There is a rich mining history here in my town of Butte, Montana. From around 1890 to 1906, there was a battle of 3 of the richest and shrewdest mining tycoons the world had ever seen.

It was called “The War of the Copper Kings.”

The third and youngest copper king was Augustus Heinze, who was able to do battle against the much richer and well armed other two copper kings with mostly his intellect.

Finally, the large conglomerate mining company bought out Augustus Heinze because he was such a thorn in their side. The company bought him out for roughly $10.5 million in 1906. Heinze was only 37 years old!

$10.5 million in todays dollars is around $293 million! And – again – he was only 37 years old!

So, Augustus Heinze heads out of town and makes his way to New York City.

His had become a world expert in finding valuable veins of copper, and that is where he made his riches. He purchased mines, built fantastic businesses around them, and then grew the businesses and sold them.

But in New York City, he got in over his head.

He tried to play the stock market.

The legend has it that the same conglomerate mining company (which was tied to Standard Oil) that bought him out in Butte, Montana, had its agents in New York City make sure that they destroyed the still young Heinze.

Heinze lost all his money when the conglomerate secretly caused a bull run on Heinze’s company stock, and then the conglomerate sold and made the banks call their loans on Heinze’s company. This act even caused a bank panic of 1907.

Heinze was ruined financially. It had only taken 1 year from being bought out in business to be financially ruined, and he died a few years after.

What’s the lesson learned here?

Well, there are many!

The key takeaway for me is that he gained his wealth by becoming a business owner in one niche, and growing that business. He didn’t gain his wealth on Wall Street, he lost it!

Now there are many mistakes that can be made in buying, growing, and selling businesses, don’t get me wrong!

I have made many mistakes!

Which is why I beat myself up so much in my Business Buying Course. I tell you all about the mistakes I made in buying, growing, and selling my businesses.

I air out all my “dirty laundry”!

Why? Because I want you to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them.

There are 3 separate mistakes chapters to the Business Buying Course. If you would like to purchase the course, go here:

www.businessbuyingcourse.com/course