How to be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth - Hardcover

Fridson, Martin S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 047133202X ISBN 13: 9780471332022

Publisher: Wiley, 1999

Synopsis

"A truly enlightening work filled with fundamental strategies that have worked for others.Martin Fridson documents the essential principles inherent in every billionaire's success."

-Gordon Bethune
Chairman of the Board and CEO
Continental Airlines

Self-made billionaires all have one thing in common: they excel at making money. But hard work, thrift, and focus are only part of the story-you hold the rest of it in your hands. How to Be a Billionaire is the first comprehensive picture of the real strategies and tactics that built the great business fortunes of modern times. Packed with engaging accounts of titans like Ross Perot, Richard Branson, Phil Anschutz, John D. Rockefeller, Wayne Huizenga, Bill Gates, J. Paul Getty, and Kirk Kerkorian, How to Be a Billionaire will show you principles that can increase your wealth and business acumen to the mogul level.

How to Be a Billionaire looks at the careers, the methods, and the minds of self-made billionaires to distill the common keys to titanic accumulations of wealth. Each chapter explores a specific strategy and brings it to life through extended profiles of past and present masters of the art of making money.

Do you think innovation is the best way to prosper in business? Sam Walton, founder of the Wal-Mart retail chain, would tell you otherwise. The key to Walton's success was supreme devotion to copying the methods of other successful discounters.

What could be less complicated than buying low and selling high? But the ascent of

Warren Buffett, John Kluge, and Laurence Tisch to billionaire status depended on much more than an eye for good bargains. And if you're looking to thrive by outmanaging the competition, look no further than Richard Branson. When the founder of Virgin Atlantic needed to reduce his staff by 400 people, 600 volunteered to take off a few months on sabbatical.

How to Be a Billionaire identifies the methods, beliefs, and behaviors every businessperson must understand and emulate to reach the pinnacle of riches. A manual for success that can benefit every aspiring tycoon, it is a fascinating read for anyone intrigued by wealth and how it's gotten.

Praise for HOW TO BE A BILLIONAIRE

"How to Be a Billionaire offers fascinating insight into the subject of building wealth. As a result of his exhaustive research, Martin Fridson is able to explain the wealth-creation process from a unique perspective. As the reader will discover, there is no single formula for success, but there are certain categories into which these concepts can be placed. My personal advice is to remember the words of Winston Churchill who said, 'Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.'"

-Ross Perot

"Martin Fridson has created the ultimate roadmap to the American Dream. He comes as close to extracting a formula for the acquisition of wealth as any book I have ever read."

-Jeff Sagansky
CEO, Paxson Communications

"Martin Fridson's book has a number of very insightful and thoughtful analyses, something you don't pick up in many business schools."

-Philip F. Anschutz
Chairman and CEO, The Anschutz Corporation

"How to Be a Billionaire is a powerful arsenal of dead-on strategies for increasing your personal wealth and business acumen. Marty Fridson details the tactics of self-made billionaires with great intelligence and insight. I wish this book had been available when I was starting my career."

-Spencer Hays
Founder, Tom James Company
Executive Chairman, Southwestern/Great American, Inc.
Chairman, Athlon Publications

About this title

Review:

Forget Regis Philbin's Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Martin Fridson's How to Be a Billionaire sets its sights much higher, and therefore seems an even more appropriate (if somewhat less realistic) goal for today's tycoon wannabes. There are some 200 individuals in the U.S. alone who now breathe this rarefied air, writes Merrill Lynch managing director Fridson, and no reason why those who adopt their philosophies cannot join them. To that end, he studied more than a dozen of the self-made super-rich, including Sam Walton, Bill Gates, Wayne Huizenga, and Warren Buffett. He then synthesized their techniques for success into nine strategies: take monumental risks, do business in new ways, dominate your market, consolidate an industry, buy low, thrive on deals, outmanage the competition, invest in political influence, and resist unions. Dividing profiles of these high fliers into chapters focused on their prevailing principles, he shows how each played a critical role in the growth of an empire. Walton didn't invent discounting, for example; he tweaked existing practices for the late-20th-century marketplace. Likewise, Huizenga didn't start individual companies but integrated existing competitors into powerhouse organizations. While Billionaire may not be a true self-help manual, it does offer a fascinating glimpse at tactics used by those who've played the game and won. --Howard Rothman

From the Inside Flap:

How to be a Billionaire Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth "A truly enlightening work filled with fundamental strategies that have worked for others. Martin Fridson documents the essential principles inherent in every billionaire's success." -Gordon Bethune Chairman of the Board and CEO Continental Airlines Self-made billionaires all have one thing in common: they excel at making money. But hard work, thrift, and focus are only part of the story-you hold the rest of it in your hands. How to Be a Billionaire is the first comprehensive picture of the real strategies and tactics that built the great business fortunes of modern times. Packed with engaging accounts of titans like Ross Perot, Richard Branson, Phil Anschutz, John D. Rockefeller, Wayne Huizenga, Bill Gates, J. Paul Getty, and Kirk Kerkorian, How to Be a Billionaire will show you principles that can increase your wealth and business acumen to the mogul level. How to Be a Billionaire looks at the careers, the methods, and the minds of self-made billionaires to distill the common keys to titanic accumulations of wealth. Each chapter explores a specific strategy and brings it to life through extended profiles of past and present masters of the art of making money. Do you think innovation is the best way to prosper in business? Sam Walton, founder of the Wal-Mart retail chain, would tell you otherwise. The key to Walton's success was supreme devotion to copying the methods of other successful discounters. What could be less complicated than buying low and selling high? But the ascent of Warren Buffett, John Kluge, and Laurence Tisch to billionaire status depended on much more than an eye for good bargains. And if you're looking to thrive by out-managing the competition, look no further than Richard Branson. When the founder of Virgin Atlantic needed to reduce his staff by 400 people, 600 volunteered to take off a few months on sabbatical. How to Be a Billionaire identifies the methods, beliefs, and behaviors every businessperson must understand and emulate to reach the pinnacle of riches. A manual for success that can benefit every aspiring tycoon, it is a fascinating read for anyone intrigued by wealth and How it's Gotten.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 047133202X
• ISBN 13: 9780471332022
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320