How to be a Billionaire

"A truly enlightening work filled with fundamental strategies that have worked for others.Martin Fridson documents the essential principles inherent in every billionaire's success."

— Gordon Bethune, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Continental Airlines

"How to Be a Billionaire offers fascinating insight into the subject of building wealth. As a result of his exhaustive research, Martin Fridson is able to explain the wealth-creation process from a unique perspective. As the reader will discover, there is no single formula for success, but there are certain categories into which these concepts can be placed. My personal advice is to remember the words of Winston Churchill who said, 'Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.'"

— Ross Perot

"Martin Fridson has created the ultimate roadmap to the American Dream. He comes as close to extracting a formula for the acquisition of wealth as any book I have ever read."

— Jeff Sagansky, CEO, Paxson Communications

"Martin Fridson's book has a number of very insightful and thoughtful analyses, something you don't pick up in many business schools."

— Philip F. Anschutz, Chairman and CEO, The Anschutz Corporation

"How to Be a Billionaire is a powerful arsenal of dead-on strategies for increasing your personal wealth and business acumen. Marty Fridson details the tactics of self-made billionaires with great intelligence and insight. I wish this book had been available when I was starting my career."

— Spencer Hays, Founder, Tom James Company; Executive Chairman, Southwester

Forget Regis Philbin's Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Martin Fridson's How to Be a Billionaire sets its sights much higher, and therefore seems an even more appropriate (if somewhat less realistic) goal for today's tycoon wannabes. There are some 200 individuals in the U.S. alone who now breathe this rarefied air, writes Merrill Lynch managing director Fridson, and no reason why those who adopt their philosophies cannot join them. To that end, he studied more than a dozen of the self-made super-rich, including Sam Walton, Bill Gates, Wayne Huizenga, and Warren Buffett. He then synthesized their techniques for success into nine strategies: take monumental risks, do business in new ways, dominate your market, consolidate an industry, buy low, thrive on deals, outmanage the competition, invest in political influence, and resist unions. Dividing profiles of these high fliers into chapters focused on their prevailing principles, he shows how each played a critical role in the growth of an empire. Walton didn't invent discounting, for example; he tweaked existing practices for the late-20th-century marketplace. Likewise, Huizenga didn't start individual companies but integrated existing competitors into powerhouse organizations. While Billionaire may not be a true self-help manual, it does offer a fascinating glimpse at tactics used by those who've played the game and won. 

— Howard Rothman