Billionaire Growth Strategies
Warren Buffett – The Book that Changed My Life
Some tycoons become rich by coming up with a single idea that they then pursue to the limit. Others rely on building cookie-cutter systems for creating wealth. Buffett falls into the latter category. Many technology and online entrepreneurs fall into the former, “big idea,” category. In this video Warren talks about the book that set his imagination on fire at an early age and helped him to create the growth system that has made him one of the wealthiest men on the planet. For most of us it’s easier to follow a wealth creation system than it is to come up with a truly original idea.
What WW2 POW Movies Can Teach You About Not Only Surviving But Prospering as Well
There’s a lot of interest these uncertain days in business ideas and skills which will retain their value in regardless of the economic conditions. If you want to discover one of the best skills to cultivate into a viable business, go rent those old WW II POW movies such as King Rat, Stalag 17, The Great Escape, and Empire of the Sun. Although my memory has faded over the past 30 years since I saw them as a kid, they invariably had a stock character: the trader. This is the POW who starts off with nothing, just like his fellow prisoners, and then parlays some small asset into a business based on wheeling and dealing in anything that has value inside the environment from cigarettes to soap to tooth brushes.
What is the Best Business Growth Strategy?
There is no single one-size-fits-all answer to this question. The best answer has a great deal to do with the entrepreneur’s temperament and personality. Some entrepreneurs are more comfortable sequestered away from the public developing new products or coding software. Others, in contrast, are more people-oriented.
These latter ones prefer to spend their days interacting with people and negotiating. The deal-makers we follow here tend to fall into the latter category. However, don’t overlook the fact that even geek-driven companies begin to utilize acquisitions as part of their growth strategy once their management teams fill out and become more sophisticated. While Mark Zuckerberg may not have been able to do any deals in the first few years of Facebook, he can certainly do them now because he has people with the necessary expertise on his team.
With that out of the way, let’s look at one example of The Tycoon Playbook growth strategy in action.
Fast Growth Strategies Should Focus on Megatrends
One of the most important differences between ordinary entrepreneurs and tycoons is what they focus on. The former tend to concentrate on niche opportunities while the latter often look for a megatrend to jump on. To get you started thinking more like a tycoon take a look at these two articles on megatrends and ask yourself how you might capitalize on them.
The History Channel’s The Men Who Built America
One of the most interesting tycoons of the era was Jay Gould. As mentioned in another post, Jay appears only briefly in the first episode of the series when it tells the tale of Jay and his partner-in-crime selling watered down stock certificates to Cornelius Vanderbilt as he attempted to acquire control of the Erie Railroad. These two characters are worthy of an entire episode in the next segment of the series.
Jay Gould was considered by some to be the finest financial mind among the lot, even more so than banker J.P. Morgan. Gould partnered early on with a colorful character by the name of Jim Fisk who could as easily have been a grifter if he had not been fortunate enough to impress Gould. The two came to have a number of battles with the Commodore. Continue reading
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