Customer Reviews

Billionaire In Training (Instant Success Series)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have to say that after starting and owning two multi-million dollar businesses that Bradley Sugars knows what he's talking about. His books are the closest you'll get to actually getting the information you need to get started.

However, two things disappointed me about this book:

1) He states that you can't start a business with no money. This isn't true. I've done it TWICE. I started my first publishing company with a few hundred dollars. Within two years it became a $2 million per year empire. My second company was started with a few thousand dollars. Within 4 years it became a $5.4 million dollar empire. In my first fiscal year I grossed $566,000. You don't need money to make money. You just need to know what you're doing.

2) The whole premise of this book is to buy, build, and sell a business. You can't buy a business with no money. Even if you can swing a no money down deal on a business, you need money to build it. Even he admits that you need about $200,000 in your bank account before you consider building a business. So, how do you get the $200,000? You don't get it by working for someone. It's very difficult, if not impossible, to get a business loan from a bank. Venture capitalists will finance people with a history of business success, not a business newbie. Sugars doesn't fill in this gap. He complains that other books don't cover each step to success (business, investing, then true entrepreneurship)...but he left out a critical point: How do you get from NO MONEY to HAVING MONEY FOR A BUSINESS to even start?

This is a good book. It covers some critical information about business that I haven't seen in other books. However, it's missing a huge element (discussed above) that will be an issue for most people reading this book who don't have an extra few hundred grand lying around to start or put into a business.

This book is nothing but superfluous stuff that you can easily find on your own. No real world specific examples. He uses his books to sell you his "coaching services" and nothing more. This guy is a BS artist....save your money. Do a search on Brad sugars books on Amazon; they all have "5" star ratings....hmmm, what a coincidence! IMO, the ratings are fake, and put there by his own people.

Brad Sugars is a pretty well known name in Australian coaching circles yet this book is clearly written for an American market (while still being useful to Aussies!). Billionaire in Training focuses on building wealth through buying businesses, fixing or "systematizing" them and then selling them. This is NOT a book that will show you how to turn your new business idea into reality. Nor will this book tell you much about other wealth building methods - Brad repeatedly mentions you buy his other books for more info on these areas. What I did enjoy were some of Brad's thoughts on "what makes a good business and what to look for when buying" which were very in line with a lot of e-myth type of philosophies. Would have loved for Brad to say in the book that he himself was a billionaire - that would have been exciting and perhaps a bit more fitting given the title (it says however on the back cover that he's a self made millionaire).

This book is an advertisement for his company. Action International Team is a global network of business coaches, and this book tells you how his team will really help your business grow.
He has good ideas, but I felt cheated at the end.

After Reading Think like a Billionaire by Scot Anderson and The Millionaire Next door by Thomas Stanley and starting Two Men One Message I thought this might be a good book for me to read just to educate myself more on money just by it's reviews. I have read some of the book and I can tell you that this book helped me understand different rules and principals even more. It has been so helpful to me.

A fantastic book on wealth creation - I didn't realise how simple it could be until I read it.

Billionaire in Training presents entrepreneurialism as a game that can be won by following a proven set of business rules. Drawing on the tools and experiences that helped him to become both a multimillionaire and the International Chairman of one of the fastest-growing businesses around the globe, Sugars explains the secrets of wealth creation and business success in an easy-to-understand, intuitive manner.

Sugars outlines how becoming an efficient "generalist"-someone who is able to effectively manage and draw on the expertise of others-can put entrepreneurs on the path to financial security and professional success. He explains the "fundamental truths" about becoming wealthy and why, for most people, obtaining financial security can be a long and arduous path. Finally, Sugars reveals how everyday entrepreneurs can quit this traditional path and focus on obtaining success now as opposed to later.

As a result of reading this book, I have a new way of thinking and planning to build my future wealth by climbing the 5 levels of Entrepreneurs.

Rich Dad was my favorite book in this genre out of the hundreds I've read, until I read Billionaire in Training. Brad Sugars, who was trained and mentored by Kiyosaki, expands on the principles of Rich Dad and offers examples of how to take those principles and make them produce millions. He believes as Kiyosaki does that money should work FOR you, NOT take hard work by you. For example, Sugars believes that one great way to make money is to buy slightly profitable companies and institute business systems to run the business for you increasing profit, and anyone who has worked for a rapidly growing company knows how easy it is to grow with the right system. Then, as your company grows without your involvement, you can spend your time looking for another business to buy. The process is detailed out for you and through my experience, it works.

Of course, there will be people who complain about this book like they complain about Rich Dad (whah whah whah, it doesn't work Sugars, it's not easy, etc) but those people are always going to be naysaying. That's why those people can't seem to grow their businesses.

Billionaire in Training was an outstanding book. From the very outset it challenged my thinking. The growth path of entrepreuers out lined is spot on. I found myself laughing at how true the senarios he was describing, are at play in my life and business. The three main points I pulled out of the book are that: 1. I need to generalize my work and have my employees specialize in their specific task. 2. There is a certain path to create wealth for me, my family and my business. 3. I need to detatch my self from my business emotionally. My business is not me, it is an entity that I own and work in. I would highly reccomend reading Billionaire in Training. I will surely refer back to it, as well as read it again in the future.

Elden A. Scott
The Master's Gardener LLC.
Pensacola, Fl

This is a strange book. It is poorly written and laid out which makes it hard to read but the content covers a wide range of topics in an engaging way. There is an optimistic tone throughout that makes it enjoyable in an irritating way.

The best part of the book is the identification of five levels of entrepreneur. Starting with level 0 -employee, then Level 1 - self employed, level 2 - manager, level 3 - owner/leader, level 4 - investor and progressing to level 5 - entrepreneur. There is a clear distinction between each level in terms of the activities, the relationship with money and the most likely motivators. It explained why I like being a `one man band' consultant so much and why I don't get rich doing what I do. The subsequent sections unfortunately failed to motivate me to progress.

The book covers a lot of ground. Anyone wanting to put into practice the ideas it contains will need to read more extensively on the topics introduced as they progress through the levels of entrepreneurship to wherever they decide to stop.

There are occasional gems that are breathtakingly beautiful and clear. My favourites were `you get the staff you deserve', `it's like motivating idiots; you get them to make more mistakes faster' and `sell the dream, and then work like heck to make it a reality'. I can vouch the truth of those!

There are also some editorial howlers. A personal delight was the confusion of illicit with elicit.

The section on changing your mindset is possibly the best part of the book. More detail on the process of idealization, visualisation, verbalisation and materialisation would have been very welcome. This is obviously an area the author excels at.

The editing is too hatchet happy: Sections on going public are far too short. There is only one paragraph on boards which advises entrepreneurs to put impressive well known business personalities on their boards. There is no advice on how to find, approach, motivate or reward these people or on how to select ones that make sense for the business at each stage of its evolution.

This is a great book for the young and starry eyed as it gives a lot of hard truths about how businesses work and fail, without getting bogged down in detail. The author knows his stuff and I was impressed by his passion for the topic. I just wish it had been better edited and allowed more depth to all the insights.


* Julie Garland McLellan is a governance and board consultant. She is a professional non-executive director and an AICD NSW Councillor. She is the author of "All Above Board: Great Governance for the Government Sector" and a mentor to aspiring and practicing company directors.

Have not had time to start reading it yet, so any review at this stage would be made up! There,.... my good deed of the day is done. Now, leave me alone! :)