There have been plenty of books written on the topic of Success & Failure. This book is remarkably different from all the rest. Billionaire Secrets of Success is the first success and failure book written by a person who has personally experienced being a millionaire three times, being bankrupt twice, and being a billionaire once. Bill's successes have been the subject of more than 470 news articles in publications ranging from Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Inc., People, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. The author's unique journey from poverty to being the twenty-fifth wealthiest person in America, with several ups and downs along the way, has given him an amazingly unique perspective from which to share his experiences and the lessons he learned. He shares with the reader his nine principles for attaining success. These nine principles are not the product of some academic conclusion. Bill has personally tested these nine principles, not once, not twice, not three times, but four times over the past twenty five years . . . and they have worked every time. These nine principles work for all, no matter education, social status, financial situation, or how many times they failed in the past. Here is what these nine principles did for him, and they can do the same thing for anyone: FROM? ? TO Poverty and welfare? ? 25th wealthiest person in America High school dropout? ? Permanent place in the Smithsonian Institute Working at traveling carnival? ? National Entrepreneur of the Year Gang member ? ? Case study by Harvard Business School Minimum wage? ? $100 million annual income Riding the bus? ? His own personal $25 million jet Homeless? ? $2 million, 12,000 square foot home Drawing unemployment? ? Employing 4,000 Million dollars in debt? ? Billionaire Bill's book is also unique in that it explains in plain language the mechanics of the mental processes that guarantee our success or our failure. Once you understands how these processes work, you can begin to change your life. It is not too late! No matter where you are or what you have done or failed to do . . . you can become the person you deserve to be! Let Bill show you the way.
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Bartmann has experienced more success and failure as an entrepreneur than anyone I know. Learn from his experience. -- Jim Stovall, Emmy Award winner, President of Narrative Television Network and author of The Ultimate Gift
Follow Bartman’s advice and become a success in life...he shows you how to use the tools you already have. -- Sam Donaldson, ABC News correspondent
His secrets will help readers delve deeply into discovering their greatest self and identifying their highest life purpose. -- Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager® and The Secret
Patron Saint of the Second Chance. A second chance. Who better to offer it than Bill Bartmann. -- The Wall Street Journal
Follow Bartman’s advice and become a success in life...he shows you how to use the tools you already have. -- Sam Donaldson, ABC News correspondent
His secrets will help readers delve deeply into discovering their greatest self and identifying their highest life purpose. -- Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager® and The Secret
Patron Saint of the Second Chance. A second chance. Who better to offer it than Bill Bartmann. -- The Wall Street Journal
About the Author
Bill Bartmann is the leading authority on entrepreneurship in America. He has created seven successful businesses in seven different industries, including a $3.5 billion, 3900 employee international company that he started from his kitchen table with a $13,000 loan. He has been named National Entrepreneur of the Year by NASDAQ, USA TODAY, Merrill Lynch and the Kauffman Foundation.
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More About the Author
I was one of eight children. My father was janitor and mother cleaned houses for a living. I dropped out of school to join a traveling carnival at 14, and later upgraded to a street gang. While homeless I lived under bridge viaducts and in haylofts, and ate out of dumpsters.
I became alcoholic by age 17. The Marine Corps rejected me due to poor hearing. One night while drunk I fell down a flight of stairs, crushing parts of my spine. I became paraplegic and my doctor told me in no uncertain terms that I would never walk again. It's a long story but I ended up walking out of the hospital on my own two feet.
I soon got a job on the "kill floor" at a hog slaughterhouse. While there I organized a wildcat strike to demand benefits for us part-timers, and was successful. Also while working at the slaughterhouse, I ran into the principal who earlier had kicked me out of high school. He inspired me to get my GED, which I did.
It's another long story, but I graduated from college with a bachelor's degree, and eventually got my law degree. I immediately went into private practice, specializing in consumer bankruptcy. Later I got involved in real estate investing, and became quite successful, whereupon I got involved in oil drilling and lost my shirt. While broke, I was asked to take over an oil pipe company and I again became a millionaire--until Saudi Arabia flooded the market with oil and the price crashed.
While $1 million in debt from the collapse of the oil business and my pipe company, I bought the first portfolio of defaulted loans ever auctioned to the public by the FDIC.
My intimate knowledge (being bankrupt myself) of the shady practices of debt collectors led me to try a different approach--I treated borrowers with dignity and respect. That first portfolio of loans yielded a relatively substantial return, and I began to pay off my $1 million debt. I bought more loan portfolios and shortly thereafter I was able to pay off the debt.
I could see a tidal wave of these portfolios becoming available first from the FDIC, and later from the Resolution Trust Corporation after the savings & loan crisis. At the same time, our ethical collection practices were yielding substantial profit margins. As a result, I focused on three things in order to gain market share as quickly as possible. The following is a summary of our results:
People--An industry trade journal called us the "largest, best-trained, and most profitable collection operation in the world."
Systems--The Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History has a permanent display on the technology we pioneered.
Financing--My company became the very first company ever to do an investment-grade securitization of non-performing debt on Wall Street. Harvard Business School published a case study on our techniques.
In fact, we went on to raise more than $3.1 billion from 120 different lenders for more than 180 separate transactions. We were acknowledged by Business Week as "one of the top 30 family-friendly companies in the United States." We made it to the "Inc. Magazine 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies" list four years in a row. "Working Woman Magazine" recognized us as "One of the top 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers". (We were not a yoga school but instead a debt-collection company.)
Then came the crash: Without my knowledge my business partner engaged in several transactions with our company for his own personal benefit. An employee noticed these transactions and rather than take them to me or to the auditors, he chose to send an anonymous letter to one of the investment rating agencies.
When the rating agency called me about the letter, I commenced an energetic investigation and soon determined that my business partner had in fact executed the transactions. I held a press conference to explain exactly what we knew of the transactions, how my business partner admitted that he had acted alone, and how the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency would conduct an even more thorough investigation.
Even so, I immediately became the subject of suspicion: "How could Bartmann not have known? He was a hands-on executive who built the company from the ground up." Wall Street backed away and our financing sources instantly dried up.
The SEC and FBI conducted separate investigations and found no wrongdoing by my company or by me. They concluded that the unauthorized transactions were limited to my business partner. Not one but two grand juries concluded there was no basis for charges after investigating the facts.
Nevertheless, in the post-Enron atmosphere, the federal government decided to take the case out of the state's hands, and indict me on 57 felony counts representing 600 years in prison if convicted. Attorney General John Ashcroft personally held a news conference, assuring the public that the government's case was rock-solid against me.
The lead prosecution attorney had been taken off his prior case--to prosecute Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian mass murderer--so that he could now prosecute me.
The government presented its case against me, calling 53 witnesses and lasting 89 days. I chose not to call a single witness and not to present any case for the defense. The jury found me not guilty on all counts. Later the bankruptcy trustee for my former company publicly admitted "There was no fraud at CFS."
Nevertheless, even though my name was cleared I was bankrupt. My assets had been seized and disposed of through an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding, and my motions had been denied to stay those proceedings until the criminal trial was over.
My long and interesting business career has given me a unique perspective: I'm aware of no other slaughterhouse worker or street-gang member ever to have become a billionaire. I'm also something of an authority on surviving bankruptcy and other forms of failure.
I therefore channeled that knowledge and my energies into helping other entrepreneurs to overcome whatever barriers they're up against. I created Bill Bartmann Enterprises, through which I've offered courses, materials, and live events on entrepreneurship and achieving goals.
When the 2008 banking crisis resulted in the federal government bailout of banks, I recognized the same pattern of events that had made me a billionaire the first time around: The government was requiring banks to dispose of assets deemed "toxic" to banks but those assets had residual value to others knowledgeable enough to extract it.
I wrote a book, Bailout Riches, which was published by Wiley in June 2009 and which became a #1 world-wide bestseller on Amazon. It described the current opportunity to capitalize on the enormous wave of defaulted debt available today.
I also created a curriculum for individuals interested in purchasing portfolios of defaulted credit card debt and having those portfolios managed by third-party firms.
I became alcoholic by age 17. The Marine Corps rejected me due to poor hearing. One night while drunk I fell down a flight of stairs, crushing parts of my spine. I became paraplegic and my doctor told me in no uncertain terms that I would never walk again. It's a long story but I ended up walking out of the hospital on my own two feet.
I soon got a job on the "kill floor" at a hog slaughterhouse. While there I organized a wildcat strike to demand benefits for us part-timers, and was successful. Also while working at the slaughterhouse, I ran into the principal who earlier had kicked me out of high school. He inspired me to get my GED, which I did.
It's another long story, but I graduated from college with a bachelor's degree, and eventually got my law degree. I immediately went into private practice, specializing in consumer bankruptcy. Later I got involved in real estate investing, and became quite successful, whereupon I got involved in oil drilling and lost my shirt. While broke, I was asked to take over an oil pipe company and I again became a millionaire--until Saudi Arabia flooded the market with oil and the price crashed.
While $1 million in debt from the collapse of the oil business and my pipe company, I bought the first portfolio of defaulted loans ever auctioned to the public by the FDIC.
My intimate knowledge (being bankrupt myself) of the shady practices of debt collectors led me to try a different approach--I treated borrowers with dignity and respect. That first portfolio of loans yielded a relatively substantial return, and I began to pay off my $1 million debt. I bought more loan portfolios and shortly thereafter I was able to pay off the debt.
I could see a tidal wave of these portfolios becoming available first from the FDIC, and later from the Resolution Trust Corporation after the savings & loan crisis. At the same time, our ethical collection practices were yielding substantial profit margins. As a result, I focused on three things in order to gain market share as quickly as possible. The following is a summary of our results:
People--An industry trade journal called us the "largest, best-trained, and most profitable collection operation in the world."
Systems--The Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History has a permanent display on the technology we pioneered.
Financing--My company became the very first company ever to do an investment-grade securitization of non-performing debt on Wall Street. Harvard Business School published a case study on our techniques.
In fact, we went on to raise more than $3.1 billion from 120 different lenders for more than 180 separate transactions. We were acknowledged by Business Week as "one of the top 30 family-friendly companies in the United States." We made it to the "Inc. Magazine 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies" list four years in a row. "Working Woman Magazine" recognized us as "One of the top 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers". (We were not a yoga school but instead a debt-collection company.)
Then came the crash: Without my knowledge my business partner engaged in several transactions with our company for his own personal benefit. An employee noticed these transactions and rather than take them to me or to the auditors, he chose to send an anonymous letter to one of the investment rating agencies.
When the rating agency called me about the letter, I commenced an energetic investigation and soon determined that my business partner had in fact executed the transactions. I held a press conference to explain exactly what we knew of the transactions, how my business partner admitted that he had acted alone, and how the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency would conduct an even more thorough investigation.
Even so, I immediately became the subject of suspicion: "How could Bartmann not have known? He was a hands-on executive who built the company from the ground up." Wall Street backed away and our financing sources instantly dried up.
The SEC and FBI conducted separate investigations and found no wrongdoing by my company or by me. They concluded that the unauthorized transactions were limited to my business partner. Not one but two grand juries concluded there was no basis for charges after investigating the facts.
Nevertheless, in the post-Enron atmosphere, the federal government decided to take the case out of the state's hands, and indict me on 57 felony counts representing 600 years in prison if convicted. Attorney General John Ashcroft personally held a news conference, assuring the public that the government's case was rock-solid against me.
The lead prosecution attorney had been taken off his prior case--to prosecute Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian mass murderer--so that he could now prosecute me.
The government presented its case against me, calling 53 witnesses and lasting 89 days. I chose not to call a single witness and not to present any case for the defense. The jury found me not guilty on all counts. Later the bankruptcy trustee for my former company publicly admitted "There was no fraud at CFS."
Nevertheless, even though my name was cleared I was bankrupt. My assets had been seized and disposed of through an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding, and my motions had been denied to stay those proceedings until the criminal trial was over.
My long and interesting business career has given me a unique perspective: I'm aware of no other slaughterhouse worker or street-gang member ever to have become a billionaire. I'm also something of an authority on surviving bankruptcy and other forms of failure.
I therefore channeled that knowledge and my energies into helping other entrepreneurs to overcome whatever barriers they're up against. I created Bill Bartmann Enterprises, through which I've offered courses, materials, and live events on entrepreneurship and achieving goals.
When the 2008 banking crisis resulted in the federal government bailout of banks, I recognized the same pattern of events that had made me a billionaire the first time around: The government was requiring banks to dispose of assets deemed "toxic" to banks but those assets had residual value to others knowledgeable enough to extract it.
I wrote a book, Bailout Riches, which was published by Wiley in June 2009 and which became a #1 world-wide bestseller on Amazon. It described the current opportunity to capitalize on the enormous wave of defaulted debt available today.
I also created a curriculum for individuals interested in purchasing portfolios of defaulted credit card debt and having those portfolios managed by third-party firms.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Damn Good Book, and a response to the 1-star reviews.,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Billionaire Secrets to Success (Hardcover)
Looking at the 1 star reviewers really got me motivated to sit here & type up this review.
Those people who rated it 1 star only did so because maybe they looked up on Wikipedia and saw that Bill Bartmann's business collapsed and he was left penniless after having been a billionaire. First of all, the court did not find him at fault - it was his business partner. While he was probably responsible for not seeing the symptoms, the point is he wasn't the one who defrauded people. Second of all, I say to the reviewers - what has that got to do with the book??? NOTHING! This book is about self esteem, not about how much wealth a person's built up, or how much he's lost. If you're focusing on that, you may as well not read any books by people who've been in the hole before. People like Donald Trump, for example, who's also been bankrupt. Does that discredit his knowledge? No! The bottom line is, the guy made a 3.5 billion bucks, and if you complainers want to argue, I say go out & make a billion yourself. It's a mindset you have to have in order to be successful, and I truly believe that. People who have success are positive and never give up. And this advice has come from Bartmann, and countless other self made millionaires/ billionaires. The advice in the book is solid, and it plain works. It's not a whole lot of voodoo like some other motivational writers write about (but have made their money putting bums on seminar seats, not making it in the real world). And Bill's bounced back from being bankrupt twice. Once, after losing millions, and now, after losing 3.5 billion. Yes it's easy for people to point their fingers and say hey look, that guy's lost 3.5 billion dollars and got over 3900 employees out of jobs - but do you ever wonder how damned TOUGH it was for the person himself? Do you really think people who have low self esteem bounce back from situations like that?? Do you really think if you made all that and then lost it, you'd still be jolly & positive? It would be tough, wouldn't it? Most people would just drop out of society and feel sorry for themselves the rest of their life. But Bill Bartmann's overcome that. He's now a millionaire again, and he teaches EXPERIENCE, not theory. One motivational guru has boasted about reading over 1000 books on self help and then developed his own system. That's great, but isn't that a pile of it. That guru has built his system on theory and doesn't know squat about what it takes to be financially independent, what it takes to run a big business. It's just like taking a college textbook and saying, I have all the tools to build me a big business. You don't. Bartmann has done it first hand, and he's seen both the good & bad side of business, and life. And he's bounced back from his bankruptcy. So I think that makes him qualified to teach a thing or two about self esteem. So yes, he's lost billions, yes, his employees lost their jobs. But he's also MADE billions, and has the self esteem and mental toughness that it takes to bounce back and still become a millionaire. And if somebody can do the latter, I think it makes them someone you can learn quite a few lessons from.
37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sure, his company blew up, but the book's still 5 stars!!!,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Billionaire Secrets to Success (Hardcover)
Yes, the reviews below are true; CFS imploded crazily, Bill was like a tyrant, and he called his employees dumbbastard SOBs.
But, so what? Listen, I've read this book and it makes complete sense regarding how our brain works and how it has worked to preserve the species. Now, in modern society, Bill tells us how our brain's evolved mechanisms influences our behavior in a negative way. In a nutshell: 1) Our brain gathers ALL information 2) Our brain places priority over information with EMOTIONS or REPETITION 3) Because our society teaches us to be MODEST, we subconsciously downplay our successes, and overplay our failures 4) The subconscious draws information from these priority information and guess what, it thinks we aren't very capable because we have more NEGATIVE information than POSITIVE. 5) Our self-image is tied to our self preservation, which prevents us from being harmed (embarrassed) etc. 6) Consequently, our brain forces us to rationalize, self-sabotage, etc. basically anything that prevents us from reaching our goals. Do yourself a favor, READ this book. It has all the details that you need. Bill also tells you how to practically utilize our brain's such defense mechanism to do the OPPOSITE of self-sabotage. I also recommend "Conquer Fear" by Lisa Jimenez, as a good complementary book.
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book for all ages,
By Mrs. Dharwarkar (Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Billionaire Secrets to Success (Hardcover)
At age 76, in recent years my goal has been to be able to get out of bed the next morning. Your wonderful book has awakened a dormant mind. Now I feel like I am 76 years young...instead of 76 years old!
I have re-read your book several times in the past week, each time I do I discover more about me and the exciting future I have in fronty of me. Thank you for giving me the most precious gift of all - a clear view of who and what I am and what I an capable of doing.
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subjective sensory data, objective sensory data, emotionally significant information, pocket promise, promise plan, accomplishment list, warehouse floor Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Billionaire Secrets, Implementing the Process, Rules of the Road, Change the Way You View Yourself, Understanding the Process, Altering the Process, Napoleon Hill, Personal Motivator Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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