Want to make a 'few billion dollars'? Entrepreneur explains how

Founding a billion-dollar company is a feat achieved by only the tiniest percentage of people throughout history. Repeating that accomplishment has been achieved by even fewer.

Then there's serial Wall Street entrepreneur Brad Jacobs, who has founded seven billion- or multibillion-dollar corporations, putting him in a class by himself.

Jacobs, who founded and took public United Waste Systems, United Rentals, XPO and XPO’s two spin-offs, GXO Logistics and RXO, discusses the secrets to his string of successes in his new book, “How to Make a Few Billion Dollars.”

“The title of the book is ‘How to Make a Few Billion Dollars,’ but it's not literally saying that,” he said. “The figurative purpose of the book is to explain how to dream big and aim big and accomplish really big things in life that can be money, but that could also be the arts, that could be parenthood, that could be anything you want.”

Jacobs certainly hasn't locked himself into any one industry when it comes to hitting it big. He’s cashed in billion-dollar bets in oil trading, waste management and logistics, among others. To a certain extent, he believes that the similarities of businesses outweigh their differences, with the major similarity being that each business serves customers and provides a service or product that customers value more than their competitor's offerings.

“It's creating an environment for employees to feel great and to feel proud to be at the company and motivated to give it their all,” Jacobs said. “And most importantly, it’s about pleasing investors who give us their money and we have to give them a lot more money back than they gave us.”

It’s worth noting that Jacobs concentrates on keeping his employees happy, even more than beating his competitors.

“We focus on making our company great and better than the competitors. So the customers come to us, the best employees come to us, and investors come to us,” he said. “So it's more introverted than extroverted in that respect.” 

The book also talks about finding and following the next big trend in order to make the big bucks. Right now Jacobs says artificial intelligence and 3D printing are the big trends for future billionaires. And even though many companies are already involved in those two arenas, Jacobs believes there are more billions up for grabs.

“It's not that you have to make money directly from AI or from 3D printing or be in that business, but you have to recognize that these are big, big trends and how your business can utilize that trend to your advantage,” he said.

Jacobs said that's exactly what he's doing with his current project, a building products distribution company called QXO. With QXO, he plans to use AI to benefit from supply chains becoming smaller and leverage 3D printing to take advantage of the move toward additive manufacturing.

It’s worth noting that Jacobs isn't always building companies from scratch or organically. He describes his approach to M&A in the book as well, and it generally revolves around discovering an overarching strategy, perfecting it and executing on it with the same compassion for the seller that he affords his own workers.

“Usually there's this conflict and almost hostility, and that's just a complete waste of time,” he said. “Have a lot of understanding of what that seller is going through. And even if they're acting sometimes a little irrational or a little tough, just give them a break.”

Finally, despite all his successes, Jacobs says he intends to keep going and try to create more billion-dollar companies. And not simply to add a few extra billions to his bank account.

“You can't spend that much money unless you go buy NFL teams and just go crazy,” he said. “So it is not about the money after a certain point, although money does keep it real, and enables you to know that the business that you're creating is valuable and you're not just dreaming it.”