I have always been advised by others who have made their fortunes is that you need to remain in the pool or field that you have expertise and experience in. I think this is common sense and is more so than ever now because in the past you could dabble in other fields and it could work if you had the contacts.
One of my family members made a fortune by providing plastic seats for a stadium back in 1980 and was not involved with stadiums at all. His expertise was within sports equipment, but his advantage was he was one of the first businessman travelling to China and knew the factories or people who knew which factory could supply the seating. Today with the internet those types of deals are few and far between because virtually everyone will know of someone who can help.
I got onto this topic tonight because I know someone who had the Prime drinks agency contract for South Africa and due to the small print had to relinquish the contract due to reaching certain volume targets. With the news or rumors spreading around social media of the chemicals used in the manufacture of these drinks I think he dodged a bullet. I was dead against them dabbling in a field they had no clue about and thought the risks were far too high so losing the agent tag was a blessing in disguise. Another person set up a bottling plant because of this and if the news is true I can imagine they are going to be out of pocket and could even financially ruin them.
I know so many horror stories of people and businesses being lured by huge profits with products they have no clue about as every market is different. Eventually they have to stop because they are out of their depth and take a loss and put it down to a lesson learned.
I used to dabble in so many products and not concentrating on one or a set category and have learned since that this was a big mistake. Back in 2004 I managed to acquire an import license that had no category restrictions. Normally if you import electronics you receive an electronics import permit, but for some reason I had a general import license which is not available today. I have lent this out to family members because I have no need for this anymore and know it opens up so much more for their businesses.
There are still deals to be had if you are street smart and see an opportunity but know they have limited shelf lives. An old business contact who owns a shipping/logistics company in the UK imported Coca Cola and a few other drinks like Fanta and Sprite from South Africa into the UK. The exchange rates made it so profitable he did this on and off for 2 years. Coca Cola UK eventually shut him down by threatening SA Coca Cola they would lose their manufacturing license. Saying that his specialty was shipping and distribution so he still kept to what he knew and why he was successful.