Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?(more Texans billionaires in 1999)

YOU DO? IS THAT YOUR FINAL ANSWER? THEN READ THESE WORDS OF WISDOM FROM TEN OF THE WEALTHIEST TEXANS.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE REGIS PHILBIN to know that everyone wants to get rich these days, but is Texas a good place to do it? Consider this fun fact: In September 1993, the last time we published "The Texas 100," a ranking of the hundred richest Texans, H. Ross Perot, Robert H. Dedman, Sr., and at least one of the five Basses (whose combined net worth was $7 billion) were the state's only billionaires. A scant six years later, when Forbes published its 1999 Forbes 400, a roster of the four hundred richest Americans, 25 of them were Texas billionaires. And they weren't the only Texans on the list: In the basement of the 400 were another 5 who made the cut despite being mere several-hundred-millionaires. * Who are these super-wealthy Texans? The answer is right there on the page: Michael Dell (worth a measly $240 million in '93; today, his $20 billion makes him the fifth-richest person in the world); Perot (nearly $4 billion; take that, Jesse Ventura); each of the five Basses (finally!) and one quasi-Bass, family investment adviser Richard Rainwater; and other dynastic types, like Ray Hunt, who've added a ninth zero to their net worth. But there are also names you haven't heard before, both dot-com (42-year-old Sanjiv Sidhu of Dallas' i2 Technologies) and not-com (82-year-old Albert Ueltschi of Irving, the founder of FlightSafety International, which has the morbid distinction of being the company that taught JFK Jr. to fly). * Okay, but how did they get so rich? We put a version of that question--"How do you create wealth in Texas today?"--to ten of the billionaires. Read on for their final answers.

Be the Go-To Guy, And Get Paid

by Billie Joe "Red" McCombs

"The way to grow rich is to do better than the guy around you, it doesn't matter what industry you're in. I was always driven to do better--to be, as we say in sports, the `go-to guy.' I've always wanted to be the go-to guy in my little world. I don't know what drives other people, but recognition is what's important to me. And once you do better than others, things fall into place....

"I got a lot out of the paper route I had at age ten. On my route I had to throw the paper to the customer, I had to create new customers, and I had to collect every week. You find out who pays you and who doesn't pay you. You have to think about what you can do to get them to pay you, and you have to make a decision as to when you cut off the deadbeats. It was quite a learning experience. It made an impression on what I've done for the rest of my life."

Billie Joe "Red" McCombs, 72, owns the Minnesota Vikings and several automobile dealerships and co-founded Clear Channel Communications. He lives in San Antonio. Estimated net worth: $2.1 billion.