## Let’s break it down, starting from first principles.  The goal of business and working is to make money. The reason why we need money is obvious — our society demands it in return for food, shelter, clothing, experiences, tools, etc. In the game of getting money, the people who have the most of it are the ones who hold assets which produces cash for them (Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, etc.) There are many types of assets, including real estate, crypto, gold, cash, etc., but the highest cash producing assets are by far businesses. Coincidentally, all of the billionaires on the top of the world’s richest list (screenshot below) are wealthy from owning businesses.  And, in history, the business owners have been the ones with all of the cash. We should probably learn from them. # Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Now, that being said, I personally find it is much easier to buy something than to build it. Did you build the house, apartment or condo you’re living in? Did you build the food in your refrigerator? Did you build your refrigerator? No, you bought them all. M&A is simply a fancy way of saying buying and selling businesses, and I’m here to tell you that it is a godsend of a business model. Having built multiple startups in my career, from marketing agencies to media businesses to virtual summit businesses to finance tech, I can tell you that starting from scratch is f***ing HARD. There are so many things you’ve got to do right in order to not die a fiery painful death. But when you buy a business that is already up and running with existing revenue and profit and a team? Golly gee Batman, it seems like the 2nd coming of Moses. You don’t have to personally suffer through all of that nonsense, you just step in and begin reaping the benefits. It doesn’t matter how much cash was spent trying to get a business to $1m in revenue, it just matters how much you negotiate the deal to buy it for. # Securing the funding Most people will write this off because they don’t personally have $1m in their pockets to do deals. And perhaps they are practicing financial cleanliness so they won’t do it. This is the Warren Buffett style, and you can clearly see his name on the list. But most people won’t take the risk of plowing their hard earned cash into a deal. So what are their options? Here is a list of lists with some: - [the top 6 ways to finance a merger or acquisition (forbes.com)](https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgedeeb/2020/09/04/the-top-6-ways-to-finance-a-merger-or-acquisition/?sh=18fc1c76a78e) - [how to finance a business acquisition — beacon mergers & acquisitions (beaconadvisors.com)](https://www.beaconadvisors.com/how-to-finance-a-business-acquisition/#:~:text=common%20options%20for%20financing%20an%20acquisition%201%20private,option%20for%20companies%20that%20need%20debt%20financing.%20) - [financing acquisitions | top 7 methods with business examples (wallstreetmojo.com)](https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/financing-acquisitions-cash-debt-equity-lbo-swaps/) - [top 7 funding options for buying an established business — supermoney](https://www.supermoney.com/best-funding-options-buying-an-established-business/) - [M&A Financing: 10 Ways to Finance Business Acquisition in 2023 (dealroom.net)](https://dealroom.net/blog/how-to-finance-a-business-acquisition) - [10 creative ways to finance a business acquisition (duedilio.com)](https://www.duedilio.com/10-creative-ways-to-finance-a-business-acquisition/) And if you need more, hit the big G (google) and search around. The hard part isn’t finding the money, it’s finding a great deal and then using it to convince others to give you the money they have. We know where the money is — but a lot of people simply get afraid of going to ask for it because they may be told no 900 times before they hear a yes. [  ](http://bengothard.org/subscribe) # The long term Anyways, the reason why M&A is so beautiful is that you can take advantage of the [[The silver bullet in investing|power of compounding]]. Buy a business, let it grow, take the profits, reinvest into another business, rinse and repeat. When you sell a business, then you have to pay taxes. Buying and holding forever is the most efficient and effective way to build wealth for the long term. You don’t have to worry about inflation, recession, market timing, or any of that nonsense. You simply make good decisions in which businesses to buy and hold, how you finance them, and deploy the discipline to actually hold them over the long term. Berkshire Hathaway is a beautiful example of how powerful this model is from a cash generation standpoint, and Warren Buffett’s daily life of reading, napping and making decisions is the exact sort of life I want. To each their own, of course. I’ve learned in my almost decade of entrepreneurship that I want to roll a snowball down a hill, not try to push it up one. Buying and holding businesses forever seem to be the best thing to make snowballs out of, so start rolling! The only other thing you need is to let the power of compounding do the work for you.