Fortune 400 list makers include people in oil (which really seems cool, but think about how uncool it is too), lumber, as well as real estate, hedge funds etc. A while back I listened to the audio book "All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make--and Spend--Their Fortunes" by Peter W. Bernstein. He details the myriad ways that the richest among us make and spend their cash.
Since listening to this (and before too) I would often look at the variety of shops as my wife and I drive down business districts in local towns and I gawk at the assortment of businesses in each town (yet another way I overwhelm her that this blog might ease).
More recently I have been thinking that in order to make money, you either have to improve many people's lives in a small way, or improve several people's lives in a very profound way. There are only a few out there who touch many people's lives in a profound way. I've noticed that those who manage this usually do it in a nearly imperceptible, but ubiquitous way. They often are not the inventors of a technology, but bring it to the masses packaged in a convenient, predictable way. Examples are all around us. Some well known, others obscure:
German brothers Wilhelm and Georg Shaeffler developed a new way to make ball bearings and grew the company they founded in 1946 to be one of the worlds largest manufacturers of ball bearings making loads of cash in the process. Tiny balls helping billions of people (drawers, cars, wheels...lets just leave it at that. If you use anything with wheels, you've probably used several of their tiny balls).
Ray Croc--you may not agree with McDonalds, but you probably have heard the story of how he brought burgers to the masses. In fact, you've probably had one of his burgers. He didn't invent the burger or McDonalds. He just brought it to the world helping you fill your hunger in a convenient (drive through, short wait), predictable (same every time--same amount, same size, same cooking procedure delivered by a 16 year old exactly the same every time) way.
I recently heard a local story of Harold E. LeMay of Tacoma, WA. I had previously noticed that we use LeMay Recycling at work and heard that we were saving bundles over the previous company we used...and it was more convenient (there's that word again) too. I had also seen the Lemay America's Car Museum as we drive down I-5 in Tacoma (more on crazy ways to spend your millions in another post). I learned his story from one of my patients.
Out of high school, Harold partnered in an automotive business. As my patient put it, one day he won a garbage truck in a car auction. He had trouble selling it, so he looked into the trash collection business. He began Spanaway Garbage Collection Company with one truck. Soon he had more trash than he could handle so he bought another truck. The rest is history. His company became Harold LeMay Enterprises after WW II. He also owned Lucky Towing, HELM Trucking, Lucky Sales and Services and the list goes on. While building his empire on garbage, he also gathered the world's largest collection of autos, motorcycles, trucks and other vehicles and memorabilia (over 3,000 vehicles). Each summer Harold and his wife Nancy would open their estate for the annual LeMay Car Show. After his death most of his vehicles were donated to Tacoma for the museum.
In 1991 he was elected to the National Solid Waste Association Hall of Fame (who knew that existed!?)
In 2011 Harold and Nancy LeMay were inducted into the Washington State Hot Rod Hall of Fame
The moral of the story is threefold:
1. Sometimes your fortune is right under your nose. You just have to see it and seize it. See Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell
2. You build your fortune on your failures. Lemay could not sell that truck. If someone else had bought it, it could have been the Someone Else America's Car Museum.
3. Before you can get inducted into the "Hall of Awesome", you have to wade through the "Hall of Garbage" and help out millions of people in a very profound way. Before you can collect cars, you have to collect heaps and heaps of garbage. Imagine a nation without garbage collection and recycling services.
