This summary and review of the book, 1000 Dollars & An Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire, was prepared by Ashley Richie while a Marketing student in the College of Business at Southeastern Louisiana University.
Executive Summary
“1000 Dollars & An Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire” by Sam Wyly was one of the most inspiring stories ever told. Before I begin summarizing the book, I would like to quote Sam Wyly. He wrote a passage at the beginning of the book, which I really liked.
“Huck explains that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mr. Mark Twain, who mostly told the truth. But Huck was not telling the whole truth because the author was born Samuel Clemens and young Sam Clemens lifted his pen name of Mark Twain from a Mississippi River steamboat pilot who wrote stories from the New Orleans Time-Picayune.
So what is here in the book is what I remember. Some I see with the clear and simple eyes of a child. Some not. Other may remember differently. So be it”, Sam Wyly.
Regardless of Sam’s recollection of the events, he wrote an amazing book. Sam takes you along his different entrepreneurial paths and explains his ups and downs.
Read more in Business
« Mirror of The HighwaySummary and Review of Getting Ghost: Two Young Lives and The Struggle for The Soul of an American City by Luke Bergmann »
Sam’s first company was University Computing. This was a small computer company that grew into a large company that made Sam his first million dollars by the time he was 30.
After trying his hand at other companies, he was thrown into the restaurant chain, Bonanza Steakhouse. Bonanza was a restaurant chain that was doing very poorly. Sam turned Bonanza around and grew the chain into a large profitable restaurant chain.
Wanting more, Sam started Earth Resources. This company took off and made a large profit for Sam and other investors. Sam knew when the right time to sell the company was and he did it just in the nick of time.
Sterling Software was the next company Sam founded. He had the same outcome as Earth Resources. The company grew and made a profit when selling at the right time was necessary.
A 22-yearlong journey with Michael’s, an arts-and-crafts store, made a big impression on Sam. He never really dreamed of owning a store like this, but with his skills, he was able to turn it into a $6 billion company when he sold it.
Other companies Sam invested in were Maverick Capital, a hedge fund investing company, and Green Mountain Energy.
Sam Wyly is a brilliant entrepreneur. In the book, he recaps all the negatives and positives of his companies. I would suggest this book to anyone, whether his or her dream is being an entrepreneur or not. Anyone can learn from Sam Wyly and his life.
The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from 1000 Dollars & An Idea
1. Managers must first know about losing before they can learn about winning.
2. Managers must set goals and make sure that the goals are realistic.
3. Managers must realize that confidence is good but over confidence can be fatal.
4. As a manager, having power is useless unless you do good with it, like creating jobs and opportunities for others to enrich their lives.
5. Mangers have to work hard, apply themselves fully, do their homework diligently, as well as, be true to their interest, ethics, ideas, desires and passions.
6. As a manager, if you breach on your values, your success is worthless.
7. During a trying time, managers must be steady, tough and strong, and to heed the lessons of the past to avoid repeating its mistakes.
8. Managers must remember, that education is what you get when you read the small print; experience is what you get when you don’t.
9. Managers must be decision makers.
10. “You have to reach for a star. You may not get a star, nor will you get a handful of mud.”
Full Summary of 1000 Dollars & An Idea
Prologue
Sam Wyly grew up in Lake Providence, Louisiana, which was voted the poorest city in the United State during that time. On a weekly basis Sam would go to the barbershop with his father. He learned a lot about selling crops and the risk that it entailed. Sam’s family had to move due to a bad year for crops. The house they moved in had no electricity. This was a trying time for Sam and his family. However, they stuck together and he learned many lessons. At the age of seven, Sam’s mother opened him a savings account. She explained that there were two ways that it was a savings account:
1. He would be saving the money instead of spending it on candy, and
2. He would earn money from the bank.
This was when Sam first learned about compound interest.
“Beat Tallulah”
While growing up in Lake Providence, Sam played football for his local high school. This is where Sam learned most of his lessons about business. He learned that you always have to work hard and sometimes you make it, but other times the other guy does better. He learned how to set realistic goals and celebrate the small goals that are reached. In reference to business and football, he learned about leverage. He realized later in life this was an important business concept. While playing football one goal that Sam and his team set was to beat Tallulah, a rival football team. This challenge was their focus. The team succeeded in this goal, but Sam realized the hard work and effort that was put in to his achievement.
Flora’s Boys
Sam learned a lot from his mother. He learned how to be an entrepreneur. When his family had to move to the house with no electricity, his mother made the house livable by trading food and other items to the neighbors. This allowed them to eat well and still have a nice house. Sam’s dad also gave up on the crop industry and opened a grocery store with a partner. Even though the grocery store failed his parents never gave up. They both became guards at Angola prison. They met many people at the prison, but Sam’s mother always found the good in people. This is something that he learned from his mother.
Big Blue
After graduating from high school, Sam started college. He originally had set his mind on being the Governor of Louisiana. He became the class president and student body president. However, after taking a few business classes, Sam realized that his dreams of being governor were fading. In one of Sam’s investment classes, he had to put together a mock portfolio of businesses. The most impressive company he chose was IBM. Sam enjoyed learning about IBM, and when the recruiting officer from IBM came to campus, Sam was there. The interview took him to Dallas for another interview. Sam received a guarantee job at IBM after graduation. However, his plans changed when he was approached by his professor about applying for a scholarship to receive his MBA. Sam was the first student to receive the Paton Scholar from Michigan.
Peter Drucker Wrote the Bible
During the summer before attending graduate school, Sam got a job at an auditing firm. This is where he was able to pay attention to how a business was run. Sam also learned about the three C’s that banks look for when you apply for a loan: collateral, credit and character. When Sam was trying to apply for a loan for his car, he had no collateral and no credit. What Sam did have was character and he was awarded the loan.
In graduate school, Sam learned about Peter Drucker. He was exposed to the many books written by Drucker and studied his management skills.
After receiving his MBA, Sam took his job at IBM. At first, the manager wanted Sam to be on the engineering side of the company. Sam felt differently and managed to convince him that he was a salesman. Sam was highly motivated and became a salesman for IBM.
Reach for a Star, Not a Handful of Mud
Sam learned a lot about a company’s culture and how it can inspire its employees. One of the slogans that stuck in his mind was to “Think”. IBM had that posted everywhere. The company was very strict with their employees. They could not drink. Also, if you lost to a competitor, you lost your job. At a meeting for IBM, one quote stuck out in his mind. The man said, “You have to reach for the star. You may not get a star, nor will you get a handful of mud.”
At IBM is where he met an inspiring friend named Ross Perot. Perot was a great salesman who reached his yearly quota in January. Sam was really impressed with Perot.
After years at IBM, Sam lost his motivation. Sam quit IBM when he had no other job or income. However, that very day, Honeywell contacted Sam and offered him a job and Sam accepted.
Me and Ross Perot
At Sam’s new job, his friend Ross Perot was now a competitor. Honeywell was starting to get into the computing business, and they were direct rivals with IBM. Sam had to do a lot of hard work in making convincing sales to the consumer. Honeywell was new to this environment, but Sam got the company big sales.
The Birth of a Company
In 1963, Sam became aware of a gap that was not being met. Many people wanted to have access to a computer, but the price then was nearly $3 million. Sam had 1000 dollars, and he was thinking of his options. His idea was to go to a local university, SMU, and try to use their real estate to have a location for the computer. Next, he would allow the student and professor to access the computer at night and on the weekends. During the week, he would have commercial customers accessing the computer. Being that the computers were $3 million a piece, he had to come up with a way to purchase the computer. Sam found a computer for sale at $600,000. This was still a lot of money for Sam, but it was a lot cheaper than $3 million.
A Thousand Dollars and an Idea
Sam had his idea in place, now was the difficult part – finding a bank to loan him $600,000. Each bank rejected Sam after countless attempts. Finally, Sam founded a company that would help him with the financing of his company. With this company helping him, the bank accepted Sam. After finalizing the loan, the company, Diversa, tells Sam that they would own 51% of the company and Sam would own 49%. Sam was really disappointed with this news, because this was his company and his idea. Now, someone else owned it. Sam made a deal with the directors that once he paid off everything, he would be able to buy the whole company back. Diversa agreed to that deal. Sam was very proud of his company, and he decided to bring his brother, Charles, into the company. The company was named University Computing, or UCC for short. The company began to expand, and in the first five years, the company grew 100% each year.
Multinational Entrepreneur
After the substantial growth of UCC, Sam and Charles decided to make the company a multinational company. They moved UCC into ten European cities. Now, with their company being open to the public market and the expansion, UCC was a success.
If You Can’t Join ‘em, Beat ‘em
Sam explained that AT&T was a borne telephone monopoly. Sam had an idea about making communication via digital lines instead of analog, which is was AT&T was providing at the time. However, AT&T was a monopoly, and their executives didn’t see the need for digital lines.
Monopoly Buster: Datran, or Die Trying
Sam thought of another company, Datran. Datran was short for Data Transmission Company. This company would enable him to break up the AT&T monopoly. Sam brought this battle all the way to the FCC. His case was not looked at for over two years, simply because of AT&T powerful connections. After five years, the FCC decided that the need for data transmission was practical and desirable. The FCC did not bust up AT&T monopoly for voice transmission, but instead, ruled that Datran could transmit data over private lines. Once the dream started being built with networks between Houston and Chicago, AT&T came in to battle with Datran by undercutting Datran’s price by 40%. In August of 1976, Sam felt that it was time to pull the plug on Datran. Sam had spent eight years of his time invested in this company and a combination of his and others $100 million. All of it was lost.
Before There was Software, There was Don Thomson
Don Thomson was the exact man that Sam was looking for when he decided to find someone to run UCC. Thomson was the one that suggested the term “software” to Sam. He mentioned that, “software was the future”. UCC developed a few software systems, which soon became industry standards.
Earth Resources
UCC was doing great, but Sam wanted a company to invest in with hard assets, like gold, silver or oil. At a meeting of the Young President’s Organization meeting, Sam met Dan Krausse. Krausse impressed Sam so much that Sam and Charles offered to buy him a company and let him manage it. The company that was created was called Earth Resources. The company continued to grow. However, with trends in the market, nothing is certain. Sam decided after a good run with Earth Resources, he wanted to sell it. Krausse nearly refused to do so. After a conflict with Krausse, Earth Resources was sold when the shares were priced at $56. After selling the firm, oil and silver prices both crashed.
Bonanza
In 1969, an old friend of Sam calls him and asked him to take a steakhouse chain, Bonanza, off of his hands. Sam realized that he had no desire to be a restaurant chain owner, but he only had three choices: walk away, sit around, or he could play the game. Sam decided to play the game, and he learned everything he could have about Bonanza. He visited top management at Bonanza and fired most of them. He quickly learned the problems with the business and was beginning to turn it around. After growing from only 20 restaurants to 600, Sam decided to sell the steakhouse chain to John Kluge, who already owned Ponderosa Steakhouse and Steak and Ale.
Taking My Losses
After losing a lot of money with Datran, Sam had to come to a tough decision about selling UCC. A man named Charles Wang, the owner of Computer Associates, wanted to buy UCC. In May of 1987, the two companies merged. Sam is still proud to say that the software created by UCC is still highly used today.
Sterling Software
Sam’s next company he decided to pursue was Sterling Software. This original idea became a leading software company. Sterling Software acquired many companies, which allowed them to grow into what they had become. Before acquiring businesses, they would make sure that the company fit what they wanted their company to be. Over 18 years, Sterling Software acquired a total of 35 companies.
Money’s Not Scarce
As Sterling Software continued to grow, the company had a threat of being acquired by a company called Informatics. Sam decided to fight back, even though Informatics was a much larger company. The first thing they did was buy Informatics stock to gain leverage. After that the fight continued for about six months. After all this time, Sterling Software finally won and acquired the much larger company. Sam was able to secure the customers of Informatics by making plans for a seamless transaction. The acquisition went very smooth, and the fact that Sterling Software was fearless got them into the game.
Never Let Your Pocketbook Tell You What You Can Do
When going through the acquisition of Informatics, Sam spotted a small division called OrderNet. This division was responsible for facilitating online purchase orders and invoice, with their focus being on the pharmaceutical industry. After taking this small division and turning into something great, Sam also acquired other companies to move his own company into a positive direction. However, in the end, Sam sold Sterling Software for $4 billion to Computer Associates.
The Crafty Woman
Investing in a craft store was never on Sam’s list of things to do before he dies. However, when the opportunity presented itself, Sam embraced it. Sam decided to buy Michael’s, a small art-and-crafts chain, without even stepping into the store itself. Michael’s was already a success when the company acquired a framing service company, Aaron Brothers. This allowed Michael’s to offer customized framing to its customers. In 1994, ten years after owning the company, Michael’s had grown to 380 stores and the stock price had risen immensely. By 1995, Michael’s now had grown to 442 stores, and they were bigger than any other competitors.
After having problems with a decentralized structure, Sam had to make a decision to have the company function under a centralized structure. This allowed for the company to be consist throughout every store. This also worked much better for the company and its customers.
After 22 years of owning Michaels, Sam sold the company for $6 billion in cash.
Maverick Investor
Maverick is a company that deals with hedge funds. Sam decided to partner with his son, Evan, when starting this company. Maverick manages $10 billion for over 700 investors. Evan and a guy named Lee managed the company, but Same eventually decided to close it down after going through a crisis in 2007.
The Good Earth
In 1997, Sam decided he wanted to be a champion of the clean air revolution. This decision brought him on a ten year-long journey with a company called Green Mountain Energy. Sam believed that investing in green technology would lead to economic growth. When thinking about his company, Sam wanted to give Americans the choice of clean air. He believed that customer would want clean energy, even if it cost more. Green Mountain Energy has taken step to be able to get into every city. However, it is difficult because most energy companies are monopolies. Nonetheless, Sam is willing to do want it takes to give consumers a choice in clean air.
Surprise!
For Sam’s 70th birthday, his family decided to throw him a surprise birthday party. This brought back a lot of memories for Sam, because most of his friends that he had worked with over the years were there. Sam realized that finding success comes from inside. He also believes that you have to work hard, do your homework, and be true to yourself in all aspects. Sam also hopes that his story will help inspire someone one day, which was the reason for writing this book.
The Great Crash of 2008
Sam extended his book to include the great crash of 2008. Sam explains a lesson that he learned when his family was having struggles. Sam explains that a family has to stick together and stay happy. Also, a family must learn from the hard times and grow during the prosperous times.
No Money Down
Sam expresses how he feels about recent new homebuyers not having to put down any money on a house they cannot afford. This is a reason why we are in the mess that we are in with the economy. Sam explains that this has resulted in a domino effect of events, including: layoffs, unemployment, business failures, consumer confidence decreasing and bankruptcies increasing.
Growth
Sam is hoping that the crash will increase some good amount of regulation on the market. He believes that there is hope in the government to do the right thing.
Finally, Sam believes the Great Crash of 2008 marks the end of an era and knows America will never fail.
Interview with the author:
Personal Insights
Why I think:
· The author is one of the most brilliant people around…or is full of $%&#, because:
Sam Wyly is one of the most brilliant people around, because he is always one step ahead. Wyly is a brilliant entrepreneur, who has had his high and low points throughout his life. However, he never gave up on his dreams, values or his passions. Aside from being a brilliant man, Wyly is extremely inspiring.
· If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:
1. I would have written the book in chronological order of the events that occurred. The book can get confusing, because the author jumps from decade to decade often.
2. If I were the author, I would not have written the never-ending paragraphs about stocks and hedge funds. The information gets very confusing when you are not a finance major.
3. If I were the author, I would have made the book flow a little better. The book got somewhat confusing when trying to depict his life.
· Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:
1. This book made me think differently about an entrepreneur’s struggles in the business world.
2. This book made me think differently about never giving up. Never giving up means you have to stick to what you are striving for.
3. This book made me think differently about expanding my horizons. Wyly touched nearly every industry there is out there, and these experiences made him a better businessman.
· I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:
1. I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by reading a lot of books and magazines about the industry I am in. Wyly did this and managed to stay ahead of the game.
2. I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by never giving up on my passions and values. This was very important to Wyly, and it kept him true to himself.
3. I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by never giving up on anything I put my mind to.
· Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:
When reading the reviews, mostly what I found were positive reviews. Even the poorly rated reviews found a positive thing to say about the book. Many people expressed how ethical Sam Wyly is as a person and businessman. Others commented on how he actually wrote the book himself, which was really impressive. One negative comment I found was that there was not enough details in the book, which left them wanting more. Others found great wisdom in Sam Wyly’s book. In general, the majority of the reviews were positive, there were only a handful that did not like the book.
Bibliography
Customer Reviews: 1000 Dollars and an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire: Expanded Edition. From Amazon. Retrieved April 20, 2010. Website: http://www.amazon.com/000-Dollars-Idea-Entrepreneur-Billionaire/product-reviews/1557048487/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_pop_hist_all?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&qid=1271816220&sr=8-1
Wyly, Sam. (2009). 1000 Dollars and an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire: Expanded Edition. New York: Newmarket Press
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Contact Info: To contact the author of this Summary and Review of 1000 Dollars & An Idea, please email Ashley.Richie@selu.edu.
David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/.
Originally published Summary and Review of 1000 Dollars & an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire by Sam Wyly
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
