“How to Make a Few Billion Dollars” is Brad Jacobs’ 2024 book where he outlines and explains his “playbook” as a business leader, that has been central in the building of such successful companies and generating extraordinary amounts of shareholder value.
Jacobs is one of the most prolific entrepreneurs of today, having started multiple multibillion-dollar companies in the industrial services sector, most notably United Rentals, XPO Logistics and currently QXO. As he needed a catchy title, his inspiration for it came from the book “How to Make Love Like a Porn Star” by Jenna Jameson.
Some readers might be skeptical and think much of the book is satirical, but I actually believe he’s being serious for the most part. Despite this, there are definitely some parts that left me thinking “what is this, Brad…” and if you read it, I think you’ll see what I mean.
Jacobs is unapologetic about being a “money chaser.” To me, based on this book and his interviews, it seems like his entire personality is being a rich guy, making lots of money, and living in Greenwich, Connecticut. Outside of that, he enjoys classical music and collecting art.
What motivates his life’s work is making absolutely as much money as possible for shareholders.
He has stated many times that nothing gives him more satisfaction, joy, and a sense of self-worth like generating huge returns for investors. It all started when, having just dropped out of Brown University, he saw a news headline about Exxon making “obscene amounts of money,” which made him think “hey, I’d like to make obscene amounts of money!” This idea led him to start his first businesses–an oil brokerage called Amerex, then Hamilton Resources, an oil trading company.
As for Jacobs’ “playbook”, I think it can be boiled down to these parts: choose a large but fragmented industry, get the big trend right, do high quality M&A, and assemble great teams. That being said, I think he does a lot of sugarcoating in his explanations and does not say or at least explicitly disclose some of the uglier parts of what he’s doing.
To get the most out of the book requires reading between the lines. He has some great ideas and certainly knows how to generate returns for shareholders; however, his actions might not align with a lot of people’s moral compasses. While some of it can be useful for things outside of business, especially for those who define success differently, I think the content is most relevant for those who want to pursue entrepreneurship and make as much money as possible for themselves and receive validation from rich dudes.
Brad Jacobs makes me smile. I find him to be both unconventionally smart and hilarious. For example, he likes the letters “X” and “O” because it reminds him of love, which makes him happy and have a warm feeling inside–I think that’s so funny.
As someone who loves the public markets, I really like that he makes his companies publicly traded rather than keeping them private. Besides this, Jacobs reminds me of myself in a lot of ways, especially in how he embraces being different and how his motivations for making extraordinary amounts of money, might very well stem largely from insecurities (which is applicable to a lot of billionaires).
I would recommend “How to Make a Few Billion Dollars” to all aspiring or current entrepreneurs, as part of a larger “playlist” of books to read and videos to watch.