London's Financial Times published a very nice profile of legendary domain investor Frank Schilling today. The article focuses primarily on  Frank's more recent starring role as a leading provider of domain services through DomainNameSales.com, his new gTLD registry operator - Uniregistry.com, and his soon to be launched domain registration service - Uniregistrar.com.  

Most of our readers are already familiar with Frank's domain exploits (he was profiled it two DN Journal Cover Stores, the first in 2007 and another in 2012 that covered his bold move into providing services for his fellow investors). So, it is likely the most interesting part of the new story to you will be the fascinating look into Frank's family life and his gorgeous waterfront home on Grand Cayman that was captured in the article's photos. 

It is an inspiring view of what is possible when a bright man with a good heart and a passion for his work meets the right opportunity (an opportunity presented by domains - a business   that Schilling believes still offers great opportunity to build new fortunes in the year's ahead).

Uniregistry.com Founder Frank Schilling  

As beloved as Schilling is in the domain community, when anyone has had the kind of astounding success he has had, some around him will be afflicted with jealousy - that's just human nature. However, even at this stage of the game, I still haven't met anyone who more people have been happy to see succeed (and wish even greater success to) than Frank. You can chalk that up to a humble nature and never forgetting where he came from (in case you didn't know already, he did not have a lot of money before he found his calling in this business).

Before he arrived in this industry Schilling had tried his hand at real estate, then the electronics business and even selling wholesale glass, but in domains the former film student found the opportunity he had been looking for. 

Though he has already scored incredibly big as a domain investor, Schilling believes the best is yet to come by producing new names (TLDs) and offering them to a market that he believes still has enormous room for growth. Schilling told Financial Times reporter Christopher Kompanek, "“Only 1% of the (world's) population owns a domain name – some own more than one. I have hundreds of thousands of domain names, and I’m one man. I’m betting that there might be interest for 2-3% of people to have them. Somebody has to make those names for the residents of the future. There aren’t enough good ones in the spaces that are already held.”

Now we could sit here all day and argue whether or not new gTLDs are the answer residents of the future will be looking for (if you read the blogs, you know that many spend their days doing just that, and that's fine - it's an entertaining debate). Still, even if you think he is making a huge mistake, don't you have to admire a man who is willing to put his money (tens of millions of dollars worth of it) where he truly believes the future is?

If he's right, I'm pretty sure people will be happy for him, just as they are now, and if he turns out to be wrong - even if he loses his last penny - I'm 100% sure he will still have a huge circle of friends and admirers who won't forget how he treated people on his way up the ladder.  He's earned that, an asset you can't put a price on, and that's why Schilling will still be a rich man no matter how this movie ends.