Fil Adams-Mercer has enjoyed a string of business successes. A serial entrepreneur, he’s owned video stores, a parcel delivery service, a tech accessory business and—most recently—Naples-based Rivi Gin. “People think everything I touch turns to gold. But I’m no different than anybody else,” he says.

Adams-Mercer grew up in England. He came from a family of seven with modest resources: They didn’t have a car or indoor plumbing. He’s dyslexic, and he left school early. Yet, over the years, he’s built a series of businesses that have made him a multimillionaire. He attributes much of that success to luck. “If you don’t have luck on your side, you’ve got no chance,” he says. And though he sees himself as a lucky person, he acknowledges that he does have a real talent for spotting money-making opportunities. Entrepreneurism is simply part of his makeup. “I don’t think being an entrepreneur is something you want to be. You’re either it or you’re not,” he says.

Over the course of his journey, Adams-Mercer has learned some key lessons that he believes will help other entrepreneurs achieve his Midas touch.

Avoid the system

Adams-Mercer skipped the usual route to success. He left school at 15 and eventually started working as a long-haul trucker. He made good money, which let him take chances on opening his first video shop—a few years later, he’d have four stores and sell the business to Ritz Video in the U.K., which, in turn, sold to Blockbuster. “If you go to university and take the normal route, you end up in the system,” he says. “You get married, you have kids. Then you can’t take chances. I’ve never had anything to lose by having a go at something.”

Look people in the eye

When Adams-Mercer brought on his first important administrator—a Stanford-trained C-suiter—he sat the man down and told him, “A lot of these people have been working for me for a long time. If you decide that you have to sack any of them, I want you to look them in the eye. See their kids, see their rent payments, see their overdrawn bank accounts. They’re real people, and we’re all trying to get through life the best way we can.”

Just do it

There’s an exercise Adams-Mercer likes to do with the audience at his speaking seminars. He’ll lay a piece of duct tape on the ground and point to it. “You’ve got a great idea that you know could make a lot of money,” he says. “Now you just have to decide to step over the line and do it.”

The problem, he says, is that most people believe there’s a brick wall standing in their way. But the wall is usually of their own creation. “Just step over the line,” he says. “Make the decision to do it. That’s how you become an entrepreneur.”