In our book, which comes out in about a month, we describe how most very rich Americans own ordinary companies outside of tech and finance and we tell many of their stories.
This post describes three of the paths that tens of thousands have taken to get very rich, and for each offers an example of an Everywhere Millionaire who has accumulated at least eight-figure wealth.
You can see from the following map of auto dealers, beverage distributors, and contractors (of the building, heavy civil, and specialty trade variety) that tens of thousands all across America run firms that are generating more than $25 million in revenue (as of 2021).
A is for Auto Dealer
There are 21,622 new-car dealerships with employees according to the Census’s County Business Patterns. We estimate that more than half of them take in at least $5 million a year; in the Dun & Bradstreet business records, 13,826 dealer locations clear $5 million and 4,114 clear $25 million.
Some, like Alan Wildstein, are very wealthy. One estimate puts his net worth at half a billion. We bought and assembled lots of fun data for the book, including private jet and super yacht data. Alan owns a 168-foot yacht called Acta, and a Cessna Citation has flown under the tail number N92AJ.
Alan grew up in the business, which was a Tropical Chevrolet dealership in Florida. He graduated from Northwood University, came back to the family dealership to work as a sales manager and then as general manager. His father found a struggling dealership in Sebring and helped him buy it. Alan expanded across small towns of Central Florida and into Michigan.
He owns “Fort Lauderdale’s most iconic residence.”
B is for Beverage Distributor
There are 4,742 beer, wine, and spirits wholesalers with employees according to the Census’s County Business Patterns. We estimate that about a quarter of them take in at least $5 million a year; in the Dun & Bradstreet business records, 1,232 distributor locations clear $5 million and 491 clear $25 million. There are substantial entry barriers to becoming a beverage distributor (one of our many favorite chapters of the book has a deep dive into beer distributors).
Some, like John and Bobbie Nau, accumulated substantial wealth. After an early career with Coca-Cola, he ended up having “a bad experience with a good outcome” that lead him into the Anheuser-Busch system. In 1987, he bought into Houston’s Southwest Distributing, which became Silver Eagle Distributors. It became one of the largest beverage distributors of Anheuser-Busch. He sold Silver Eagle’s Houston beer business to a Maryland private investment firm Redwood Capital for around $1 billion in 2019.
C is for Contractor
There are 780,257 construction businesses with employees according to the Census’s County Business Patterns—building, heavy civil, and specialty trade contractors. Anyone with a truck and a license can enter. We estimate only about 4 percent of them take in at least $5 million a year.
But construction is so vast that its winners form the biggest class of the three example industries here. In the Dun & Bradstreet business records, 33,752 contractor locations clear $5 million and 6,525 clear $25 million. They are also the most spread out—98 percent of counties have at least one contractor with a payroll.
Some, like Tommy Mello, are very wealthy. In December 2022, a PE firm bought a stake in his A1 Garage Door Service. Tommy said the deal paid him about $200 million personally, that he set aside $100 million for his employees, and that he still owns 47 percent of the company. He put his net worth at “just over 10 figures,” and he is building a 50,000-square-foot house in Paradise Valley with a lazy river and a 7,000-square-foot gym.
Tommy moved from Michigan to Arizona in 1999 and got into the business following a roommate who managed a door company. In 2007 Mello started A1 Garage Door Service, and the early years meant $50,000 of debt and 80-hour weeks. Revenue grew from $25 million in 2017 to more than $200 million today. He wrote a book about how he did it, Home Service Millionaire, and hosts The Home Service Expert, one of the biggest podcasts in the trades (which Tommy we’d love to be on, by the way, if you read this!)
To learn more about how everyday Americans are building wealth, consider pre-ordering our upcoming book The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There.