How Billionaires Become Billionaires

Becoming a Billionaire: One Helluva Quote

Just came across this gem:

John Raese, a senatorial hopeful told an interviewer without apparent irony, “I made my money the old-fashioned way — I inherited it.” (Source)

Most of us will have to make it using tycoon strategies.

 

Billionaire JK Rowling on Pulling Success From Defeat

JK Rowling is someone who has impressed me over the past years although I have never read a Harry Potter book or even seen a movie based on her bestsellers. However, I have heard her speak enough times to recommend this talk she gave at Harvard.

Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve. - J. K. Rowling

 

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

 

The Tycoon Playbook Site Goes Live

The Tycoon Playbook website has finally been launched.

The Tycoon Playbook

The Social Network: The Making of a Billionaire

FaceBook: The Social Network

The Social Network is now on my official list of ten all-time best business films. While compiling the original list years ago, I discovered that it was daunting task. Good business movies are as rare as hen's teeth.

I just came across the best review of The Social Network to date and I have read scores of them.

Click here to read it: The Making of a Billionaire

It's an Indian site located in Delphi.

Speaking of The Social Network, my two favorite scenes in a film loaded with them are the following:

Just before Mark Zuckerberg begins to build Facemash, he cracks his knuckles and wiggles his fingers to loosen them up while uttering the unforgettable line, "Let the hacking begin!"

The other scene is where he sets a lawyer straight, "The Winklevii aren't suing me for IP theft. They are suing me because for the first time in their lives things didn't work out the way they were supposed to for them."

My only complaint is that we didn't get to see the scene where Mark meets a group of venture capitalists while dressed in pajamas and a bathrobe to deliver a personal message from Sean Parker.

 

How Billionaires Become Billionaires: The Youngest Australian Tycoon

Australia's Youngest Tycoon: Nathan Tinkler

Nathan Tinkler was a $400/week electrician not too long ago. Then he took a chance to jump into a fast growth sector of the Australian economy: mining.  Then in just 18 short months he parlayed an A$1 million grubstake into A$445 million.

...Nathan Tinkler is on track to becoming Australia’s youngest and fastest-ever self-made billionaire.

This rags-to-riches tale, highlights how the mining boom is changing lives and creating a new generation of super wealthy in Australia. As a teenager, Tinkler left his small hometown of Inverell and made his way to the coal rich mines of the Hunter Valley. There he earned A$400 per week working as an apprentice electrician, before starting his own business servicing the mines.

But Tinkler was hungry for bigger things. In 2004, he saw an opportunity in a small unwanted Queensland coal mine.

The gamble paid off with Tinkler's current net worth estimated to be A$610 million ($596 million USD). Tinkler now has even grander plans.

“I have plans to develop the infrastructure around the mining industry as well as developing more minerals assets the team and myself have identified,” he said. (source)

There are a couple of obvious take-ways here for anyone interested in building wealth. One, you need to focus on fast growth industries. Two, at some point you have to overcome your fears and roll the dice. Most people just wait and wait for more proof until the opportunity has passed.

More on how billionaires become billionaires.

 

How Billionaires Become Billionaires: The Social Network

How Billionaires Become Billionaires: The Social Network

By all accounts so far The Social Network, which is the movie about Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook, is a blast of a movie.  Here's one early review.

The Social Network will do for tech entrepreneurship what Wall Street did for Wall Street. Watch it now.

This morning I attended the press screening for The Social Network together with 80+ journalists, representatives from Sony and security guys in night goggles who patrolled the isles looking for hidden photo or video cameras. I think the journalists liked it. They seemed to enjoy the movie and LOLed regularly.

Me? I was blown away.

Seriously. I left the theatre after the movie ended, walked back to the office all dazed and confused with red eyes and a hot head. I think this movie marks a definitive turning point for us. For everybody? No, just ‘us’. I mean the people who read this blog, the people I call my friends and the entrepreneurs who work in our industry. That is ‘us’. (Source)

I'll be seeing it this weekend.

How Billionaires Become Billionaires: Warren Buffett

How Billionaires Become Billionaires: Warren Buffett 

This is the BBC program by Evan Davis on Warren Buffet that everyone was raving about after it came out.

 

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

 

 

How to Become a Billionaire: Richard Branson's Secrets of Success

How Richard Branson Became a Billionaire

Self-made billionaire Richard Branson shares advice on succeeding as an entrepreneur. This short talk is packed with valuable tips and advice on how to succeed.

The Fake Billionaire: Sir Allen Stanford

The Fake Billionaire: Sir Allen Stanford

Rare is the person who doesn't enjoy a good caper story or one about con-men. For example, I've been a fan of David Mamet's works since the early 1990s. But there is actually something better than fiction. It's the real thing. Truth is stranger than fiction, to dust off the old cliche. Sir Allen Stanford the phoney billionaire is a prime example of this. Here's a British television program about his rise and fall. If you don't already know, Sir Allen is sitting in a jail cell these days.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

If you run a business and are interested in learning a few billionaire lessons you can adapt to your business, click the link.

Warren Buffett Endorses Billionaire Strategies Course?!

Warren Buffett's Billionaire Strategy Revealed

“I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” - Warren Buffett

I'm not aware of Warren Buffett having enrolled in Billionaire Strategies, but reading the above quote almost makes me wonder if he has secretly. This quote sums up the course's philosophy quite succinctly. By all accounts, Warren never stops learning. He's always investing in his mind.

I recently heard about a study which involved millionaires, members of the middle-class, and those not doing very well, shooting basketballs. The farther the thrower sank a basket from the more money he or she won. The middle-class and poor chose the farthest distance to shoot from and won very little. In contrast, the rich shot from in close where they could win a dollar every time. As a result, they went home with the biggest winnings by far.

This also sums up the Billionaire Strategies philosophy. The best route to billionaire status is through making money on a lot of deals as opposed to putting all your eggs into one basket.

How would you like to be a hero? You can be a hero to someone by telling them about this course. If you know someone smart, ambitious, entrepreneurial, and chomping at the bit to accelerate their growth, they deserve to know about this course. They will thank you later.

Just send them here.
 

“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”

- Warren Buffett

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

- Warren Buffett

"Some people are committed to having their goals and others are committed to wanting them."

- Wanda Grindstaff

P.S.  Just for the record, Warren's name is still not showing up on the list of enrollments, so maybe it's all just a coincidence? Or is it?