Brad Jacobs has created several billion dollar companies across different industries, including companies like XPO Logistics, United Rentals, and United Waste System. Please see his top ideas from the book below:

“If you want to earn huge, you need to think huge. Your goals should be bigger than what you currently think you can accomplish, because that can actually help you achieve those goals.”

“You can mess up a lot of things in business and still do well as long as you get the big trend right.”

“Be a futurist and figure out the bullish and bearish trends driving your industry. If you get the major trends right, you can make mistakes and still succeed.”

“One of the first things I look for in an industry is scalability. I want to be able to envision how I’ll take a business from a few million dollars to tens of billions of dollars. What will be the path to do that, and how fast can we move along that path? Is the industry growing much faster than GDP so that we’ll probably generate top-line growth each year just by showing up and can build from there?”

“How will this industry be disrupted by advances in AI? How soon could that happen? What are the risks and opportunities in that disruption? For example, I looked at doing a roll-up of accounting firms, but there’s a chance that accountants will be replaced by generative AI over the next decade. I could build up a big accounting business over the next few years and see it suddenly go into a black hole because people start using AI to close their books.”

“Make sure your tech organization is in direct contact with your customers and employees so you can prioritize the innovations with the highest impact.”

“List some adjectives or phrases that sum you up, that get to your essence. When you look at your professional self in the mirror, what do you see? What motivates you? What are you trying to accomplish at this point in your career? What do you consider to be your biggest career accomplishment(s) so far? What are your biggest professional strengths? What’s been the high point of your career so far? What parts of your jobs have you liked the most? What’s your favorite professional activity? Name five reasons for your professional success. What do your subordinates think are your strengths? Who was your favorite boss and why? What positive things might your bosses and colleagues say about you? What’s the most significant praise you’ve received in a performance appraisal in the last five years?”

Book Reference: How to make a few billion dollars by Brad Jacobs

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