How to Make a Few Billion Dollars

American entrepreneur Brad Jacobs, founder of a number of billion-dollar companies, details the attitudes he credits for turning XPO, United Rentals, and United Waste Systems into stock market darlings.

Radical Acceptance

Brad Jacobs is an advocate of “radical acceptance,” which focuses on acknowledging reality in the present and being mindful, while forgetting about past mistakes and dispensing with dreams of future success. Jacobs learned the value of radical acceptance in the late 1990s, when he ran United Rentals. Optimistic about a major infrastructure bill, he acquired companies that rented out construction barricades, traffic cones, and related items. The road-building boom never materialized, and Jacobs’s mistake led to a $500 million loss. Radical acceptance dictated that he cut his losses and move on.