This billionaire book is worth reading a few times - My top 10 takeaways

If you run a business or want to scale something to $10M, $100M or $1B one day - you need to read Sam Wyly's book "$1,000 and an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire"

Some notes from listening to the book on Audible:

1. At one point, bankers told Sam that their company could not go public because of insufficient demand. He didn't accept that, sold the shares himself to investors and made it happen. This move helped scale his wealth 5x short and probably 20-50x over the long term.
2. Sam had an awareness around selling his companies when things felt overheated vs. trying to go for maximum gain at the risk of losing it all. He said at one point that the dance will only last until midnight, and while the music still may be going on, the band on the Titanic also played for 45 minutes while the entire boat sank and everyone died.
3. Sam was typically quiet and calm but could become aggressive as he needed to be at times; that duality was a strength.
4. Most people don't know how to use other people's money to scale a company, they sit around reading books written by those who have done just that though.
5. Sam believes in keeping companies lean and flat, being as autonomous within business divisions as possible, and having people paid on performance as much as possible—ideas I strongly believe in as well.
6. You have to be bold and audacious.
7. Sam likes to create value by challenging complacent large monopolies and cracking them open to release demand and find ways to compete with such groups.
8. Resist trying to label or pigeonhole people. One person is not simply Republican or Democrat, outgoing or introverted, at least not in every case. The media and people generally like to think of you as one thing when you are 100s of things.
9. Sam learned to say no very quickly to most who pitched him ideas or investments; he had to as he made national headlines again and again.
10. Sam was an Eagle Scout.

Yes, you have other books on your audible list or bookshelf already - but how many of them were written by someone who has created billions of dollars in business value? Probably few if any. Most of us read books by those who are very good at marketing their books, not those who won in the game of capitalism at this level, I find (including myself up to 2 years ago).

I hope you enjoy this book. If you want to read our exclusive interview with Sam Wyly, you can do so as part of our 100 billionaire interview series.