THE
BILLIONAIRE
BLACKBOOK
CREATE A HYPERGROWTH COMPANY
ACCELERATE YOUR FINANCIAL FORTUNE
BAT TLEPROOF YOUR PROSPERIT Y
Table of Contents
1. How Billionaires Do It3
2. The Hypergrowth Company’s Obsessions
5
3. How to Battleproof a Business Against an Economic Crisis
9
4. The Million Dollar Weekend Philosophy
16
5. The Twin Cycles of Elite Performance
20
6. The Beggar + The Billionaire 22
7. The 8 Forms of Wealth
25
8. What Rich Really Means28
9. The 6 Power Tools of Fortune-Builders
30
10. How Heavyweights Work [at home]
34
11. The 6 Rules of Worldwide Influence
36
12. Radical Ideas to Make Your Empire
40
13. 22 Moves to Raise The World 42
14. Hard Work As a GCA
45
15. 5 Tactics for Thriving in a Recession
47
16. How Warren Buffet Won [Important New Model]
50
17. The 37 New Rules for Superstardom
53
18. Apply The Michael Gerber Maxim
56
19. Be Worthy of Your Good Name
58
1. How Billionaires Do It
It’s been absolutely fascinating mentoring so many billionaires for the past two decades.
I must share: they are not of a different universe than you nor do they possess talents you
don’t have.
Not at all.
Many are actually fairly ordinary. And have come from hard backgrounds (sometimes
this factor actually serves them well as they have something to prove to the world; which
makes them relentless).
The tycoons have just discovered how to operate in extraordinary ways. And when done so
over time, the steady daily gains stack into exponential lifetime successes.
I must emphasize that each of my super high-net-worth clients all have one particular habit
in common: each has a mentor.
You see:
—even a single conversation with someone whose life you wish you were living can
introduce you to a reality that you never considered possible before.
—even a single line of advice could save you from years of suffering and collapse the
timeline of your success by decades.
—even 20 minutes observing a superstar in action could activate an entirely neural
architecture and an unusually new way of operating that causes you to lead your field. And
dominate your game.
I write a lot about my mentors. My grade 5 history teacher Cora Greenaway. The cofounder of Apple, Steve Wozniak. My father.
3 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How Billionaires Do It
For today, please simply think about how valuable it would be to your primal greatness and
most heroic dreams to have someone in your corner. Someone to champion you, to guide
you and to help you keep going when you feel like giving up.
Someone who has the experience at life to guide you to x10 your results. Swiftly, elegantly
and working less than you’ve ever worked (because you’re working more effectively versus
just being busy).
And...please know that...
You have the gifts. You carry the talent. Perhaps these blessings just need to be grown and
then polished. For you to fulfill the call of greatness destiny has in store for you.
4 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
2. The Hypergrowth
Company’s Obsessions
Another learning framework that will be immensely valuable to you as an empire-builder,
movement-maker and world-changer is this one because it’s essentially a deconstruction
of what makes a domain dominant business:
THE HYPERGROWTH
COMPANY’S OBSESSIONS
1
REG
RADICALLY
EXPONENTIAL
GROWTH
9
ELO
2
TOAP
EXTREMELY
LEAN
OPERATIONS
8
TEAM OF
A-PLAYERS
3
CEOSBU
GCMM
LEADING
WITHOUT A
TITLE
GLOBALLY
CHERISHED
MOVEMENT
MENTALITY
4
7
APO
WCUX
AUTOPLAY
ORGANIZATION
WORLD-CLASS
USER
EXPERIENCE
5
6
RRM
RELENTLESS
REINVENTION
MINDSET
5 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
BIWP
BEST IN WORLD
PRODUCTS
The Hypergrowth Company’s Obsessions
Quickly accelerating, exceedingly profitable and exceptionally ethical enterprises remain
centered, with sniper-like attention, on these nine targets that I encourage them to build a
monomaniacal focus around.
Target #1: Radically Exponential Growth (REG)
Incremental growth is for non-visionary companies and meek leaders who settle for second
best. We are blessed to exist in an epoch where, if you do the right things, you can scale
your shop in massive ways instead of accepting the traditional path of minor expansion
over a period of many years. As a matter of fact, exponential growth demands just about
the same resources and energy as ordinary growth. The real difference lies in your intention
along with the levels of innovation, the strategy, industry and the standards to which you
and your team stay faithful to.
Target #2: A Team of A-Players (TOAP)
The bigger the dream, the more important the team. Hypergrowth companies populate
their organization only with a bunch of people who love to learn, have sterling values, are
astonishingly resourceful, are exceptional collaborators, work really hard and are wired
to win in anything that they do. Elite businesses are filled with human beings who behave
more like an entrepreneur than an employee.
Target #3: Leadership without a Title (CEO SBU)
Legendary organizations are places that are set up such that every employee is considered
less a follower and more a leader. This powerful philosophy strips the victimhood out of
the culture and replaces it with the requirements and responsibilities of leadership. No
matter what the employee’s role—whether one is in human resources or sales or research
or manufacturing or IT—everyone needs to fully operate as if they are the Chief Executive
Officer of a Small Business Unit that is their area of responsibility. Each teammate
throughout the company must Lead Without a Title. And demonstrate greatness wherever
they are planted (instead of making excuses because they lack formal authority).
6 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The Hypergrowth Company’s Obsessions
Target #4: The Autoplay Organization (APO)
One of the pitfalls that degrade a brand is allowing it to become a cult of personality.
Growing a firm around a single charismatic genius of a leader is highly risky. Hypergrowth
companies that sustain their success are structured so that the operation can run
completely without the visionary founder. Building an enterprise that’s as automated as
possible is a sensible move. This also makes the enterprise far easier to sell should the
founder be interested in a liquidity event.
Target #5: Best in World Products (BIWP)
Essential insight: too many companies spend 20% of their time on making the goods to be
traded and 80% of the time on the marketing of these products. Hypergrowth comes from
the ongoing manufacturing of general magic. Brand dominance occurs by creating things
that are so gaspworthy to the user and spellbinding to the consumer, that they tell everyone
they know about that which you do. When you work with love each person who interacts
with your product will fall in love with your product. Because human beings all ache for
more love within their lives. The best way to accelerate a movement around business is via
word of mouth, right? And good things always happen for people who deliver great things.
Target #6: A Relentless Reinvention Mindset (RRM)
Either you are the disrupter of your marketplace or you are certain to be disrupted. Be
distinct or you’ll become extinct. Be different or you’ll become dust. Humans are hardwired
with what psychologists call a “normalcy bias.” This means that we have a psychological
predisposition to think that the way things have been will be the way things will always be.
This inclination toward assuming that minor or tectonic change cannot happen in a day is a
coping mechanism. It makes us (falsely) feel safe in this increasingly dangerous world. And
in control of our circumstances.
Hypergrowth company leaders understand that the world can be completely altered within
a single hour. And so, their bias is toward constant innovation, consistent improvement
and continuous reinvention. They apply what I call “Strategic Paranoia,” walking the daily
tightrope between staying hopeful and positive while being incredibly well prepared for a
sudden catastrophic downturn. By innovating and optimizing their business relentlessly.
7 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The Hypergrowth Company’s Obsessions
Target #7: A World-Class User Experience (WCUX)
The user experience of your firm is a key performance indicator of the endurability of
your success (or failure). Your UX is essentially what the consumers of your products
and services think and feel as they consume what you offer. Hypergrowth companies
meticulously orchestrate the UX of their offering; ensuring that it’s simple, intuitive,
beautiful, life-enriching and utterly awe-inspiring, winning the minds and the hearts of those
they serve in the process.
Target #8: The Globally Cherished Movement Mentality (GCMM)
You really do need to think like a movement-maker if you wish to know extreme growth
of your visionary venture. This means you fully appreciate not only that movements are
made one customer at a time (so treat each one like they put the food on your dinner
table: because they do) but also that delighting your patrons and giving them enchanting
results in proportion to what they have paid (I label this devotion to becoming a merchant
of wow The 10x Value Obsession in that – at every stage of the value chain you and your
shop provides ten times the benefit that a customer has any right to expect) so that they
wouldn’t even dream of doing business with anyone else but you.
Target #9: Extremely Lean Operations (ELO)
Another really important insight I really want you to load into the way you play: Growing
the size of your operation simply for growth’s sake is generally a pursuit of the ego. Please
don’t fall into the all-too-common trap of hiring more teammates, leasing more office space
and adding more supplies just to make yourself feel that you are more important (see how
Heartset healing and inner work is the real key to the sustained success of your outer
empires?). As you rise in business, keep your boots on the ground. Maintain an Extremely
Lean Organization (ELO), thinking like the hungry, agile, creative and tight-fisted startup
entrepreneur that you were.
Because your very survival depended on it. It still does, now.
As a business-builder, you never want to become an employee of your enterprise just to
pay for your overhead; that’s not why you entered business. Hypergrowth companies are
monomaniacally obsessed with staying as lean as possible, avoiding bureaucratic bloat,
keeping expenses unusually low, profits high and community impact strong. In so doing,
such companies endure, in good times and bad.
8 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
3. How to Battleproof
a Business Against an
Economic Crisis
The global economy is cyclical in nature. As you know. Because you’re intelligent.
...Bull markets inevitably give way to bear markets.
...Periods of fantastic growth eventually become times of stagnation. Or stagflation.
...a season of prosperity—no matter how long—will eventually morph into a recession.
Or, once every few decades, into an outright economic depression.
Yes, as human beings we do practice normalcy bias as a means to stay positive and feel safe
in a highly unstable world.
We think that during good cycles things will continue to grow rather than understanding
the concept of exponential decay. We resist believing that things could collapse in a day,
dramatically altering the way the world looks in an instant.
Wise businesspeople hope for the best and plan for the worst. Self-deception could
destroy you. And the time to plan for everything falling apart is well before a crisis hits.
It’s far smarter to be a year early than a week too late, isn’t it?
9 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How to Battleproof a Business Against an Economic Crisis
My clients have found my methodologies around constructing an armor-plated business
that prosperous in economic downturn highly helpful so I felt compelled to share it with
you here:
THE BATTLEPROOFED
ENTERPRISE
THE BATTLEPROOFED ENTERPRISE
1
3
ELO
LOA
4
DSS
ATP
2
OYWC
GMFF
5
6
Here are 6 of the acronyms I teach to my clients in The Circle of Legends online mentoring
program to ensure that they systematize their businesses so they not only navigate
volatility beautifully (while their competitors’ businesses contract), they increase results
dramatically when the downturn ends.
10 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How to Battleproof a Business Against an Economic Crisis
#1. ELO: Extremely Lean Organization
Most companies have too many people, too many costs and too much inefficiency.
I call this “complexity bloat” and it’s generally part of the lifecycle of a growing company.
Layer after layer of complication gets placed over what was once a nimble, speedy
operation. One of the regular ways billionaires think is “Be profit-focused versus salesobsessed.” In other words, making things really complicated in an effort to grow sales
is foolish if it reduces your profit. And it doesn’t really matter how much your company
makes. What matters is how much you take home.
So, before turbulence strikes, go find a cabin somewhere in the woods and spend two
good days doing some strategic thinking.
Analyze who on your team you would hire again, knowing what you now know about
them. One of the biggest mistakes I see my clients making is keeping people who are not
excellent performers on their team because they like them. And because they’re scared of
change. And because they avoid conflict. And because they are just really nice people.
Of course it’s essential to be kind. That doesn’t mean you keep poor or average producers.
You’re leading a business, not running a charity. If someone can’t keep up, they don’t
belong on your team.
Keeping an underperformer at a high-velocity company is incredibly stressful for the
underperformer. They’ll be a lot happier at a place with a slower pace, lower standards
and fewer demands.
And allowing slow movers to stay is absolutely unfair to your superstars who work super
hard, learn and grow, innovate and are deeply invested in the mission of your shop.
You really can’t have an A-Level company with C-Grade employees. You just can’t.
In your dream cabin, after listing who on your team needs to go (in order to become lean
and strong in a crisis), do a dive into all of your costs. Most entrepreneurs love the creative
part of being in business and can’t stand studying financials. So they don’t. And this often
11 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How to Battleproof a Business Against an Economic Crisis
costs them their fortune.
(Never outsource your accounting, by the way. One billionaire revealed to me that where
there’s a lot of money coming in and no one checking, there’s pretty much a guarantee of
fraud happening.)
Finally, as part of this important exercise, consider any inefficiencies such as sectors
you should no longer be in, products you need to stop making and lines of business that
just drag down productivity, performance, profits and contribution to the communities
you serve.
Makes me think of that famous meeting where Steve Jobs, knowing that Apple was 90
days away from bankruptcy, asked that all the products they were making be laid out on
a long boardroom table.
The company had grown bloated and unfocused, making everything from computers
to printers to peripherals.
He then informed his leadership team that almost every product on the table would not be
produced anymore. Using a lesson he learned while at Pixar, where the organization would
completely focus on only one animated movie for a three year period, he revealed that
Apple would bet the farm on a new personal computer.
It would be called the iMac. It would have a unique shape. It would come in fascinating
colors (when computers all came in the same shade of beige). It would change the world.
This single bold move around a single great focus led to an unforgettable comeback.
A total reversal of the organization’s fortunes.
What I’m suggesting is that you want to see your firm like a small sailboat versus
a big ship.
Little boats are able to turn swiftly in a storm and capitalize on the changed conditions.
Big ships have a ton of difficulty manoeuvring amid new seas.
12 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How to Battleproof a Business Against an Economic Crisis
#2. DSS: Different Sources of Sales
World-class financial investors know that a key to superior performance is what they call
“asset allocation.”
They understand exactly how much capital to place in a range of asset classes.
And in doing this well, they install a strong hedging strategy.
For example, putting a certain amount of money in equities and then some in bonds and a
portion in real estate and then investing some in startups spreads the risk across a number
of categories. In this way the danger of catastrophic loss is hedged, or mitigated.
I see the industry titans I work with apply the same method within their enterprises.
They ensure they have different streams of sales, from various products and services.
If one line of business is hit by an unexpected event, they are not devastated.
Yes, I know this contradicts my philosophy of being monomaniacally focused on just one
project that I offered in the previous point.
Yet, nothing’s perfect, right? And being a superb entrepreneur is less a science than an art.
It’s textured and nuanced and intuitive.
There are many ways to win.
13 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How to Battleproof a Business Against an Economic Crisis
#3. LOA: Leverage + Outsource and Automate
We live in an amazing age.
Digital nomads run their entire media companies off a cheap phone. They work and play
in multiple counties, take a lot of vacations and lead low-stress lifestyles.
To insulate your company against severe disruption in a difficult economy I suggest that
you leverage technology as much as possible. Always be on the hunt for the latest new
tool that will help your team move faster, with less expense and with greater delivery
of value.
Related to this is the imperative of getting really, really good at outsourcing work to
contractors who do what they say they will do. Engaging great contractors has many
benefits, such as reduced obligation should you need to let them go in a crisis, receiving
strong results because they are entrepreneurs who own their companies, and the ability
to grow your reach as they grow their team, without any additional overhead on your side.
The last element of this acronym speaks to the power of automation. Ideally, you want to
build a business that runs without you. An organization that gives you a beautiful lifestyle
in periods of both prosperity and scarcity.
#4. ATP: Advanced Threat Protection
As I mentioned earlier in this chapter, the time to prepare for an emergency is long before
the emergency happens.
I invited a celebrated astronaut to share his story on my stage at The Titan Summit and I’ll
never forget one of the main points that he made: most of the training of an astronaut is
preparing for situations where things go wrong.
So take the time to think through and list all of the “Threats and Vulnerabilities” you could
face in a crisis. Remember: with better daily awareness, you can make the better daily
choices that will yield better daily results.
Then immerse yourself in the “Pivots and Protections” that you must put in place now
to make certain that when things go south in the economy, you rise up.
14 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How to Battleproof a Business Against an Economic Crisis
#5. OYWC: The One-Year War Chest
This concept just might save everything for you in a national or global financial collapse.
It sure has for so many of my clients.
Install a non-negotiable protocol at your venture such that, at all times, you have a
year’s worth of your current expenses in cash. In an account. That you don’t touch.
No matter what.
This is your “sleep deeply at night fund.” This is the liquidity required to survive when
surprise strikes. It’ll also allow you the confidence and ability to capitalize on the
opportunity that calamity always brings.
As one of my clients often says (quoting Baron Rothschild, the 18th century ultra banker):
“Buy when there’s blood in the streets.”
#6. GMFF: A Global Movement of Fanatical Followers
Empire-makers are all in the movement-making business.
Every step they take is carefully designed to add more enthusiastic supporters to the
worldwide uprising they are building around their brands, products and services.
Part of what’s required to do this is to see your business through a whole new lens:
as a beauty salon of sorts, so disciplined that you and the band of missionaries who
work with you only send lovely, gasp-worthy and breathtaking goods into the marketplace.
Even better: view your company as a magic shop, giving your customers nothing less
than pure magic that leaves them spellbound, astounded and awestruck.
Do this (consistently) and you’ll elevate your current patrons to fanatical followers.
They won’t just like doing business with you. They’ll fall in love with conducting
business with you.
And when you capture a human’s heart—by dazzling them with delight—they won’t
leave you. Even in a depression.
15 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
4. The Million Dollar
Weekend Philosophy
Oh my—how this chapter will amplify the income, influence and impact of empiremakers. I carefully and passionately walk you through one of the models that has
been one of the life structures that I make certain that my clients embrace regularly,
so they experience not only the next-level or financial fortune but days of joy, peace
and freedom.
Flow. You really do want to set lifestyle up so this state of high genius becomes
institutionalized. So that you envisioning extraordinary scenarios and imagining worldchanging ideas becomes systematized. And the learning framework above is one
powerful way to do this.
As I walk you through it, I recommend that you turn down the volume of the entrenched
beliefs that will surely surface as you study what I’m about to teach you. It’s all very
contrarian. Yet it works. If you do it. [And won’t, if you dismiss it].
I’ve had many clients apply this model to make at least $1,000,000 in a weekend. A fair
number have employed it to make over $10,000,000 in about two days and a few have
used the method to generate insights and detect opportunities that have made them
over $100,000,000.
The underlying premise of the method is this: the genius-level thinking that transforms
entire industries and creates a new world order only happens amidst isolation and in
conditions that create immense inspiration.
In scenarios that generate the flow state is what I’m saying.
16 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The Million Dollar Weekend Philosophy
THE MILLION DOLLAR WEEKEND
PHILOSOPHY
Ok—as you can see—there are 3 basic steps to follow:
THE MILLION-DOLLAR WEEKEND PHILOSOPHY
STEP
SPECIAL PLACE/CITY IN THE WORLD
INSPIRATIONAL
BEAUTIFUL
DEEPLY JOYFUL
ALONE
BOOK THE BEST HOTEL FOR YOUR
STYLE FRI/SAT/SUN
STEP
BOOK THE PENTHOUSE
STEP
MASSAGE ON FRIDAY
CHEF COOKS FOR YOU FRIDAY PM
STEP
SATURDAY + SUNDAY
IDEATE
BATTLE PLAN + GAME SHEETS
MARKET DISRUPTION
NEW VALUE UNLOCKS
NEXT LEVEL OF BRAND/QUALITY
OF OPERATIONS
LIFESTYLE RETHINK
THINK LEGACY
READ DEEPLY
PSYCHOLOGY OF POSSIBILITY
ELLEN LANGER
INCREASE SELF IDENTITY
NARRATIVE + STORY RISES
EXPONENTIALLY
TRANSIENT HYPOFRONTALITY
BETA
ALPHA
THETA
PFC
PHARMACY
OF MASTERY
DOPAMINE
SEROTONIN
17 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
PREFRONTAL CORTEX
SILENCES TEMPORARILY
FLOW STATE
GENIUS BEGINS
INCOME: , ,
+
,
K APPROX./NIGHT
COST:
PROFIT:
,
ROI:
%
COST OF A TRULY WORLD CLASS
EXPERIENCE:
FREE
,
PROFIT!
YOU MADE
The Million Dollar Weekend Philosophy
Step #1: Book a trip to the place in the world that makes you feel
most alive.
Yes, I know you’re busy and that this will cost you money. Recall that financial
heavyweights focus on the return an investment will yield. Ordinary performers get super
stuck on the cost of things, missing the fact that you have to spend money to make money.
And that it’s their scarcity psychology and money story that’s keeping them down.
Not a lack of real opportunity.
Book the most stylish hotel in that city that you can find. A property that makes you feel
like you’re a king or queen. The whole idea here is to set up a situation where you feel
absolutely world-class. In this energy you’ll download the creativity that—when executed
upon—will raise you to world-class financially.
Reserve the room from Friday night until late Sunday afternoon. Yes, you can do this.
And go alone. The peak of your brilliance will rarely appear when you’re with
another human.
Step #2: Book the finest suite you can get.
Going cheap will end up costing you more as you perform this exercise. Trust me.
So take a leap of faith. And get the penthouse. If you can. Being in that space—at an
exquisite hotel—in your favorite destination, will cause you to completely detach from
your usual life. The environment will serve to reorder your self-identity. You’re living as
a superstar. You’ll start ideating—and believing in your powers—like one too.
18 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The Million Dollar Weekend Philosophy
Step #3: On the Friday evening, schedule a two hour deep tissue
massage at the hotel’s spa.
Yes—not thirty minutes, not even 90. A full and beautiful and fantastically awesome 120
minute session of bodywork. Then, arrange for a chef to cook for you. Yes, it’s all possible.
All you need to do is ask. Setting all this up in advance will raise you into the psychology of
possibility and the emotionality of heroism. This is preparation required for what will unfold
over the weekend.
By Saturday morning you’ll enter the neurological state known by neuroscientists as
transient hypofrontality.
...your prefrontal cortex will become less active (this is the “hypo” part of the term for
a temporary period (that’s the “transient” portion of the phrase).
...the neurobiology of greatness will be activated.
...your brain waves will go from beta to alpha and down to theta.
In Flow, you’ll ascend to the secret orbit that only the greatest artists, entrepreneurs,
warriors and movement-makers of history have known.
Run this strategy correctly—with full commitment—and The Muse will send you ideas
worth a minimum of one million dollars. See the framework to get a glimpse of your profit.
Now, experience has taught me that most creatives and businesspeople will reject
this model.
They get caught up on what society has taught them is possible and argue that this
would never work. So they don’t even try it. And so it doesn’t work.
19 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
5. The Twin Cycles of
Elite Performance
Rare-air performance and industry-leading productivity are non-linear games.
The key to mastery lies in a single word: Oscillation.
The virtuosos of creativity, commerce, athletics and social movements got their
great results because they alternated periods of supreme intensity and seasons of
blatant recovery.
When they worked they worked with monomaniacal focus, deploying their talent
completely on their magnum opus. And then, they regenerated their empty reservoirs.
And recovered and rested.
THE TWIN CYCLES OF ELITE
PERFORMANCE
THE TWIN CYCLES OF ELITE PERFORMANCE
PROTECTION OF THE 5 ASSETS OF GENIUS
1 . M E N TA L F O C U S
PH
HEC
20 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
DRC
IG
ER
THE HIGH
EXCELLENCE
CYCLE
PO
W
4.
OR
ENERGY
5 . DA I
CAL
LY T
YSI
IME
2.
THE DEEP
REFUELING
CYCLE
IN
AL
TA L
ENT
3. PE
RSO
NA
I
LW
LL
The Twin Cycles of Elite Performance
Your 5 Assets of Genius:
Asset
Asset
Asset
Asset
Asset
#1:
#2:
#3:
#4:
#5:
Your
Your
Your
Your
Your
Mental Focus
Physical Energy
Personal Willpower
Original Talent
Daily Time
These five resources are the five treasures you absolutely must bulletproof and fortify in
The Age of Dramatic Distraction. The best way I know of to achieve this is not only to block
out the noise via your Tight Bubble of Total Focus but to ensure that you don’t fall into the
rut of working so steadily and so often that you demean – and perhaps even – burn out the
very gifts that can make you great.
Oscillation and non-linear productivity speak to the wisdom of running your A-Game
as cycles:
The High Excellence Cycle when you produce intensely and express your genius as
fiercely as you can. Then, you enter The Deep Refuelling Cycle which is all about renewal.
And refilling spent reserves. Operate like this and your genius will not only be protected so
you lead your field for many decades – your gifts will actually grow (because strengths are
elevated during the resting stage, as any great athlete and physical trainer knows).
…Each day, work your 5 Great Hours and then refuel with a good walk in nature or fun
with your family or an interesting film.
…Each week, take at least a day completely off, without digital devices, work activities
and heavy responsibilities.
…Each month, schedule even more time away from your craft – to travel, play, sleep
and enjoy the success that you’ve earned.
Following The Twin Cycles of Elite Performance will set up a protective shield against
degradation of the mastery that the world is waiting for you to deliver.
Please remember: Recovery isn’t a waste of time. Pausing to refuel regularly will actively
accelerate your creativity, maximize your productivity and escalate your impact.
In a beautiful way.
21 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
6. The Beggar + The Billionaire
Sure he possessed regal mansions, royal yachts and jewels of every sort.
But each morning, when he awoke, his heart longed for a wealth that felt more true.
As a child, he sensed he had gifts within him that could produce artistry, talents inside
him that would reveal mastery and potential that just might astound humanity.
As a young man, he knew the secret to a special life was less about things–and more
about experiences. Less about getting and more about growing. Less about taking and
more about giving.
Along with…
…discovering beauty in unexpected places, doing work that enriched his spirit, being
kind to strangers on everyday streets and passing through each day with simple grace.
And quiet strength.
But as he grew older, and as he accumulated his vast fortune, those ideals became
less important.
He stopped thinking about his special life. And started living fully in society.
One day, the billionaire met a beggar on a road.
The beggar’s clothing was tattered. The old man’s hair was in knots. A tin can sat before
him. With only a few coins in it.
Yet, for all his seeming poverty, the beggar had an exquisite richness about him.
The kind cash can never buy.
22 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The Beggar + The Billionaire
“You’ve lost your way, haven’t you,” spoke the beggar. “I sense you have everything yet
you feel very little. You own so much in the world but remember so little of your true–and
best–self.”
“Yes,” admitted the billionaire. “Yes, you’re right.”
“Who are you when no one is watching you?” Questioned the beggar.
“What are the deepest longings of your heart and the most daring dreams of your soul?”
“Are you intimate with your greatness? And in relationship with your highness?”
“This is the wealth that the wise amongst us know of.”
The billionaire stared at the beggar.
“How do you know me so well?” he wondered aloud.
“I know you because I was once you. And my misfortune can serve as your lesson.”
“It’s never too late to remember who you truly are, you know,” offered the beggar as he
scratched his ancient beard.
“And this new day offers you a second chance at beginning your finest life. It’s never too
late to be who you wish to be. And lead the life I trust your heart aches to live.”
The billionaire closed his eyes for a moment.
The billionaire felt tears in his eyes. Over the years he’d betrayed himself. And the regrets
that had consumed him. He vowed to change.
Not just for he and those he loved most. But for the world. That demanded more of his
genuine nature. And brightest light.
23 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The Beggar + The Billionaire
The billionaire promised himself–that from then on–he’d only release work that was
poetic. That he’d develop the people at his businesses. That he’d serve more humans
in the marketplace and within communities. That he’d take more risks and count more
blessings.
And that he’d model possibility while dedicating himself to philanthropy. For the benefit
of humanity.
He also told himself he’d be more vulnerable, fill the holes within him he’d been trying
to mask with materialism, become a better man and show up as a dramatically kinder
person.
As he opened his eyes, he saw that the beggar was gone.
And where he had sat was a torn piece of paper that simply read:
“Every life matters. Every one of us can be great. Each day is a gift. Today’s a perfect
time to start. I believe in you. You have what this journey takes. And I love you.”
24 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
7. The 8 Forms of Wealth
In my mind, success isn’t just about making money. There are actually 8 elements
that you want to make sure are at world-class levels before you call yourself a winner.
Let me identify them:
THE 8 FORMS OF WEALTH
T
TH
F
FT
N
F5
PROSPERIT Y
25 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
L
4
F
F7
ME
RS
F3
FO
F
6
S OF WEA
CR
A
FA MILY
8
F
THE
A
2
A DV EN T URE
8
RM
TO
HE
F1
IM
AC
H
LT
P
SEL F -MA S T ERY
The 8 Forms of Wealth
#1. Inner Success
This includes a positive mindset, high-self respect, internal peace and a strong
spiritual connection.
#2. Physical Success
Your health is your wealth. What’s the point of getting to a great place in your career
if you get sick doing it? Why be the richest person in the graveyard?
#3. Family Success
When your family life is happy, you will perform better at work. No one gets to the end
of their lives and regrets making their family a top priority.
#4. Career Success
Actualizing your highest potential by reaching for your best in your career is incredibly
important. Getting to greatness in your profession brings a feeling of satisfaction on
a job well done.
#5. Economic Success
Money is important. Makes life easier and better. Money allows you to live in a nice
home. Take beautiful vacations and provide well for those you love.
#6. Community Success
Human beings have a psychological need for connection and belonging. A rich network
of mentors, interesting thinkers and valued friends just makes life better.
#7. Adventure Success
To be fulfilled, each of us needs mystery in our lives. Challenge is necessary for
happiness. The human brain craves novelty. And we are creative beings so we need
to be creating constantly if we hope to feel joy. Lots of adventure (ranging from meeting
new people to visiting new places) is an essential element of success.
26 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The 8 Forms of Wealth
#8. Impact Success
Perhaps the deepest longing of the human heart is to live for something greater than
itself. Each of us craves to be significant. To make a difference. To know that the world
has somehow been better because we have walked the planet.
I invite you to focus on each of these 8 elements if you want to experience authentic
success. Money alone does not define success. There are many rich people who are
unhappy and therefore unsuccessful as human beings. By focusing on elevating all
8 of these areas to world-class levels, you will not only shine ever so brightly for all
those around you – you will also find contentment that lasts.
27 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
8. What Rich Really Means
I’ve spent 25 years advising billionaires, celebrated CEOs and other titans of industry on
how to multiply their income, lift their influence + unleash their highest impact.
Here’s one of the strange paradoxes I’ve observed: a number of them are super-wealthy
but very poor.
...they have money yet lack meaning
...they have a large net worth but low self-worth
...they have jets and yachts but no joy and peace.
I wish that you always keep what’s most essential to a soaring, gorgeous and well-led
life at the center of your focus. So your mornings, days and nights are built around what
matters. Not seductive trivialities.
Some of the primary metrics of success I do my best to govern my life by are:
—usefulness to society
—love of family
—artistic integrity
—an ecosystem of beauty
—high-craft mastery
—ongoing personal healing and growth
—regular majestic adventures
—real dedication to helping those in need
28 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
What Rich Really Means
I’m no guru.
Never have been. Never wish to be.
No one special. I pray I’ve never suggested that to you.
Yet I do work hard in my ongoing attempt to live these priorities.
They are personal, yet I share them with you, in the hope that you pay even more
attention to the values that make up your scoreboard, when it comes to winning.
Few things shatter a human heart as much as reaching the end of your life and realizing
that you lived it based on someone else’s terms.
Authenticity is a powerful gateway drug into JPF: Joy/Peace/Freedom, isn’t it?
29 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
9. The 6 Power Tools of
Fortune-Builders
My thoughts are on magic. Yes, magic...
Because...
...you have “the magic” that Mr. Riley speaks of within The 5AM Club, deep within you.
...you hold the ability to be the glorious magician of your field.
...you carry the capacity to make your life into an electrifying magic show.
The starting point is developing the eyesight to see that what I write of is true.
See, here’s the thing: With the layers of doubt, fear and disbelief people sold us as we
left the wonder of childhood, the majority are blinded to their true nature. And to the way
the world really works.
A line from the book that so many people have been sharing: Limitation is a mentality
that most people practice daily until it becomes their reality.
We see life through a lens. Through a pair of goggles. Via a filter. Made up of our closely
cherished beliefs—and regularly run emotional patterns.
And we rehearse these constantly until they submerge into our subconscious...
...if you’re not aware, you’ll believe what you see is true. Instead of recognizing that what
you’re witnessing is simply your perception of what’s true.
30 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The 6 Power Tools of Fortune-Builders
To enter the magic that only the advanced minds of history were able to access, I suggest
you begin training yourself on the following 6 daily practices:
#1. Deliberately Set Project Intentions
I’ve never been so enthusiastic about setting intentions for the activities I do. Intentions are
creative, I’ve discovered. Set the intention to produce a new product that users find to be
pure genius and it’s remarkable how that focus becomes real.
Predict that your morning workout will be intense, excellent and thorough and your thinking
will make it so. Mentally [and emotionally] commit to running your next team meeting full
of inspiration, encouragement and humility and that Mindset + Heartset will cause the
correct result.
#2. Release Limited Magic versus Ubiquitous Mediocrity
The majority is caught up in the “relentless release of stuff.”
Most producers rush to deliver many materials rather than investing the time and
painstaking care to handcraft a single masterpiece that stands the test of time.
I go into great depth on this pivotal subject in The 5AM Club yet for now please
consider this: it’s wiser to make one Fifth Symphony versus many pieces of mediocrity
[that never establish domain dominance].
31 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The 6 Power Tools of Fortune-Builders
#3. Mine Emotion and Mistrust Reason
Digging deep and working on your Heartset instead of only improving your Mindset
is a supersmart move.
You see, to enter the magic, you must be able to feel. Too many people on the planet have
numbed out their emotions because they’ve been hurt so much. They’ve done this to
protect their once wide-open hearts. And yet, this serves to sabotage their efforts to win.
During your morning routine, make the time to let go of old pain via prayer, meditation
and journaling. Write about what’s good in your life so you rebuild a heart full of gratitude.
As you do, you’ll shift from working for applause to creating with love. And you’ll leave the
addiction of the reasoning mind telling you that because it’s never been done it’s simply
not possible.
All masterworks began as impossibilities.
#4. Recalibrate Your Ecosystem
Your environment influences your ability to unlock the door that is the entrance into the
magic that life has in store for you. [The universe really does want you to win, you know?
You just have to start doing the growth required to get out of your own way].
Starting your day checking emails or peeking into your texts or watching the news,
allowing your workspaces [and lifespaces] to be messy and sloppy, and being around toxic
people are all concrete barriers to accessing the secret universe known to the great women
and men of the world.
Reorder your ecosystem so space gets created for your inner magician to show up.
32 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The 6 Power Tools of Fortune-Builders
#5. Head Into The Creative Wilderness
The masterful artist’s life isn’t always in the world.
Peak creativity occurs by relaxing into the two main seasons of high-productivity. I’ll go
granular on my life-changing Twin Cycles of Elite Performance framework in The Circle
of Legends, my world-famous digital mentoring program, yet for now I’ll simply say that
if you’re serious about becoming a virtuoso, balance periods of being in the world with
periods in the wilderness of isolation, contemplation, reflection and renewal.
Such times are not a waste. Actually, it’s essential to the incubation of the next-level
insights that will cause you to own your game. And for protecting the assets of genius
that will allow you to sustain your mastery over the coming decades.
#6. Pursue Extreme Helpfulness
The one who elevates the most people wins.
I do believe in karma. I’ve seen that life has an enormously fair accounting system.
Good things happen to people who do good things.
The billionaires and industry titans I mention mostly have one trait in common:
they are radically generous...
...because they understand that generosity breeds prosperity. And helping as many people
isn’t just a gift for those people. It’s a reward for yourself.
I truly hope this piece I’ve worked so hard on pushes you to make some new moves today.
And elevates the standards that you play by.
33 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
10. How Heavyweights Work
[at home]
The way most people work is from an ancient age.
The idea that working longer and harder makes you more productive and better
is outdated.
It comes from the era when most workers toiled on a factory line. And by putting in more
hours they would create more products.
For creative professionals versus manual laborers, you get rewarded—not by the length
of time you put in but by the degree of mastery that you put out.
As a matter of fact, for those in industries that must deliver world-class artistry, working
more often produces less.
Because we don’t get the time to contemplate and study and allow beautiful new ideas
to incubate.
It’s the rare breed of modern worker who gets this truth. And who makes the time to
perform super intensely when they create and then recover super deeply when they are off.
Legendary producers are professional resters, is part of what I’m suggesting to you.
They outfocus, outinvent and outwork everyone around them when it’s game time.
And then, after they’ve expressed their mastery in a hot burst of flaming audacity,
they go dark. Ghost. Silent.
And recover. And read. And exercise. And daydream. And regenerate.
34 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How Heavyweights Work [at home]
This seasonal or cyclical way of running a day and then a week and then a month and
then your years is unpopular. And counterintuitive, given the way we’ve been socially
programmed to think about productivity.
Yet if you really want to express your genius, lead your field and stay in your sport for the
fullness of a career, it’s the best way to operate.
So, my encouragement is that while you work at home, produce majestically in the hours
you’ve set to produce. And then—release all guilt conditioned from a “hustle and grind”
world—and do what the real pros do.
Take a nap.
35 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
11. The 6 Rules of
Worldwide Influence
This is a heavyweight piece for heavyweight performers who wish to activate their
leadership mastery—and do amazing things in our troubled world.
I’ve never seen so much volatility in my life.
And—yet—I’ve never witnessed such an opportunity for heroism, leadership,
exceptionalism and public service.
These truly are the worst of times and the best of times. And if you allow it, this will be
your season to shine.
I do believe what I’ve written below is worth the 10 minutes of your life required to read it.
I’ve been working incredibly hard these past months to help as many human beings as
possible stand stronger amid the darkness, thrive in the face of fear and leverage the
change to win. All I ask is that you study what I send. And then apply it...
...so we have more examples to keep us inspired.
Ok. Let’s roll...
...The job of a leader is very much to scale their influence and heighten their impact.
If you’re seriously interested in taking your service to people globally as a first-rate leader,
I recommend that you study then deconstruct then implement these 6 rules that I’ve
learned from my decades in the business trenches with the best leaders in the world:
36 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The 6 Rules of Worldwide Influence
1. Become A Hope Merchant
If you’re not lifting people up, you’re taking people down. The finest leaders are extreme
optimists and heroic enthusiasts. They have practiced looking for the victory in the face
of seeming negativity so often that positivity has become their unassailable default.
I’m in no way saying these human beings don’t deal with reality and confront difficulty.
I’m simply suggesting that when things fall apart, they maintain their grace, concentrate
on the upside and continue to radiate the energy that causes their followers to perform
at their absolute best.
2. Flawless Integrity Is An Influence Accelerator
Living the noble virtues of honesty, generosity, justice, understanding, compassion,
forgiveness and civility never goes out of style. Decency is always hip. And showing the
best of your humanity is definitely cool. No matter what industry you work in and what
nation you live in, good things always unfold for great people. And building a character
that expresses strong moral authority will always be a gorgeous way to amplify your
impact. [Just ask MLK and Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa, Jesus and
The Prophet Muhammad].
3. Mona Lisa-Level Work Output Makes Your Impact Go Viral
The marketplace always rewards mastery and your field will always applaud those who
produce works of art. Is getting your craft and raising your game to BIW [Best in World]
easy? Of course not. And that’s the main reason to do it. Reaching for the stars in the
way you play is what makes heroes, titans and legends.
37 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The 6 Rules of Worldwide Influence
4. Refine Your Specialness
Whether it’s a Desmond Tutu or a Jack Welch or a Richard Branson or a Deepak Chopra,
every Person of Massive Influence that I’ve spent time with has a noticeable uniqueness
about them. I could feel Desmond Tutu’s heavyweight character as I sat next to him In
Johannesburg. Jack Welch’s intensity at our meeting was palpable. Richard Branson’s
charisma and wonder for life filled the room we were in. And Deepak’s brilliant and
unusually curious mind influenced me deeply. Make the time to know your own native
superpowers and then give them the daily practice time they deserve so that—as the
years pass—you’ll display a specialness in every room you enter.
38 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The 6 Rules of Worldwide Influence
5. Protect Your Good Name [at all costs]
Entrepreneurial icon Andrew Carnegie once advised: “Make your name worth something.”
In the neighborhood where my office sits there is a small art gallery. In it hangs a painting
that looks like a Basquiat. Yet it’s not. And so it’s available for about the same amount of
money as a few excellent dinners. My point? Aside from the mastery on the canvas and
the genius of the brushstrokes, what makes a work of art by Jean Michel Basquiat worth
hundreds of millions and this rough-edged piece worth so little is the signature at the
bottom. Through his prowess, Basquiat made his name worth something. And then he
protected his good name so that his greatness would stand the test of time. As all great
masters do.
6. Movements Are Made One Person at a Time
When I was starting out as an author, I was blessed to have a conversation with a
publishing icon who had sold rare-air numbers of books. I respectfully probed her winning
formula and asked about her secret sauce. The one deep insight that has never left me
from our time together is this one: “Robin, movements are built one person at a time.”
In this era of speed and artificiality, noise and superficiality, may you [and I] always keep
this wisdom close to our hearts. Exercise your patience. Apply your discipline. Play the
long game. And remember to deliver beautiful and outrageous value to every single
customer who you’re graced to do business with. They, in turn, will reply to your good
behavior by telling everyone they know [offline and online] about the excellent experience
they’ve had doing business with you.
7. You Can’t Fake Caring
Ads everywhere trumpet that a hotel is “the finest in the country.” Airlines advertise of
how much they go the extra mile for their clients. Corporate leaders evangelize about
their commitment to their employees and their concern for their communities. So many
bosses talk a great game yet absolutely fail to deliver on their preach in the bright light of
their daily performances. The women and men who really have a massive impact are so
genuine, earnest and heartfelt in their dedication to helping their followers that you can
feel this force even before they say a word. Kindly remember that you can’t fake authentic.
And you can’t pretend to be real.
39 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
12. Radical Ideas to Make
Your Empire
One of the greatest traits I’ve noticed in the billionaires I mentor is their contrarian nature.
They pretty much watch what the majority does—and do the opposite.
Yes, it takes strength of character, deep courage and a craving for originality to break free
of the seductive beliefs and habits of the herd...
...And yet, working on these qualities are among the finest moves you can make to build
your empire [whether an empire of money or fortunes of creativity, productivity, adventure
or contribution to society].
Here are 3 of the uncommon rules that superstars of prosperity + titans of industry live
by to make their mark on the world:
Rule 1: Taking Time Off Generates Wealth
Work less to make more is how the empire-creators roll. These men and women of high
excellence understand the importance of working smart rather than working hard.
They get that lots of free time is where world-changing ideas incubate. They appreciate
that elite performance without fantastic recovery leads to depletion of the very personal
assets that can make you great.
40 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
Radical Ideas to Make Your Empire
Rule 2: Give Extreme Value to Receive Remarkable Rewards
The majority are stuck in scarcity. They don’t give much to their organizations nor to their
customers. And so their people never fall in love with them—and their brands.
The exceptionalists are all about generosity. They know that the marketplace replies
to value delivered. In my life-changing new digital course The Everyday Hero Manifesto
Method, I’ll teach you the same calibrated system that has helped my elite private
coaching clients make billions of dollars. And it starts with you becoming obsessed
with giving the human beings who do business with you x10 what they expect.
Rule 3: Say No to Achieve More
Most performers seeking vast fortune fall into the weakness of saying yes to every exciting
opportunity that comes their way. The pros are radically different.
They are wise to the truth that what limits an empire is saying yes to every amazing project
that comes their way. So they stay monomaniacally focused on their few mighty ambitions
and, in doing so, realize them more quickly and with a beautiful excellence [that dazzles
the world].
Other surprising rules of the billionaires I’ve coached include:
— Solitude Births Genius So Be There Daily
— An Obsession is Necessary and Only Unhealthy If It’s An Unhealthy Obsession
— What Makes Magic is The Execution Not The Ideation
— Peak Fitness Doubles Income and Impact
— Your Performance and Income Reflects Your Friendships
— Spending Money to Live Beautifully is A Tactic to Triple Your Prosperity
Hope this chapter and The Everyday Hero Manifesto Method helps you materialize your
primal genius, enjoy a personal life you adore and make our world a finer place.
Our society needs more heroes. Why wait for them when you have it within you to become
one of them. Beginning now.
41 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
13. 22 Moves to Raise
The World
1. Say “please” and “thank you” a whole lot more. We need more politeness and civility in
this world. Trust me, we’ll all respect each other a whole lot more with more of this.
2. Be the friendliest person on your street. It’ll show how much you care.
3. Do not litter. Anywhere. The other day I watched a man taking his golf clubs out of his
car. Then he threw the plastic water bottles that he’d used during the game onto the
sidewalk. In full daylight. Right outside of his apartment. Bad karma. Poor character.
4. Give to a charity. Good karma.
5. Be considerate. Such a simple idea—to think through how your behaviour will affect
other people. Not so many people do this anymore. It’s all about “me me me” for
too many. Total entitlement mindset. I watched someone at a public park playing hip
hop through towering speakers at maximum volume last weekend. While he did his
pushups. Families having picnics and elders enjoying the flowers had to listen. To the
hip hop. They didn’t dance.
6. Don’t kill anything living. Even if there’s a fly on your windowsill, gently lift it and release
it outside. All beings alive today have magic within them. Please know this.
7. If you have children, learn to love them unconditionally. Making sure your kids grow into
thoughtful, kind, strong, interesting and authentic humans is a powerful way to ensure
our world gets better. Too many toxic leaders became that way through childhood
neglect.
8. Read Mandela’s Way by Richard Stengel. It’s one of my favorite books and it’s taught
me so much about how true heroes operate.
9. As part of your morning routine write a paragraph about how you’ll be helpful during
the hours ahead. No day is a waste if you’ve uplifted another human.
42 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
22 Moves to Raise The World
10. Get great at meditation. This discipline will not only lengthen your telomeres (extending
your lifespan), reduce inflammation (a primary cause of disease) and release the
neurochemistry of happiness, it’ll also help you heal the micro trauma and macro
trauma that we all collect as we live a life. This toxic baggage causes us to overreact to
the smallest of slights and lose control of our emotions in the most minor of instances.
If it’s hysterical it’s historical, right?
11. When a peer in your field succeeds, silently celebrate their achievement. It took serious
focus, superb dedication and a ton of mastery to get there. And that which your honor
in others is that which you’ll amplify within yourself.
12. Be a merchant of wow, doing unexpected things to make people smile. I was at a
coffee shop the other day and the barista drew a toad on the bag that would carry the
cups I’d ordered. Next to it she penned: Make today toadally awesome. I kid you not.
13. Read the poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. It pretty much sums up how to conduct
an amazing life (especially during these times of deep change that we find ourselves in).
14. Read The Prophet by Kalhil Gibran while you’re at it. This book has got me through
some extraordinarily hard times.
15. Listen to more country music. It’ll lift your spirits. So you lift the spirits of others.
16. Read a real book for sixty minutes a day. I get that audiobooks are awesome
and ebooks are convenient. Yet, getting away from a screen, sitting quietly and
concentrating fully on a book with covers will have a profoundly excellent effect on you.
And how you show up in the world.
17. Explore fasting. I know I’ve suggested this earlier yet I wanted to reinforce the
encouragement. There’s a reason so many of the saints and sages who have walked
the planet before us used this method to purify themselves. Notice that all of the major
religions advocate periods in the fasted state.
18. Spend a week complaint-free. Then do a month-long challenge. Oh—okay—why not go
for a year? Imagine a culture of zero complainers.
43 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
22 Moves to Raise The World
19. Remember that all successful people believe more in cause and effect versus luck and
fate. The older I grow the more I do think destiny has a role in how our lives unfold; yet
I also believe we absolutely must do our part versus avoiding personal responsibility.
Heaven helps those who help themselves.
20. In India there’s a saying: Guest is God. There, customers at a hotel or passengers in a
taxi are treated with the same reverence as one would give to God. A few years ago I
was in New Delhi for a conference and media tour. I was staying at the iconic Imperial
Hotel. You know I rise early. As I opened the door of my room to head to the gym, I saw
the gentleman who had been assigned to assist me standing in the hallway. I asked him
why he was there. He replied: “I’ve been standing here all night. In case you needed me
for anything.”
21. Buy less things. This move will not only simplify your life and increase your savings,
it will help restore the health of our environment. I see us as caretakers of our planet.
May each of us do our part to follow this duty well. You never want to be a slave to your
possessions.
22. Continue making yourself better. The real key to a better world is continually stepping
into a wiser, stronger, more masterful, compassionate and peaceful you. As Mother
Teresa said: “If everyone would only sweep their own doorstep the whole world would
be clean.”
44 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
14. Hard Work As a GCA
An unbeatable work ethic is one of the best Gargantuan Competitive Advantages (GCAs)
out there.
Because some people might be Einstein-realm smart. And Pelé-grade great. And yet other
good souls are JFK-level charismatic. But it’s getting harder than ever before to meet
someone who works really really really hard.
There’s a lot of entitled people out there. People who desire a world-class life without
having to do what world-class requires. Because they believe it to be their birthright.
I’m pretty sure you’ll agree. (Unless, that is, you’re one of the entitled people out there,
and you may subconsciously try to find ways to shoot the messenger, put down this book
and blame it all on the bald guy in the black shirt instead of courageously assuming the
personal responsibility to accept this weakness and get busy rebuilding this virtue.)
How can you tell if someone feels entitled?
...at the office they’re always the last one in and the first ones out.
...they hardly ever show initiative, rarely deliver more than their job description demands
and work at the pace of a summertime beach vacation.
...they repeat the plays that have got them to where they are versus consistently learning,
relentlessly reinventing and passionately improving in a way that shows they hunger to
make today better than yesterday.
Entitled people rarely show gratitude. I guess they just assume that what they receive was
totally due to them. Quite a spoiled bunch, if you ask me.
And these souls blame a lot. Never owning their part for anything that didn’t go well.
If you were to ask me in this moment that I’m writing this particular piece for you what lies
at the root of entitled behavior I’d say it’s a few things...
45 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
Hard Work As a GCA
...social conditioning—primarily by parents—telling the person that they are the Center
of the Universe and the most perfect humans ever born to this planet. I’m all for being an
unconditionally loving parent, but that doesn’t mean you whitewash reality and give your kids
a false sense of their ability. And let us stop giving trophies merely for participation.
An award is valuable only when it’s earned. Through hard work. And excellence.
…a civilization that brainwashes the majority into thinking that successful people are
genetically different and “ordinary people” are not able to achieve astounding results.
The messaging propagated is that we have no real power to shape our conditions and
even to experience a basic life we must be supported, told what to do and led like a flock of
sheep. And so this hypnotization – we gradually believe we are powerless. We act as victims.
We wait for others to do things for us. And disbelieve we deserve anything more than
we are given.
...environmental influences like friends and peers who don’t work hard and yet seek to reap
rich gifts. These people want to ride the gravy train. We really do mimic the performance of
those we spend most of our time with. Remember those mirror neurons I wrote about earlier?
...low-self-esteem and a rusty connection to their primal genius, which makes them not really
trust their own capacity to reorder reality.
...fear of succeeding, capitalizing on their potential, rising above the majority, experiencing
domain dominance and living a life of great influence. Because rare-air success also comes
with jealousy, criticism and looking like a freak.
It’s a whole lot easier to sit back and demand that the world owes them a living. To sit in the
bleachers and watch the sport being played as a bystander than to walk down the steps, step
onto the field and play in the championship match. Outworking everyone around them.
As the anime character Hachiman Hikigaya stated: “Hard work betrays none.”
46 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
15. 5 Tactics for Thriving in
a Recession
Yes, these are deeply volatile (and troubling) times.
My heart hurts as I watch and process what’s happening on our tiny blue planet.
And yet, you and I must rise, as things fall.
...as life grows messier we must become stronger.
...as many business people duck their heads into the sand, we must seek out new ways
to deliver splendid value.
...as the majority give up on their heroic ambitions, we must honor our dreams,
and remain steadfast around our ideals.
...leaders are forged in times of tumult versus during seasons of ease.
[I pray you remember this].
To NOT use this crisis to ascend in mastery, creativity and service to many will be to miss
the greatest opportunity of your lifetime.
And as an entrepreneur—while others get crushed by fear—you really want to learn how
the great ones protect their business to navigate this storm and set yourself up so you
thrive once it’s done.
In my 25 years of mentoring billionaires, celebrity CEOs and famed industry titans I’ve
learned that to receive the results very few receive, you need to do the things very few
are doing.
In the spirit of helping you scale your firm, construct a better lifestyle [for you and your
loved ones] and leverage the rest of your life in helpfulness of others, I wish to walk you
through 5 specific tactics that will help you rise, in these very uncertain times.
47 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
5 Tactics for Thriving in a Recession
#1. Work on Yourself First
Your income and impact will never go higher than who you are, as a leader and as a person.
Now—more than ever—is when you need to be calibrating your morning routine, improving
your meditation practice, reading books about heroes, optimizing your fitness, dialling in your
nutrition and journaling like a pro.
Also, please ensure you’re drinking a good amount of water, fasting to create autophagy,
heading into nature daily if you can and improving your sleep hygiene.
#2. Lean Out Your Business
Many of my top clients are leaning out their businesses and realizing that—without the extra
costs and complexity—they not only are fortifying their companies, they are moving even
faster. And having more fun.
A crisis is actually an excellent time to grow a more agile and efficient company. That wins
when this is all over.
NOTE: To help entrepreneurs battleproof their hard-won businesses during these messy times
I’ve created a remarkable new online learning program called The Everyday Hero Manifesto
Method. Admission is by application only. Get the details here.
#3. Produce Fresh Solutions
...disrupt or be disrupted.
...adapt or be defeated.
During this storm, rather than play victim and wish things were the way they used to be
(those days are gone), elevate your leadership game and out-invent everyone around you.
Rather than freezing, create new value that your marketplace will adore. Products that
customers now need more than ever and services that will help them make their desires real.
Suffering has always provided soil for awesome creativity, next-level productivity
and innovation.
48 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
5 Tactics for Thriving in a Recession
#4. Scale Your Craft
Business always rewards the best.
This is a splendid time to invest in your professional education and personal development.
Your industry rewards the magic you bring to it. Get better at what you deliver and the world
will blaze a path to your door. It really will.
Those producers who rest on their laurels will soon be irrelevant.
Those performers who lift their game, advance their skills and escalate their craft will find
they have more business than they can fathom. And a lifestyle they adore.
#5. Bulletproof Against Trolls
If unprepared, the stone-throwing of the critics and cynics can take you down.
The reality is that the very nature of being a visionary and world-changer during dark days
means you’ll attract ridicule, jealousy and condemnation. You must continue. At all costs.
For the world needs your genius.
Critics are just terrified game-changers, in disguise. Pay zero attention to them. Stick to your
knitting. Stand strong. Win.
And, remember, all heroes turned their setbacks into stepping stones. And every luminary
transformed their hard moments into monumental leaps.
49 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
16. How Warren Buffet Won
[Important New Model]
In my book The 5AM Club I share a profound story that I first read of in an issue of
The New Yorker that goes something like this:
Famed author Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut were at a cocktail party at the home of
a Wall Street titan, on Long Island.
Vonnegut asked his friend: “Joe, how does it feel to know that our host made more money
yesterday than you’ll make from all your royalties from Catch-22?”
Heller replied: “Well Kurt, I have something he’ll never have. Enough.”
...My sense is that we live in a society where many people are spending the best hours of
their finest days chasing badges of honor [watches/shoes/cars/houses/social media likes,
etc.] in a fiery effort to fit into the crowd versus running their own race...
...And to raise their self-esteem.
...And to fill their pulsing + deep emotional holes.
Yet, as you know if you read The 5AM Club: Nothing on the outside will ever heal a wound
that exists on your inside...
...hoping more applause, abundance and material goods will make you feel stronger,
happier and braver is the sport of the mistaken.
...Concentrating on outer pursuits + external projects with the thought that this is the
glamorous doorway into winning rather than dedicating yourself to the wise maximization
of your 4 Interior Empires [during your 5AM morning routine] only leads to disappointment.
And further frustration.
...Sheepishly collecting the toys while chasing the objects our culture hypnotizes us [via a
steady diet of ads/announcements and suggestions] into believing are the genuine metrics
of authentic success, will only cause deeper wounding.
50 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How Warren Buffet Won [Important New Model]
I am a fan of Warren Buffet.
I like his simple approach to living an exceptional life. And I love his wisdom of operating as a
leader, great performer and high-impact human being.
In one of my favorite of his many interviews that I’ve studied, he advised university students
that the primary method to ensure true victory is to thoughtfully consider what success really
means to you.
...To contemplate what’s most important according to your own playbook.
...To detect the values, habits and pursuits to live by via your own scorecard.
...To lead your work and live your life—not by the rules of the brainwashed majority but via
the principles of a wise/creative/productive/awake minority.
In my continuous devotion [bordering on an obsession] to fuel your mastery, I wanted to
share a very valuable learning model:
THE ANTI-TRIBAL SUCCESS SCOREBOARD
THE SLEEPWALKING
MAJORITY
THE AWAKE
MINORITY
CHASES FAME + FORTUNE
FOCUSES ON GROWTH + FREEDOM
ADORES MATERIAL GOODS
SEEKS MAJESTIC EXPERIENCES
PASSIONATELY PURSUES PROFITS
DEEPLY DELIVERS MAGIC
VIEWS BUSY AS A BADGE
OF HONOR
KNOWS PRODUCTIVITY IS ABOUT
DOING MORE OF FEWER THINGS
CRAVES STATUS, APPLAUSE
AND VALIDATION
DESIRES ORIGINALITY, ARTISTRY
AND SERVICE TO HUMANITY
May I suggest that you think about this visual concept and then journal about it
[print + paste it in your notebook] and finally discuss it with your mastermind partner
so you integrate the learning.
51 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
How Warren Buffet Won [Important New Model]
Let’s go even more granular...
...5 specific actionable tactics to help you exploit the value of this model in far greater
depth so you accelerate your performance, multiply your impact and maximize your
freedom are as follows:
Tactic #1:
Each morning, take a 60-minute walk in nature. Leave your phone at home. Carry only a
notebook and pen. I also suggest you carry a cup of excellent coffee with you to drink while
you walk. As you take your steps and breathe in the fresh air while embracing the majesty
of our natural world, richly reflect on what real success and high accomplishment looks like
to you.
Tactic #2:
Meditate and visualize on the last day of your life. What do you need those you love to
say about you to know and feel that you lived at excellence, with beauty and with high
moral authority.
Tactic #3:
In your journal, deconstruct the five most important experiences of your life and the core
values they have taught you.
Tactic #4:
Take 30 minutes today to write out a one page Code of Personal Greatness. Record what you
want to stand for each day, how you wish to show up when things get hard, the routines you’ll
devote to and the high-value targets you’ll remain faithful to.
Tactic #5:
Do a Heroic Mission Collage, with images of your heroes, pictures of your ideal lifestyle
and photos of that which is most important to you. Hang it in a place you’ll see it often.
Hope all of this content that I’ve worked so hard to handcraft for you is helping you rise
in mastery, leverage your fullest creativity and lead a life you truly adore.
52 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
17. The 37 New Rules for
Superstardom
1. Generosity beats scarcity in every situation. And on every single day of the week.
2. Fill your mind with giant dreams so there’s no room for petty worries. Bored people
with no mightier mission escape into distraction to give them the sense of purpose
they lack.
3. No idea works for someone unwilling to do any work.
4. Wasting time is destructive yet squandering talent is tragic.
5. Small daily seemingly insignificant improvements lead to stunning results, when
performed consistently over time.
6. Doing the right thing to do will never be the wrong thing to do.
7. Your good reputation is branded onto every piece of work that you deliver.
8. The most vigorous performers are generally the quietest speakers. Let your excellence
do the talking in a world of big talkers who mostly don’t deliver.
9. Icons never retire because they adore the craft too much.
10. Real productivity never happens in an office.
11. You’ll upgrade your income, influence and impact by spending much more time
with people of higher income, influence and impact than you. You become your
conversations and mirror your associations.
12. Your devotion to improving your agility and adaptability amid high velocity change
rather than hoping things will return to normal is a great key to your victory. “Be like
water” advised martial arts master Bruce Lee.
13. Part time commitment always yields part time results.
53 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The 37 New Rules for Superstardom
14. Elite performance has more to do with saying no than saying yes. World-builders are
masters of the polite refusal and your Not To Do List is x100 more important than your To
Do List. Very few companies die from a lack of superb opportunities. They fail because
they pursue too many good ones.
15. The swiftest way to grow your career is to increase your dedication to developing yourself.
The greater your knowledge, skill, ability not to quit and ability to follow through on
promises the more people will become excited to do business with you.
16. Get fit not just to look better but to extend your lifetime, allowing you extra decades to
grow your fortune, practice your craft and enrich the lives of more people.
17. Integrity is more important than income. And impact is hipper than fame.
18. A failure only becomes a failure if you see it as a failure.
19. The job of a leader is to build more leaders. And to fortify the hope of their people.
20. Don’t wait to be inspired to start your dream. Start your dream to be inspired.
21. What the victim calls luck, the everyday hero calls real work.
22. Punctuality is just being professional. Polite’s just the price of admission a professional
pays to play in the game.
23. Make each day of the remainder of your life better than yesterday.
24. Make time to rest. Sleep is a secret weapon of true A-Players. And proper recovery.
25. To double your income and impact, triple your investment in your professional education
and on your personal development. The more valuable you become to the world the more
the world will send your heart’s desires.
26. Remember that the impossible is generally the untried. “Can’t” never won a championship
trophy.
27. Go directly to where your fear lives because beneath it is where your power lies.
28. Genius is not a gene. It’s an approach.
54 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
The 37 New Rules for Superstardom
29. Never be too busy to be kind. Never be so successful you fail to be humble. Hubris is the
doom loop that causes superstars to fall from grace. And become irrelevant.
30. Virtuoso vacation a lot. Time off allows your industry transforming ideas to incubate and
your creative assets to regenerate.
31. Don’t waste your energy on watching what the competition is doing and train your focus
on bringing your fieriest originality to industry. Being imaginative and inventive is one of
the most essential of all leadership traits.
32. Every decision you make will either grow your genius and raise your life or shrink your
greatness. So choose well.
33. An addiction to distraction is the death of your creative production. Playing with your
devices all day ensures you never put your brain into the state of Flow where your genius
lives. Each day, lock your phone away and focus your talent on making the masterwork
that causes the deep progress of our civilization.
34. Energy management is even more important than time management. Become
exceptionally economical in what activities you do daily. The great masters do just a few
things – in this way channelling the fullness of their powers on their skill of choice and
a masterpiece or two. A speeding bullet doesn’t have ten targets. Or as Bruce Lee said:
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once but I fear the man who has
practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
35. The barriers of your integrity become the barricades upon your mastery. Low moral
authority steals energy, creates poverty of productivity and places your prosperity
into delinquency.
36. Laziness is a swindler that shakes down the jewels of your genius. Procrastination is
a pirate that shows up uninvited and makes off with the bounty that is your brilliance.
37. The real value of producing masterwork isn’t the worldly rewards that will run to you but
what making a masterpiece makes you into as an artist, productive and person that is the
real triumph.
55 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
18. Apply The Michael Gerber
Maxim
In his book The E-Myth Michael Gerber teaches a maxim that is extraordinarily valuable
to a business builder and fortune creator: Work on your business more than you work in
your business.
It’s ever so easy to fall into the trap of becoming your own employee and spending your
days in administrivia versus doing what entrepreneurs are meant to do: thinking about the
future, incubating novel ideas and refining better methods to deliver prodigy-grade value
for as many people as possible.
Being strategic versus reactive and creative rather than repetitive is what I’m talking about
here. And making sure you never fall into the rut of running your business basically to pay
for all the overhead you’ve accumulated. I’ve seen this happen. Too many times. With
many of my clients. At least once a week, get away from your shop. Go sit in an art gallery
and stare at the paintings so the master’s magic rubs off on you. Or visit a public library,
where no one can find you. And simply contemplate.
Leaders are paid to think. To invent. To innovate. To go where few have gone. To see far
into the future and to clarify what no one else sees coming. Please don’t be so busy doing
that you have no time for the essential leadership skill of being.
As a business leader you also have the obligation to make quiet time to…
...reflect on how your company is doing (you can’t manage what you don’t measure and it’s
smart to inspect what you expect) and increase efficiencies.
... reconnect regularly with your fundamental values and ensure they are being reflected in
the daily behavior of you and your teammates.
56 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
Apply The Michael Gerber Maxim
...consider what’s keeping your customers up at night and what stress your products and
services must remove from their lives.
...detect the threats, vulnerabilities and dangers to your position in the marketplace and the
specific pivots you will be well-prepared to make should they show up. So your business
is absolutely battleproofed. And you’re never caught flat-footed. You never want to be the
businessperson who didn’t see a crisis coming.
Work on your business far more often than you work in your business and your business
will go farther than your imagination can fathom.
57 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
19. Be Worthy of Your
Good Name
“Make your name worth something,” said Henry Ford. Absolutely sagely.
A priceless masterpiece is priceless because the great master signed their name on it.
Without the brand on the canvas the work is worth nothing.
I had a splendid meal at after a leadership presentation to a group of luminaries in South
Africa a while ago. The wonderful young woman who served me had a name badge that
said “Blessing.” Her mother named her that. Because she was one.
I still remember the size of her smile and the pride with which she worked and the genuine
care that she showed.
When I write a book, I’m very clear: my father’s last name will go on the front cover.
So the caliber of the work must be good enough to honor the decency that he represents.
You sign everything you release to the world.
Make it worthy of your good name.
That’s a measure of the height, width and depth of your self-respect. And the devotion
you have for those whom your craft goes on to serve.
58 | THE BILLIONAIRE BLACKBOOK
If you’re ready to go x100 deeper into the
philosophy, methodology and strategies of
The Everyday Hero Manifesto—with Robin Sharma
as your digital mentor for a FULL YEAR—
then please do your greatness a favor and
check out his new online program
The Everyday Hero Manifesto Method here.