Page 7 - How To Get Rich

the eighties, I survived the early nineties, and by the mid-to-late nineties, I
was thriving again.
But I learned my lesson. I work as hard today as I did when I was a
young developer in the 1970s.

Don’t make the mistake I did. Stay focused.

Maintain Your Momentum
William Levitt, the master builder of Levittown, taught me the true
meaning of momentum.
In the 1950s, he was the king. No detail was too small for his attention.
He would personally collect stray nails and extra chips of wood from

building sites to make sure his construction crews used all available
materials.
He sold his company in 1956 to ITT for $100 million, which is
equivalent to billions today. Then he made some terrible mistakes.
He retired.
He married the wrong woman.

He moved to the south of France and lived on the Riviera with his new
boat and his new wife.
One day, ITT called. The executives in charge of the conglomerate had
no aptitude for home building. They had bought huge tracts of land but
didn’t know how to get them zoned. So they sold it back to Levitt, who
thought he’d gotten a great deal.
He went back into business. And he proceeded to go bankrupt.

I saw William Levitt at a cocktail party in 1994, two weeks before he
died. He was standing by himself in a corner, looking defeated. I didn’t
know him well, but I approached him, hoping to acquire some wisdom
from the master. Mr. Levitt, I said, how are you doing?
Not good, Donald, not good. Then he said the words I’ll never forget. I

lost my momentum. I was out of the world for twenty years, I came back,
and I wasn’t the same.
No matter how accomplished you are, no matter how well you think
you know your business, you have to remain vigilant about the details of
your field. You can’t get by on experience or smarts. Even the best
surgeons need to be retrained regularly, to stay current on the latest
research and procedures.