How Billionaires Become Billionaires

How Billionaire Become Billionaires

The Billionaire Strategies Course

This blog is now officially retired.

If you are a serious entrepreneur with a proven track record, head over to The Tycoon Playbook site to enroll.

It was a swell run all these years, but's time to move on.

(If you are a dreamer looking for a get-rich-quick scheme don't bother.)

 

By the way, as soon as you cancel a Typepad account they nuke the design. It's a new policy.  That's why you see the green monstrosity now. Before, they left it standing the way it had always looked.

 

 

The Tycoon Playbook Site Goes Live

The Tycoon Playbook website has finally been launched.

The Tycoon Playbook

How Billionaires Become Billionaires: Why People Fail

Siimon Reynolds' has a new book out: Why People Fail

Siimon Reynolds explains why people fail in this short video. He also mentions a related book by John Kay called Obliquity – Why our goals are best achieved indirectly. For example, you will probably be more successful financially if you concentrate on doing something well instead of on merely making money. You should have a mission in life that empassions you. 

Obliquity is the principle that complex goals are best achieved indirectly.  This book explains why the happiest people aren’t necessarily those who focus on happiness, and how the most successful cities aren’t planned (look at Paris versus Brasilia).  And if a company announces shareholder return as its number one goal, perhaps we should beware: the most profit-orientated companies aren’t usually the most profitable.

At one time Boeing’s leaders would ‘eat, breathe, and sleep the world of aeronautics’.The company created the 747 and its fortunes soared.When in 1998 it shifted focus to shareholder return and return on investment the company, well, took a dive.

Merely pursuing wealth for its own sake is an empty goal for most of us. It has little power to motivate and inspire.

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: John Kluge

John Kluge Redux: Entrepreneurial Life Lessons

Just noticed this fine piece on billionaire John Kluge by David Lerner.

Read it here.

Full Contact Capitalism

Full Contact Capitalism

It's here.

To find out more about Full Contact Capitalism go here and sign up for the free mini-course. It will start immediately. Find out how they do it and if you have what it takes to follow in their footsteps.

 

How to Become a Billionaire

How to Become a Billionaire

Billionaire Tycoon the new board game. Monopoly updated for the new millennium.

Two entrepreneurs from London’s prestigious Mayfair business district are launching a new exclusive board game at Harrods and online called Billionaire Tycoon

In this unique and thrilling board game they aim to share ideas, skills and strategies used by some of richest and most successful people in the country, which could change the way you think and act forever.

Billionaire Tycoon is one of the most anticipated board games to be released this year - at Harrods and online from 30th September. The board game was created by two Londoners, Seth Surya and Shameek Upadhya, to encourage more entrepreneurship around the world.

"Co-creator Seth Surya says the game has a didactic purpose which is more important than ever in a tough financial climate: ‘We always wanted to share the skills, secrets and know-how to become seriously business savvy, while having fun. Many people assume entrepreneurs are allergic to recessions, but they’re times of tremendous opportunity and growth.’

The regular version of the game is available from Harrods and www.billionairetycoon.co.uk, but – as befits tycoons and would-be tycoons – there is a luxury version. Made from Swedish super-car hide (as used on Lamborghinis) and Italian leather, with nickel-plated playing pieces and black-suede lined dice cups, this will sell for £5,000

"Combining the world domination of Risk with the supreme strategising needed in real-life business, Billionaire Tycoon allows you to deal, steal and swap your way to the top. For a board game, it is actually quite realistic, gradually building up from small beginnings to become a tycoon, leveraging your assets, taking risks and trying to outwit your competitors. It even involves real-life cultural differences and geopolitics, with military coups on the menu for the unwary. Billionaire Tycoon has all the pleasures and pains of the entrepreneur's life, and is a tremendous amount of fun." 

Billionaire Tycoon

 If you want to play this in real life, go to The Tycoon Playbook.

How to Become a Billionaire: Advice From Warren Buffett & Bill Gates

How to Become a Billionaire: Advice From Warren Buffett & Bill Gates

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett answer questions from b-school students on how to create wealth, the state of the economy, and other business topics.

How to Become a Billionaire: Have You Got What It Takes?

A Test for the Fainthearted by Walter Kuemmerle

I first read this article in the HBR back in 2002. It's one of the best articles I have read on what it takes to succeed.

It's called A Test for the Fainthearted by Walter Kuemmerle. I am not going to go into detail here on the test, but will list his five questions. In the article, he explains each one.

1. Are You Comfortable Stretching the Rules?

2. Are You Prepared to Make Powerful Enemies?

3. Do You Have the Patience to Start Small?

4. Are You Willing to Shift Strategies Quickly?

5. Are You a Closer?

If you are considering enrolling in the Billionaire Strategies course in order to learn how to buy a handful of businesses, some of the questions may not be as relevant. However, if you are very ambitious and see yourself as a tycoon someday, the test will let you know if you're deluding yourself.

Google "A Test for the Fainthearted" to find the article at HBR.

How to Become a Billionaire.

Lessons From a Self-made Chinese Billionaire

What I Learned From A Chinese Billionaire

He taught me the basic principles he relied on to go from grinding poverty to enormous wealth.

- Shaun Rein

Forbes has an interesting article on what one of their writers learned from talking to one of the new Chinese billionaires. Here are the three main lessons:

Mr. Chen's first lesson is to believe that anything is possible and the only thing that can stop you is yourself. He never ceased to believe that he would make something of himself. As a poor peasant child with no high government connections, he had the odds stacked again him. He had to drop out of school in his teens because his family had no money.

The second lesson Mr. Chen taught me is that to get what you want you have to respect everyone and sometimes eat humble pie.

Finally, Mr. Chen believes in sharing wealth. He lets business partners make more than he does, so that the next time they secure a good deal they'll think of working with him first. He sees no point in ever trying to shortchange business partners.

Go read What I Learned From A Chinese Billionaire in full. It's a brief piece.

If you're wondering what this blog is about, it's about learning best practices from billionaires who made their fortunes wheeling and dealing in assets.