Section One: Learning from the Billionaire
Chapter 1
Learning to Unlearn—Five False Beliefs That Block Success
Most business books start by adding content, cramming more concepts, tactics, and strategies
into already overloaded brains.
This one starts by subtracting.
Calvin Schwartz adjusted his tie nervously as he walked through the stunning lobby of the New
York building that housed the Billionaire’s office. Gleaming marble, floor-to-ceiling windows,
elegant furnishings, and gold-framed mirrors greeted him. The receptionist, a sharp-eyed woman
in her fifties, had simply nodded toward the elevator and said, “Tenth floor. He’s expecting
you.”
The office itself defied every preconception Calvin had harbored. Despite the lavish lobby, the
Billionaire’s personal office was modest. No intimidating mahogany conference table the size of
a small aircraft carrier. Instead, the Billionaire sat behind a simple wooden desk in what felt
more like a comfortable study than a corporate command center.
Bookshelves lined the walls, packed with volumes that showed actual wear rather than decorative
spines. A small espresso machine hummed quietly in the corner. Wooden filing cabinets lined one
wall, contents identified by the year.
“Coffee?” the Billionaire offered, gesturing toward the machine. “Real espresso, not the brown
water they serve in most American offices.”
Calvin accepted gratefully, settling into the comfortable leather chair across from the wooden
table. The afternoon stretched ahead of them. He’d been told to block out several hours for this
meeting.
During this extended first meeting, the Billionaire didn’t launch into success principles or
investment strategies. Instead, he studied Calvin briefly. His pale blue eyes seemed to catalog
everything in seconds as he sipped from a simple white cup.
He leaned forward and said something that would change everything for Calvin. “Before I can
teach you anything useful, you need to unlearn what’s blocking you.”
Calvin had his notepad ready, expecting to capture some profound business wisdom. Instead, the
Billionaire gestured toward Calvin’s head with a slight smile.
“Your mind is like an overstuffed closet,” he explained, his slight Italian accent making the
words somehow more authoritative. “You can’t add anything new until you clear out the old,
outdated beliefs that no longer serve you.”
He set down his cup with deliberate precision. “The biggest difference between me and most
people isn’t what I know. It’s what I’ve chosen to unlearn.”
Calvin straightened in his seat on hearing this statement. This wasn’t what he’d expected from
someone worth billions.
The Billionaire noticed Calvin’s hesitation and chuckled. “You thought I’d give you a formula,
didn’t you? A step-by-step guide to wealth?” He shook his head. “That comes later. First, we
clear the debris.”
Then he identified five false beliefs that keep many ambitious professionals stuck in place
while watching others fly past them.
False Belief #1: The
All-or-Nothing Fallacy
“The first thing holding you back,” the Billionaire told Calvin, tapping a manicured finger on
the polished table surface, “is your belief that you need everything perfectly aligned before
you can succeed.”
Calvin shifted in his chair. The observation hit uncomfortably close to home. He’d been waiting
for the right opportunity, perfect timing, and better market conditions for months to signal
that success was coming.
“Tell me, what are you waiting for?” the Billionaire asked.
“Well,” Calvin began, then stopped. The list was embarrassingly long. “More capital, better
connections, more experience, better economic conditions.” He’d convinced himself that the
Billionaire had succeeded because he’d had advantages Calvin simply didn’t possess.
“Do you know what I started with?” the Billionaire asked, noting Calvin’s silence.
When Calvin shook his head, the older man described resources so modest that Calvin was
genuinely shocked. A cramped apartment above his family’s failing restaurant, borrowed money
from relatives who could barely afford it, and a business plan scrawled on napkins during
late-night shifts waiting tables.
What made him successful wasn’t resources but resourcefulness. Calvin was beginning to
understand. Success was in the ability to take imperfect action with imperfect information in
imperfect circumstances. He had dared to persevere in the face of impoverished beginnings.
“In Italy, we have a saying,” the Billionaire told Calvin. “‘Il meglio è nemico del
bene.’ The perfect is the enemy of the good. Most people never start because they’re
waiting for ideal conditions that never arrive.”
Calvin scribbled furiously, trying to capture not just the words but the conviction behind them.
“It seems so difficult to start, though, when it looks like everything is stacked against you.
When you feel you are the low man on the totem pole.”
Your Mindset Shift
The Billionaire stood and walked to the window, hands clasped behind his back. “That’s how
most people feel, Calvin, but here’s the truth. Success isn’t about having everything you
need. It’s about leveraging what you already have in ways others wouldn’t think to try.”
He turned back toward his guest. “I didn’t wait until I had everything. I maximized what I
had while simultaneously building what I lacked.
“True resourcefulness,” the Billionaire said, returning to his seat. “It isn't
just making do with what you have. It’s seeing possibilities in your resources that
others miss entirely.”
Calvin looked up from his notes. “So you’re saying I should just start? With nothing?”
“Especially with nothing,” the Billionaire interrupted. “The constraints will force you
to be creative in ways abundance never could.”
False Belief #2: The
Born-Special Syndrome
The Billionaire stood and walked to one of his bookshelves, pulling out several worn notebooks.
The leather covers showed wear and age, and heavy use had yellowed the pages. He arranged them
on the table between himself and Calvin.
“Do you think I was born knowing how to structure a billion-dollar deal?” the Billionaire asked
with a genuine laugh that filled the quiet office. “Or that I was naturally gifted at reading
people’s buying signals?”
Calvin had to admit that was what he’d assumed. The business magazines made it sound like some
people were just born with an entrepreneurial gene, a natural instinct for success that others
simply lacked.
“We’ve mythologized successful people to where we believe they possess some innate quality we
simply don’t have,” the Billionaire said, opening one of the notebooks.
The notebooks contained pages filled with dense handwriting of observations, strategies, and
failure analyses. “This belief is comfortable because it absolves us of responsibility. After
all, if I’m special and you’re not, why try?”
The Billionaire showed Calvin how deliberately he had developed every skill that led to his
success. Page after page revealed meticulous tracking of progress, detailed notes on negotiation
tactics, consumer buying psychology studies, and financial analysis techniques. He devoted one
notebook entirely to his failures, detailing what went wrong, why, and how to avoid repeating
the mistakes.
“I wasn’t born knowing any of this,” he said, pointing to a complex diagram showing market entry
strategies. “I learned it, practiced it, failed at it, and learned some more. There was a time
when the mistakes notebook was much bigger than the success ledger.
“Talent is just the starting point.” He closed the notebook carefully. “The rest is deliberate
practice.”
Calvin examined his own assumptions about natural ability. He’d always told himself he wasn’t
“cut out” for certain things, wasn’t naturally good at sales or leadership or strategic
thinking.
“The difference between us,” the Billionaire said, reading Calvin’s expression, “isn’t talent.
It’s tolerance. Tolerance for the discomfort of developing new capabilities.”
Your Mindset Shift
“Replace ‘I’m not good at that’ with ‘I’m not good at that yet,’” the Billionaire
advised. “Success isn’t inherited; it’s engineered through deliberate practice.”
He leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled. “In my company, we never hire for talent
alone. We hire for the humility to see that you don’t know it all, but the hunger to learn
it and the drive to earn it.”
Calvin nodded, thinking of his own hiring practices as a sales manager. He’d always looked
for people who already possessed the skills he needed rather than people who could develop
them.
“Mastery,” the Billionaire said, “is simply the accumulation of minor
improvements made consistently over time.”
False Belief #3: The
Secret-Formula Fantasy
“Let me pour us more coffee,” the Billionaire said, rising from his seat to refill their cups.
“Everyone wants the secret,” the Billionaire shook his head with a mixture of amusement and
frustration as he settled back into his chair. “They think I succeeded because I discovered some
hidden knowledge that nobody else has.”
Calvin paused, his coffee cup halfway to his lips. Wasn’t that precisely why he was here? To
learn the secret formula for success that only billionaires know.
The Billionaire noticed Calvin’s expression and chuckled. “You too? You thought there was some
vault of secrets I’d unlock for you?”
Calvin realized he still believed the actual key to success was not accessible to someone like
him. He believed billionaires knew something he didn’t. A secret hidden from ordinary people.
“I get letters and emails every week,” the Billionaire told him, gesturing toward a stack of
correspondence on his desk, “from people asking for ‘the secret.’ As if I have found a magic
spell in some hidden book that’s unavailable to mere mortal beings.”
After a sip of coffee, the Billionaire continued. “There are no secrets, Calvin, kept from the
everyday man. Only fundamentals executed at an uncommon level.”
Calvin set down his coffee cup. “Everything I need to know is already out there?”
“Everything and more,” the Billionaire confirmed. “The bookstores are full of it. The internet
is drowning in it. But knowledge without consistent application is just expensive
entertainment.”
The reality hit Calvin like a cold splash of water. The Billionaire meant that the principles
that create success were widely available. Hidden in plain sight. He’d looked right past them as
he searched for the secret locked away somewhere.
The problem was that they were rarely followed consistently.
Your Mindset Shift
“Stop hunting for secrets and start executing the fundamentals at a level most aren’t
willing to maintain,” the Billionaire advised. “Mastery, not mystery, is what creates
exceptional results.”
Calvin was still thinking about the reality he’d just encountered. Consistency? That was the
key?
“In Italian craftsmanship,” he explained to Calvin, “the apprentice learns the same
techniques as the master. The difference is that the master has practiced them ten thousand
times more.”
He held up his thumb. “I smashed this thumb so many times when I was first in the factory
shop. They thought I would never learn. After what seemed like a hundred times, I finally
hit the nail consistently on the head.”
Calvin looked at the thumb that looked like it had survived its lesson many years ago.
“The basics,” he concluded, “are basic because they work. Not because they’re
simple to master.”
False Belief #4: The
Overnight Success Story
The afternoon was growing late, shadows lengthening across the office floor, but neither man
seemed inclined to end their conversation.
“How long do you think it took me to become ‘successful’?” the Billionaire asked Calvin as Maria
brought them small glasses of limoncello.
Calvin considered what he knew from magazine profiles and business articles. The man had burst
onto the public scene seemingly out of nowhere with a series of brilliant business moves. “Five
years? Maybe seven?”
The Billionaire smiled and shook his head. “Try twenty-three.”
Calvin nearly choked on his limoncello. He was off by more than a decade. The journey had been
far longer and more arduous than any magazine profile had suggested.
“The stories of overnight success distort our sense of how achievement actually happens,” the
Billionaire said. “We see the breakthrough moment but miss the years of preparation that made it
possible.”
The Billionaire reached into another desk drawer and pulled out a worn leather journal that
looked ancient compared to the smooth notebooks they’d examined earlier. This was his “success
journal,” twenty-three years of small wins, devastating setbacks, and incremental progress that
preceded his public “overnight success.”
Calvin flipped through pages filled with modest victories: landing a small client, negotiating a
slightly better deal, and learning a new skill. Mixed in were darker entries of failed ventures,
financial struggles, moments of doubt that had nearly driven him to quit.
“Your success is well-earned.” Calvin’s voice carried a sense of admiration. “The news didn’t
mention your hard times, though.”
“The world sees success,” the Billionaire said quietly, watching Calvin read. “They never see
the struggle.”
“The magazines make it sound like you came out of nowhere,” Calvin protested.
“Of course, because ‘Man Struggles for Two Decades Before Achieving Success’ doesn’t sell
magazines. ‘Overnight Billionaire’ does.”
Your Mindset Shift
“Every ‘overnight success’ is, in reality, the visible manifestation of years of invisible
work.”
The Billionaire took the journal back and ran his fingers over its worn cover. “In my
family’s tradition, we know the finest wines take the longest to mature. This principle also
applies to success. Patience is not just a virtue. It helps you win. It’s a competitive
advantage.”
“Don’t you miss opportunities that way?” Calvin thought about his own timeline expectations,
how quickly he’d hoped to see dramatic results.
“Success happens slowly, then suddenly,” the Billionaire told him. “Most people quit during
‘slowly’ and never experience ‘suddenly.’”
False Belief #5: The
Perfect Circumstances Trap
The Billionaire stood and walked to the window, gazing out at the city as evening approached.
The office lights were beginning to come on in the buildings across the street, creating a
tapestry of illuminated windows against the darkening sky.
“If I had waited for perfect circumstances,” the Billionaire said, gesturing toward the bustling
city in the view below, “I’d still be waiting. And none of this would exist.”
He pointed toward a distant skyscraper, its lights twinkling in the growing dusk. “See that
building? I financed it during the worst economic downturn in decades. My advisors thought I was
insane.”
Calvin had believed successful people somehow engineered ideal conditions for their success with
perfect timing, perfect resources, and perfect support systems. The reality was becoming clear:
the Billionaire had succeeded despite his circumstances, not because of them.
“Waiting for perfect conditions,” the Billionaire said, returning to his chair, “is really just
fear wearing a business suit.”
He sat back down, swirling the remaining limoncello in his glass. As the city lights twinkled
beyond the window, he explained how he had turned constraints into advantages, using limitations
as leverage rather than excuses. His first major breakthrough came during an economic downturn
when competitors were scaling back, not expanding.
“While everyone else was retreating, I was advancing,” he said. “Their caution created my
opportunity.
“Constraints force creativity,” the Billionaire explained, watching the city come alive with
evening lights beyond his window. “When you can’t throw money or resources at a problem, you’re
forced to think differently.”
Calvin glanced at the clock. They’d been talking for hours. The Billionaire noticed and smiled.
“Perfect example,” he said. “You’re checking conditions, your time, and schedule, before
deciding whether to continue our conversation. Meanwhile, we’re already talking, already making
progress, already gaining insights regardless of what time it might be.”
Your Mindset Shift
“Stop waiting for better circumstances and start leveraging your current constraints,” the
Billionaire advised. “The conditions will never be perfect, but they’re always sufficient
for the next step forward.”
As if on cue, the office lighting seemed to grow warmer as full darkness settled over the
city. Instead of suggesting they wrap up, the Billionaire simply continued their
conversation.
“In Italian design,” he noted, settling deeper into his chair as the office took on the
intimate quality that comes with nightfall, “constraints are not limitations but creative
opportunities. The same is true in business and in life.”
Calvin nodded, no longer concerned about the time.
“Your greatest constraints, properly leveraged, will become your greatest competitive
advantages.”
False Beliefs
Conclusion: The Unlearning Process
As their extended first meeting finally neared its end with the city lights twinkling beyond the
office windows like stars, the Billionaire said something Calvin would never forget.
They’d been discussing Calvin’s growing awareness of how these false beliefs had shaped his
decisions throughout this marathon conversation. The discussion had grown more personal, more
reflective as the hours passed.
“Most people,” the Billionaire told Calvin as shadows lengthened across the office floor, “spend
their entire lives trapped by beliefs they never question. The first step to exceptional success
is questioning what everyone else accepts as truth.”
Calvin set down his notepad, which by now was multiple pages thick with insights and
observations. Before he could absorb any of the Billionaire’s tactical advice, he first had to
dismantle these false beliefs that were framing how he saw the world. Only by unlearning could
he create the mental space to learn.
“I feel like I’ve been operating with faulty software,” Calvin admitted.
“You nailed it,” the Billionaire said with approval. “And now we can install a better operating
system.”
This introduction was Calvin’s invitation to unlearn, to challenge the comfortable lies that had
kept him in his comfort zone. The following ten lessons wouldn’t work until he’d created space
for them by dismantling these five false beliefs.
The most valuable thing the Billionaire had taught Calvin wasn’t a strategy or tactic. It was
about how to think differently about what was possible.
And it all started with unlearning.
As Calvin gathered his notes and prepared to leave, his mind felt simultaneously emptier and
fuller. It was cleared of limiting beliefs but filled with new possibilities. He was ready to
absorb the Billionaire’s first concrete lesson.
The real education was about to begin.
Calvin’s Reflections
Meeting the Billionaire and a Tuna Sub, Hold the
Provolone
Indeed, this is one of those self-help, illuminating, essential books that detail my
long journey working for the Billionaire. However, he was not a billionaire back in 1981
when Reagan took the oath of office. The sales organization was just getting started
when I went to work for him. I’m not even sure if he met millionaire criteria. But he
met the b-word during the time I worked for him.
As for me, I left a career in the health professions that I was not meant to pursue. An
overbearing mother made me read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People
in sixth grade, lay out my clothes the night before school, and consider a career in a
health profession. It didn’t make any difference that I had a math tutor from seventh
grade through high school. My early career was spent courting pharmacology,
refrigerating suppositories, and brown-bagging boxes of sanitary napkins. Despite how it
sounds, I liked it at first.
In a bold, inexplicable move, one morning, as a light, indecisive snow left a coating on
the windowsill, I awoke knowing this day that I’d resign my station in life and
cogitate. Six months later, I entered the halls of selling, and two years after that, I
joined the Billionaire, replete with his vision of a new world to come.
I made all the right moves by joining. Finished first in the country in sales in my
first year with a spun-off division. Two years later, I was elevated into the hallowed
halls of sales management, where I’d reside for a few decades. Fifty courses were given
to managers to mold, sculpt, train, and inculcate.
I didn’t want to make this book one of those clinical, sterile approaches. I remember
Senator Ervin during the Watergate Hearings (accelerated the end of my first marriage; a
long, boring story). He called himself a ‘country lawyer’ and told humorous stories. So,
in keeping with that style, I’ll copy his teaching style here.
Another thought to share. I’m just coming off writing my second novel, There’s a
Tortoise in My Hair; A Journey to Spirit, which got the prestigious Kirkus Star for
literary excellence. In those pages, I discovered my tendency to write in a
stream-of-consciousness style. “Have a nice day.” I wonder how many people sincerely
mean that.
A few months ago, while trying to escape the wasteland of self-published authors
attempting to sell their own books, I discovered Kae Wagner, who has lit many fires for
me, including this one. Suddenly, I just visualized Edward Hopper’s painting
‘Nighthawks.’ I don’t know why. It’s just there. But I think it means armies of authors
trying everything.
To be perfectly honest, looking my eighth decade right in the nostrils, I sought to wind
down, shellac the rocking chair, and move the prune juice from the garage refrigerator
to the kitchen. Now I get to use one of my favorite lines. Just when I wanted to get
out, Kae pulls me back in with pure utility and a worthwhile message of this book. Kae
is the founder of Bold Authors Network, where I have found my place. Thanks to Dan
Morris, for the light of connection.
And here’s the brightest light bulb of all. I dislike dim bulbs. Kae stressed the almost
obvious. How many people get the opportunity to work closely with a billionaire? There
are only three documented billionaires here in New Jersey. Slim pickings. And here I am
belted into my desk chair, staring into my computer screen for the twelfth hour this
day.
In one of our weekly sessions, Kae, fresh from reading There’s a Tortoise in My Hair,
clinically told me that there are four books within that novel that need to be told. I
chose to talk first about what I learned from the Billionaire.
I keep repeating octogenarian as a descriptor of myself now. I’m not typical by design.
In 1969, I chose not to age in the traditional way. I became a proponent of crystallized
intelligence. Yes, CI, which is the knowledge, skill, and experience one accumulates
over a lifetime. Often, when interacting with a Gen Z student or millennial, I
acknowledge their intellectual aura, the new AI app on their phone, and the endless
input of information in their lives. I ponder my early source of information. A World
Book Encyclopedia. My info world with a branch library nearby. Maybe a leveling of the
playing fields. Maybe not. And intelligence stuff is easily retrievable because of my
lifestyle over the years, which has enabled unimpeded blood flow to my cerebral outposts
and neurons. A sharp, weathered octogenarian.
What I have learned definitively is that the Billionaire’s wisdom works in the real
world. Of course it does. He’s a billionaire. I remember our first mentoring time at a
quaint café. Just him and me. His espresso and my over-sweetened iced coffee. His
genuine concern and caring. A rare and precious commodity.
“Why me?” I asked him early on.
“Ah, ragazzo alto, you are so tall, heads above the rest, but you're only halfway to
your potential. I'll show you the rest.”
In writing this book, which is perhaps classified as a self-help venture, I wasn’t sure
how much I generally subscribed to self-help principles. For twenty-five years, I played
tennis obsessively. One summer in the glorious, innocent 1990s, I played sixteen
straight days. I was up there in age. However, I never took a single tennis lesson.
I just picked up a racket and played, remembering the time I watched John McEnroe play
Jimmy Connors. I was often asked why I didn’t take tennis lessons. My canned response,
“Whoever invented the game never took lessons. Why should I?”
The energy to write this book was born from that thinking. Along came Kae Wagner, who
discovered me in Schrodinger’s Box. Living and dead at the same time. I’m now really
living. Enjoy, learn, prosper, and explore the galaxy of the Billionaire.
And yes, the sub sandwich in the subhead? After I Zoomed with Kae to confirm my work
with her on producing the Billionaire book, I needed a palpable, digestible entity,
redolent with red wine vinegar and saturated with full-bodied mayonnaise.
