From Government Cheese to $100 Million

James lives in a big, beautiful mansion. He owns fancy sports cars that sit in his driveway. But James didn’t always have these nice things.

When asked how much money his companies make in a year, James says, “Ninety million. A hundred million.” He himself has made up to $25 million in one year. Right now, he owns almost ten different businesses. He built and sold many companies, including one that offered tech services and another in construction.

I never had a broke mindset even when I was on government cheese, even when we had food stamps, even all of that stuff.

James didn’t grow up rich. His mother was only fourteen years old when she had him. He grew up in the South where his family needed help from the government to get by.

My mom was fourteen years old when she got pregnant with me. I grew up in the South, food stamps and government cheese and all that sort of stuff.

Being poor as a child made James want to change his life. “I always wanted to be successful because I didn’t want to live in the stuff that I was living in. I didn’t like it. I was motivated to get out of it,” he explains. He didn’t plan to build companies worth millions, but he knew he wanted a better life.

James has had some hard times. He even went bankrupt once. But he never stopped believing in himself. Today, if someone asked if he could build his wealth again if he lost everything, he answers, “Absolutely.”

It’s been a long, long, long time since I’ve been broke, and I ain’t never going back.

James has a smart way of making money. Instead of starting new businesses from scratch, he buys ones that already exist. “Most people want to build a business from scratch, but you don’t have to do that today. You go get the playbook. It’s already done,” he says. This means he gets businesses that are already working rather than starting from zero.

James’s story shows us that where you start in life doesn’t have to decide where you end up. With hard work and the right mindset, you can change your life completely.

The Business Acquisition Strategy

James shares some important money advice. He says we should learn how to make money even while we sleep. This is better than just getting paid by the hour.

Learn to make money in their sleep. Right? No matter what. I don’t care if you’re getting paid, like, don’t trade dollars for hours because no matter how much you charge per hour, you’re gonna be limited.

Real estate can be a good way to start making passive income. You don’t need a lot of money to begin, especially with first-time homebuyer programs. But James has a different idea that he thinks works even better today.

Today, what I would do is I would buy businesses.

James explains that right now is a great time to buy existing businesses. Many business owners want to sell their companies. Often their children don’t want to take over the family business. Or the owners need to sell because of personal reasons like divorce, health problems, or retirement.

It’s called the gray tsunami. And the gray tsunami is there’s a lot of boomers that have businesses that they have to get out of.

“Gray tsunami” refers to the large wave of older business owners (baby boomers) who are reaching retirement age and need to sell their businesses.

To buy these businesses, James suggests using special government loans called SBA 7(a) loans. These are loans backed by the Small Business Administration that help people buy businesses without needing all the money upfront.

I would use the government seven a program to get financing to buy businesses.

When choosing which businesses to buy, James looks for ones that make steady money and can survive even during bad economic times. He doesn’t want businesses that need special skills or lots of workers to manage.

The focus is getting stuff that cash flows. So laundromat, pool companies. I like the vending machine business.

James explains his buying strategy in simple terms. Let’s say a business makes $20,000 every month. If the loan payment to buy that business is between $7,000-$10,000 per month, you’ll make $10,000 profit each month right away. Plus, you’ll own more of the business as you pay off the loan.

If you want to find businesses for sale, James suggests:

• Looking on websites that list businesses for sale
• Talking to business brokers (people who help match buyers and sellers)
• Calling business owners directly to see if they might want to sell

The best part of buying an existing business is that you don’t have to start from zero. The business is already running and making money. You get to follow a plan that already works.

James is so sure this strategy works that if he lost everything tomorrow, he would immediately start buying businesses again using this same approach.

This strategy offers a practical way to become financially free. Instead of building a company from scratch, you can buy one that’s already successful and use special loans to help pay for it.

Faith, Education, and Marketing

When asked if he believes in God, James answers quickly: “Absolutely. I believe in God.” He then shares a story from when he was young that made his faith strong.

As a kid, James didn’t have much money or a good home life. He often asked God for proof. “I was always asking, ‘God, show me yourself. Show me who you are. Show me your face,'” he explains.

One night, James cried himself to sleep. He wondered if God was real or just made up, like Santa Claus. The next day at work, something amazing happened. A stranger came up to him and said, “God loves you. He’s real. And he wanted me to tell you that.” James was only fifteen years old, but from that moment on, he never doubted God again.

I’ve always believed in God, you know.

Faith is a big part of James’s life. It helps him in both his spiritual life and his business. He explains why belief is so important:

Faith is critical from a spiritual standpoint. But from a business standpoint and life standpoint, if you truly believe something, it’s gonna drive your actions.

What James means is that when you really believe in something, it changes how you think, what you do, and who you become friends with. “God gives us a foundation for faith. He said, believe. That’s what the New Testament is all about,” James adds.

When asked about college, James says he did go. But when asked if college helped him become rich, he simply says: “No.”

Still, college wasn’t a waste of time. “What college did for me is help me get skills. It helped me become a computer programmer and get a job,” he explains.

Did college help you become a millionaire? No.

James was asked what important business lesson he would teach that isn’t taught in school. His answer was simple: marketing. Marketing means letting people know about your business and what you offer.

He shares this important idea:

What they don’t teach in school is that everybody needs you. They just don’t know who you are. So your job is to find those people, get to the highest mountain top you can, and tell them who you are.

This is how James thinks about growing a business. Schools teach many things about business, but he believes marketing is the most important part. You might have the best product or service (what he calls “the magic sauce”), but it doesn’t matter if nobody knows about it.

The Power of Environment and Mindset

James takes us on a tour of an exclusive neighborhood. He shows how being around successful people can change how you think. The area has many beautiful mansions owned by very successful people.

When asked if living here has helped him as a business owner, James says: “Absolutely.” He explains that seeing success up close changes what you believe is possible:

So when you say has it helped me, one thing that happens is that you can’t unsee stuff.

In his old city, people would tell James to be careful about dreaming too big. But in his new neighborhood, he meets people with huge car collections and amazing achievements. This shows him what’s really possible.

So you find your tribe and you see that things are possible. And once you see that it’s possible, you can’t unsee it.

Being in this new place has helped James think bigger. He can now see new ways to succeed that he couldn’t imagine before.

James explains the biggest difference between middle-class people and wealthy people:

Wealthy people don’t have a limitation, and they know there’s no limit in terms of what they can achieve and how much money they can make.

According to James, wealthy people think differently than those with regular jobs. Middle-class thinking is often about climbing the career ladder and getting promotions. Wealthy people have a different approach:

All they have to do is solve problems, create solutions to make more money.

This means wealthy people focus on fixing problems for others. When they solve problems, they earn money. They don’t worry about the normal rules of jobs and careers.

As James simply puts it:

Wealthy people don’t need structure.