How to Make a Few Billion Dollars
, subject: Business building and talent compensation, 2024
A practical guide to managing your own thinking, hiring exceptional people and learning from the employees closest to the business.
About the book
Drawing on Jacobs's experience building companies including United Waste, United Rentals and XPO, the book covers mindset, industry trends, acquisitions and assembling talented teams.
Why read it
Best if you want practical questions and operating principles for building a business, improving a team or managing your own reactions under pressure.
Key themes
- Manage your mind before making decisions
- Pay for exceptional talent
- Ask employees what needs to change
Evidence and original sources
Sources: official Founders episodes — #335, #339, #360, #366, #373, #374, #376, #378, #408, #411, #412
episode #373 reuses discussion from episode #335. For each evidence type, the strongest qualifying component counts once per discussion. Source publication and scoring origin are separate.
This record is supported by 48 public evidence rows linked to original Founders episodes.
- How To Make A Few Billion Dollars: Brad Jacobs — Episode introduces How to Make a Few Billion Dollars as the featured book.
- Joseph Duveen: Robber Baron Art Dealer — David connects this episode to a prior Founders episode (335) on Brad Jacobs' How to Make a Few Billion Dollars.
- Robert Kierlin: Founder of Fastenal — David connects this book to his earlier episode 335.
- Mr. Beast Leaked Memo — David explicitly refers to an episode on How to Make a Few Billion Dollars.
- Breakfast with Brad Jacobs + How To Make A Few Billion Dollars — David says he will replay the earlier episode he made on Brad's book.
- Rare Jeff Bezos Interview — David draws from Brad Jacobs's book the practice of asking employees how to improve the company.