everything is impossible…until you add the word “Unless.” So all of this may sound impossible, unless you know how.

The more value you give others, the more value you generate.

acquire businesses that already have qualified managers to run them.

we don’t like to give up too much equity. As a rule of thumb, if you’re in the 5% to 20% range for team members, that’s a good place to be.

there are 57.1 million small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs8) in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe. SMBs are the ones you want to target—as we’ll explain more fully in subsequent chapters. Of those, at any given time, about 4.32 million are for sale, and of those, only about 719,170 will sell—leaving you with approximately 3.6 million

“Hey, listen, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I’m willing to give you the $1 million for the business, but I want to be sure that it’s going to continue to perform at the current level. So I want to hold back $75,000 in the form of an earnout. As long as the business continues to perform consistently over the next two years and either earns the same profit

helping other people get what they want so they’ll help you get what you want.

“Who already has a strong relationship with people to whom I might be able to sell a noncompetitive but related product or service?”

“Is this enterprise going to amplify or negate my superpowers?”