Brad Jacobs

But back then, it was the equivalent of today, $200,000.

And I said, we need to get in this game.

And I went out and I bought a lot of barricade companies and cone rentals and striping and all those things that are orange on the highway of doing reconstruction, bridges and tunnels.

And I said, I'm going to be like the big equipment rental guy, this burgeoning trend of the government refixing all the roads around the country, the infrastructure.

And of course, as governments often do, they didn't spend the $600 billion.

They spent a much smaller fraction of it.

And it didn't go to companies like United Rentals for the large part.

So it just didn't work.

I ended up getting out of the business because it turned out to be a lousy business.

And I resold it for a half a billion dollar loss.

So sometimes you spot a trend and get all excited about it and act on it.

It's not a real trend.

That's an example of that.

You got to be careful that you don't have false trends.

So you'll notice the very beginning of the book, I have the acknowledgement section.

And usually in the acknowledgement section, you thank your manager and your publicist and your publisher and your wife and God, whatever.

And they're pretty much all the same.

And I said, I don't want to waste the reader's time, do some boring thing.

I tried not to put anything silly in the book.

I tried to be snappy.