May 5, 2025 • 12 mins
In a world obsessed with charisma and speed, Basil II built something different.
Today, we explore the life and lessons of one of the most overlooked yet ruthless emperors in history — Basil the Bulgar-Slayer.
Through 40 years of relentless discipline, strategic patience, and brutal clarity of mission, Basil crushed his empire’s greatest enemy and left Byzantium stronger than it had been in 400 years.
What does his story teach us about investing, leadership, and building real wealth today?
Join me as we dig into the timeless principles of discipline, patience, and execution that still separate those who build fleeting empires... from those who build ones that endure.
—
Subscribe to The Timeless Investor Newsletter for more, and the free PDF "Build like Basil II": https://lombardequities.substack.com/
Subscribe to the Timeless Investor Newsletter for our long-form content.
Follow the Timeless Investor Show if you want to hear more of our podcast content.
Get your own copy of Timeless Wealth: Real Estate Through the Ages.
If you want to learn about new investment opportunities through Lombard Equities Group (accredited investors only), please reach out here.
Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Episode 4 of the Timeless Investor Show.
I'm your host, Ari Van Gemeren.
Today we're going back to theEastern Roman Empire, what we
now call Byzantium, to meet oneof the most overlooked,
ruthless, and fascinatingleaders in all of history, the
Emperor Basil II.
History remembers him by abrutal name, Basil the Bulgar
(00:22):
Slayer.
And yes, he truly earned thatname.
In the year 1014 AD, Basil IIfaced the culmination of a war
that had lasted nearly fourdecades.
His longtime enemy, theBulgarian Empire, had defied,
resisted, and humiliatedByzantine emperors for years.
But Basil wasn't like theothers.
(00:43):
At the Battle of Clydeon, heshattered the Bulgarian forces.
Reports vary, but the ancientchroniclers agree.
Basil captured somewhere between14,000 to 15,000 Bulgarian
soldiers.
And what he did next has becomeone of the most infamous moments
in medieval military history.
He ordered that 99 out of every100 soldiers be blinded,
(01:04):
completely.
The 100th man?
Left of one eye to lead the resthome.
When the defeated Bulgarian TsarSamuel saw what had been done to
his army He collapsed from theshock, and he died two days
later.
Yeah, it's a horrifying image,and we're not here to glorify
violence, but we are here tounderstand something deeper.
What does it really take tobuild lasting power?
(01:27):
Because most of you know thenames of Julius Caesar or
Alexander the Great, hardlyanyone talks about Basil II.
But I really think they should.
I read about him for the firsttime maybe a decade ago in a
fantastic trilogy called...
Byzantium by John JuliusNorwich, which spans the rise,
the apogee, and the fall of theByzantine Empire from
(01:50):
Constantine the Great to thestart to the very final battle
where the Turks actuallyconquered Constantinople, which
we now call Istanbul.
But I remember in that entirestory, amongst all the
incredible emperors of theEastern Roman Empire, including
Constantine the Great, includingJustinian, who reconquered all
(02:10):
of the Western Roman Empire,Basil II really stood out to me.
And I really am excited toprofile him for this piece.
Basil reigned from 976 to 1025AD, 49 years, one of the longest
reigns in Roman imperialhistory.
And unlike many emperors thatcame before him, he didn't waste
his time on parties, parades, orplatitudes.
(02:30):
He wasn't an orator.
He wasn't a crowd pleaser.
In fact, he wasn't particularlypopular at the time.
He was a grinder in a modernera.
in a modern sense.
He was a system builder.
He was a relentless executor oflong-term plans.
And honestly, if you're tryingto build an investment firm, a
real estate portfolio, a lastingbrand, a company, there is a lot
to learn from Basil.
(02:52):
But first, I want to dig in alittle bit to the war he was
fighting because I really thinkit lends a lot of weight to this
story.
The first Bulgarian empirewasn't some weak barbarian
tribe.
It was an actual empire with aserious military, real
governance, and a proud legacy.
It had risen to become one ofByzantium's deadliest and most
(03:13):
organized adversaries.
In the early 900s, the Bulgarshad humiliated the Byzantines.
One of Basil's predecessors, theemperor Romanus I, was forced to
sign an incredibly humiliatingtreaty with them.
So by the time Basil II came topower, the Bulgarians had spent
decades fortifying mountainstrongholds, entrenching their
defenses in the Balkans, andbuilding alliances across
(03:34):
Eastern Europe.
They were organized, trained,fierce, relentless.
In fact, legend has it that oneof the Bulgarian Tsars had
defeated and killed a Romanemperor and actually turned his
skull into his drinking cup,which we've seen today in modern
fantasy series.
But Most modern fantasy andother stories have their roots
(03:55):
in history, and that's a truestory.
So Basil wanted to defeat them.
They were the greatest enemy atthe time for the Byzantine
Empire, but he didn't rush tocrush them.
He knew better.
Instead, he spent years, yearsbuilding Byzantine strength from
within.
He reformed the tax code.
He strengthened the army.
He tightened control over theprovinces.
He built roads, not just fortrade, but for troop movement.
(04:17):
Every move was strategic andcalculated.
His campaign against Bulgariawasn't flashy.
It was grinding.
It was a war of attrition,sieges, and slow territorial
gains.
But Basil never let up.
He personally led dozens ofcampaigns into the Balkans.
He studied the terrain.
He invested in logistics.
He strengthened the fortresses.
And when he finally had theBulgars cornered at Clydeon in
(04:40):
1014 AD, he struck withoverwhelming force.
That single victory broke theback of the Bulgarian
resistance.
Four years later, the entireBulgarian empire fell and it was
absorbed into Byzantium.
So let's talk about what thismeans for us as investors and
builders.
Because here's the truth.
Most of this world today chasesshort-term wins.
(05:01):
We want speed, charisma, flash,and 20% IRRs to look great in
pitch decks.
But I think Basil II shows us adifferent model.
He shows us discipline overcharisma, execution over hype,
the long game over the sugarhigh.
He didn't become the BolgarSlayer because he posted great
speeches on scrolls.
(05:22):
He became that because heunderstood that enduring power
isn't built in quarters.
It's built in decades.
In his case, four decades.
So here's what we can learn.
Number one, build systems, notjust stories.
Basil invested in roads, taxrecords, and military
infrastructure.
That's what made his campaignspossible.
In real estate, your equivalentis asset management.
(05:44):
property level systems, investorcommunications, and debt
maturity planning.
Having a crystal clear plan forhow you're going to manage
everything.
Being a micromanager in the bestpossible sense of the word.
Basil II was a truemicromanager.
He micromanaged everything andit showed in his results.
Number two, he delayedgratification.
(06:05):
Basil waited 40 years to defeatthe Bulgars.
How long are you willing to waitfor your strategy to work?
If your deal isn't working inyear one, do you panic or do you
optimize?
Do you solve for long-termwealth or trying to make a quick
buck today?
I think there's a lot of quickbuck thinking in the real estate
business and everywhere else atthe same time.
And I was reminded of thisrecently as I'm looking at my
(06:27):
own portfolio and a friend ofmine and I were having lunch and
he said to me, it was actually agreat reframe.
He said, look, you own goodbuildings.
They're in good locations.
The long-term is what matters.
Think long-term.
And honestly, there's a lot ofThere's a lot of difficulty with
that model when you're managingmoney for other people and for
LPs because LPs expect quick andshort-term returns.
(06:49):
So there's a massive conflict ofinterest in this business where
we all understand long-termism,but a lot of our investors might
not.
Or maybe they do.
Or you might not understand it.
Or you might be pushing for thepromote or the quick return on a
flip.
I think real wealth is built inthe long-term.
Basil II...
(07:09):
obviously wealthy, he's aByzantine emperor, but he
achieved something much greaterthan becoming wealthy.
He defeated the largest and mostpowerful enemy of the Eastern
Roman Empire at the time in aslow, methodical, delayed
gratification approach.
If he had rushed into battlewithout building his
infrastructure andfortifications and process, he
(07:29):
would have been defeated.
And his skull might have beenused as a skull cup for the
Bulgar Tsar.
So Delay gratification.
And three, ruthless clarity ofmission.
There was zero confusion in hisstrategy.
He knew what he was building, aByzantine empire that was
wealthier, stronger, and moresecure.
(07:50):
And we all need that sameclarity.
Are we trying to impress or arewe trying to build?
Are we trying to get ashort-term high from instant
gratification, from publicaccolades, or are we quietly
building something tremendous inthe background that will stand
the test of time and uphold totimeless principles?
(08:12):
So, look, in the end, Basildidn't get statues.
He wasn't romanticized.
He didn't chase love from hispeople.
Most of you have probably nevereven heard of him, despite what
I would view as an absolutely...
incredible achievement at thetime i mean defeating a firmly
entrenched enemy in the mountainpasses with an emperor with an
(08:32):
empire that at the time was youknow sort of fumbling and he
came in and completelystrengthened everything and when
basil ii died in 1025 thebyzantine empire was at its
greatest territorial height in400 years that's a big deal by
the way because they Theprevious achievement was by
(08:53):
Justinian the Great, who hadreconquered all of the Western
Empire.
So obviously reconquering all ofEurope was out of the question.
So what he achieved, expandinginto the Balkans, the level he
did, I mean, it hasramifications throughout
history, right?
I mean, most of Eastern Europenow follows the Orthodox faith.
The conquest of the BulgarianEmpire is a one of the prime
(09:16):
reasons that happened, right?
I mean, it's like there are likehistory echoes endlessly through
time.
And he did this with no fanfare,no slogans, just building a
legacy in the long run byimplementing what I view as the
three core lessons that we canlearn from this story.
Build systems, not just stories,delay your gratification and
have ruthless clarity ofmission.
(09:37):
Ruthless clarity of mission isreally important, by the way.
I, you know, struggle with thismyself at times, and I'm sure
all of you do as well.
There's a lot of FOMO right now.
There's a lot of influencersthat are peddling different
strategies to get rich,different approaches you can
take to try to build somethinggreat.
It's really difficult.
(09:58):
And those of us that areemployed, gainfully employed as
W2 employees at a big company,you might look at So-and-so just
built your friend from highschool, just built and sold a
great tech company and made abundle of money.
And like, you might think likemy path isn't working.
His path is working.
You know, I don't feel goodabout that.
I want to go do somethingdifferent.
And I, you know, I'm not goingto say like, don't do that
(10:20):
because obviously if you cantake a big swing and do
something great, awesome.
But if you're going to take abig swing, the other thing is
when you, if you take a bigswing, when you take a big
swing, do you have clarity ofmission?
Don't get distracted, right?
I mean, I see it all the time inmy own business.
there's a lot of different waysto invest in real estate.
People are pushing self-storage.
People are pushing distressedoffice investment.
(10:40):
People are looking at hoteldeals.
People are looking atagricultural land.
We invest in multifamily here.
And multifamily is not thatsexy, right?
There's more interesting andcool stuff people are doing.
And by the way, multifamily isnot always the best asset class,
right?
I mean, there are going to betimes in your investing journey
and in mine where the thing wefocus on isn't the best, right?
(11:01):
There's going to be periods ofunderperformance.
There's going to be times whereyou wish you were in a different
asset class.
That's the time you got to comeback and say, what is my
ruthless clarity of mission?
I'm building something for thelong term.
I'm not trying to time two tofive year cycles.
I want to build a lastingcompany.
I want to build a lastingportfolio.
I want to build a lastingbusiness.
(11:23):
Whatever it is, clarity ofmission, just like Basil II took
in his long conquest of theBulgarian Empire.
And that's all why we're talkingabout him today, to think about
what you're building.
Are you chasing admiration orare you playing the long game?
Are you trying to win headlinesor are you trying to leave
behind something that stillstands a century from now?
Basil's reign truly shows usthat discipline outlasts
(11:47):
charisma.
Quiet execution beats noisyambition.
And in the end, real investorsare remembered not for what they
say, but for what they build.
Thank you for listening to theTimeless Investor Show.
Subscribe, share, and please ifyou like the show, please leave
a rating or review for us.
It really, really helps withpromotion of the show to other
(12:08):
listeners.
Act well, think wisely, buildsomething timeless.
Thank you.
Welcome to Episode 4 of the Timeless Investor Show.
I'm your host, Ari Van Gemeren.
Today we're going back to theEastern Roman Empire, what we
now call Byzantium, to meet oneof the most overlooked,
ruthless, and fascinatingleaders in all of history, the
Emperor Basil II.
History remembers him by abrutal name, Basil the Bulgar
(00:22):
Slayer.
And yes, he truly earned thatname.
In the year 1014 AD, Basil IIfaced the culmination of a war
that had lasted nearly fourdecades.
His longtime enemy, theBulgarian Empire, had defied,
resisted, and humiliatedByzantine emperors for years.
But Basil wasn't like theothers.
(00:43):
At the Battle of Clydeon, heshattered the Bulgarian forces.
Reports vary, but the ancientchroniclers agree.
Basil captured somewhere between14,000 to 15,000 Bulgarian
soldiers.
And what he did next has becomeone of the most infamous moments
in medieval military history.
He ordered that 99 out of every100 soldiers be blinded,
(01:04):
completely.
The 100th man?
Left of one eye to lead the resthome.
When the defeated Bulgarian TsarSamuel saw what had been done to
his army He collapsed from theshock, and he died two days
later.
Yeah, it's a horrifying image,and we're not here to glorify
violence, but we are here tounderstand something deeper.
What does it really take tobuild lasting power?
(01:27):
Because most of you know thenames of Julius Caesar or
Alexander the Great, hardlyanyone talks about Basil II.
But I really think they should.
I read about him for the firsttime maybe a decade ago in a
fantastic trilogy called...
Byzantium by John JuliusNorwich, which spans the rise,
the apogee, and the fall of theByzantine Empire from
(01:50):
Constantine the Great to thestart to the very final battle
where the Turks actuallyconquered Constantinople, which
we now call Istanbul.
But I remember in that entirestory, amongst all the
incredible emperors of theEastern Roman Empire, including
Constantine the Great, includingJustinian, who reconquered all
(02:10):
of the Western Roman Empire,Basil II really stood out to me.
And I really am excited toprofile him for this piece.
Basil reigned from 976 to 1025AD, 49 years, one of the longest
reigns in Roman imperialhistory.
And unlike many emperors thatcame before him, he didn't waste
his time on parties, parades, orplatitudes.
(02:30):
He wasn't an orator.
He wasn't a crowd pleaser.
In fact, he wasn't particularlypopular at the time.
He was a grinder in a modernera.
in a modern sense.
He was a system builder.
He was a relentless executor oflong-term plans.
And honestly, if you're tryingto build an investment firm, a
real estate portfolio, a lastingbrand, a company, there is a lot
to learn from Basil.
(02:52):
But first, I want to dig in alittle bit to the war he was
fighting because I really thinkit lends a lot of weight to this
story.
The first Bulgarian empirewasn't some weak barbarian
tribe.
It was an actual empire with aserious military, real
governance, and a proud legacy.
It had risen to become one ofByzantium's deadliest and most
(03:13):
organized adversaries.
In the early 900s, the Bulgarshad humiliated the Byzantines.
One of Basil's predecessors, theemperor Romanus I, was forced to
sign an incredibly humiliatingtreaty with them.
So by the time Basil II came topower, the Bulgarians had spent
decades fortifying mountainstrongholds, entrenching their
defenses in the Balkans, andbuilding alliances across
(03:34):
Eastern Europe.
They were organized, trained,fierce, relentless.
In fact, legend has it that oneof the Bulgarian Tsars had
defeated and killed a Romanemperor and actually turned his
skull into his drinking cup,which we've seen today in modern
fantasy series.
But Most modern fantasy andother stories have their roots
(03:55):
in history, and that's a truestory.
So Basil wanted to defeat them.
They were the greatest enemy atthe time for the Byzantine
Empire, but he didn't rush tocrush them.
He knew better.
Instead, he spent years, yearsbuilding Byzantine strength from
within.
He reformed the tax code.
He strengthened the army.
He tightened control over theprovinces.
He built roads, not just fortrade, but for troop movement.
(04:17):
Every move was strategic andcalculated.
His campaign against Bulgariawasn't flashy.
It was grinding.
It was a war of attrition,sieges, and slow territorial
gains.
But Basil never let up.
He personally led dozens ofcampaigns into the Balkans.
He studied the terrain.
He invested in logistics.
He strengthened the fortresses.
And when he finally had theBulgars cornered at Clydeon in
(04:40):
1014 AD, he struck withoverwhelming force.
That single victory broke theback of the Bulgarian
resistance.
Four years later, the entireBulgarian empire fell and it was
absorbed into Byzantium.
So let's talk about what thismeans for us as investors and
builders.
Because here's the truth.
Most of this world today chasesshort-term wins.
(05:01):
We want speed, charisma, flash,and 20% IRRs to look great in
pitch decks.
But I think Basil II shows us adifferent model.
He shows us discipline overcharisma, execution over hype,
the long game over the sugarhigh.
He didn't become the BolgarSlayer because he posted great
speeches on scrolls.
(05:22):
He became that because heunderstood that enduring power
isn't built in quarters.
It's built in decades.
In his case, four decades.
So here's what we can learn.
Number one, build systems, notjust stories.
Basil invested in roads, taxrecords, and military
infrastructure.
That's what made his campaignspossible.
In real estate, your equivalentis asset management.
(05:44):
property level systems, investorcommunications, and debt
maturity planning.
Having a crystal clear plan forhow you're going to manage
everything.
Being a micromanager in the bestpossible sense of the word.
Basil II was a truemicromanager.
He micromanaged everything andit showed in his results.
Number two, he delayedgratification.
(06:05):
Basil waited 40 years to defeatthe Bulgars.
How long are you willing to waitfor your strategy to work?
If your deal isn't working inyear one, do you panic or do you
optimize?
Do you solve for long-termwealth or trying to make a quick
buck today?
I think there's a lot of quickbuck thinking in the real estate
business and everywhere else atthe same time.
And I was reminded of thisrecently as I'm looking at my
(06:27):
own portfolio and a friend ofmine and I were having lunch and
he said to me, it was actually agreat reframe.
He said, look, you own goodbuildings.
They're in good locations.
The long-term is what matters.
Think long-term.
And honestly, there's a lot ofThere's a lot of difficulty with
that model when you're managingmoney for other people and for
LPs because LPs expect quick andshort-term returns.
(06:49):
So there's a massive conflict ofinterest in this business where
we all understand long-termism,but a lot of our investors might
not.
Or maybe they do.
Or you might not understand it.
Or you might be pushing for thepromote or the quick return on a
flip.
I think real wealth is built inthe long-term.
Basil II...
(07:09):
obviously wealthy, he's aByzantine emperor, but he
achieved something much greaterthan becoming wealthy.
He defeated the largest and mostpowerful enemy of the Eastern
Roman Empire at the time in aslow, methodical, delayed
gratification approach.
If he had rushed into battlewithout building his
infrastructure andfortifications and process, he
(07:29):
would have been defeated.
And his skull might have beenused as a skull cup for the
Bulgar Tsar.
So Delay gratification.
And three, ruthless clarity ofmission.
There was zero confusion in hisstrategy.
He knew what he was building, aByzantine empire that was
wealthier, stronger, and moresecure.
(07:50):
And we all need that sameclarity.
Are we trying to impress or arewe trying to build?
Are we trying to get ashort-term high from instant
gratification, from publicaccolades, or are we quietly
building something tremendous inthe background that will stand
the test of time and uphold totimeless principles?
(08:12):
So, look, in the end, Basildidn't get statues.
He wasn't romanticized.
He didn't chase love from hispeople.
Most of you have probably nevereven heard of him, despite what
I would view as an absolutely...
incredible achievement at thetime i mean defeating a firmly
entrenched enemy in the mountainpasses with an emperor with an
(08:32):
empire that at the time was youknow sort of fumbling and he
came in and completelystrengthened everything and when
basil ii died in 1025 thebyzantine empire was at its
greatest territorial height in400 years that's a big deal by
the way because they Theprevious achievement was by
(08:53):
Justinian the Great, who hadreconquered all of the Western
Empire.
So obviously reconquering all ofEurope was out of the question.
So what he achieved, expandinginto the Balkans, the level he
did, I mean, it hasramifications throughout
history, right?
I mean, most of Eastern Europenow follows the Orthodox faith.
The conquest of the BulgarianEmpire is a one of the prime
(09:16):
reasons that happened, right?
I mean, it's like there are likehistory echoes endlessly through
time.
And he did this with no fanfare,no slogans, just building a
legacy in the long run byimplementing what I view as the
three core lessons that we canlearn from this story.
Build systems, not just stories,delay your gratification and
have ruthless clarity ofmission.
(09:37):
Ruthless clarity of mission isreally important, by the way.
I, you know, struggle with thismyself at times, and I'm sure
all of you do as well.
There's a lot of FOMO right now.
There's a lot of influencersthat are peddling different
strategies to get rich,different approaches you can
take to try to build somethinggreat.
It's really difficult.
(09:58):
And those of us that areemployed, gainfully employed as
W2 employees at a big company,you might look at So-and-so just
built your friend from highschool, just built and sold a
great tech company and made abundle of money.
And like, you might think likemy path isn't working.
His path is working.
You know, I don't feel goodabout that.
I want to go do somethingdifferent.
And I, you know, I'm not goingto say like, don't do that
(10:20):
because obviously if you cantake a big swing and do
something great, awesome.
But if you're going to take abig swing, the other thing is
when you, if you take a bigswing, when you take a big
swing, do you have clarity ofmission?
Don't get distracted, right?
I mean, I see it all the time inmy own business.
there's a lot of different waysto invest in real estate.
People are pushing self-storage.
People are pushing distressedoffice investment.
(10:40):
People are looking at hoteldeals.
People are looking atagricultural land.
We invest in multifamily here.
And multifamily is not thatsexy, right?
There's more interesting andcool stuff people are doing.
And by the way, multifamily isnot always the best asset class,
right?
I mean, there are going to betimes in your investing journey
and in mine where the thing wefocus on isn't the best, right?
(11:01):
There's going to be periods ofunderperformance.
There's going to be times whereyou wish you were in a different
asset class.
That's the time you got to comeback and say, what is my
ruthless clarity of mission?
I'm building something for thelong term.
I'm not trying to time two tofive year cycles.
I want to build a lastingcompany.
I want to build a lastingportfolio.
I want to build a lastingbusiness.
(11:23):
Whatever it is, clarity ofmission, just like Basil II took
in his long conquest of theBulgarian Empire.
And that's all why we're talkingabout him today, to think about
what you're building.
Are you chasing admiration orare you playing the long game?
Are you trying to win headlinesor are you trying to leave
behind something that stillstands a century from now?
Basil's reign truly shows usthat discipline outlasts
(11:47):
charisma.
Quiet execution beats noisyambition.
And in the end, real investorsare remembered not for what they
say, but for what they build.
Thank you for listening to theTimeless Investor Show.
Subscribe, share, and please ifyou like the show, please leave
a rating or review for us.
It really, really helps withpromotion of the show to other
(12:08):
listeners.
Act well, think wisely, buildsomething timeless.
Thank you.
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