I just had a talk with a friend of mine. He owns a very successful family construction business. He personally takes more money home than most lawyers and doctors combined. He should. He works on Bill Gates’ and Paul Allen’s Homes.

We took a little drive out to one of his projects. The project had cathedral ceilings, flatscreens in every single room and closet, and a little four story yacht out back on Lake Washington in Bellevue.

I asked him how this particular client made his billions. Billions.

Without going into detail about the client, he said, “C_ killed the competition. He either bought ‘em out or he starved ‘em out.”

“C_ made sure for years to keep his prices so low that none of his competitors could stay in business. Then when they closed, he raised his prices.”

“Hmmm.” I thought. That accounts for the “starved ‘em out” part and it wouldn’t occur to anyone else to ask about how he bought them out. This second part looks obvious. But that’s the furthest from the truth. The bought them out part was where the real magic happened.

C_ sold his clients more products than they could possibly pay for promising flexible payment terms. When his clients were late on a payment, C_ cited a clause in his sales contracts that gave his client 30 days to pay. At the end of the 30 days, he cited another clause that empowered him to take over the company.

Every few months, C_’s net worth doubled.

I won’t even start on how Bill Gates and Paul Allen acquired their wealth — at least not in this post.

So? What do you think? Can you be highly wealthy without being an Evile Corporation???