How to Become a Billionaire | CNBC
Summary
TLDRThe video script discusses the surprising findings from a book co-authored with Mitch, revealing that most self-made billionaires amassed their wealth in highly competitive sectors like clothing and coffee, contrary to the belief that monopolies are required for success. The script highlights the importance of five key attributes—imagination, execution, risk-taking, timing, and leadership—in creating new markets. It also challenges the notion that success is tied to age, with many achieving breakthroughs between 40 and 50. The narrative includes the story of Sarah Blakely and emphasizes the role of empathetic imagination in predicting market trends, ultimately suggesting that entrepreneurial success is not solely innate but can be learned.
Takeaways
- 📈 Success in competitive industries: The biggest surprise was that many self-made billionaires made their fortunes in highly competitive industries such as clothing, retail, and coffee.
- 🤔 Challenging the monopoly myth: Contrary to the belief that a monopoly is necessary for great success, the data shows that success can be achieved in competitive markets.
- 🔑 Five key attributes: The individuals profiled in the book shared five attributes—imagination, execution, risk-taking, timing, and leadership—that helped them create new markets.
- 🗓 Age of ascent: A significant portion of these individuals began their rise to success between the ages of 40 and 50, which is later than commonly assumed.
- 👶 Age bias in tech: Peter Thiel's investment decisions suggest a bias towards younger individuals, but the book's data indicates that success is not limited by age, especially outside the tech industry.
- 💡 Empathetic imagination: This concept combines emotional intelligence with rational thinking to predict market trends, as exemplified by Jeff Lurie's investment in the Philadelphia Eagles.
- 🚀 Risk and opportunity: Successful individuals are not just dreamers; they act on opportunities and make them real, even if they might seem irrational at the time.
- 🔄 Serial entrepreneurship: The data shows that many of these individuals had multiple successful businesses, indicating a pattern of serial entrepreneurship.
- 💡 Repeatable success: Success is not limited to a single idea or product; many of the self-made billionaires had multiple successful ventures.
- 👶 Born or learned: While some people may have a natural aptitude for entrepreneurship, the book suggests that most can learn and improve their entrepreneurial skills.
- 📚 Purpose of the book: The aim is to educate readers on the habits and strategies of self-made billionaires, with the hope that they can apply these lessons to become better in their respective roles.
Q & A
What was the biggest surprise the authors found while researching self-made billionaires?
-The biggest surprise was that four out of five self-made billionaires made their fortunes in highly competitive businesses such as clothing, retail, or coffee, which the authors did not expect.
What are the five attributes that these successful individuals typically possess according to the book?
-The five attributes are imagination, execution, risk-taking, timing, and great producer-performer leadership.
At what age did most of these self-made billionaires start their ascent to success?
-About a third of them started at about 30 or before, while about two-thirds did it between 40 and 50, indicating it's later than commonly thought.
What is Peter Thiel's view on age and success in the tech industry?
-Peter Thiel believes that if you're over 30 or 35, you're kind of done in the tech industry, implying that younger individuals are more likely to succeed.
How does the book differentiate the success of self-made billionaires from those in the tech industry?
-The book suggests that most self-made billionaires are not in the tech area, and their success comes from creating new markets rather than being part of a tech-oriented market.
Can you provide an example of a self-made billionaire whose story was particularly interesting to the authors?
-Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx, is highlighted as an interesting case due to her innovative approach to solving a common problem with pantyhose.
What does 'empathetic imagination' mean in the context of the book?
-Empathetic imagination combines emotional understanding with rational thinking, allowing individuals to foresee market trends and respond accordingly.
How did Jeff Lurie's purchase of the Philadelphia Eagles demonstrate empathetic imagination?
-Jeff Lurie's investment in the Philadelphia Eagles showed empathetic imagination as he foresaw the potential of diversified television distribution and the popularity of American football.
What does the book suggest about the nature of successful entrepreneurs?
-The book suggests that successful entrepreneurs are not just dreamers but individuals who take opportunities and make them real, often without knowing the full extent of the challenges ahead.
Is the success of entrepreneurs like Bill Gates repeatable according to the book?
-The book indicates that many self-made billionaires have multiple successful businesses, suggesting that success is not limited to a single idea or product.
Can being an entrepreneur be learned, or is it an innate quality?
-While some people may be natural entrepreneurs, the book posits that the majority can learn to be better entrepreneurs through education and by studying the examples of successful individuals.
Outlines
💼 Success in Competitive Markets
The speaker discusses the unexpected finding that many self-made billionaires achieved their wealth in highly competitive industries such as clothing, retail, and coffee. Contrary to popular belief that a monopoly is necessary for great success, these individuals excelled by combining five key attributes: imagination, execution, risk-taking, timing, and leadership. The age at which these individuals began their rise to success varied, with about a third starting before 30, and the majority between 40 and 50, challenging the notion that success is limited to the young. The conversation also touches on the idea that success is not exclusive to the tech industry and that serial entrepreneurship is common among these billionaires.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Fortunes
💡Competitive Businesses
💡Monopoly
💡Attributes
💡Imagination
💡Execution
💡Risk-Taking
💡Timing
💡Leadership
💡Serial Entrepreneurs
💡Empathetic Imagination
💡Irrational
💡Entrepreneur
Highlights
The biggest surprise was the discovery that four out of five self-made billionaires made their fortunes in highly competitive businesses such as clothing, retail, or coffee.
Contrary to the belief that a monopoly is needed for great success, the data shows that these individuals created new markets through a combination of attributes.
The five attributes identified for success are imagination, execution, risk-taking, timing, and great leadership.
About a third of the self-made billionaires started their ascent before the age of 30.
Two-thirds of them achieved success between the ages of 40 and 50, indicating success can come later than commonly thought.
Peter Thiel's investment decision based on age was discussed, suggesting that those over 30 or 35 are considered 'done' in the tech market.
The majority of self-made billionaires are not in the tech area, which may explain the discrepancy in Thiel's perspective.
Sarah Blakely's story was highlighted as particularly interesting, showing how she identified a market need and pursued it relentlessly.
Empathetic imagination is defined as a combination of emotional and rational thinking to foresee market trends.
Jeff Lurie's purchase of the Philadelphia Eagles was used as an example of empathetic imagination leading to success.
Successful people may consider their own past actions irrational with the benefit of hindsight, but they were necessary at the time.
The transcript discusses the idea of firing dreamers in favor of doers who can make opportunities real.
The success of these individuals is not limited to one idea; they often have multiple successful businesses.
John Paul DeJoria's ventures in Paul Mitchell Systems and Patron tequila exemplify serial entrepreneurship.
The book aims to teach readers, especially those in the middle distribution, how to be better corporate executives, investors, and employees by learning from self-made billionaires.
The transcript suggests that while some people are natural entrepreneurs, most can learn to become successful through education and experience.
The purpose of the book is to provide insights that can be applied to improve in various professional roles, with a focus on the new year as a time for learning.
Transcripts
the biggest surprise of the book for me
and my co-author Mitch was really that
they made their Fortunes in highly
competitive businesses four out of five
of them uh were in things like clothing
or retail or um coffee you know and we
really didn't expect that and you know
one of the things we talked about Peter
Peter the Peter was on and he said you
need to have a monopoly to be a great
success I I wish I was as successful as
Peter the but the data doesn't support
him uh you really see that what happens
is that these people bring together five
attributes they look at Imagination
execution risk taking timing and great
producer performer leadership to really
create new markets so I have a question
about this which is what was their age
most of these people when they became
when when they started on the ascent if
you will yeah about a third of them
started on the ascent uh at about 30 or
before the about 2third of them did it
between 40 and 50 and about really yeah
so it's it's later than you think the
reason I asked that is also Peter teal
one of his one of his sort of
foundational investment decisions is
your age I believe if you're over 30 or
35 he thinks you're kind of done yeah I
think that
the yeah we by the way I'm over 35 we're
all done all of us are done there some
hope for some of us the uh I think you
know Peter may be looking at a
particular part of the market which is
more Tech oriented and as I say most of
our self-made billionaires are not in
the tech area um is there a particular
billionaires whose story you think was
the most interesting well I think that
Sarah Blakeley is really pretty uh
interesting I believe she's been on your
show before right Fame you know when you
take a look I was talking to marann in
the in the U in the U makeup room and
she was saying look everybody's cut
their feet off panty hose and used them
to hide you know panty lines which Sarah
did uh but Sarah had the gumption to
realize that she had solved this problem
not just for herself but for other
people went to over 100 manufacturers
and it was only when that last
manufacturer was sitting down at dinner
with his daughters uh and explain the
product that he decided they said they
would both buy it and he decided to go
ahead with it right when you talk about
these five habits one of them is this
empathetic imagination what does that
mean empathetic imagination it's really
a combination of the emotional side of
things as well as thinking about the
rational side so it's about seeing where
our Market's going to go so you take a
look at somebody like Jeff lurry when he
spent $185 million to buy the
Philadelphia Eagles everybody thought he
was crazy The Wall Street Journal had a
half page article about what a vanity
purchase it was but Jeff had seen that
television was going to get more
Diversified in terms of its distribution
that American Football was really going
to be a great product what about folks
who you might even describe as
irrational I mean i' I've talked to some
very successful people who say if I
actually knew what I knew now I would
have never done this because I wouldn't
have know I would have thought it would
have been impossible myself well one of
the things Andrew that we noticed is
that these people aren't dreamers in
fact I might suggest fire the dreamers
these people who are people who when
they see an opport they have to make it
real and that's the really big thing so
they might with hindsight say gee you
know I I wouldn't have done it but they
had to do it is what we saw do you
believe um that this type of success is
repeatable meaning you look at a Bill
Gates he created a company in Microsoft
he had two really hit products right
first in Windows or or maybe Doss but
but windows and then clearly the office
product Google's had a couple but a lot
of people say that everyone's got one
idea in them well what we saw is that
these people generally had two or three
or sometimes even four or more
successful businesses so you take a look
at a guy like John Paul deoria who did
Paul Mitchell Systems they also did
Patrone tequila uh so the again that you
the example you gave is true but the
overall data shows there are serial
entrepreneurs okay F final question are
you born with it or is it something you
can actually learn do you think being an
entrepreneur which is what all of these
people are to some extent is something
that that just just come comes with you
when you show up on the scene or you can
actually go to a class uh at Warden or
elsewhere and learn or har business
school and learn to do that yeah um you
have to look at like a distribution
there are some people who are Naturals
just like there are in sports and there
are some people who are never going to
do it but the vast majority of us sit in
the middle and can learn and the that
was really the purpose of the book is
that people can learn from these
self-made billionaires how to be better
corporate Executives better investors
better employees and it's really that
mass in the middle that we hope that
people will take a look at the book and
maybe for the new year learn something
new
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