I Had $78... Now I’m Worth $100 Million

What this episode is about

The narrative centers on an individual's transformative journey from having only $78 to amassing a net worth of $100 million in just a few years, ultimately leading to the purchase of a private jet valued at over $5 million. Key points include the necessity of substantial financial resources for jet ownership, insights into networking with influential billionaires, and a concise strategy for aspiring jet owners to achieve their dreams.

Key takeaways

• From $78 to a private jet: nothing screams success louder than a tail number with a story.
• You can fake a supercar, but a private jet is an undeniable badge of wealth—no counterfeit flights allowed.
• Real commitment means sacrificing everything, even sleep—if the jet life is your endgame, ready for those sleepless nights.
• In five years, an $85 million increase in net worth: Vic proves wealth can skyrocket, even from rock bottom.
• Owning a jet costs more than the initial purchase; expect to drop at least $2 million annually for upkeep.

Who speaks in this episode?

• James (Guest) · 14 min speaking
• Vic Tip (Guest) · 9 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Vic Tip, private jet, Blackstoneone Medical Services, financial success
2. 5:00 – 10:00: business, success, Vic Tip, financial success
3. 10:00 – 15:00: business, Artificial Intelligence, team, ODO accounting
4. 15:00 – 20:00: business, Panera Bread, private jet
5. 20:00 – 22:41: business, private jet, financial success

Notable quotes from "I Had $78... Now I’m Worth $100 Million"

• A single year? So, I will tell you that in just in the last, three or four years, I probably added probably 85 million to my net worth. Are you serious? 85 million. million to my net worth. Have you ever been broke before?

  about Vic Tip · at 0:21

• With people in Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces and at houses. But he said, You can fake a car, you can't fake a private jet. And since he just bought a jet, he invited me out to…

  about private jet · at 1:37

• We're the largest provider of medical sleep testing in the United States. We have over 650 employees. I started the company in my kitchen in 2012. You know I think at that point we were testing.

  about Blackstoneone Medical Services · at 4:42

• If you don't have a team, you got nothing. You can't do it all yourself.

  about team · at 8:57

• Helping you figure things out. And then the third thing is because we're in a technology world right now with AI and everything else, you need a real good CTO. You need…

  about Artificial Intelligence · at 11:19

• Share with you one of the most powerful lessons I've learned from a billionaire entrepreneur. And it's that you don't run a real business until you know your numbers better…

  about business · at 12:26

• Was picking him up for his private flight. This was years ago. And he's Hey, can we go to Panera Bread to get bagels and coffee? And I'm like Why? And he's like Well, because…

  about Panera Bread · at 16:52

• People is how much money do you need to make to afford a private jet? I would tell you that you probably need at least $2 to $3 million a year in just disposable income to be…

  about financial success · at 21:47

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Vic Tip — Person · Main guest · 4 mentions · first at 0:24
  He explains how he went from having $78 to owning a private jet by building a sleep-testing healthcare company and scaling via team, service, and disciplined numbers.
• John D. Rockefeller — Person · Referenced historical example · 1 mention · first at 6:05
  Referenced to discuss how intense work and stress can visibly age people, leading into the sleep/health vs success discussion.
  These entrepreneurs, they talk about work, work, work, work, work. I mean look at what's the guy I think is John D. Rockefeller. When he was like 40, he looked like he was like…
• Carl Icon — Person · Referenced business figure · 1 mention · first at 13:24
  Cited for advice that extreme success requires being 'shrewd'—cost-aware, detail-oriented, and willing to have uncomfortable conversations.
  Something that's not typically taught in a textbook or, told to people on a regular basis. Carl Icon said that if you want to be very successful, you have to be very shrewd. Shrewd. Shrewd.

Companies & orgs

• Blackstoneone Medical Services — Company · Primary business discussed · 1 mention · first at 4:38
  Vic Tip’s company is presented as the engine behind his wealth: the largest U.S. provider of medical sleep testing, started in 2012 and scaled to 650+ employees.
• Panera Bread — Company · Referenced example in mentorship story · 2 mentions · first at 16:55
  Used in a story illustrating cost discipline: a wealthy mentor refuses overpriced jet catering and buys bagels/coffee at Panera instead.
• Samsung — Company · Referenced comparison brand · 1 mention · first at 8:19
  Mentioned as making phones as good as iPhone, supporting the point that service and ecosystem can be the differentiator.
  Us is everything that goes along with a product. It's kind of like an iPhone right? Or a phone. Samsung has phones that are equally as good as iPhone, but the service level…

Products & tech

• Rolls-Royce — Product · Referenced status symbol · 1 mention · first at 1:37
  Paired with Lamborghini as an example of luxury signaling that is easier to fake than owning/operating a private jet.
  World. And he said, James, I've been seeing a lot of your videos recently with people in Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces and at houses. But he said, You can fake a car, you can't…
• Lamborghini — Product · Referenced status symbol · 1 mention
  Mentioned as an example of a luxury item that can be 'faked' compared to a private jet, reinforcing the authenticity/wealth theme.
  Videos... with people in Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces.

Concepts & topics

• business — Concept · Core topic · 20 mentions · first at 5:02
  The episode centers on practical business principles: commitment, service, numbers/accounting, hiring, negotiation, and cost discipline.
• private jet — Concept · Core topic / status symbol used as proof of real w · 6 mentions · first at 0:41
  The private jet is used as a concrete marker of financial success and as a networking/mentorship tool; operating costs and affordability are discussed.
• financial success — Concept · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at 0:24
  Financial success is quantified via net worth growth ($85M in 3–4 years) and tied to cash flow, numbers discipline, and team scaling.
• success — Concept · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at 4:07
  Success is discussed as the outcome of commitment, consistency, team investment, and learning from mentors and high performers.
  You could possibly sacrifice and work as many hours as I had to or needed to in order to be successful. And I don't think a lot of people commit to success.
• team — Concept · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 8:53
  Scaling is attributed primarily to investing in a strong team; Vic Tip emphasizes hiring key roles and paying talent even before paying himself.
• sleep testing — Concept · Core topic (business niche) · 1 mention · first at 4:43
  It is the niche Vic Tip dominates through Blackstoneone Medical Services, described as the largest U.S. provider with over a million patients tested.
  We're the largest provider of medical sleep testing in the United States. We have over 650 employees. I started the company in my kitchen in 2012. You know I think at that point we were testing.
• financial freedom — Concept · Core aspiration discussed · 1 mention · first at 3:42
  Framed as the outcome of commitment and business building; discussed as what struggling entrepreneurs want and what the episode promises to blueprint.
  It? Yeah, it's absolutely. Look, it's it's worth it because of the level of quality of life that you get to have when you work really hard. I'm getting ready to fly to…
• Artificial Intelligence — Concept · Referenced trend · 2 mentions · first at 11:22
  AI is mentioned as a reason modern businesses need strong technology leadership (CTO) and as a feature in the accounting tool advertisement.

Places & events

• Medigene — Place · Referenced location (business operations) · 1 mention · first at 4:22
  Vic Tip says he has an office and house in 'Medigene' and employs hundreds there; the transcript likely refers to Medellín, Colombia but is kept as stated.
  Quality of life that you get to have when you work really hard. I'm getting ready to fly to Medigene. I have an office there and I have a house now in Medigene and so I'm going…
• Miami — Place · Referenced location (travel origin) · 1 mention · first at 1:27
  Miami is where the host was filming and the departure point for the flight to Tampa to interview Vic Tip.
  Guys. So, I have a crazy story to tell you. So, the last couple days, I was filming out in Miami, Florida, and I get a text message from one of the biggest healthc care…

Sponsors

• ODO accounting — Company · Sponsor / recommended tool · 1 mention · first at 12:38
  Promoted as an accounting tool to help entrepreneurs manage invoices, payments, bank syncing, reconciliation, and AI expense capture.
  Entrepreneurs don't fail from lack of sales. They fail because their books are a total disaster. And that's why I use ODO accounting. It lets you send professional invoices in…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 my man Vic. How's it going, man? Good to see you. Thanks for having us out here. Of course, man. You want to go inside the plane and talk there? You want to talk here? Let's go check it out. Yeah, let's go do it. Now, what did you do to be able to afford a jet? I want to get right into it. I own the largest in the United States. What was the most amount of money you've made in a single year? So, I will tell you that in just in the last, you know, three or four years, I probably added probably 85 million to my net worth. Are you serious? 85 million. million to my net worth. Have you ever been broke before?

0:31 January 2015, I had $78 to my name. I took a screenshot of it actually and I told myself that one day when I have my own plane, I'm going to put that 78 on my tail and I did last year. And you got yourself a private jet. And I got myself a private jet. How much did the jet cost? I would say all of it is over 5 million bucks. $5 million. Is it safe to say that you can fake a super car, but you can't fake a private jet? You can't fake a private jet. Even if somebody gave you a jet, you still need $2 million a year to run the jet. You'd have to have at least $2 million a year to just run it. Just to run it. You network with a lot of billionaires. So the guy that's coming on the plane with me today, this guy's super rich, right?

1:04 He's super rich. Rich, rich. Real money rich. One day I was picking him up for his private flight, this was years ago and he's like, "And your last message to somebody trying to own a private jet in today's world." Give them the blueprint right here. 60-second blueprint on how somebody can own a private jet in today's world. The 60-second blueprint on how to own a private jet is this guys. So, I have a crazy story to tell you. So, the last couple days, I was filming out in Miami, Florida, and I get a text message from one of the biggest healthc care entrepreneurs in the entire world. And he said, "James, I've been seeing a lot of your videos recently with people in Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces and at houses." But he said, "You can fake a car, you can't fake a private jet." And since he just bought a jet, he invited me out to interview him on his jet out in Tampa Florida before he flies out to Columbia.

1:51 But he didn't just invite me out to interview him on the jet. He's flying me out from Miami, Florida right now to Tampa to interview him in this Golf Room 2 jet. We're flying out right now to go meet up with Vic to figure out how he became one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the entire world. How you can become a multi-millionaire in today's world. So let's go link up with Vic and go see what he has to say. Come on.

2:20 All right, you guys. So, we just landed out here in Tampa. Let's hit him right now to go meet up with the legend, Big Vic Tip. Come on, my man Vic. How's it going, man? It's good to see you. Thanks for having us out here. Of course, man. Of course. How was the flight? It was great. Yeah, we appreciate you sending the the PJs. and we came out from Miami out here to kind of give them the blueprint on how they can become a multi-millionaire like you in today's world. Can we make that happen? Let's do it, man. Yeah. You want to go inside the plane and talk there? You want to talk?

2:44 Let's go check it out. Yeah, let's go do it. So, I got a question for you. So you know what my tail number means? What's that? The four is the month I was born in, which was April. And then the 78 is how much money I had to my name in 2015. You had $78. I had $78 to my name. And I told myself in 2015, I'm not kidding you. It's on my Instagram. I actually took a snapshot of my bank statement in 2015 and it was $78 and maybe like 60. So I remember telling myself, I said, "One day I'm going to work really hard and when I get my own plane, I'm going to put 78 on the tail number." I love it. Isn't that crazy?

3:21 You turned that into an empire. Yeah, I did. I I I worked really really hard and took a lot of risk and a lot of sleepless nights. So when I got my tail number approved by the FAA and I put it on there, it was like nobody knows what it means except me, you know. Yeah. So when you were at rock bottom down to $78, what was that first actionable step that you took? Cuz there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there, maybe they're motivated, but they don't know how to actually start. What's that first step everybody should take right now to start kind of building that financial freedom?

3:46 You got to commit. People are like, "Oh yeah, you got to commit." But I'm like "Really commit?" Like, there was nothing more important to me than being successful in accomplishing my goals. Like nothing. like sleep wasn't more important, oxygen wasn't more important like nothing was more important. And I was willing to sacrifice everything that you could possibly sacrifice and work as many hours as I had to or needed to in order to be successful. And I don't think a lot of people commit to success. Yeah. You you need a great idea, but then if you have a great idea, but you're not committed, you give up. Was the sacrifice worth it? Was it all worth it? Yeah, it's absolutely. Look, it's it's worth it because of the level of quality of life that you get to have when you work really hard. You know, I'm getting ready to fly to to Medigene. I have an office there and I have a house now in Medigene and so I'm going there

4:29 to work. I got 350 employees in in Medigene. Can we ask you some questions on the jet now? Yeah. What did you do to be able to afford a jet? I want to get right into it. So, I own Blackstoneone Medical Services. We're the largest provider of medical sleep testing in the United States. We have over 650 employees. I started the company in my kitchen in 2012. You know I think at that point we were testing maybe a couple of hundred patients a month and actually in May of this year we we have now tested over a million patients. So, you're in sleep testing but this is a very niche and specific business in the healthcare sector. Some people would argue maybe it's a little bit unsexy. Everybody thinks that they have to go build that next crazy tech startup or go reinvent the wheel. Talk to me about you finding this niche and why this business in particular and how it's been so successful. Well, you know

5:16 I I found a problem that I wanted to solve that I was passionate about. So, I I don't believe that you can just make money without passion because when you're going to when you come across all these hurdles and headaches and problems, if you don't really love what you do, you're going to give up. So, for me, I really loved healthcare. I've always loved healthcare. My parents unfortunately died when I was in my early 20s because they died of cancer. So, I was exposed to the healthcare world through that. And what I saw was a a need and an opportunity to provide great service. And so, for me, it was like I'm passionate about healthcare. I love the sleep industry. I love what it stands for. Obviously, as you know, you know, as young as you are too, like how important sleep is, right? To recuperate and regenerate your body. And so, I thought, hey, this is a problem that I think I can solve. And I wanted to do it

5:57 better than anybody else on the planet. What correlation does sleep have on people's success? You know, you hear all these entrepreneurs, they talk about work, work, work, work, work. I mean look at what's the guy I think is John D. Rockefeller. When he was like 40, he looked like he was like 80. Talk to me about the correlation that you've seen on sleep, health, and you know physical, financial, mental success. Well, look, if if you're not rested and wellfed, you're not going to work good. So, you you got to be able to have your brain working throughout the day. So you know, this whole idea that sleep isn't important or that sleep is for weak people, it's not just not true. You need sleep. Now, there's variances. Some people need 6 hours, like how much sleep do you get? Honestly, not that not good.

6:31 Like 6 hours, 7 hours. 5 to 7 hours. Okay. But are you able to function? I am, but when I do that consistently then I start to kind of wear off at the end of the day. Exactly. So if you're running hard, you know, you're doing 12 13, 14 hours of work and you're grinding and you need to be focused, you need to sleep. So for me, I I have to get at least 6 to 7 hours of sleep at night. I have to. If I don't, I feel it the next day. And I'm dragging a little bit. I'm not paying attention in meetings as well. I'm not able to focus and really dive into stuff. So there's an actual physical reaction. I'm not mistaken. You started this business in your kitchen.

7:03 In my kitchen? Yeah. 20. Tell me how you started the business dude. I was like I was working in my pajamas for like 6 months. Like literally like I on this company. Yeah. I had this white little desk in front of this window and I had this Apple computer like I started it in a really personal like tragedy of in my life. Like I had uh just gotten divorced. I had two young kids and so I was like literally just starting over and most people probably would have just stayed in a job or or went and got a great salary and something like that. But I really wanted to chase my dream man. I I didn't want to be that guy that gave up.

7:36 And so every morning I would come downstairs and I would start emailing you know, I had to get contracts with insurance companies, right? Because we live in a in an environment in the United States where 97% of the population is insured, right? They have a health insurance that that they use. And so I would literally go downstairs man, and I would be emailing insurance companies and trying to get contracts with insurance companies. And then I would get up and then I would go out and call on doctors and try to get business.

8:00 And then I leased a small office. It was uh $500 a month and it was like 500 square f feet and I leased it and I literally started. Talk to me about your method in finding a winning product that was able to generate hundreds of millions of dollars. Well, I think there's other products out there on the marketplace, but I think what separates us is everything that goes along with a product. It's kind of like an iPhone right? Or a phone. Samsung has phones that are equally as good as iPhone, but the service level that you get with one company versus another is really what's important. And so for me, that's what I focused on. And I didn't really say okay, I want to, you know, not only yes, I want to have a great product, but if I don't have great service, it's not going to win. You got to have both combinations. What was the most amount of money you've made in a single year?

8:38 Just in the last, you know, three or four years, I probably added probably 85 million to my net worth. Are you serious? 85 million. 85 million to my net worth. Yeah. Just because I've stayed focused. You got to be able to figure out what moves the needle. That's amazing. And what's the biggest thing that is moving the needle? Like, how did you scale your net worth? $85 million in the last 3 to four years. Investing in the right team. You got to have a team. If you don't have a team, you got nothing. You can't do it all yourself.

9:00 The reason that we hit the numbers we hit and we have the success we have is because we have an amazing team. And I can't take credit for all of it. So, you know, we have such an amazing team. But I'll tell you that, you know, there was a period in my career where my staff was making more money than me. And I was willing to do that because I wanted to invest in my team. That's what helps you scale. Like imagine like you can't run 650 employees by yourself. You can't. You need the right team. And so there's probably out of the 650 people I probably talked to seven or eight. So who was the most important person that you hired? You're looking at him actually. Yeah. You're looking at him man. I mean, I was number one. I was number one. And then after that, it was everybody else. And again, everyone has done an amazing job. But, dude, at the end of the day, it all comes down to you. So, what's your superpower as a

9:41 business owner that you could give to somebody else who may be struggling in business right now? They're the CEO of their company. They need that kind of mindset shift like you to understand that look, I'm the most important person here. What's the single greatest value ad that you as the CEO can add to your business? You just got to believe in yourself, man. You got to bet on you. You got to believe in yourself. You got to never quit, no matter how dark it gets, cuz you'll have many, many dark days. I've had many dark days. What was the lowest point in your career? A couple years ago, I was fighting a big battle. Can't tell the details of it but it was a big battle. And there were many dark moments, many dark days, many dark weeks. And people ask me like well, how did you get through that? And the truth of it is giving up was never an option for me. I do believe in my heart that if you really are committed

10:20 and you don't quit and you never give up, you will get there. no matter how smart or unsmart you may think you are cuz I don't necessarily think I'm the smartest guy, but what I do know is that I'm never going to quit. Eventually you'll get there. So, what's been your superpower as a business owner? I don't think I see problems, man. You know how like somebody says, "We're going to do this and then everyone sees all the problems." I just don't see the problems. I do kind of want to go back to thinking about hiring people. For an entrepreneur, who are the three most important people that they can hire to grow their business in today's world?

10:46 Maybe it's not three, but if you can think about a couple pivotal partners or people that you brought in that really helped you scale out a certain aspect of your business, what roles or what would that I think the first role that you really need to make sure you have is a great accountant. You need somebody that's going to really manage your books and manage your numbers correctly so that you can really trust them because at some point you're going to want to sell your business. You're going to want to go get lines of credit and you need to be bankable. And in order to be bankable, you need to have the right accounting. Your numbers have to be perfect cuz nobody's going to give you any money if they're not. So they got to be perfect. The second thing you need to have is an ops person. You need somebody that's really going to help you run ops.

11:18 Someone that's going to be in the weeds helping you figure things out. And then the third thing is because we're in a technology world right now with AI and everything else, you need a real good CTO. You need somebody that's going to help you that can think with your vision of where you want to go and really help you kind of plan out a 3 to 5year plan of where to go and how to get there. And if you have those three things, you're good. But I'll tell you that the accounting thing is probably the biggest Achilles heel of most business owners.

11:41 Their accounting is a mess. Do you have any great mentors? the guy that's flying with me on the plane, you you think I'm successful. This guy's like times 20 okay? And and you know, he's a bit of an older gentleman, but he's been my mentor, somebody that I've looked up to for many, many years. You guys should actually have him on the show. But he's a very successful businessman, and I've learned a lot from him. I've learned a lot from a lot of people that are successful because I consider myself a student. I think no matter how successful you get in life, the best entrepreneurs and the most successful people always look at life as if they are a student. I'm always trying to learn something new. Always. The minute you have that idea that you know everything you've done, I don't want to pigeon hole myself because somebody could give me information that I could use. So then they're a mentor to me. So

12:19 what is the best advice that you ever receive from a mentor? Real quick, guys while we're on the topic of building billion-dollar businesses, I want to share with you one of the most powerful lessons I've learned from a billionaire entrepreneur. And it's that you don't run a real business until you know your numbers better than your product. And that hit me hard because most entrepreneurs don't fail from lack of sales. They fail because their books are a total disaster. And that's why I use ODO accounting. It lets you send professional invoices in seconds, track payments, and follow up automatically so there's no chasing clients, which is every business owner's nightmare. And you can sync with over 28,000 banks worldwide for real-time tracking and reconcile everything with just the click of a button. It even uses AI to scan and input your expenses, so you're not stuck doing manual data entry. The dashboards

13:01 are clean, the reports are instant, and the entire system is designed to grow as your business scales. And you want to know the best part? The first app is free for life with unlimited hosting and support. So, if you're serious about building a business that's sustainable check out ODU right now. All you have to do is go down to the link in the description of this video to try it today for free. With that being said let's get back to the interview. Give me something that's not typically taught in a textbook or, you know, told to people on a regular basis. Carl Icon said that if you want to be very successful, you have to be very shrewd. Shrewd. Shrewd.

13:31 You have to be very shrewd. What does that mean? You have to count pennies and you have to really think with the details and you have to be willing to have the uncomfortable conversations. You have to be a shark. You can't be ultra successful without being a shark. Like I'm a shark. If you want to be a successful businessman, you got to be a shark. And if you're not willing to be a shark, you're going to get stepped on. You see something in the water, you bite it. You bite it. Shark doesn't run. Shark doesn't get in fear. Shark's like "Oh, dude, I'm going to bite you." And that's how you have to be in the business world. It's the most competitive sport out there. What was your go to market strategy? Was your industry competitive when you went into it? It was very competitive and there were a lot of big players in the space.

14:07 I was a small guy. So throughout the course, you know, a decade or so, some of them went out of business, some of them got sold, but we are now the number one leader. Can you tell me the story about how your competitors from when you were in like high school or they were like the number one? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, one of the biggest competitors that went out of business in 2018, when I was a senior in high school, they were in business. So, they've been in business for a really, really long time. And then right around 2019, we surpassed them in order volume. And we haven't looked back ever since. And we've been the largest player in the space since 2019. So, you flanked them? Yeah, we flanked them and we weren't around them and so 2019 so was it like 6 years now? So 6 years now we've been the number one player in the country. What is your secret to standing out in a competitive market? We have to

14:44 be very consistent as you know in order to be successful in life you have to be consistent on everything. So we've had to deliver over and over and over again all the time. You don't get a period of time where you can just not deliver. So we're on it every single day. Man, I'm telling you, our team works around the clock. Like we have an amazing team. When you're seeing thousands of patients every single day, there's no room for errors. There's no room for mistakes. You got to deliver consistently. Are you a good salesman? I like to say that I am a good salesman. Yeah, I like to say that. Could you give me a piece of negotiation advice? Cuz I know you've closed some big deals. You've been at the table with some heavy hitters. Give me Give me your best sales and negotiation advice for anybody in business. If you're negotiating something, don't ever give them the first number. Don't be the guy to give

15:21 the first number. Make them make the offer. Always make somebody else give you the first number. Well, what if your number's lower than theirs is? Why do that? Was there a scenario that you did that? There was a scenario that I was in a negotiation with somebody helping a friend of mine and he gave the first number and I was so pissed. I'm like "Dude, why did you do that?" Cuz you don't know what the other person was thinking. So, I was just I was yelling at him after the meeting. I'm like "Dude, why did you do that?" But I never give the first number. Number one, but I also think being a salesperson is not being a gimmicky type person. It's being real. It's being authentic. And I like to say that I'm pretty authentic. So what you see is what you get. So, for me, being sales is just, hey, I want to talk to you about this and does it make sense for you? If it doesn't make sense for you, great. But if it does, then you

15:57 know, cool. Let's make a deal. So, let's say you have a prospective client and maybe they're leaning towards a no or going with with somebody else. How do you kind of bring them back in and get them over to a yes? I'm not the salesman that's going to try to say, "Pick me pick me." I'm not that guy. I want to show you how valuable I am. And I want you to decide if you think I'm the right fit for you or not. There's 8 billion people on the planet. Like, I'm not going to lose sleep over one deal. So at the end of the day, I want you to pick what's best for you because I honestly believe that in my heart. I want you, if you're buying something, to get the best deal you possibly can for you because that's going to make me happy. If I'm not it, I'm not it. But I'm never going to be like, "Pick me pick me." I'm just I'm just not that guy. I like to be kind of like the prom king or prom prom queen where it's like

16:36 "Hey, I'm I'm waiting for everybody to come to me." That's why I think every day all I do is focus on value. I want to go back to the the mentor aspect as well cuz you gave me a beautiful piece of advice about like you have to be true. Do you have another one that that a mentor taught you? So the guy that's coming on the plane with me today, this guy's super rich, right? He's super rich. Rich, real money rich. One day I was picking him up for his private flight. This was years ago. And he's like, "Hey, can we go to Panera Bread to get bagels and coffee?" And I'm like "Why?" And he's like "Well, because they want to charge me, you know, $250 on the jet." I guess he was chartering a jet. And I'm like, "Dude," I'm like " $250 is nothing for you." He's like "Yeah, but you know what, Vic? That's not what it costs." I'm like, "What?

17:09 What do you mean?" He said, "A jet costs what a jet costs. Fuel for a jet costs what a jet costs. $2,500 an hour for jet fuel, whatever. Bagels and coffee doesn't cost $275." And it just hit me like a ton of bricks, man. I'm like, no matter how wealthy this guy is, he's still thinking with the general principles of business and life. And he's like, it doesn't cost that. Farragama shoes cost 500 bucks. That's what it costs. Bagels and coffee don't cost 275 bucks. Okay. That's the real spill right now. Yeah. So, he goes out.

17:36 I'll show you this. So, we go out and we go to Panera Bread. And I got one now too, so I can pull it out. And he pulls this out. It's a black card. Pulls out the black card. He buys the bagels and coffee and it was like seven bucks. We get on the car. We go back to the airport and we leave. And that was it. And it taught me such a lesson, man. You can never forget about what things cost in business cuz then you'll overspend. How much did the jet cost? I would say all of it is over $5 million bucks. $5 million. Now, is it safe to say that you can fake a supercar, but you can't fake a private jet? You can't fake a private jet. Even if somebody gave you a jet you still need $2 million a year to run the jet. If somebody gave you a jet, so that's why you can't fake a jet. If somebody gave you a jet, you'd have to have at least $2 million a year to just run it, just to run it. How many entrepreneurs do you think are faking

18:17 the life that they're living? I think 95% of them are are You can see through it. Yeah, I can. I I can see through it. I can smell it. There's certain things you just can't fake. And if you're making so much money, why are you not living life to the fullest? Especially if you're a business person, you got a lot of people, entrepreneurs and influencers today and they're on Instagram and they're like, "Yeah, I'm making $100 million a week." Okay, well if you're making $100 million a week why are you flying commercial? Where's your plane? Why wouldn't you have a plane? If you're making that much money why wouldn't you have a plane? It's the ultimate convenience. Like, it's the ultimate convenience. It's that's why it's the ultimate privilege. And so it's like I I sniff that out. Dude, do you uh do you make more money when you're flying private? I do because it makes me feel good. So you step into

18:52 that frequency and that in turn helps you make a lot more. It makes me think. I I get the right people on my plane talk to them, get ideas from them understand things, all that stuff. Like even right now, see the Escalade pulling up? That's my wife and my kids. And I get to fly with them now. And then I get to go work and do all this stuff, which I couldn't do if I was doing it any other way. Do you network with a lot of billionaires? Yeah, way more since I got the plane. Now I can call them up like "Hey dude, I'm flying to blah blah blah.

19:15 Can you come?" What have you learned from billionaires that they do differently from everybody else? They're just more shark. They're more hustling. They're more into it. They're more passionate. And I wouldn't say by a large number, but just that little bit of an edge where they're like, you know what? I just want more. And that makes a lot of difference, man. It's like water bowls at 212, not at 211. Do you think everybody's built for entrepreneurship? Hell no. Hell hell no. Why not? Hell no. Most people don't have the stomach for it, man. They really don't. You got to be willing to deal with everything. And if you're not, don't do it. How old are you now? I'm 48. If you were to go back in time and have a conversation with your 20-year-old self, what's the best advice you'd give to your younger self?

19:48 Spend the first 30 learning, spend the next 30 earning, and spend the last 30 giving. Learn, learn, learn, and then earn, earn, earn. Did you go to college? I did not. I have a high school diploma. But you made more than 99.9% of business professors ever will. Oh, yeah. So, give me a lesson about business that is nowhere to be found in any school curriculum, even at Harvard Business School. I think be practical. A lot of times you get lost in the minutia of trying to be complicated. The best compliment that I feel like I can be told as a businessman is you're so simple. And if you look at the most successful entrepreneurs, they look at everything in a very simple way and they can break everything down into on a calculator and they can break it all down into a paragraph as opposed to an hourong conversation. Abraham Lincoln said that a long time ago. He says, "If you can't summarize something in the

20:29 sentence, you don't know it well enough." What's more important in the business world? What you know or who you know? They're both. Both. Which one's more important in this season of your life? Both. No, both. Because because you got to know the information, but then you got to know the right person to talk to. You got to know the right person. Did you consistently build relationships with the right people? Invest in them. Invest in getting in front of the right people. Buying a plane. I didn't have to stretch and buy a plan. Did you pay a lot for mentorship? I never paid a lot. Well, I guess I would say this. I paid a lot for mentorship in kind of a roundabout way right? Because buying a plane allowed me to get in front of bigger mentors that I wouldn't have been able to. And that's that's a fact. Spending money in myself and investing in myself was by far the best the best thing I've ever done in my

21:04 life because there's the one thing nobody can ever take away from you is your ability. They can take your plane away. They can take your car away. They can take your house away. They can take everything away. They can't take away what's in here. Did you have a lot of money when you started your business? I did not. I had literally no money. I had no money. I was in debt, credit card debt. I I raised money, friends and family, but I had no money. I had no net worth. Zero. Nothing, man. I was I had nothing. And your last message to somebody trying to own a private jet in today's world? We're sitting on a private jet right now. A lot of people dream to own a private jet. Give them the blueprint right here. 60-second blueprint on how somebody can own a private jet in today's world. Take a lot of risk, start a business, build it up create an immense amount of cash flow and revenue. And if you do that

21:42 consistently year over year over year over year, you will eventually get there. The big question to a lot of people is how much money do you need to make to afford a private jet? I would tell you that you probably need at least $2 to $3 million a year in just disposable income to be able to afford a private jet. You got amazing advice, my friend. Yeah, thanks. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks for having me man. I really appreciate you, Vic. Where can everybody find you at, man? You can follow me. I'm on every platform. My handle is vicip I cip n. Google me you'll see me, you'll see the rise conference, you'll see everything. Guys be sure to follow Vic. We're going to put the links down to him below. Be sure to like and subscribe for incredible content we've got coming every single week with the biggest business owners in the world. And if you're not a member yet, guys, we built the number one

22:20 community online for business owners in the entire world, the School of Mentors where every single week I bring in the millionaires and the billionaires that I interview on this channel to mentor you and answer any questions that you have about business, anything. So, if you want to join, go down to the link in the description to become a member of the School of Mentors today. I can't wait to see you on the inside. With that being said, I'll see you in the next

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "I Had $78... Now I’m Worth $100 Million"?

James (Guest), Vic Tip (Guest).

What is "I Had $78... Now I’m Worth $100 Million" about?

The narrative centers on an individual's transformative journey from having only $78 to amassing a net worth of $100 million in just a few years, ultimately leading to the purchase of a private jet valued at over $5 million. Key points include the necessity of substantial financial resources for jet ownership, insights into networking with influential billionaires, and a concise strategy for…

What is mentioned in this School of Hard Knocks episode?

19 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Vic Tip, business, private jet, Blackstoneone Medical Services, financial success, success. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "I Had $78... Now I’m Worth $100 Million"?

The episode runs 23 min; the transcript is about 6,018 words in 40 timestamped sections.

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