Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
—Tao Te Ching
One thing all RMITs have in common is that they know who they are—they have a keen sense of what makes them tick, they understand their own motivations, and most have mastered the difficult task of deciphering their greatest talents and abilities. In short, they have developed self-knowledge. Neuroscientists tell us that we are all hardwired with certain aptitudes, talents, interests, and inclinations. RMITs seem to know this instinctively. They know that personal assessment is the first step to wealth amassment.
Did your parents or loved ones ever say to you, “You can do anything you put your mind to”? “You can be anything you dream of being”? Brace yourself—they lied to you. These were not deliberate lies, of course. They simply meant to encourage you. The truth is, RMITs do not believe that you can be anything that you put your mind to. You cannot do anything and everything that your mind can imagine. But this is good news. This revelation is liberating because it frees you to be so much more of what you innately, intrinsically, instinctively are. No matter what your level of ability, no matter what talents you innately possess, you have within you more potential to develop those talents than you can possibly explore in a lifetime. Although your talents, abilities, and proclivities are as unique to you as your DNA—and therefore finite—the possibilities for exploiting, developing, and commercializing those unique talents are limitless.
Finding your own unique gifts is the second step to becoming the richest man in town. You must determine what Jim Haslam of Knoxville, Tennessee, the chairman of Pilot Oil, refers to as “what is right about you.” He says, “I don’t care what anybody says. Anybody who has been successful has gotten into a business that suits their personality and their skill sets. If you think you have to go to work each day—you’ve got the wrong job.” Haslam is right. You have to find what is right about yourself, and then work isn’t work, it’s pleasure. It’s all too easy for us to discern what is wrong with ourselves at times, and even easier to see what is wrong with others, but America’s RMITs prove that you must not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do—what you are uniquely gifted to do. Focusing on your limitations will not make you the richest man in town—but accentuating your own innate abilities will. Warren Buffett once told Fortune magazine, “When we got married in 1952, I told Susie [Buffett’s first wife] I was going to be rich. That wasn’t going to be because of any special virtues of mine or even because of hard work, but simply because I was born with the right skills, in the right place at the right time. I was wired at birth to allocate capital.” Like Warren Buffett, we are all hardwired to do something. Figuring out what that is, is the key to knowing yourself and unlocking your full potential.
W. Clement Stone, who in his day was the richest man in Chicago, a famous insurance executive, and author of numerous books on success, once observed, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve.” This ditty sounds good on the surface, but—with all due respect to Stone, who was highly successful—today’s RMITs prove this long-held theory woefully wrong. RMITs believe that you cannot be anything you conceive or believe. You cannot be anything your loved ones believe you can be. However, RMITs attest that you can be so much more of who you instinctively, intrinsically, rightfully, and genetically are. Warren Buffett knew he was wired to be an investor, an allocator of capital. He recognized his unique gifts, his innate talents—he knew himself. Sixty-two billion dollars later, I think he has proved the precept.
Jonathan Nelson, the CEO of Providence Equity Partners and the richest man in Providence, Rhode Island, learned the critical know-thyself lesson while taking a course on Beethoven at Brown University. “I knew very little about classical music when I signed up for the class, and it is safe to say I still know little about classical music. I thought it might be fun and easy. There was nothing more to it than that. On the first day of class, our instructor played a few notes and asked the class who could identify the notes. It was a small class and it seemed to me about 25 percent of the class had their hand up. I was not among them. The professor called on someone: ‘C-sharp,’ the student responded. How, the professor asked, did he know that? ‘I have perfect pitch,’ said the student. It turns out that was the only way to know the key. Those students with their hands up all had perfect pitch.
“Well… I knew two things at that moment. First, 25 percent of the class had a significant advantage over me. They had a talent I could not acquire and it made them better equipped than I to do well in the class. Second, I realized that this class would not be easy for me to ace—now I was worried about passing. But I stayed with it. I barely passed. I learned about Beethoven and an unfamiliar musical genre, and I developed an appreciation for the power of relative skill differences. Or maybe it was just fun to learn and spend time with people who were much better at something than me. Even if I knew then where I wanted to be in ten years, this class would not have directly helped me get there. But I did learn the lifelong lesson that while perfect pitch is a real talent, so, too, is recognizing one’s relative skills and abilities.”
Nelson practices what he learned in that fateful class at Brown, and it has served him well. Worth at least $2 billion, he is not only the richest man in Providence; he is the wealthiest man in the entire state. To illustrate this idea of perfect pitch, he tells the story of the revitalization of James Bond: “When we acquired the movie studio MGM two years ago, the big question was, What would we do with James Bond—who will be the next Bond? This is one case where the human interest lined up with the financial significance. MGM actually owns the Bond franchise with a brother-and-sister team who are the offspring of Cubby Broccoli, the creator of the James Bond franchise. Barbara Broccoli and her late father had already endured many studio chiefs along the way to successfully producing twenty-one Bond flicks. Before we closed the MGM deal, we insisted on meeting with Barbara, who was to be our new partner in the company’s—if not the industry’s—most important movie franchise. We had key decisions to make and we needed to come to an agreement quickly.
“Barbara was like one of the kids in class with perfect pitch. I said we were not here to approve scripts or select the next Bond. She could do that unencumbered by our ownership. We took a big risk. The movie took the franchise in a new direction. And the much-maligned Bond choice, Daniel Craig, became an overnight sensation and was met with universal support from the critics. I am here to say that we deserve none of the credit. Barbara had the ‘perfect pitch’ for Bond. Recognizing and respecting those skills was a lesson learned in that first day of the Beethoven course.”
Nelson’s point is clear: No amount of positive thinking or wishful willing can make you something you are not. Lose the misconception that you can be anything you set your mind to. Instead, work to your strengths: Decide what is right with you. Stephen King, the richest man in Bangor, Maine, and perhaps the most commercially successful writer in America, knew early in life what was right about himself. He has said, “There was nothing else I was made to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories. That’s why I do it. I really can’t imagine doing anything else and I can’t imagine not doing what I do.”
Even Andrew Carnegie, best known as the second richest man in history, had it partially wrong, too. The steel magnate, who wrote “The Gospel of Wealth” in 1889, was famous for saying, “There is a power under your control that is greater than poverty, greater than the lack of education, greater than all your fears and superstitions combined. It is the power to take possession of your own mind and direct it to whatever ends you may desire.” Each of us possesses incredible personal powers, and while there is no doubt that an optimistic, can-do spirit is important and belief in yourself is critical to success and wealth creation, your potential is limitless only when you find and use those powers that form your own perfect pitch. Finding it is essential, and that requires some serious introspection and a truly honest assessment of your talents and abilities. You must focus intently on your individual strengths and talents—what is right about you.
Birmingham, Alabama’s construction czar Miller Gorrie knew what was right about him from an early age. “I always knew that I wanted to be in the construction business,” he says. “I couldn’t imagine anything else.” The son of an IBM salesperson, he remembers his father telling him the story of when Tom Watson, the founder of IBM, came to their home for dinner one evening when Gorrie was only eight years old. To show his appreciation for the nice home-cooked meal, Watson reached into his pocket to give some money to young Gorrie and his brother. He says, “My father says that my brother went for the change. But I grabbed the bills.” Gorrie spent three years in the navy’s Civil Engineering Corps after graduating from Auburn University in 1957. When he started out, he was frustrated: “No one else was willing to pay me what I deserved, so I bought my own company.” Gorrie found his perfect pitch early in life—and what’s more, he knew just how much that was worth.
Dayton, Ohio, farm boy billionaire Clay Mathile took longer to find his calling. He recalls how lucky he was to be awarded a full scholarship by the basketball coach at Ohio Northern University since he could not afford the tuition. He played well during his freshman year, and was praised highly by his coach. In fact, at the spring athletic banquet the coach said that Mathile had the potential to be one of the best guards the school had ever seen. But then, unexpectedly, the coach reneged on his promise and gave Mathile’s scholarship to an incoming freshman that summer. The betrayal hurt at the time, but in retrospect Mathile says, “The coach did me a major favor because I was never going to make my living playing basketball.”
Basketball was not his perfect pitch; running businesses, however, was. Mathile walked away from his first post-college job at Campbell Soup and took a chance on a small pet foods company started by pet lover Paul Iams. Mathile took sole ownership of the Iams company in 1982 and built it into a billion-dollar organization, which he sold to Procter and Gamble in 1999 for $2.3 billion. He even earmarked $100 million of the sale proceeds to go to his loyal employees.
Hartley Peavey, the music man of Meridian, Mississippi, always had a passion for playing guitar. “I saw Bo Diddley in 1957,” he says, “and I went wild. I wanted more than anything to be a great guitar star, and I tried for the next eight years to be just that, but the sad fact was that I was probably one of the world’s worst guitar players. I had to face myself in the mirror and say that I was not going to be a rock star.” That realization prompted some serious thought. “A funny thing happened along the way. I learned that I was pretty damn good at building things. So I started thinking about what I loved and what I was good at.” In his junior year of college, he says, “I had an intervention with myself and said if I can’t be the world’s greatest guitar player, maybe I can build the amplifiers that make the best musicians sound even better.” Peavey discovered what is undeniably one of the top tenets of RMIT success: Know thyself. You must have the courage to make a truly honest assessment of your unique talents and abilities, then match those with your personal passions and interests. The exercise is not as simple as it sounds. Recognizing our true strengths means recognizing what we lack—letting go perhaps of some unattainable, unfortunate dreams.
According to Hartley Peavey, “We are so good at lying to ourselves about our talents and innate strengths that there is a word for it—and it’s called rationalization.” He remembers his personal lie well. “I was saying to myself, ‘If only I had a seventy-watt amp rather than a thirty-five-watt amp, then maybe I would sound better.’ But the reality was that I was just a louder awful guitar player.” By being honest with himself, by refusing to rationalize any longer, he led himself to his true calling: to build one of the largest music electronics firms in the world. Peavey’s company pioneered computer-controlled machining in the making of high-quality, affordable guitars. It also manufactures amplifiers, speakers, and music software so that hundreds of thousands of bands can pursue their musical passions. Peavey found the perfect way to marry his passion with his unique talents and abilities; as a result, he holds more than 130 patents and has built a $500 million company, which he controls 100 percent. Now in his midsixties, he shows no signs of slowing down, because he is as passionate today about music, and building the equipment to produce and enjoy it, as he was when Bo Diddley first blew his mind.
Peavey has always marched to his own tune. “By definition, you cannot be the best and be just like everybody else,” he says. “To dare to be different is easy to say, but damn difficult to do. Most people simply don’t have the cojones to be different.” Peavey is right: Following your unique talents sometimes means blazing a trail into the unknown. He continues, “People are always looking for the secret recipe to success and wealth creation and they are almost always looking for that recipe from without. The recipe is actually within—it’s inside of all of us. You just have to know how to reach in there and grab it. The reality is that we all come into this world with our own unique bag of tricks. Some people call them talents, abilities, proclivities—it doesn’t matter what the moniker is. The truth is, we are all different. We have to understand those unique differences and not only celebrate them, but employ them in our pursuit of happiness, success, and wealth.”
Peavey thinks that most Americans—most people of the world, in fact—get caught up in the concept that we all are born equal. He proffers, “In the eyes of the law and in the eyes of God, I guess we are all born equal, but thank God we are not all born the same.” Discovering and honing your unique talents is the most important step to becoming the richest man in town.
Many people have not mastered the art of finding their perfect pitch. You are a natural at something. Some things simply come easier for you than other things. What are those things? Think about what you do best. Ask yourself the question: What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail? Ponder what puts a smile on your face, what makes time fly because you’re having so much fun. Stay away from those things that don’t bring you joy and excitement, that aren’t of interest to you, that don’t make your heart race like your first crush. If you’re not a numbers person, then obviously you shouldn’t be pursuing accounting. If you have no sense of style, then you shouldn’t be an interior decorator or fashion designer. If you aren’t good at basketball, don’t dream of your day in the NBA. RMITs systematically divest themselves of the things they don’t naturally excel at, enjoy, or find emotionally or intellectually stimulating. They seek more pleasure, less pain.
Fred Levin, a flamboyant personal injury attorney and the richest man in Pensacola, Florida, says, “Taking the path of least resistance is the surest way to finding your pathway to success.” That seems counterintuitive, almost anti-American, but RMITs prove it is true. Levin never doubted for a moment what his pathway to success and wealth was to be. He wanted to be a trial attorney. Now Florida’s most successful trial attorney, having won hundreds of millions from the tobacco companies, Levin says, “While this may be counter to what most of us grow up hearing from family and friends, the old refrain You can accomplish anything you set your mind to… simply isn’t true.” It doesn’t pay to become a Greek tragedy like Sisyphus, constantly pushing a boulder up the mountain only to see it cascade back down the hill. Levin, who loves a good fight (he has also served as the manager for boxing great Roy Jones Jr.), is right. Why struggle pushing a rock uphill when, instead, you can have the wind at your back? Levin knows what things make him tick, and getting attention is one of those things. His talent for self-promotion is very much a part of his perfect pitch. Despite his controversial reputation, his name sits atop his alma mater—and the state’s most prestigious—law school, the University of Florida. This king of torts figured out his unique talents and abilities and followed them not to the orchestra hall or into a university classroom, but into the courtroom and before the camera.
Part of the Puritan work ethic instilled in most of us is the belief that we must work hard to overcome our weaknesses, that we must face our deficits head-on and attack them with near-fanatical fervor. That’s not the runway to runaway success, however. RMITs have become the richest men and women in their towns because they have assessed their unique talents and nurtured their distinctive strengths. They accentuate their own positive traits, talents, and innate skills. Bill Gates once noted, “Early in the history of Microsoft, our view was, if you were very smart then you could learn how to manage people, how to do business, how to do marketing. It turns out that talent isn’t that fungible. Somebody who is great at doing software in many ways is often not the right person to manage people.”
Anti-virus virtuoso John McAfee said that it took him until his late forties to know himself fully. His best advice? “Find out who you are early; find out what you’re best at and what you really want before you go out and try to achieve what the outside world has defined as success.” You must make your own definition of success. McAfee says, “I simply bought lock, stock, and barrel what my parents told me was success—what the movies, TV, and all the books on success told me was success. I did that without regard to what success really meant to me.”
In this post-software phase of his life, he has built his own town in the desert of New Mexico and a new business that combines his talent for building things and his passion for flying—in this case, flying kite-wing plane contraptions that look like motorcycles with wings. McAfee’s Sky Gypsies is a band of brothers who share a love of navigating the canyons and crevices of New Mexico and Arizona in these one-person aerotrekking gliders. Soaring silently over the desert terrain allows for some serious and continuing soul searching—the kind of personal internal analysis that is a critical step to becoming the richest man in town.
None of this is to say that everyone is a hidden genius. You don’t have to be a human calculator or a musical savant to have real, valuable, “monetizable” human capital. Billion-dollar Bob Gillam, the greatest success story in Anchorage, says, “It’s not the Phi Beta Kappa who becomes the great change agent of the world. It’s often the B student who has had to struggle—who knows what he is made of—who knows who he is.” Gillam, a sixty-something Alaskan adventurer, exemplifies the Horatio Alger trajectory of so many RMITs. He began in modest circumstances, raised in the back room of his father’s liquor store in Anchorage. He knew that he didn’t want to run a liquor store, but he did love watching the way business works. He made his way from that storage room to one of the most prestigious business schools in America, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He struggled to get there, but he knew his calling was to be an investor and run his own company. He knew his perfect pitch. Like Nelson, Levin, Peavey, Mathile, and Gillam, you can only become an RMIT if you are performing from, and playing to, your personal strengths. Maya Angelou is right on the money: “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.”
• You can’t be something you’re not… but you can be so much more of who you innately, intrinsically are. Everyone has his or her own unique perfect pitch.
• The path of least resistance is your surest road to success and sizable riches.
• How much you capitalize on your personal makeup ultimately determines how much capital you have in your personal wallet.
• What are you so good at that people can’t take their eyes off you when you are doing it?