Strategic Growth Champion Identified

Strategic Growth Champions are different. They think very differently and their actions prove it. Strategic Growth Champions set a unique direction that often forges a new trend or counters one. They bring an interesting level of innovation to almost everything they do. They create initiatives that solve real big problems for others and they are never afraid to boldly share their solutions—often presenting them in the form of wildly successful products, services and high-growth companies.

I have had the very good fortune of crossing paths with many people whom I consider champions. I will share more about some of them in the coming days—and some are highlighted in my bio. Here’s one I have not met yet, but hope to very soon…

He is the “anything-but-stuffy-rich self-made billionaire” Tim Blixseth. He is rare. He understands strategic growth championess. I say that not because he grows fortunes, but because he connects with others in ways that change people’s lives.

From his early days Tim displayed a strategic ability to leverage his investments of time and money. In his first business venture at age 15 he purchased three donkeys from a classified ad in a Pacific Northwest newspaper for $25 each, then sold them as “pack mules” for $75 each. They sold immediately.

Tim’s next display of championess occurred soon after. He bought a $1,000 option for a $90,000 timber property. It was just under 400 acres. Imagine the level of courage, innovation and self-belief required for the then teenage Blixseth to stare confidently into the eyes of a realtor who threatened to keep his $1,000 if he couldn’t pay the remaining $89,000 within the week. Blixseth leveraged his bet and won. He found a timber company to buy the property for $140,000, giving him a profit of $50,000. I want to ask Tim how hard it was to secure that timber company.

He went on to buy overlooked properties and flip them to logging companies and large landowners in remote Pacific Northwest towns. He grew his business to $1 million a month, by the time her was 30 years old.

His work in recent years has focused on building Yellowstone Club. There, members can take one of the resort jets to St. Andrews for golf, followed by yachting on the high-seas and then shut off the valve with a retreat to one of Blixseth’s exclusive beach hideaways in Tamarindo. It is truly something. A strategic champion creating outstanding retreat experiences for top achievers.

Tim has accomplished it all without incurring debt and he is a very down-to-earth person. Tim carries a small plastic Staples calculator in his pocket everywhere he goes.

Tim Blixseth is highlighted in Robert Frank’s newest book Richistan, a wonderful read.