The Lessons Behind How To Make a Few Billion Dollars

Dave Cote at Honeywell was very rigorous, mathematical, dispassionate, and intelligent about capital allocation—carefully deciding where to put capital to achieve best returns.

“in the industrial sector, there's also people who who have gone through the same kind of processes I've gone through and been been disciplined at how they allocate capital and achieved high ROIC as a result of that. You think of the academy-level CEOs over the years. Dave Cote for example, when he was at Honeywell for years, he was very, very rigorous at this. He was very mathematical, very dispassionate, very intelligent about, 'Okay, guys, this is how much money we've got. Where are we going to get the biggest returns?'”

Jacobs maintains that meditation in various forms has been a central hobby since his teenage years, and this foundation led to learning self-hypnosis, mindfulness, positive psychology, and cognitive therapy, which he has customized based on his personality and background.

“For my my main hobby since I was a teenager has been meditation and various forms of meditation and then from meditation into learn self-hypnosis. And then and then from there I learned all the uh mindfulness and the positive psychology and cognitive therapy and so forth.”

AI is the number one trend right now because software and artificial intelligence can consume much more information than human brains (100 billion brain cells), and the computing power is much greater.

“I'm most interested in AI. Cuz it is the trend. It is the number one trend whereby our technology, the software, that intelligence will be able to consume so much information, much more than we human beings can, even with 100 billion brain cells. The power of compu- computing is so much greater.”

M&A has been the dominant growth lever in Jacobs' career since 1989 (~500 acquisitions), and he believes M&A is the most likely way (on a risk-adjusted basis with high certainty) to create massive shareholder value, more than other approaches.

“M&A has been a big part of my business career... Since 1989, I've been doing roughly about 500 acquisitions... I don't know of another way on a risk-adjusted basis, on a certainty level, that is more likely to create massive shareholder value than doing sensible M&A.”

The relationship between music, math, and business is that business requires mathematical thinking to find patterns and make order out of disorder, and musical improvisation to adapt when markets change, both of which are necessary for shareholder value creation.

“Business is about making money for shareholders... part of the ingredients to that formula to make huge huge returns for shareholders involve analytical thought, uh and careful analysis of numbers, there's all the math, uh making order out of disorder, trying to see where how does this all fit together? And seeing the relationships between different things... And on the music side, it's being able to improvise... So, so that ability to go with the flow in music, you need to have that in business”

After completing difficult work in long meetings, Jacobs ends with an exercise where people stand in a circle for 5 minutes silently thinking about each other: (1) what they respect/admire about each person, and (2) wishing each person success and a fantastic future.

“we stand in a circle. And and I don't want to say anything. I just want I just want to spend five full minutes... And I want everyone to look at each person. And I want them to do two things. I want them to think to themselves, think to themselves, 'I really respect this person because' or 'I really admire this person'... And the second thing I want them to do is I want them to say, 'Not only am I grateful for being on the same team with this person, I really wish this person a lot of success.'”

Finding something that is messed up and easy to un-mess-up is the core opportunity structure for making a lot of money in business.

“If you can find something that's messed up and easy to un-messed-up, boo-ya, there's your money. There's your opportunity to make a lot of money.”

Late in her life, Jacobs' mother on her deathbed told him 'I'm really happy each of you turned out so well' while looking all three children in the eye and smiling, which Jacobs describes as possibly the happiest moment of his life and a source of validation and confidence.

“She suddenly like sat up. She looked all three of us in the eye and said, 'I'm really happy each of you turned out so well.' And smiled with a with a mother's love... But that moment that might be the happiest moment of my life when when my mother, my mom, the the person whose body I came out of, the person who took care of me from from a young from from right from day one... approved of me. And uh validated me.”

Jacobs scores very high on 'need to be appreciated' in psychological tests, and this translates into motivation as a CEO: he wants to please investors, make them happy, and create returns for them.

“If you take those psychological tests, I score very high on need to be appreciated. So, how does that translate into being a CEO? Well, that translates into... I want to please them. I want to make them happy. I want to make them a lot of money.”

Creating a 'love vibe' (good vibration throughout the company) doesn't happen naturally; it requires effort, intentionality, and skill.

“And you have to work at that. That doesn't happen just by itself. That's not a natural event. That's something that requires effort, that requires intentionality, that requires some skill.”

According to Jacobs' main business mentor Lou Glickstein: you can mess up a lot of things but if you get the main trend right, you're going to make a lot of money; conversely, if you don't get the main trend right, you're swimming upstream and won't make a lot of money despite doing other things right.

“As my main business mentor, may he rest in peace, Lou Glickstein used to say, you can mess up a lot of things, but if you get the main trend right, you're going to make a lot of money. And conversely, if you don't get the main trend right, you're swimming upstream. You can do a lot of other things right, but you're not going to make a lot of money.”

Jacobs' research process involves: picking people's brains, asking people opinions without shame, preferring to be a student rather than a teacher, maintaining profound curiosity, engaging with sensory and intellectual experiences, to see trends that others miss by being fully immersed in the experience.

“I like people, and I like picking people's brains, and I'm shameless about asking people their opinions, and I like to be a student more than a teacher... if you keep that that element of profound curiosity, of really interesting and being very interested to learn and being involved with the sensory experience, be involved in the intellectual experience, be involved in an analytical capabilities, I think you can learn a lot more and you can see trends that otherwise you don't see it. You're just in it and you're living it, but you're not seeing the trend. You're just kind of going along.”

Asking lots of questions is a powerful tool that Jacobs learned from therapists, specifically from his experience with cognitive therapy and therapists like Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.

“I see a big value in asking lots of questions to people... Now, today you're the one asking questions and I'm answering, but normally it's a role reversal. Normally, I'm asking a lot of questions.”

Jacobs applies the principle of 'joining then leading, validating then disputing' to business interactions with employees, customers, vendors, investors, and upset customers.

“I find that's really powerful in business. Whether you're dealing with employees or whether you're dealing with someone whose business you're trying to buy or you're dealing with a vendor or you're dealing with a investor or an upset customer, it's a it's very good to do that.”

Jacobs' confidence came partly from his father telling him at age 13 that he wasn't particularly good-looking but had personality, leadership, and charisma to become a leader and accomplish things, which paradoxically gave Jacobs confidence.

“My father turned to me and said... 'Bradley, it's really good that you have a really good personality because you're surely not going to get anywhere with those looks. Ha ha ha ha ha'... the message I was getting from my father was... you have leadership skills. You have personality, you have charisma... And I think in a very very very very paradoxical kind of way, my father insulting me on that I gave me confidence... maybe I don't have great all-American good looks. Who cares? I've got something else.”

Jacobs structures difficult meetings like an Oreo cookie: good/positive content, difficult/negative content in middle, then ending on good/positive content, rather than starting and/or ending on negative notes.

“I like to make it like an Oreo cookie. I like to make the good stuff the negative stuff, but then end on the good stuff.”

To do M&A successfully, one must first select the right industry, which requires studying dozens of industries looking at hundreds of acquisition opportunities to assess: is the industry big enough, fragmented enough to allow M&A, are there economies of scale, can you apply technology, does it fit your playbook and culture.

“you first have to select an industry. You can't just do M&A. So I spent the last year going around studying dozens of industries, looking at hundreds and hundreds of acquisition opportunities... figuring out could I apply my playbook to this industry? Is the industry big Is the industry fragmented enough? Is there M&A to do? Is bigger better?... Are there economies of scale?... Is there a way to apply technology?... Is the way I run a business... something that'll work in this industry?”

Jacobs believes he will never be smarter than the sum of all the directors, so he wants highly smart and engaged directors, meaning if directors aren't performing their roles, the problem is the director selection (or you have the wrong directors).

“I am never going to be smarter than the sum of all the directors. That's never going to happen mathematically... Or or you have the wrong directors, right?... I like directors who are smart and who are engaged and really want to improve the company.”

Jacobs hates the word 'committee' because it represents bureaucracy and slow decision-making. However, some decisions require input from multiple disciplines (finance, operations, HR for big decisions), so he uses groups but doesn't call them committees.

“I hate the word committee, period. Committee is just like a bureaucratic red tape, slow kind of low-energy kind of word. I just can't stand the word, so I try not to call things committees... However, there are sometimes when a group of people will have to make a decision because it's more than one discipline that's required to get to the right decision.”

FP&A's role is to identify sandbagging (managers setting low expectations to exceed them) and overconfidence (managers promising results they historically miss) by comparing promises to actual track records, and assign probability-weighted credit for uncertain initiatives.

“the FP&A people are are are are really good at figuring out who's sandbagging and who's exaggerating... you have some managers who... want to lower expectations so they come out looking like heroes. Well, that's not good because we want to know the real likely outcome... On the other hand, you have some people who are um overly self-confident... if you look at their history... they've missed their predictions by 3 to 5% like pretty much every year. So, they're going to discount them based on the past predicting their future likely to succeeding.”

FP&A has two reporting lines: (1) solid line to the CFO for financial accuracy, and (2) dotted line to operations and directly to the CEO so the CEO can check on project execution and shareholder commitment fulfillment daily.

“FP&A has has a two lines. One is to the CFO on the and they have a dotted line to operations and to me. So, I I rely on my FP&A person like every day. I want to know for two reasons. I want to know internally how we're doing on the projects that we're we're we're we're attaching high priority to. I also want to know how we're doing on our commitments to shareholders, to investors.”

Jacobs was inspired by Goldman Sachs' compensation plan during their partnership days, where a significant portion of pay was based on how many other partners said you helped them, creating incentives for cooperation and team success rather than individual achievement.

“One thing I liked about Goldman Sachs's compensation plan that I took for them years and years ago when they were partnership, a big chunk of their compensation plan... a big chunk like a significant percent of their comp was based on how many other partners said that they helped them with what they were working on... In other words, I didn't just work on what I was trying to work on, but I helped you Shane with your customer with your client.”

The biggest lesson Jacobs has learned from the past year is to default to something about people, then something about technology, because these are the two biggest needle movers.

“You could pick any timeframe... 'What's the biggest lesson I've learned?' For sure, I'm going to immediately default to something with people. It's First, I'm going to default to people, and then I'm going to default to technology. These are the two things. Because these are the two biggest needle movers. These are the two biggest categories of things that make a difference.”

Jacobs is working with the same team at QXO that was at XPO/the XOs, and he values having 'the band back together'—people he's been through battles with, shared glory and pain, dark days and strong days, victories, and who complete each other's sentences.

“I'm working with a team now at my my new company that's largely the same they were on my teams before... It's great to work with people that you know, that you've been in the battles with, you've shared the glories, you've shared the pain... we've been in the dark days together, we've been in the strong days together, we've won together, we've been victorious together. We can complete each other's sentences.”

The relationship between parents and children is very important and influences who the person becomes; as a CEO with 150,000 employees, Jacobs sees himself as a parental figure whose opinions and messages significantly influence his employees, so he must be careful what he says and ensure it's authentic.

“The relationship between a parent, in this case my mom, and me, or in the other example my dad and me, it's a real important experience. It has a big influence on the person what the authority figure thinks about the person. And when you're in business, particularly if you're the CEO, you're the authority figure. You are kind of like the dad. You're kind of like the mom of, in my case, 150,000 employees. And you have to be careful what you say.”

Jacobs is looking forward to the point where computers become emotional, have empathy, develop theory of mind, and can feel what humans feel—having emotional recognition similar to mirror neurons in the human prefrontal cortex.

“And be able to then analyze that and be able to spit things out and be able to eventually I I'm looking forward to the point where computers become emotional. Where they do have emotion, where they do have empathy. Just like we have mirror neurons in the front of our brain in the prefrontal cortex. I'd like to see that trend fruit to materialize where computers can feel, can have theory of mind, can be sitting here with a conversation with Shane Parrish and and feeling what you're feeling. And and feeling happy about what you're feeling happy about, and feeling sad about something you're not feeling happy about. I'm looking forward to that trend a lot.”

To spot trends before they become mainstream, one must spend time thinking about trends by examining context (origin, present conditions, ways it could go, catalysts), intention on understanding where things fit, and assessing what the major trend is that needs to be gotten right.

“Well, I do spend a lot of time thinking about trends. I look I spend a lot of time thinking about the wider context of things. Like, okay, here's a situation. What's the context of that situation? What's its origin? What's its present conditions and characteristics? What are the ways it could go? And what would be the catalyst to make it go right or straight or left? So, I I intentionally think about trends quite a bit, cuz in business in the business world, you've got to get the major trend right.”

Jacobs has a chapter in his book on how to run an 'electric meeting'—a powerful meeting where everyone goes away exhilarated and with lots of actionable items—which requires everyone shutting off devices and practicing non-judgmental concentration on whoever is speaking, with no interruptions or side conversations.

“in the book, I have a chapter on how to have an electric meeting, how to run an electric meeting, which means a meeting that's powerful. A meet- a meeting that everyone goes away exhilarated. Everyone goes away with lots of things to do that can create a lot of value for the shareholders. Not just one of these whole home meetings. And and an element of that meeting is everyone in the meeting shuts off all their devices and concentrates, concentrates, non-judgmentally, non-judgmental concentration on the one person who's speaking at a time. No side conversations, no talking over each other. One person speaks a time, but everyone in the room gives them all their attention.”

The benefits of the singularity and human-technology merger will include better resource distribution, more abundant resources for more people, better medicine and science, longer lifespans, and more rational thinking because technology and AI will enable 'non-stop therapy' to help humans think more constructively.

“Well, the benefits are we should be able to accomplish a lot more. So, if you look at us as a planet 8 billion people, there's a lot of things we do well, but there's a lot of things we don't do well, primarily get along with each other and information sharing is not there, resource sharing is not there. I think with advances in technology we will be able to distribute resources more intelligently and and and more abundantly and have more resources for more people and I think medicine will be better and sci- science will be better. We'll be able to live longer. We'll be able to be more in touch with the way we think and to be able to think more constructively because that's one of the places where it's an area of improvement for humans is we don't think rationally a lot of times. And I think with technology and AI advancements that we will think more rationally. So, there'll be non-stop therapy, so to speak.”

The most powerful thing one can do in any relationship (personal or professional) is give someone 100% of one's attention—looking at them, listening to them, actually paying attention to what they're saying.

“the most maybe the most, maybe the single most powerful thing you can do in a relationship, whether it's personal or it's professional, is to give someone your 100% like you're doing now. You're giving me 100% of your attention. I can see it. You're You're looking at me. You're listening to me. You're actually paying attention to what I'm saying. And, that feels good, by the way.”

Jacobs takes a 'Zen Buddhist approach' to debt: not too much, not too little. Some leverage is optimal for returns, but too much creates risk. Current geopolitical and political volatility makes high leverage particularly risky.

“a Zen Buddhist approach to debt. Not too much, not too little... I don't think it's an optimal balance sheet if you have no debt because you can improve the returns by shrinking your your your share count... I don't think you should have a lot of leverage. Particularly in today's world, I don't think you should have a lot of leverage because there's significant geopolitical risk.”

Jacobs' approach to board meetings is: directors read all data in advance, then the meeting brings in 10-20 managers/employees of various levels, and directors ask whatever questions they want without advance notice, encouraging spontaneous honest answers rather than prepared speeches.

“I like to have real board meetings where ahead of time everyone's read all that data and between board meetings they've been in the business... they come to the meeting and we bring in over the course of a day somewhere between 10 and 20 managers, executives, sometimes senior ones, sometimes mid-level managers... I go around the room and I like every single director to ask whatever they want to ask... I don't want them to tell me ahead of time what they're going to ask”

In oil trading, Jacobs structured complex multi-element deals (counter-trades, pre-financed deals, barter, processing deals) that appeared risky but were actually execution risk rather than market risk, because he understood each component mathematically and could hedge the market exposure.

“I swung for the fences. I I used sometimes up to $999 of that line of credit doing counter-trade deals, doing pre-financed deals, doing barter, doing processing deals, deals that I They were very complex. Very very complex, but organized. I knew what I was doing... I actually feel this is low risk. This is basically just execution risk and I'm comfortable taking on the execution risk part of it. I don't have market risk even though it looked like I did, but I really didn't.”

The role of a board in a founder-led company like QXO is to be highly informed, involved, and engaged. Board members should have direct access to employees without supervision, see all customer and employee surveys with analysis, and be invited to all operating reviews.

“I've been really fortunate to have fantastic boards... My relationship with the board is a little bit different than most most boards. We're completely transparent, completely open. Any board member can reach out to any person in the company anytime they want and ask them anything they want... I want board members to be very very informed. I want board members to get copies of the customer surveys. I want them to see the analysis.”

Jacobs doesn't run acquired companies as separate silos with different names, systems, and back offices; he standardizes on: (1) ERP system for financial close and KPI dashboards, (2) HRIS for consistent HR and compensation, (3) CRM for customer management, (4) internal social media for company culture and communication.

“I've never run companies that have like hundreds of different companies all running separately with different names and different systems and different back offices... I have a very strong appetite for standardization. Standardization of the ERP system... I need to have standardized HRIS human resources system... I need to have a standardized CRM, customer relationship management system... I need to standardize... internal social media.”

Brad defines his success primarily through shareholder returns rather than personal wealth; his motivation is to please investors and co-investors (friends, family, and institutional investors) who have trusted him with capital, viewing this as a sacred fiduciary responsibility.

“You know, essentially you threw me off a little bit with the question cuz I don't define myself as in terms of how much money I've made... But it's it's a report card... I can be a perfect example... I thank them not for the $100 million. You see, I didn't need the $100 million... But I thank them for for giving me motivation, giving me inspiration, giving me a purpose, because I want to please them.”

When people say they're not motivated by money, Jacobs gets suspicious because he wants employees motivated by money—raw capitalists who want to make money for themselves and families—so that the company can pay them more than they can make elsewhere.

“When people tell you they're not motivated by money, you get suspicious... I know a lot of artists... friends and relatives who are professors... They're just not into money... I respect that... But, that's not who I want in my company. I want in my company people who are absolutely motivated by money, who are raw capitalists, who people who want to make money for themselves and their families, and that we can figure out a way that by being part of our company, they can help us make money for shareholders so that we can pay them more money here than they can make somewhere else.”

Personally, success for Jacobs means his family, friends, and relationships—creating enriching experiences with the people he loves where there's a lot of love, good vibes, and positive symbiotic relationships where he helps people he loves and they help him.

“Personally, you know, it's about my family. It's about my friends. It's about my relationships with them. It's about can I create ways where in the limited times I have I don't have as much time as most people cuz I'm really into the business. But in the limited time that I do have, can I make those enriching experiences? Can I make those experiences where there's a lot of love in the roof. There's a lot of good stuff going on. There's a lot of positive vibes and I'm I they're very symbiotic wonderful relationships where I'm helping the people I I love and and they're helping me.”

To make a lot of money in business, one can't just be a conformist following fashion and conventional wisdom; one must think differently and take contrarian positions, otherwise returns will be average by definition.

“I think you have to be contrarian. I think if you want to make a lot of money in business, you can't just be a conformist to do at what is in in fashion and what everybody else thinks. If you're going to do what everyone else thinks, you're going to get returns that everyone else gets, which is by definition average.”

Ray Kurzweil predicts a technological singularity where technology becomes more intelligent and capable than humans, humans merge with technology through wearables and nanobots, and this leads to the extinction of Homo sapiens as a species and emergence of a new species.

“Ray predicts a singularity whereby technology becomes more intelligent, more capable than humans and we merge with technology that we use so much technology in our own in our own bodies with wearables and nanobots and so forth that and AI and outsourcing our memory and sensory and so forth that that you really can't call it Homo sapiens anymore because the traits characteristics have changed so much that we'll say Homo sapiens has become extinct and there's a there's a new new species”

An org chart should be 'pretty', simple, elegant, and geometrical; it should not be complicated like spaghetti thrown on a canvas as abstract art. Messy org charts hide inefficiencies and silos, with too much weight in non-revenue-generating top management instead of in revenue-generating front-line roles.

“An org chart should be pretty. Org chart should be simple, they should be elegant, they should be geometrical. They should not be really complicated like you took some spaghetti and threw it like an abstract art on a canvas. This was This was This was a bad org chart... In that you could hide inefficiencies. As opposed to when it's a clean organization chart, everyone's got clear KPIs, key performance indicators. Everyone has clear metrics.”

A rigid, inflexible business plan that doesn't adapt to changing life, markets, and economies is a bad approach because it causes businesses to miss profitable opportunities that arise unexpectedly.

“A lot of people have a rigid business plan that's spelled out for many years, and that's it, and it's very That doesn't usually work. Why? Because life changes, markets change, economies change. And if you're a rigid, if you're just rigid thinking, you're going to have things come your way to make money for shareholders, and feel, well, it's nice, it's great, but it's really not our thing. That was a bad way of thinking.”

Brad self-identifies as a musician who happens to do business, not a businessman, because his dominant sense is auditory/sound-based and he structures relationships and thinking patterns around musical principles of harmony, improvisation, and collaborative interaction.

“I define myself I self-identify as a as a musician more than business person which you might find odd because I've spent a lot of time building big businesses... but when I think about myself I I think about myself as a music musician who happens to be doing a lot of business.”

Jacobs doesn't define himself primarily by the amount of money he's made; money is a report card but not his identity or his be-all and end-all. He happened to be in a business that makes a lot of money.

“I don't define myself as in terms of how much money I've made. Like that's like just not like the big deal for me. But it's it's a report card, but it's not it's not who I am. And it's not my be-all and end-all. I happen to be in a business that makes a lot of money, so I make a lot of money.”

Jacobs' best business deal was buying Conway (a trucking company) in 2015 for ~$3 billion (half equity), which he later transformed into a multi-faceted holding worth ~$15 billion, generating a 15-20x return on invested capital (a 'bagger') by applying mathematical thinking to identify organizational dysfunction and musical improvisation to pivot from the original plan.

“I'll share with you one of the best business deals I did in my life was uh I bought in 2015 a less-than-truckload trucking company called Con-way. It was based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was a few billion-dollar deal... We bought it for about $3 billion. Roughly half of it was equity... Today, it's worth something like $15 billion.”

Jacobs' target leverage for his new company QXO is 1-2 turns of debt (where debt = 1-2x EBITDA), which is a healthy, comfortable amount. He leveraged up to ~4x when buying Conway but quickly reduced it by selling divisions and paying down debt.

“In my new company that I'm forming at QXO, we're going to have I think our target a healthy target should be one to two turns of debt. By that I mean we take our our our EBITDA, which is a measure of our cash flow, and and we say, 'Well, let's have one or two turns of that.' So if our EBITDA ends up being for instance in a period of time for example a billion dollars, well, let's have one or two billion dollars of debt. That's that's a comfortable amount.”

Jacobs' companies have outperformed their indexes not by 100-200 basis points (1-2%) but sometimes by 5-6x what the index returns, demonstrating that contrarian positioning combined with execution creates massive alpha.

“My companies have not made average returns. My companies have outperformed their indexes not by one or 200 basis points, but sometimes by five or six times what the what the index was.”

Jacobs' first company, Amerex (an oil brokerage), grew from 1979 startup to ~$5 billion in brokerage volume in 4 years, benefiting from the Iranian Revolution and oil price volatility that created opportunity for young risk-takers.

“I remember when I sold my first company, Amerex, my old brokerage company. We started a company in 1979. Bunch of broke, scrappy kids and we're in the right place at the right time and the Iranian revolution took place and the Shah got kicked out and Khomeini came in and they took 400 hostages and and the oil prices went way, way, way up... We built that business up over four quick years to about little under $5 billion in brokerage volume.”

In his new QXO company, Jacobs and his wife are putting in $900 million, and Sequoia plus family/friends are putting in another $100 million (total ~$1 billion). Jacobs thanked them for motivation/inspiration/purpose they gave him, not the capital itself (which he could have supplied alone).

“my wife and I are putting in $900 million, and then Sequoia and uh a few dozen friends and family... are putting in another $100 million. So, we have about a cool $1 billion even putting into into this company... I thank them for giving me motivation, giving me inspiration, giving me a purpose, because I want to please them. I want to make them happy.”

Jacobs learned his diligence questioning approach from Kat Cole (vice president at Athletic Greens, formerly turned around Cinnabon), who would work in stores and ask employees what they would do differently.

“The first person who I talked to who I asked questions like that was Kat Cole, who is the vice president now at Athletic Greens. When she turned around Cinnabon, that's what she would do. She went and worked in the stores and asked the employees what they would do differently, and it was so revealing in terms of what they ended up changing.”

The only time Jacobs experienced severe depression was in the mid-2000s when he stepped down as CEO of United Rentals and had no business to run, despite doing art, studying, and spending time with family.

“I wrote in the book that the only time in my life that I've been depressed, but I was really depressed, was in the mid-2000s when I had stepped down from being CEO of this big company, United Rentals, and now I didn't have anything to do. I didn't You know, I was I was doing some art. I was you know, studying art and buying art and I was doing things with my family so forth, but I didn't have a business.”

In the past 12 months, Jacobs learned that he can apply his technology-forward mentality and willingness to invest in technology to building products distribution, where 99% of the ~20,000 distributors are not approaching technology in the forward-thinking way he does, making it a transformational opportunity.

“I found an industry, building products distribution, that I can do that. I found a company an industry that's got 20,000 companies and there's about six or seven that are doing really cool things in technology. And that's pretty much it... 99% of all the other companies, they're where other industries were 20 years ago... I like going into an industry where I got something I can bring to the industry that's going to help. That I can be transformational. I can be a catalyst to improve the quality of the industry.”

After selling Amerex, Jacobs wanted to start an oil trading company. His uncle Howard (who grew up in Depression and WWII) advised him to invest only a small percentage (say 20%) of his savings and keep the rest safe, but Jacobs rejected this advice and invested all his capital instead.

“He said, 'Oh, Brad, don't do that. Don't do that. You should maybe take a small percentage of your savings and put it into your new business, but take the vast majority of your money and just tuck it away just in case the next thing doesn't work out.' And fortunately, I overruled my Uncle Art. I didn't go with what he said. I did exactly the opposite. I took a completely contrarian position where I took I think it was like $100,000 maybe at most $200,000 and I tucked that away. I took all the rest of my money.”

All the professional activities Jacobs discusses (hiring, technology, meetings, culture building) boil down to making money for shareholders; if you're not achieving that, 'it's just jabber jabber, it's just talk.'

“All the things I'm doing of hiring people and putting in technology all the things we've been talking about the last couple hours. That all comes down to to making money for shareholders. If you're not making money for shareholders, it's just jabber jabber. It's just talk. So for me, success is defined by how is my stock price performance versus everybody else's.”