How to make a million dollars

Ebony, Sept, 1989 by Charles Whitaker

HOW TO MAKE A MILLION DOLLARS

IT is the ultimate American fantasy--striking out on your own and, shortly thereafter, striking it rich. Who hasn't dreamed of parlaying a solid investment or an innovative idea into a million dollar payoff? The obstacle for the vast majority of us is divining a means to that big bucks end. After all, there are no paint-by-numbers plans or foolproof blueprints that will guide you safely to prosperity.

Yet, if you ask any self-made millionaire to concoct a recipe for success, the ingredients will invariably include a mix of nerve, perseverance, luck and lots of hard work. "It goes without saying that you have to live and die with your business," says John Rogers, president of Ariel Capital Management, Inc., a stock-oriented investment management firm in Chicago. "Hard work is unquestionably a part of any success story."

"There are no shortcuts to success," says car dealer Barbara Wilson, one of the wealthiest women in Detroit. "You've got to be willing to put in the 15-hour days. You've got to really want to get ahead, and you've got to work harder at it than anybody else."

Mrs. Wilson knows of which she speaks. As the owner of Porterfield Wilson GMC Trucks, Porterfield Wilson Mazda and Ferndale Honda, she reigns over a $66 million-a-year empire that she helped to build with her husband who died last year. But the "fortysomethingish" widow says it was not easy cutting her swath to the top of her field.

It was 1973 when she joined her husband (for whom two of the dealerships are named) in the automobile business to help him weather the ill-effects of a recession that crippled car sales. Though she knew little about selling cars when she started, she was a quick learner. By 1981, the company had grown tremendously. Mrs. Wilson signed a dealership agreement with Pontiac, making her the first Black woman auto dealer in the country, and one of the biggest moneymakers.

The secret?

"You've just got to be dedicated," she says. "I can't tell you how often I'm in the office till 11 o'clock or midnight. But if you really want to make a business like this work, if you really want to be the best that you can be, that's the kind of commitment it takes."

There is another common denominator among many successful entrepreneurs--the courage to act on big dreams. Take, for example, young Samuel Salter, a Wunderkind in the world of high finance. At age 24, Salter is a multi-millionaire, the founder, president and chairman of Continational Financial Corp., and DBA Sun Mortgage Co., two New Jersey firms that arrange both commercial and residential mortgage financing.

Ever since he was a small child, Salter longed for phenomenal success.

At age 13, Salter dropped out of high school and ran away from home with delusions of becoming "the next Michael Jackson." Taken in by his grandmother in Toledo, Ohio, he boldly embarked on a career in real estate at age 15. During his first year he made some $35,000 in commissions. He spent the money nearly as quickly.

In 1982, armed with nerve and $500, he started his own one-man mortgage brokerage company in East Orange, N.J. He was a financial middle-man, helping commercial developers find lenders for their projects. In less than two years, he was arranging more than $1 million-a-month in loans and making a name for himself.

President Reagan presented him with the first Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1984. A few years later, he became a licensed mortgage banker (the youngest in the country) and began investing his broker's commissions in his own real estate deals. He also delved heavily into the stock market, buying chunks of publically held companies that were performing well or looked promising.

His business mushroomed and so did his personal wealth. Though he declines to reveal his net worth, his lifestyle gives some clue. He lives in a 9,000-square-foot mansion that is situated on a 12-acre estate in Bernardsville, N.J. The property is estimated to be worth $7 million.

Salter wants to be a major player on Wall Street, and works at building up his already formidable stock portfolio. From 6 a.m., when he arrives at work, until he retires at 11 p.m. with a copy of the Wall Street Journal, he is totally immersed in business and finance and the vagaries of the market.

But it is not the money that drives him. "It's that part of me that wants to be somebody," he says. "I think most people who are this serious about business, particularly minority people, have that drive to show people that we really can succeed. That's what makes me push myself, that and the fact that I really like what I do."

But just liking what you do does not assure financial success. You'll need expertise and plenty of research.

Before he launched Sycom Inc., a company that develops computer software and does computer maintenance and repair, Herbert Byrd called other small computer companies to get a feel for the market. They were surprisingly candid about the pitfalls of the industry. Byrd, 45, was not daunted, however. After 11-1/2 years with computer giant IBM, he felt stagnant. He wanted to be his own boss.