Episode 50 - Review and Summary of The Self‑made Billionaire Effect by John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen

Summary: Being a millionaire today is no longer what it was years ago. If you find the right high paying job or build your skills and stay long enough in the workforce, most of us will earn a million in our work life. But have you ever considered becoming a billionaire? That might sound far fetched, but why not aim for a goal high enough that would alter entire generations. Often when talking about Billionaires, we think of old money like the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and even Waltons, or tech wiz kids. But did you know that 2/3 of today’s billionaires are self-made and not from inheritance? So what do self-made billionaires have that create such massive value? Amazon’s description of this book says. “John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen decided to look more closely at self-made billionaires because creating $1 billion or more in value is an incredible feat. Drawing on extensive research and interviews, the authors concluded that many of the myths perpetuated about billionaires are simply not true. These billionaires aren’t necessarily smarter, harder working, or luckier than their peers. They aren’t all prodigies, crossing the billionaire finish line in their twenties. Nor, most of the time, do they create something brand-new: More than 80 percent of the billionaires in the research sample earned their billions in highly competitive industries.” So let's first talk about Myths of Self-Made Billionaires: We often think of Young Age, but 70% of today’s self-made billionaires happened after that age of 30 and nearly 40% were older than 40. We also think of the Tech Industry, but less than 20% came from tech, with other industries such as finance, consumer products, oil and gas, apparel, food and beverages, publishing, printing, entertainment, hotels and real estate. Often we think of Blue ocean, but more than 80% of these Self-Made Billionaires earn their millions in highly competitive, red oceans. Such as Red Bull, Spanx, and Amazon. We also often think , they just got lucky. But data shows luck alone does not explain it. 90% of self-made billionaires are not one trick ponies, they have started up multiple successful companies. Slave labor you say? A large number of billionaires have promised to give away more than half of their net worth. And finally we think of overnight success stories. It's important to note that 50% started working before 18. 30% were hit by the entrepreneur bug bug before age 22 and 75% before age 30. And 75% were raised in the middle class or higher level households. So lets dive into why exactly do Billionaires Succeed Jon and Mitch label a majority of those who can succeed within the constraints of organizations or established systems, as performers. Billionaires, on the other hand, are producers. “They envision something new,” they explain, “bring together the people and the resources to create it and sell it to customers who didn’t know they needed it.” Allow me to leave you with this final thought. The billionaires of our world thrive when presented with complexities because of their ability to practice dual thinking. When we train and dedicate ourselves, we will also be able to develop and increase our working memories and be able to do some extraordinary things. Self-made billionaries combine, ideas and actions that most of us keep separate. We need to undertand that billion dollar ideas are a combination of Empathetic Insights and imagination that allow us to see what customers want and need and the imagination to come up with ideas to bring them into fruition. And finally, we need to build our skills or find performer partners to build the foundation for our billion dollar ideas to flourish, and have the patience to wait for the right timing for our ideas and then push to act on them when we see the opportunities are ripe.