Secrets Of The Self-Made 2009

Business tips are a penny a dozen. A billionaire's playbook for success: priceless.

We asked eight of the wealthiest self-made members of the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans to weigh in on 22 topics, from universal health care to the right amount of vacation. These guys have horrendous schedules and a lot on their minds, but for the most part, they were willing to share.

One lesson is clear: If you want to make serious cake, start a business. Of the 400 titans on our list, 274 are self-made--up from 270 last year. Six of the top 10 spots on the Forbes 400 belong to entrepreneurs (as opposed to those born into wealth). Their combined net worth: $166.5 billion.

To be sure, some of their wallets lost weight in the Great Recession: Five of our eight moguls shed a combined $2.65 billion in the last 12 months, while only two increased their net worth. In 2008, you needed a cool $1.3 billion to crack the Forbes 400. This year, $950 million sufficed.

Our tycoons told us who helped them most in getting where there are today (fathers played big roles), the biggest business blunders they ever made (such as buying a yacht and "investing with the wrong people") and one valuable piece of advice for first-time entrepreneurs (hint: be prepared for rejection).

John Paul DeJoria was one of the few who came out rosier in the recession. The Austin, Texas, entrepreneur saw his net worth jump 12%, to $4 billion, helped in part by a 10% surge in sales at his Patrón tequila unit. (DeJoria also owns the Paul Mitchell line of hair care products.) When asked if money still motivates him, DeJoria says: "Yes, I can do more things with it to create more jobs and lend a helping hand. It goes back to the saying of give a man a fish, and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime."

Views were mixed on health care reform, specifically as to whether the government should implement a public option to cover all Americans. Pharmaceutical magnate R.J. Kirk predicts the public option will prevail, though he believes the government should support universal health care "no more than it should offer universal food, universal housing, universal transportation or any other communistic provisioning," he says. "The history of private enterprise and state enterprise convincingly demonstrates the folly of such state run initiatives."

While the eight entrepreneurs made their fortunes in a variety of industries, five worry that government regulations are the greatest threat to their industries. The ever-animated Donald Trump pointed to a more pernicious bogeyman: fear. "People sometimes don't realize that real estate runs in cycles," he says. "That's normal." Leon Charney, another real estate titan, fears "a shut down of lending by banks" may continue to hobble the economy.

Steven Schonfeld, newcomer to the Forbes 400, amassed his $1 billion fortune investing his own money in the capital markets. Schonfeld, along with leveraged buyout king Wilbur Ross and DeJoria, believes the stock market is in a sucker's rally. Trump and Kirk think there's a reasonable chance that's true, while grocery-chain giant John Catsimatidis and Charney think the market is fairly valued.

Dow 10,000 may still have to wait awhile.

John Paul DeJoria

AP Photo/Ron Edmonds

Will/should the U.S. have universal health care?

Yes, everyone deserves to have national health care in a great nation such as ours. We just need to find ways to do it and not be overtaxed.

Are we in a sucker's rally?

I believe that the present stock market is a little overvalued for today's economy. If you look one year ahead, it may be a good time to buy.

At this point, does money still motivate you?

Yes, I can do more things with it to create more jobs and opportunities as well as lend a helping hand. It goes back to the saying of give a man a fish, and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.

Donald Trump

Ben Baker/Redux for Forbes

What's the last book or article you read that you'd recommend to other entrepreneurs?

Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats thoroughly covers the process of thinking, and it's a way to avoid blind spots if you are thinking alone. He coined the expression "lateral thinking," and this book provides a comprehensive approach to using your brain in an efficient and effective way.

What's the biggest threat to your industry?

Fear. People sometimes don't realize that real estate runs in cycles. That's normal.

What's the biggest business blunder you've ever made, and what did you learn from it?

Buying a yacht. It was an investment I couldn't wait to get rid of.

William "Tex" Moncrief Jr.

Courtesy of Moncrief Oil

What one job should every person have to do at least once in their life?

It wouldn't hurt for everyone to spend a year in the military.

Finish this sentence: The United States' role as the leader of the free world depends upon ...

Getting some real statesmen instead of politicians.

Describe your life in five words.

It couldn't have been better.

John Catsimatidis

G. Gershoff/WireImage/Getty Images

What's the biggest business blunder you've ever made and what did you learn from it?

Going into the airline business. A common joke in the industry is if you want to get to $10M you start with $100M, and you'll get to $10M real quick.

You have $100 million to spend in real estate, what do you buy and where?

Inner-city NYC and oceanfront.

How much vacation time do you take each year?

All available school holidays when I can spend time with my kids

R.J. Kirk

Michael J.N. Bowles

What one job should every person have to do at least once in their life?

Sell. Ideally, the experience would be on a sales floor and in a job working on pure commission, in competition with others who have that same job.

What 21st-century invention (discovered or not) has the greatest potential to change our lives?

One area that is likely to give rise to a great number of innovations is what I am calling the Second Age of Biotech. For its first 30 years, biotech focused on the transcribed portion of the genome (genes) because of the obvious utility of their expression by-products (proteins). Increasingly, however, we are going to see biotech focus on the other, more interesting parts of the genome, which relate principally to its regulatory motifs. As our understanding of these essential logic controllers becomes more comprehensive (we are only scratching the surface today), we should be able to introduce an increasing amount of conditionality and "tightness of activity" to our customized production cells and to human therapeutics, thus spawning revolutionary changes in materials science, agriculture and health care.

Describe your life in five words.

I decided to be happy.

Click here to see the full list of Secrets Of The Self-Made: Greatest Hits 2009