I spent my entire life wanting to be wealthy. It was the only thing that was going to make me happy.
When I was 12 I picked up the first ever Forbes 400. I was mesmerized. I couldn't put it down. I read it over and over and over. I took notes on the people. I underlined. Read about them in the library if I could find something out about them. I wanted to be like them.
I wanted to be in the Forbes 400 too.
My favorite show was Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous and I never missed an episode. I loved the lifestyle. Big houses, fast cars, huge boats, cool planes, and of course, the most beautiful girls at the most awesome of parties.
My favorite book was The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump. I wanted to be Donald Trump too.
Once, I believe in 7th grade, our class was assigned to write a report on anyone we wanted. I chose Howard Hughes.
I read two massive books on him. Really learned everything there was to know about him. Wrote some 40 pages I believe (I doubt the teacher read the whole thing, I just remember I got an A). On and on about his life.
I wanted to be him too (except for the whole lock myself in a hotel room, grow out my hair and nails and be all crazy).
These people were living life. They had it all and if they didn't, they could get it.
I wanted it all.
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To be sure, there's a lot of family wealth on the Forbes 400. Old family money like the DuPont's, the Rockerfellers, etc. But in 1982, there were still an entire crop of new wealthy (for the record, in order to make it you have to have $250 million).
Sam Walton was on there. He lived in po-dunk Arkansas. Drove the same old truck he always drove. Didn't really dress much different. And didn't change much.
He started working at Ben Franklin's - I knew that store because when I was much younger that's where we would go to buy things.
Borrowed $5,000 from his aunt to open his own store - Wal-Mart (Walton, Walton's Mart, Wal-Mart).
It was just a five and dime, like Franklin's, but Sam figured out he needed a clean store and he needed to buy in bulk.
The more he bought, the less he had to pay, and he could pass those savings on to his customers.
He built a monster of wealth before he passed away, and his family has done a good job of keeping it going and growing it.
Now they're a legacy family of wealth on the Forbes 400. Nothing wrong with that.
Do you want people to complain about what you pass down to your family? Why care what others pass down? It's theirs.
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Last year - are you ready for this - there were Twenty Seven (27!) new entrants onto the Forbes 400.
113 billionaires who made the list the year before weren't on it last year at all. They lost money.
A few years ago Facebook didn't exist. There was no Zuckerberg on the list. Before that in 2012 it was Elon Musk - the guy behind Tesla Motors.
Kevin Plank (who?) created Under Armour in his grandma's basement. Sold only $17,000 in his first year back in 1996. In 2012, the year he made it in he was worth $1.35 Billion.
The list goes on and on.
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There are opportunities everywhere. Literally.
You have a thousand ideas a day. Some good, some not. ONE might be the one that gets you on the list.
It only takes one.
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People always get that bible verse wrong - the one that actually says, "money is the root of all kinds of evil."
People who are against wealth, "the 1%", capitalist, will always miss quote that verse to just say money is the root of all evil. It's not.
Those people are just haters.
I spent all my time growing up just wanting to be that wealthy and have all the money in the world. I loved all the hot cars, fast boats, big jets, big houses and everything else.
I wanted to have something.
Open Doors and Opportunity await those who have nothing.
If that's you, don't give up. Maybe one day there will be a new section in the Forbes 400 - the Open Doors and Opportunity Alumni - created simply because so many of you have learned to have a more successful, happy, healthy, and wealthy life.
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