The Ten Roads to Riches: The Ways the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!)

52

1The

Ten

Roads

to

Riches

Plenty

of

people with charisma and vision still Rame out. Again,

think like a private equity guy and review

that

section in

Chapter

7.

Then

answer the following questions:

II Does your potential horse have an exciting business vision?

One

you believe in so much, you'd

put

your own money into it? (You

don't have to,

but

would you?)

• Does your horse do a good job

of

firing himself from jobs and

delegating?

This

is vital. Review Chapters 1 and 2 on founders

and

CEOs

and make sure your guy (or gal) is exhibiting most if

not

all

of

the required attributes.

• Has your horse failed before? Failure is ok! If your horse has

failed, tried again, and failed again (but differently from the first

failure), it shows diligence and a learning curve.

Don't

hitch to

someone who keeps failing in similar ways. Learning from his

failures (like

Herbert

Dow

from Chapter 1) may bone up your

horse for victory. Even Sam Walton flamed

out

his first time

out

the chute.

Once

you've found the right person to drag you along

through

his or

her

success, go with your gut.

Either

you trust and com-

pletely admire this person or you don't.

If

you do, be endlessly

loyal. That's what a

CEO

demands from a ride-along as a quid pro

quo for being the

one

the

CEO

can't do without.

If

you can't find it

within you to trust your future success to the fate

of

one

leader, you

may be better off taking the established firm route.

That

works! But

the bigger bucks are definitely ...