In 1999, Bill Gates was 43 and worth $85 billion. Warren Buffet was 69 and worth $31 billion, according to Forbes. They Made It the Old-Fashioned Way So how did most of these people join the ranks of the ultra-rich so early in life? They made it the old-fashioned way: the same way that Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford became yesterday's ultra-rich and the same way that tomorrow's ultra- rich will do it. They built companies and sold shares in their company to the public. They worked hard to become selling shareholders rather than buying shareholders. In other words, it could be said that by being selling shareholders, they printed their own money-legally. They created valuable business and then sold shares of ownership in the business to others, buying shareholder. 410 Rich Dad's Guide to Investing In Rich Dad Poor Dad, I wrote about how at the age of 9, I began making my own money by melting down lead tooth- paste tubes and forging lead coins in Plaster of Paris molds. My poor dad told me what the word "counterfeiting" meant. My first business opened and closed on the same day. My rich dad, on the other hand, told me that I was very close to the ultimate formula for wealth: to print or invent your own money-legally. And that is what the ultimate in- vestor does. In other words, why work hard for money when you can print your own? In Rich Dad Poor Dad, rich dad's les- son #5 is "the rich invent their own money." Rich dad taught me to invent my own money with real estate or with small companies. That technical skill is the domain of the inside and ultimate investors. How 10% Own 90% of the Shares One reason the wealthiest 10% own 90% of all the shares, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, is that the wealthiest 10% include the ultimate investors,, the people who created the shares. Another reason is that only this 10% are eligible (per SEC rules) to invest in a company at the early stages be- fore it becomes available to the public through an IPO. In this elite group are founders of companies (a.k.a. founding share- holders), friends of the founders, or a select list of investors. These are the people who become richer and richer, while the rest of the population often struggles to make ends meet, investing the few dollars they may have left over as buying shareholders, if they have any dollars left at all. The Difference between Selling and Buying In other words, the ultimate investor is someone who builds a company and sells shares in his or her company. When you read an IPO prospectus, ultimate investors are the ones listed as the selling shareholders; they are not buying The Ultimate Investor 411 shareholders. And as you can tell by the net worth of these in- dividuals, there seems to be a tremendous difference in wealth between those who sell and those who buy shares. The Last Leg By 1994, I felt I had successfully completed much of the plan rich dad and I had created back in 1974.