1,000 Dollars and an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire - Softcover

Expanded edition with new chapters on the Great Crash of 2008 and looking ahead.
Self-made billionaire Sam Wyly is a natural storyteller. In this candid, engrossing memoir, he recounts his experiences establishing and expanding companies on the leading edge of advancements in technology, energy, retail, and investments over the last five decades. From the hardships his family faced trying to hold on to their cotton farm during the Depression to the coaching he received on the high school football field, Wyly describes how his early years in Louisiana prepared him for what lay ahead.
Risking $1,000 of his savings, Wyly founded University Computing in 1963 and took it public two years later, becoming a millionaire at age thirty. Throughout this book, he reveals the decisions and strategies behind many business successes, including founding Sterling Software, growing the small chains of Michaels Stores and Bonanza Steakhouses into nationwide brands, and founding Green Mountain Energy, the largest provider of cleaner energy in America today.
In this expanded edition, Wyly discusses the "Great Crash of 2008" in historical perspective, offering insights on the causes of our current financial crisis and the path to recovery—including the importance of green energy for the future.

Sam Wyly, a self-made billionaire of Scottish and Irish descent, grew up in Louisiana and attended local schools before going to Louisiana Tech University to study journalism and accounting. He won a scholarship to the University of Michigan Business School, where he earned his MBA. With his brother, Charles, his partner in many of his businesses, Sam funded the Charles Wyly Sr. Tower of Learning at Louisana Tech, in memory of their father.

Sam, an avid reader and student of history, and his wife Cheryl own Explore Booksellers in Aspen, Colorado. Sam is also an active proponent of clean air through clean energy.

He has lived most of his adult life in Dallas, and also spends time in Aspen and in New York's Greenwich Village.