Billionaire Learnings #4

1. Billionaires know that all deals worth over $1 billion take political power to close. If you don't have political power, you don't get to do $1 billion+ deals.

2. Billionaires know that political power makes money, and money makes political power, and that investment in politicians gives one of the highest ROIs, as long as you're not to obvious about it and don't get a spotlight on it. The classic example is Dick Cheney. While in the military, he set up a commission to give a centralized fuel purchasing contract to one lucky company. He picked the people to make the selection, resigned, and then became CEO of Halliburton...which "won" the big fuel contract. The number floating around of how much money Cheney made his companies is $39 billion. Billionaires, at least those related to the US government, know the number is way higher.

3. Billionaires know that there is a market for secret or hidden money, just like there is a market for so many other things.

4. Billionaires know what crazy old King Canute, the Viking who founded both London and the Swedish city of Lund, and who once went into the North Atlantic and ordered the waves to stop moving, once said, "You would be amazed, my son, with how little wisdom the world is run."

Basically, billionaires are like Dorothy and Toto, after Toto pulls back the curtain and reveals the Wizard of Oz to be a small man playing tricks to look large and in charge.

1. Billionaires know more billionaires, on average, than non-billionaires. There are only about 1,700 or so billionaires, vs. about 7.5 billion people, so the average person isn't going to be meeting multiple billionaires in his or her lifetime.

2. Billionaires know that truth about billionaires that Forbes either does not know, or knows but cannot print. Billionaires know who pretends to be a billionaire (I have heard some famous names), but is not, and who is a centibillionaire (worth over a $100 billion) but pretends to be much less wealthy. They know that Bill Gates is not the richest man, for instance, and find it a subject worthy of laughing at people for believing that he or Warren Buffet or Carlos Slim are, or ever were, the richest people on earth.