How Anyone Can Build a pipeline Of

BOOKS BY BURKE HEDGES 

Who Stole the American Dream? 

You Can’t steal Second with Your Foot 
on First! 

You, Inc. 

Copycat Marketing 101 

Read and Grow Rich 

Dream-Biz.com 

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CONTENTS 

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1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FROM THE DESK OF BURKE 
HEDGES 
Your Pipelines Are 
Your Lifelines! 
I
t’s been 25 years since my father passed away.
But I can still remember our early evening chess 
games like they were yesterday. 
I remember helping my father set up the chess 
board on the verandah of our beach house 
overlooking the Pacific Ocean off the coast of 
Ecuador. 
I remember watching the waves breaking against 
the white sand beach. 
I remember the fragrance of hibiscus floating on the 
saltwater mist. 
I remember watching the soft yellow sun sink below 
the steel-grey horizon. 
We’d play chess until dark. My father would talk.
I would listen. 
“Never take anything for granted,” I remember him 
saying many times as he gazed at the horizon. 

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2 
From Prince to Pauper in One Day 
“Never take anything for granted.” 
My father was referring to 1959, the year Castro 
took over Cuba. Prior to the revolution, my father 
was one of the richest men in Cuba. According to 
an article in time magazine, my father was worth 
more than $20 million (which would calculate to at 
least $200 million in today’s dollars). He owned 12 
different businesses, including cotton mills, retail 
stores, a textile mill, a chemical-manufacturing 
plant, and commercial real estate. 
When Castro took over, my parents escaped to 
Jamaica with just the clothes on their backs. My 
father’s businesses and bank accounts were 
confiscated for what the communists called “crimes 
against the people.” 
My 
father’s 
only 
“crime” 
was 
being 
successful…and then taking that success for 
granted. In hindsight, he should have moved some 
of his assets out of the country. He took it for 
granted that Castro would never be able to 
overthrow the government. 
My father was wrong. And it cost him his fortune.