How to Make a Few Billion Dollars
The Billionaire Blueprint Revealed
Book Edition Details
Summary
Success isn't just a dream—it's a science. "How to Make a Few Billion Dollars" by Brad Jacobs reveals the playbook that fueled his ascent as a business magnate across seven diverse industries. This isn't just another corporate manual; it's a treasure trove of transformative insights that challenge conventional thinking. Jacobs invites you to reshape your mindset, harness your fear of failure, and revolutionize team dynamics to eclipse the competition. With a keen eye on technological trends, he demonstrates the power of turning a company into a cohesive, unstoppable force. Whether you're set on amassing wealth in business or excelling in other life pursuits, Jacobs’ blueprint offers the tools to redefine winning and sprint toward your personal American Dream.
Introduction
Picture this: you're sitting in a boardroom, watching your company's stock price plummet 26% in a single day due to a malicious short-seller attack. Most CEOs would panic, retreat, or frantically try to control the narrative. But what if this crisis could become your greatest opportunity? This is exactly what happened to serial entrepreneur Brad Jacobs, who turned a devastating market attack into a $4 billion profit by thinking differently and acting boldly. This book reveals the unconventional mindset and proven strategies behind creating multiple billion-dollar companies across different industries. Through decades of building seven successful enterprises, Jacobs has discovered that making extraordinary wealth isn't about perfect execution or avoiding mistakes—it's about rearranging your brain to see opportunities where others see obstacles, building outrageously talented teams that thrive under pressure, and mastering high-speed acquisitions without destroying what you've built. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned executive, these battle-tested principles will transform how you approach wealth creation and business success.
Rearranging Your Brain for Billion-Dollar Success
When Brad Jacobs officiated his daughter's wedding on the gorgeous coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, he didn't deliver a traditional ceremony. Instead, he guided the guests through an extraordinary thought experiment. He asked everyone to imagine all the instances of love that had existed from the beginning of time until that moment. After a minute of silence, faces began to transform. Then he asked them to feel all the love existing on earth right at that moment, followed by visualizing all the love that could exist over billions of years to come. Finally, everyone gathered this cosmic love in their hands and pantomimed tossing it at the bride and groom, channeling that energy into their wedding rings. This wasn't just a touching wedding moment—it was a demonstration of the mental techniques that have powered Jacobs' business success. The "love vibe" he created that day represents a fundamental truth about wealth creation: your emotional and mental state directly impacts your decision-making ability. When you're operating from an expansive, positive mindset rather than fear or stress, you make better choices, build stronger relationships, and create environments where teams can thrive. The key to rearranging your brain lies in practicing what Jacobs calls "thought experiments"—mental exercises that stretch your consciousness beyond conventional thinking. These aren't abstract philosophical musings but practical tools for business success. When you train your mind to think in vast scales of time and space, to embrace problems as opportunities, and to maintain radical acceptance of imperfect situations, you develop the cognitive flexibility essential for creating extraordinary wealth. Start by challenging your automatic negative thoughts and reframing setbacks as valuable data rather than personal failures. Remember that the same mental patterns that helped our ancestors survive in dangerous environments can sabotage modern business decisions. By consciously choosing optimism and expansive thinking, you're not being naive—you're giving yourself the best possible foundation for making the bold moves that create billions.
Building Outrageously Talented Teams That Win
When Mario Harik drove from Boston to Brad Jacobs' Greenwich home on a Saturday afternoon in 2011, he had no idea he was about to become the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company. Harik, with his MIT master's degree in machine learning and artificial intelligence, was the third person Jacobs hired for his new venture, XPO Logistics. Within an hour of meeting, Jacobs knew he had found someone special. What struck him wasn't just Harik's technical brilliance, but how he immediately grasped the wild vision of fully automating freight brokerage processes—something that seemed impossible at the time. This hiring decision exemplifies Jacobs' approach to building teams: he looks beyond credentials and focuses on four essential qualities that predict success. Intelligence comes first, but not the kind measured solely by prestigious degrees. True intelligence shows up as curiosity, problem-solving ability, and the humility to learn from others. Hunger follows—the genuine drive to work hard and accomplish big things, motivated by both personal ambition and financial rewards. Integrity ensures that team members do what they say they'll do, creating the trust necessary for high-speed decision-making. Finally, collegiality matters because life is too short to spend time with people who bring down the energy of the room. The magic happens when you're willing to "overpay" for talent. Jacobs has watched many of his direct reports make tens of millions of dollars, with one earning over a hundred million. Rather than resenting these payouts, he celebrates them because they represent massive returns on investment—tens of billions in shareholder value creation. When you align compensation with performance and give people the opportunity to earn extraordinary money through extraordinary contributions, you attract the kind of talent that can turn ambitious visions into reality. Remember that hiring the wrong person is one of the costliest mistakes you can make. Take the time to conduct multiple interviews, use rigorous assessment processes, and trust your instincts about whether someone will elevate or drain the team's energy. An empty seat is always better than the wrong person in that seat.
Mastering High-Speed M\&A Without Imploding
In the late 1990s, Brad Jacobs made a spectacular mistake that cost United Rentals half a billion dollars. When Congress enacted the Transportation Equity Act, allocating $600 billion for infrastructure rebuilding, Jacobs saw an opportunity and quickly acquired several road-rental companies. He expected a flood of government contracts for barricades, cones, and striping equipment. Instead, only about a third of the allocated funding was actually spent, and that trickled out slowly over years. The business model collapsed, forcing Jacobs to sell those companies at a massive loss. Rather than hiding from this failure or making excuses, Jacobs practiced what he calls "radical acceptance"—acknowledging reality as it exists, not as you wish it would be. The road-rental disaster became a valuable lesson in the importance of stress-testing every assumption in an acquisition. He learned that successful M\&A requires looking beyond the upside scenario to ensure that even the downside case still creates value for shareholders. This experience shaped Jacobs' approach to the hundreds of subsequent acquisitions that built his companies into industry leaders. The key is moving fast while maintaining rigorous analysis. His teams can typically compress due diligence from months to weeks by doing extensive research before making initial contact. When they approach a seller, they often arrive with a specific offer and terms, ready to sign a definitive agreement within two weeks. This speed creates competitive advantage while the thorough preparation minimizes risk. The secret to integration success lies in respecting the people you're acquiring while moving decisively to capture synergies. Cultural integration must happen first—you can't force-fit incompatible cultures, but you can blend complementary ones by showing genuine appreciation for what the acquired team brings to the table. Operational integration follows, focusing on unified technology platforms, standardized processes, and shared best practices. Throughout this process, over-communication is essential. People need to understand not just what's changing, but why those changes will make everyone more successful.
Summary
The path to creating billions in wealth isn't about avoiding mistakes or having perfect timing—it's about developing the mental flexibility to turn obstacles into opportunities and building organizations capable of executing at extraordinary speed and scale. Start by rearranging your brain through thought experiments that expand your perspective beyond immediate problems to cosmic possibilities. Practice radical acceptance of imperfect situations while maintaining optimism about outcomes. Invest heavily in hiring people who combine intelligence, hunger, integrity, and collegiality, then pay them exceptionally well for exceptional results. When pursuing acquisitions, move fast but think deeply, ensuring that even worst-case scenarios create value while respecting the human element of integration. Remember that in business, as in the universe, everything is connected—your mindset influences your decisions, your decisions shape your team, your team determines your execution, and your execution creates your wealth. The entrepreneurs who understand these connections and act on them consistently are the ones who don't just make money, but create lasting value that benefits everyone involved.
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