Do you think it's possible to create 1b net worth?
Real Estate Agent · Circleville, OH · Member since 2008 · 633 posts · 488 votes
I've been pondering this over the past few months when I was out of town on vacation.
I'm curious about the possibility of setting a lifetime goal of developing a company with a 1b net worth over a lifetime.
I've delt with individuals from the most of the financial spectrum. From a joe six pack with $1 in the bank and no assets all the way up to a individual with over $150m in net worth.
So I'm quite curious about the goal of developing a net worth of $1b starting out at 0 and working up to the $1b goal over many many years.
I don't see how it's impossible if you're young (As am I) In a little over a year my brother and I should be able to break the $1m net worth goal in about 2 years from start to finish, starting at nothing.
What are your thoughts?
1B Net worth. Ya it is possible. As a matter of fact, the Forbes 400 is littered with people who started with no money whatsoever. Sam Zell, Kirk Kerkorian, David Murdock, Alex Spanos, Thomas Flatley, Jorge Perez, Sheldon Adelson, George Argyos, Roland Arnall, Ronald Burkle, Wayne Huizenga, and a whole bunch of others.
Someone posted earlier about Sam Zell. I highly admire him as well. He had $35 in his wallet when he was 23 years old. As of right now I think he's worth over $5Billion. Started with a small 3 unit building which he bought for no money down by exchanging management services for a cut of the deal. As of 2000 his companies owned over 220,000 units of apartments, and over 135 Million square feet of commercial real estate, this was all done in less than 40 years. Is it possible?? If you think it is, then it is.
Also look up Kirk Kerkorian and a guy named Philip Ruffin. Kirk dropped out of 8th grade, and now owns half of the casinos on the Las Vegas strip. Ruffin started out flat broke, now owns RE all over the country including 40 acres on Las Vegas Blvd. the list goes on and on.... A guy named Stephen Seigel is on his way, google him he bought his first apartment building in his 30's in 2001, flipped it a year later and made $4Million. Now his companies own 20 hotels, 3 casinos and a bunch of other stuff. Yes, it is possible..... will you have to sacrifice a lot? No doubt.... just depends how far you can go and how bad you want to know what can be accomplished.
But, what do I know. I'm not a billionaire just a 25 year old trying to duplicate what Sam Zell did, and so far I'm ahead of where he was. Hopefully it continues to stay that way.
Let's ask Donald Trump. Or Warren Buffet.
My personal thoughts? Yes, it can be done. It's been said, "becoming wealthy is no great feat, if becoming wealthy is one's only goal."
Building a personal nest egg of $1B will probably require a great deal of personal sacrifice in other areas of your life.
But that's just my opinion. I've never been a billionaire, so what do I know.
"Let's ask Donald Trump"
He had 400 million in family money to start with.
"Or Warren Buffet."
He was the son of a stock broker and Congressman. Have yet to find the net worth he had to start with, but I have to imagine that the connections of your dad being a Congressman certainly help.
You have to realize that most billionaires don't start with 0. They had a parent, grandparent or great grand parent that did. The only guys that maybe did that come to mind were at the dawn of the tech age much the same way a couple guys at the dawn of the industrial age did. This is not to dissuade you from your goal but to give you some perspective.
Honestly, starting with 0 and no connections, a lifetime goal of 5-40 million is most definitely an achievement of the American dream and is very noteworthy. And think of the connections you will be able to set up for your kids and grandkids..... Your achievement of these smaller goals now will set them up to become centi-millionaires and billionaires should they decide follow your lessons.
Tim
I've thought about the same thing. I had a net worth of several million a few years ago however all my worth was tied up in proprties in Florida and Michigan. I do not think I need to tell you how that looks now.
As far as becoming a billionaire I've found that 1 vehicle has resaulted in bringing that dream to fruition for hundreds of investors.
Start a hedge fund & manage it yourself! Cost $200,000.00
Contact Michael Lapat
I spoke with him in detail his indepth explenation of every step of the process is profound.
But like Matt said what do I know.
A person, who I greatly admire and consider a mentor from afar is Sam Zell. A self-made billionaire who achieved that wealth through whose own means.
So, yes it is possible.
Do you think it would be possible to build up a large wealth (Even 1/2b) over the course of 20-4yrs?
I think it is possible. But, I a movie quote (from Apollo 13) I find myself saying when there is a big hurdle to overcome is, "Let's work the problem people."
That is look at the goal or task and then reverse engineer it to solve or create the solution. So, that means coming up with the tactics ncessary to create 1B of wealth.
anything is possible.. It will take a great deal of sacrafice, hard work, and luck. btw, how do you like being in business with your brother?? Almost everyone I know advises against going into business w/ family members just cause things can turn sour real fast. I went into business with a cousin of mine a while back... probably one of the worst decisions of my life. We didn't like the way each other worked.. we had different priorties and conflicting personalities when it came down to alot of stuff. To this day we don't talk :(
I am losing my butt in FL. I would love to just be back where I was before that. Any advice from any of you on how to make a few bucks right now, would be appreciated. I am wanting to start small. I want to redeem myself and regain my self-respect after my bad decisons in FL.
Yes, I think it is possible to build a net worth of a billion dollars. However, to accomplish that, you would either have to invent the next "must have" product, or work your butt off 24/7/365 for the rest of your life. The real question is whether sacrificing your life is worth having a net worth of a billion dollars. I would say NO! Furthermore, even a billion dollars of net worth won't buy you a bag of McDonaldLand Cookies at McDonalds.
Mike
Just saw this clip of Sam Zell putting a smarmy journalist in her place. I'm kinda of starting to like him too.
Just a theoretical question , I know a few have done it.
As for working with my brother, so far it's been OK , unfortunately his G/F is starting to have a say in everything and it's not going as well as I had planned.
On a good note, our net worth isn't doing bad at all, hopefully we can cash some of it out and buy more property.
Tim
1B Net worth. Ya it is possible. As a matter of fact, the Forbes 400 is littered with people who started with no money whatsoever. Sam Zell, Kirk Kerkorian, David Murdock, Alex Spanos, Thomas Flatley, Jorge Perez, Sheldon Adelson, George Argyos, Roland Arnall, Ronald Burkle, Wayne Huizenga, and a whole bunch of others.
Someone posted earlier about Sam Zell. I highly admire him as well. He had $35 in his wallet when he was 23 years old. As of right now I think he's worth over $5Billion. Started with a small 3 unit building which he bought for no money down by exchanging management services for a cut of the deal. As of 2000 his companies owned over 220,000 units of apartments, and over 135 Million square feet of commercial real estate, this was all done in less than 40 years. Is it possible?? If you think it is, then it is.
Also look up Kirk Kerkorian and a guy named Philip Ruffin. Kirk dropped out of 8th grade, and now owns half of the casinos on the Las Vegas strip. Ruffin started out flat broke, now owns RE all over the country including 40 acres on Las Vegas Blvd. the list goes on and on.... A guy named Stephen Seigel is on his way, google him he bought his first apartment building in his 30's in 2001, flipped it a year later and made $4Million. Now his companies own 20 hotels, 3 casinos and a bunch of other stuff. Yes, it is possible..... will you have to sacrifice a lot? No doubt.... just depends how far you can go and how bad you want to know what can be accomplished.
But, what do I know. I'm not a billionaire just a 25 year old trying to duplicate what Sam Zell did, and so far I'm ahead of where he was. Hopefully it continues to stay that way.
Come on...a billion? Did you just make up that number? Has anyone ever had that much in history??
Yes, I think it's very possible. The most striking example of a massive accumulation is that of Andrew Carnegie (the richest man in recorded history) who started out in poverty:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_carnegie
Numerous people have hit that mark. Bill Gates for one. They all have one element you cannot just go get or earn, though -- LUCK! They all worked hard, and that's an essential element. Without hard work you cannot get there. But even with hard work, you have to have a lot of pieces you don't control fall into place.
A couple of very interesting books related to this topic are "Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell and "The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Outliers specifically deals with very successfully people, and investigates the factors that led to their success. Many people, know, for example, the story of how IBM initally tried to acquire an operating system from the PC from Digital Research, but were turned away and ended up getting one from Gates. Less known is the background that led to that point. Going to the right high school, having rich moms who funded computer time back in the days when that was an expensive proposition and having access to people with knowledge he could leverage. There are no doubt many, many people with the same level of brainpower as Mr. Gates and at least some of those who were just as motivated. Nobody else, though, had all the stars in alignment and made a fortune from that opportunity.
The black swan is more general, and deals with how events we don't control often have more impact on our lives than the things we do control. We plan and account for what we understand and control, and make what we think are the correct decisions. We learn from past results what we can expect. Then, bam, something unexpected happens and all our plans are disrupted. The change in lending in 2007 had a drastic impact on many investors, for example. Some saw something coming, but even folks who saw it didn't see how quickly or radically the environment would change.
OK. Here goes.
When I was young, I wanted to be a millionaire(there weren't many if any billionaires). I was in the right place at the right time doing the right thing, real estate. And, I was good at it. I literally started as a college student doing janitorial work and got into real estate by accident.
It was at times of high inflation and my net worth was doubling every 3 months or do(not very big at the start)but it got big very fast. Soon, I was a millionaire and it kept doubling. I remember one day, when Dr. Buss bought the Lakers. The price was well under 100million. I remember thinking if I kept doubling my net worth every year or so, I could buy a team like the Dodgers!
About this same time, I had let my weight get up over 300 pounds(I'm 5'6"!)
and went to the DR. He told me I was going to be "the richest man in the GRAVEYARD". That startled me, since I wasn't yet 30. My kids didn't know me, my wife was looking other places for her fun and happiness. It was a mess.
I had been extremely lucky and decided to hang it up and raise my 4 kids and please my wife(We had 2 more kids, as those that have my book can see on the back cover!). I'm not sure if I had continued if I could've reached 1B or not. I do believe I wouldn't be celebrating 40 years of marriage next year, wouldn't have travelled the world and taken 25 cruises,enjoyed my grand kids, etc.
If you take a penney and double it every day for 31 days, you'll have over 10 million dollars. If you doubled it for 8 more days you'd have your B starting with nothing. SO, if you are 20 and can find some program that will double your net worth each year for 40 years, at the age of 60 you'll be worth a B.
This is difficult today. Taxes eat into that, which I've basically never had to pay, greedy litigators, crooks etc. cause wealth building problems.. Real Estate is now scary, for the first time ever to many people.
I've agreed with a lot of what others have posted here. As to the initial posters' question and from one that really feels I had a chance to create 1B in wealth, I don't honestly believe you can now do that only on real estate. I think you need a jump start in there somewhere, like invent something etc, or have a big nest egg from daddy to start with. Those are my thoughts except for one last thing. I REALLY wish I would've done it slower and spent more time with family in early years. I lost a lot by being all consumed with real estate. Good luck on all your journeys. Rich.
I think it is real easy to have $1 B ... if you star with $2 B.
Serously, I would answer "Yes." You will have to make working and learning your #1 priority. Visit Amazon or a book store and pick up books (plural) about the people mentioned by the others (above). Start reading at least one book per month. I suggest adding "The Richest Man in Babylon" to the top of your reading list.
I'm reading "Carolyn 101" by Carolyn Kepcher - the young female judge from The Apprentice.
You will have to involve a lot of other people too.
As Zig Ziglar says "You can get anything that you want as long as you help enough other people get what they want."
Of course a good dose of hyperinflation would bump your dollar denominated net worth up too.
Why do you say that real estate is scary for the first time to many people. What has changed from when you started investing. How has the opportunity of real estate evolved?
Thanks
Vince
I think its possible. You will have to get lucky and establish a real estate company that gives a wealth of revenues; otherwise, you goal of of 1b will not come true.
It is possible to have a hefty net worth and have little cash to show for it. Like many have said, I believe that it is possible to achieve 1B in net worth, but it would be necessary to sacrifice a lot and you may have to start from zero more than once.
For me, I want to know that I will have a good income to live on the rest of my life. Several million in net worth is not very difficult to manage these days. Many retire on less than that. I'm shooting for 10 or 20 million to retire on. Ten is not to far away.
Yeah it's feasible just have Gates or Buffet adopt you and boom wham there you go instant billions!!!!!
James- they're giving theirs away- and not to their kids. Rich
I think it's possible, but I think a big factor would be getting a fairly quick start and reaching a critical mass of a few million, at which point I think a lot more options would start opening up to make the money grow faster. In Rich's penny doubled every day example, it takes a month for the penny to become $10MM, but it takes 20 of those days to reach $5k - so there's a definite parallel to be drawn from that, I think.
All that said, it's not anything I would want. As soon as I have enough to live comfortably for the rest of my life, I'm done!