The Rich & Famous Used Barter To Get Started

Barter Was The Start For International Deal-Maker

Leslie Gonda, 85-year old founder of International Lease Finance of Beverly Hills, started his business career after spending a part of World War II in a labor camp in Nazi-occupied Hungary. From there he emigrated to Venezuela where he scored his first business success trading costume jewelry with Indians in the jungle.

He used the profits to invest in Venezuelan real estate and launch his own construction firm before expanding into the U.S. where he built an independent chain of gas stations in Southern California.

International Lease Finance now places orders in the billions for the latest in passenger jets, which are then leased to major international and domestic carriers.

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Superstar Actor Used What He Had To Get What He Wanted

Decades ago when Hollywood superstar actor and producer Sidney Poitier first arrived in New York City, it was by bus with $3 in this pocket. He slept on the roof of the Brill Building and got a job washing dishes.

Then, with the help of an old waiter at the restaurant where he worked, he made a trade with the American Negro Theatre. They took him on as a student when he agreed to become their janitor.

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Noted Analyst Bartered For His Luxurious $500,000 Bus

The nation’s best-known “non-flier” is football analyst John Madden. Back in 1986, on a national TV program he discussed his aversion to flying, saying he was “thinking about getting a bus.”

George Gravley, Greyhound Lines’ public relations man, heard Madden’s comments, and spotted an opening to bring his company some valuable P.R. The result: Greyhound seized the opportunity, received millions of dollars worth of press coverage (at no cost), and secured Madden’s services for the next three years in exchange for one of Greyhound’s products—a bus.

Greyhound traded Madden the plush bus with special modifications for his cross-country travel, worth about $500,000 at the time. In exchange Madden agreed to give motivational talks to Greyhound employees in the major cities he passed through during the football season. Madden had to make 30 talks per year for three years...and the luxurious bus was his free and clear.

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Minnesota Man Became Billionaire With Barter Assist

In 1989 Forbes magazine estimated Marvin Schwan’s net worth at $1 billion. Operating in almost total obscurity in Marshall (MN) Sales Enterprises was totally owned by the 60-year-old Schwan. He had built a national door-to-door frozen food delivery company, serving mostly rural households in 49 states.

He additionally owned three frozen pizza companies that sold to supermarkets, convenience stores, school lunch programs, hospitals, military bases, and the like. (A list of his many other enterprises would take several more paragraphs!)

It was during the 1980s that Schwan attacked the $500 million school lunch frozen pizza market in a very creative way. At the time, to work off huge stockpiles of cheese, the Department of Agriculture gave the nation’s public schools the stuff...free of charge. To Schwan, the cheese looked like an opportunity.

In 1984 he won hundreds of school lunch pizza contracts by offering discounts in exchange for their government cheese allotments! But by 1989 the federal cheese stocks were nearly exhausted. No problem. There was a flour surplus. So Schwan set up a pasta company and contracted to sell discounted pasta entrees to schools in exchange for the government flour credits.

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