilmeade. If you have the time, you should read the whole thing.

Brian Kilmeade: Hi, everybody. I’m Brian Kilmeade. This is “Kilmeade & Friends.” . . . Greg Norman is to my immediate left. . . . What brings you to New York? . . .

Greg Norman: I just came from Greg Norman Collection, looking at our spring line for 2013, just going over our licensing. . . . I met with, up in Boston, the Bain Capital people, same deal.

Kilmeade: Bain Capital?

Norman: Bain Capital people, yeah. And every time I look at it [and] I see what’s going on with them, I just, I feel for them because all the good they do is getting overlooked by the minority instead of the majority of good they do, being, you know, they’re scrutinized, or not scrutinized enough, by the majority of people. . . .

Kilmeade: Why weren’t you just set to being an outstanding golfer, the best you can be, go on the Senior Tour? You could have made a nice living that way. Why wasn’t that enough for you?

Norman: Well, I could have made a nice living, but I would never build value in my own brand.

I was very, very fortunate early on, Brian, to get a really good glimpse of marketing and branding from a guy called Paul Fireman, who owned Reebok. Reebok really kicked off the Greg Norman Collection line. He gave me the right to own my logo, and I licensed it back, and he trusted me, and I got such a fast learning curve on what branding is all about. So I learned very quickly that there was value beyond the golf course, and how do you build that equity in your own brand.

And that’s what I loved. That’s what I studied. And being in a leading brand is not an easy thing, to tell you the truth. You’ve got to have great people around you to be able to get into that catch-basin of everything, to be able to allow you to get forward and be that living brand.

But you know, where it’s taking me is a dream that I could never even have dreamt of. . . .

Kilmeade: You’re building golf courses. You’re also building casinos, correct?

Norman: Well, we have the rights.

What happens -- it’s interesting, Brian. My design business is an economic indicator in a lot of ways. We actually get to know what’s going to happen with the economy, i.e., in 2007, 2008 we knew that our accounts receivables were starting to spike up a little bit and we knew people weren’t going to pay because the crunch was coming. We didn’t know to the magnitude of what it was, and now the same thing on a global front.

We are an economic indicator because the first call people get, the top three designers in the world -- golf course designers -- we normally get the call. Hey, we’re interested in doing a residential community or a resort or a casino, whether it might be in Mexico or the Bahamas or some other place in the world, so you get to know what's happening. So the more information you learn, the more you can apply your vertical integrated companies into that business. . . .

I graduated from high school, never went to college. I believed in golf, and golf was my segue to this wealth of information that I have today.

And you know, just going out to dinners like we had last night, and you’re sitting down with guys from JP Morgan and SAP, and you talk to them about, you know, what they think, what their companies could do, where they’re going on a global front, what they think about the climate and what’s happening from a corporate level. . . .

Kilmeade: But you do mention hurdles once you come to this country. Number one, the corporate tax rate. Number two, the regulations. And there’s an anti-business -- am I putting words in your mouth? -- anti-business atmosphere that you find disturbing that wasn’t present in the 90s.

Norman: Absolutely. The free entrepreneurial, free-market enterprise of the United States is dead right now. It really is. And there’s so much cash sitting on the sidelines.

I’ll give you an example. I’ve invested in a couple of small businesses, and we’ve got very, very good returns on these because these businesses can’t get debt -- operating capital, right? . . .

And because of the success rate we’ve had with these investments, we’ve actually decided to go out and do an asset-based debt fund. Never in my life [until] 90 days ago, 120 days ago would I have ever thought about doing it, but the resonating voice that gets coming back my way is these people need money and they can’t get money to operate their small businesses. And the heartbeat of America is small business. . . .

Kilmeade: So you’re acting like it’s a bank?

Norman: Yeah.

Kilmeade: You’re acting like a bank.

Norman: We’re giving them access to debt.

Kilmeade: So a lot of people are saying, I’m afraid to go into debt because I’m not sure about the future, but [with] banks there are regulations, and I guess their criteria for lending money has gone up so high because they feel as though they’re being looked at, number one. Number two is they did do some crazy things with their money. They weren’t doing their homework with a lot of would-be, you know, for a lot of people, would-be borrowers, correct?

Norman: Correct. And absolutely --

Kilmeade: We’ve over-corrected.

Norman: We’ve over-regulated them. . . .

One of my dearest friends owns a bank in Florida. And he said, Greg, smart move. He said because we are [a] bank, we want to do that, but our regulations won’t allow us to do that for small businesses.

And when you sit back and you hear somebody like that, who’s in the business, you go, this is crazy.

What other reason do you want to stifle America and suffocate them? But you know, one door closes and another door opens, so it gives me an opportunity to go in there.

And I’m a sponge for information now, learning about this whole process, but I’ve got a great general partner with me. He’s very experienced in it, and again, you’re off and running.

But it’s the reputation that I’ve had in the past [that] has allowed me to develop the future in this business. . . .

Kilmeade: I know you had a lot of optimism when President Obama first got into office. Do you think we’d be better off with somebody else?

Norman: I do, quite honestly. Looking at it from a pure business perspective, I really do.

And the other thing, Brian, that I see a lot because I travel so much, when I go to countries people will say to me, What the heck is wrong with the United States? What do you think is going to happen in the United States? You know, I’ll speak to people in Europe. And Europe is not a --

Kilmeade: They’re a mess.

Norman: They’re a mess. Absolutely. Total screw-up. They’re not learning by their mistakes, either.

But at the same time, there’s so much wealth sitting on the sideline over there, saying where do we go? We can’t go to America, right?

I truly believe that U.S. currency will be the currency to go to in the future -- maybe the Canadian currency -- because, you know, where else are they going to go, quite honestly? And I think the future of America, depending on what happens in November, the long-term future is always going to be great. [The] short-term future might be a little bit different if the present-day administration stays in there.

And I’m only saying this from a pure small business perspective. . . .

Kilmeade: You deal with Bain Capital all the time. How are they reacting to being in the news like this, and their very existence being questioned?

Norman: Well, you’d think it’d be an asset for them with the publicity and everything, but really, it’s not. If I’m in Bain’s position, I think they’re getting looked at in the wrong light, and you know, I feel for them, actually, because all the good they do gets overlooked.

Kilmeade: What do you mean, good they do? I thought they just look at companies, see if they could turn a profit, bring in their management team, and try to turn companies around.

Norman: Well, that’s exactly right, and that’s what they do. And, you know, [Mitt] Romney was very successful at doing that, and you know, obviously there’s not going to be great successes in everything they do. If there were, none of us would be sitting here. We’d be out sitting somewhere on the Mediterranean or something. So you’ve got to look at the big picture, not just take little bits and pieces out of that.

And look, I’ve been a great Bain Capital supporter for a long period of time, because I’ve been involved with them for a long period of time. And you know, they’re not the only ones, either. I also talk to other people in that type of world, and it’s just that they’re under the microscope now, unfortunately. . . .

Kilmeade: Now, are you an America citizen?

Norman: No. Green card holder.