Everyone thinks the paths to wealth are:

Building a startup. Going into finance. Investing in real estate. Inheriting it.

But there's an opportunity most overlook..

Buying a small business (yes, even a porta potty business...): The media's led us to believe that starting a company is the best path to wealth.

• Sleep on couches & suffer, you're a saint.
• Get a multi-million funding round, you win.

But these narratives block opportunities happening right in front of you.

Most underrated business truth:

It's more profitable to sell your current customer more things than to find new customers.

The 6 secrets to increasing a biz's value: Recurring revenue. The holy grail of business.

It's predictable, stable income that comes in month after month, year after year.

No constant hustling for new clients - just a loyal customer base paying you on autopilot...

If you don’t understand pricing, your biz will never hit $1m.

Here’s how to know if you can raise prices (hint: you’re already too late): Today, we have 20+ small businesses in our portfolio. And there's one critical growth lever that's oddly overlooked...

Pricing.

Just listen to Y Combinator partner Kevin Hale explain why pricing is so important:

If you want to get rich, master negotiation.

• A salary raise
• An investment
• Business deals

It doesn't matter.

13 negotiation secrets from 20+ years in business (that have made me millions): Learning negotiation was an 'aha' moment.

People think it's a niche business skill like sales. It's not.

It's a playbook to navigate human nature.

Negotiation makes you better at listening, communicating, empathizing...

Oh - and it'll make you money.

Everyone talks about the same companies every day.

Uber. Google. Facebook. Tesla.

It's corrupting our youth.

Here’s how Silicon Valley misled an entire generation about startups and wealth (and what you can do about it): Remember Bird?

Slick e-scooter company that was the fastest company to reach unicorn status.

They raised close to a billion dollars and went public - before filing for bankruptcy earlier this year.

But this isn't a unique phenomenon…

Before you get into business, just know...

You will get lied to, cheated, tricked, sued, and you'll make plenty of mistakes too.

Having a business partner can make this 10x better.. or 10x worse.

Here's my process for starting partnerships (so you can avoid a bad one): Ownership is a lonely road.

It can suck. But what sucks even more?

Starting a BAD partnership...

How to spot a scam...

They promise "passive income."

Here's the problem with passive income (and what you need to build instead:): I've spent my career investing in & buying biz's.

First at huge investment firms, then on the side, and now for my own funds.

To date, I've built a $50M+ portfolio of small businesses in boring industries. And there's a truth I need to share with you:

The average person thinks having a job is safer than starting a company.

They're wrong.

Here’s why: There’s a secret the gurus on social media don’t want you to know…

It's okay to prefer the comfort of a 9-5.

Society would collapse if we were ALL entrepreneurs.

Want to set yourself up for a successful week?

Start on Sundays.

This routine will change your life: We are all busy, so this is short.

No 2 hour meditation followed by chanting needed.

If you need answers from:

- CEOs
- Investors
- Founders
- Executives
- Other rich/busy/important people

The 12 best ways to get them to talk to you: Be short and to the point with them.

They simply don’t have time to read your manifesto, memoir, or 5-paragraph essay.

Owning a small business isn’t what it was like 30, 20, or even 5 years ago.

If you have ever wanted your own small business, you need to read this: 1. MBAs in 2015 vs today

Institutions have their eye on small businesses now more than ever.

There is serious opportunity here.

And it's being recognized.

The more you learn about money, the more you realize most of us play with Legos while the really rich play chess.

Here's a 101 on how the rich avoid taxes: This isn't a thread about tax evasion.

(The IRS rep reading this can relax.)

Friendly reminder though that I'm NOT a tax pro. Talk to someone with a license before you act on anything you learn on the internet.

But if this isn't about tax evasion, what IS it?

Every job sucks.

If you want to do what you love, expect many years of doing things you hate.

9 harsh truths for you to think bigger than your 9-5 and become financially free: 1. You need to reframe your thinking to HOW, not WON’T.

Instead of saying ‘that WON'T work’...

Ask 'HOW could this work for me?'

Don't be taken down by problems before they even exist.

Starting a business is one thing.

Buying a business is another.

But SCALING one?

That's when ownership truly becomes a path to financial freedom.

Here's a crash course on scaling from $1: A lifetime ago, during the '08 financial crisis, I was at Goldman.

I sat on the 30th floor while the world "collapsed" and watched the Occupy Wall Street movement protesting all below.

What happened to those guys?

The best time management advice I’ve ever followed:

Be easy to find, hard to reach... Each day the average person gets:

• 41 texts
• 100 emails
• 5 calls

If responding to each takes an average of 3 minutes...

That's 7 hours a day.

If you don't understand taxes, you'll never be truly wealthy.

There's a capital gains strategy that could save you millions.

Here's how you can leverage it (in 3 minutes): FIRST, my "be an adult" warning.

But I have to say it:

Talk to YOUR financial professional before taking tax advice from social media.

I'm no CPA.

But I've done business for quite some time, and I think you should look into this...

Age 25.

Tired, unfulfilled, ground down by the corporate world.

Now, I'm 37.

Invested $12.1M in the last year, through my OWN funds, owning 24 businesses.

Here's a breakdown of last year's investments: Investor letters always felt like pain to me.

But following Charlie Munger's death, I re-read the Berkshire shareholder letters, and it changed my perspective.

It's insightful to see the evolution of thought among great investors.

If you speak the language of money, you usually make more of it.

11 money-making basics they teach on day one of an MBA (in plain language): Basic financial education IS the barrier to entry for US business owners.

Not lack of opportunity.
Not lack of capital.
Not lack of drive.

The right knowledge solves all that.

Dear side hustlers, entrepreneurial hopefuls, job-working Johns, 9-5 dreamers...

A few truths to keep you going this week: Behind every successful entrepreneur is a bad former manager.

Push through to the other side.

How to lose good employees:

• Give them work that doesn't matter
• With no room to grow
• No clear expectations
• And surround them with low performers

How to hire AND retain A-players: How do you find and keep good workers?

Question of the century for employers.

And probably not one you've yet answered if your "company culture" looks like this:

The modern empire: a holding company.

Apple. Google. Berkshire.

Here's a free 101 class on holdcos: You've probably seen "HoldCo" thrown around on Twitter...

Ours is called Main Street Hold Co, and our mission is to bring Main Street back by investing in it.

But I realized the average person doesn't even know what a holding company IS...
mainstreethold.co