How to Go From Rags to Billionaire

Three Interviews with ex-Billionaire Bill Bartmann

Former billionaire Bill Bartmann has had one wild ride over the course of his life. He grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, got involved with some rough characters early on who could have easily steered him into a life of crime, became a teen alcoholic, and broke his back (but fully recovered) before finally becoming a billionaire in the mid-1990s. Then his life crashed.

But now he's back.

I first heard of Bill Bartmann while updating my book on the startup secrets of the Inc 500 entrepreneurs. Bill appeared on the cover of  Inc. magazine and was identified as the 25th richest billionaire in America. I actually tried to interview him for the newest edition of the book but was not able to get through. People like Bill who succeed against all odds have always been far more interesting to me than The Donald-types born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths. Bill comes across as a real street-fighter who never stays down for very long when life knocks him down.

A reader gave me a heads-up last week on three talks given by Bill. These range from 30 to 60 minutes in duration but are well worth your time. Rather than giving you the standard self-congratulatory sermons many successful people do, Bill speaks candidly about both his rise and fall in life. (His life is well-documented on-line if you want more information on him.) These talks will especially resonate with anyone who's gone through a rough patch which might have shaken their self-confidence.

So without further ado, here are the three talks:

The Nine Steps to Achieve Any Goal by Bill Bartmann

Ten Steps to Overcoming Failure by Bill Bartmann

Change Your Focus, Change Your Life by Bill Bartmann

If you're interested in how the elite Inc 500 entrepreneurs launch their companies without wasting time on begging to venture capitalists and angel investors for money, check out The Smart Startup Guide.

If you are serious about about leraning how billionaires become billionaires, enroll in the Billionaire Strategies Course.

Comments

[Robert]

Fan-friggin-tastic, dude!

[Ferdie Frederic]

Not a bad looking article. Chow!

[Louis]

Common Billionaire Traits and Tendencies
1. Billionaires are very often the eldest child.
2. Finance, investments, software and internet are among the most succesful business ventures for would be billionaires.
3. Many billionaires bequeath the bulk of their fortunes to charity, while leaving millions for their children.
4. Surprisingly, many billionaires attended some college but never attained a Bachelor's degree.
5. Many billionaires are either divorced or widowed.
6. Most of the world's billionaires are Americans.
7. While there are plenty of inherited fortunes and a few lottery winners, most billionaires are self-made.
8. The discipline and drive to succeed precludes many of the uber wealthy from pursuing hobbies seriously.
9. Many billionaires favor investing in US bonds.
10. Most of the super rich seem to have three children or more.

[Louis]

Here's more for those wanting to learn how to be billionaires.

Kemmons Wilson - 20 Tips For Success

1. Work only half a day; it makes no difference which half - it can be either the first 12 hours or the last 12 hours.
2. Work is the master key that opens the door to all opportunities.
3. Mental attitude plays a far more important role in a person's success or failure than mental capacity.
4. Remember that we all climb the ladder of success one step at a time.
5. There are two ways to get to the top of an oak tree. One way is to sit on an acorn and wait; the other way is to climb it.
6. Do not be afraid of taking a chance. Remember that a broken watch is exactly right at least twice every 24 hours.
7. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.
8. Eliminate from your vocabulary the words, "I don't think I can" and substitute, "I know
I can."
9. In evaluating a career, put opportunity ahead of security.
10. Remember that success requires half luck and half brains.
11. A person has to take risks to achieve.
12. People who take pains never to do more than they get paid for, never get paid for anything more than they do.
13. No job is too hard as long as you are smart enough to find someone else to do it
for you.
14. Opportunity comes often. It knocks as often as you have an ear trained to hear it, an eye trained to see it, a hand trained to grasp it, and a head trained to use it.
15. You cannot procrastinate - in two days, tomorrow will be yesterday.
16. Sell your wristwatch and buy an alarm clock.
17. A successful person realizes his personal responsibility for self-motivation. He starts himself because he possesses the key to his own ignition switch.
18. Do not worry. You can't change the past, but you sure can ruin the present by worrying over the future. Remember that half the things we worry about never happen, and the other half are going to happen anyway. So, why worry?
19. It is not how much you have but how much you enjoy that makes happiness.
20. Believe in God and obey the Ten Commandments.

[Louis]

Sergey Brin, 33, of Google is the youngest billionaire.

Actually, he's tied with some Ukrainian dude, who's also 33.

But Sergey is worth much much more....

Part 1 of list:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070308/forbes_billionaires_list_1.html?.v=2&.pf=career-work

Part 2 of list:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070308/forbes_billionaires_list_2.html?.v=2&.pf=career-work

[Louis]

Most of the dudes there are at least 50 years old.

[Caprinardo Delirio]

Hey who's your favorite billionaire?

Is Jobs even a billionaire? He's very cool. Also very cool is buffett. He is quiet cool - could buy and sell Trump 30 times over and lives in a $200,000 house in Nebraska. He is truly above materialism.

[Google Shareholder]

Buffett is the man. A lifetime diet of coke and burgers. An old car, the same house for 50 years.

But the key thing that makes Buffett cool is that he thought about what he was doing. Came to a conclusion and stuck to it no matter what anyone else or the rest of the market did. He bought up stocks like mad in the 1970s saying later he couldn't believe how cheap people were selling them for. When these stocks came back in the 1980s it became obvious how right he'd been.

To be able to stick to your convictions when the entire rest of the world disagrees is something special. Buffett is my pick as favorite billionaire.

[Peter]

I always liked the recluses who focus on work instead of chasing the limelight.

Kirk Kerkorian is 90 and still going strong. He keeps a low profile preferring to work in stealth mode. Few people know about him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerkorian

[Peter]

Daniel Ludwig is another recluse. He was in sea transport and had his office aboard some old rust bucket of a merchantman that was permanently moored.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ludwig

[Louis]

Trump was never a billionaire. That's just his ego talking.

Branson is a nasty one.

He made his fortune by screwing his business partners over and over. Repeatedly. The first time with his hippy magazine cofounders, then with Virgin Records cofounders, then the guy who basically set up Virgin Airways for him.

[Louis]

Re Buffett, he was the same way in the late 90s, refused to touch dotcom stocks because he couldn't see any fundamentals to justify them. Everyone thought he was a dinosaur then but he came out on top.

[Caprinardo Delirio]

The Ikea dude!

Kamprad drives a 15 year old Volvo, flies only economy class, and encourages IKEA employees to always write on both sides of a paper.[3] In addition Kamprad has been known to visit IKEA for a cheap meal. He is also known to buy christmas paper and presents in the post-Christmas sales. While Kamprad's frugality is well documented, it is also an important part of the carefully managed image presented to IKEA employees and the general public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad

[Stanford MBA]

Conservative billionaire questions Bush's mental stability!

The Pittsburgh newspaper owned by conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife yesterday called the Bush administration's plans to stay the course in Iraq a "prescription for American suicide."

The editorial in the Tribune-Review added, "And quite frankly, during last Thursday's news conference, when George Bush started blathering about 'sometimes the decisions you make and the consequences don't enable you to be loved,' we had to question his mental stability."

It continued: "President Bush warns that U.S. withdrawal would risk 'mass killings on a horrific scale.' What do we have today, sir?

"If the president won't do the right thing and end this war, the people must. The House has voted to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April. The Senate must follow suit.

"Our brave troops should take great pride that they rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein. And they should have no shame in leaving Iraq. For it will not be, in any way, an exercise in tail-tucking and running.

"America has done its job.

"It's time for the Iraqis to do theirs."

Scaife has been a loyal backer of Republican politicians and many conservative causes, and funded a network of investigations into President Clinton during the 1990s.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003612271

[Future Millionaire]

I worked for a guy worth around $300 million.

He wasn't particularly happy. Working for him taught me that money is just a multiplier. If you're happy, money will give you a greater scope to express your happiness. But if you're unhappy, money will just give you greater scope to express your unhappiness.

[William Volk]

Perhaps the best stuff I have ever heard. Mr. Bartmann is blessed to have a wife who believed in him.