I Bought the Book. Then I Bought the Company That Published It.

How Tyler G. Hicks’ classic business-buying guide helped me acquire International Wealth Success

Sometime around 2020, I bought a book about how to acquire a business with little or none of your own money. A few years later, I used that book — its ideas, its structure, its acquisition principles, and its actual forms — to buy the company that published it.

That company was International Wealth Success, known also as IW$, the entrepreneurial education company founded by Tyler G. Hicks in 1966. For a publisher, entrepreneur, and lifelong reader of Hicks, the story still feels almost too perfect. I first encountered the company as a reader. I studied its material as a student of business acquisition. Then, in 2023, I acquired the assets of IW$ and became the publisher responsible for carrying its legacy forward.

The short version is simple: I bought the book, used the book, and then bought the company. The longer version says something important about Tyler Hicks, International Wealth Success, and the practical value of business education that gives the reader actual tools instead of pleasant theory.

A Publisher Looking for the Right Acquisition

At the time I bought How to Buy a Business With No Money Down, I was already operating Kallisti Publishing. I had been working in publishing for years (decades!), building books, developing catalogs, working with authors, managing production, understanding rights, improving editions, and studying how intellectual property becomes a long-term business asset.

Publishing teaches a person to look at books differently. A book is a product, of course, but a strong book is also an asset. A useful book can sell for years. A practical book can change hands, change lives, and continue producing value long after its first publication. A serious catalog, properly cared for, can become the foundation of an entire company.

That was already how I thought about publishing. I was also studying acquisitions seriously. I was reading books on buying businesses, deal structure, seller financing, valuation, negotiation, and business ownership. I wanted to expand through acquisition, and I was looking for an opportunity that made sense: something with history, intellectual property, market value, and room for renewal.

I had also been reading Tyler G. Hicks for most of my adult life, starting with the classic How to Get Rich on Other People’s Money. His books had the flavor of real enterprise. They were direct, practical, energetic, and filled with the assumption that a person could improve his financial life by learning how business actually works. Hicks wrote for people who wanted to act. His work had the confidence of a man who believed opportunity was available to the person willing to study, ask, negotiate, and proceed.

That is why How to Buy a Business With No Money Down caught my attention. I picked it up as a reader, as a publisher, and as a man already looking for the right acquisition. I was studying the subject with real intent, and this book came from the man whose work had already shaped much of my thinking about entrepreneurship and wealth-building.

What Made the Book Different

Many business books are encouraging and intelligent — and still incomplete. They explain the opportunity. They describe the market. They tell the reader why buying a business can make sense. They include stories, observations, and principles. Then the reader reaches the end with the same practical problem he had at the beginning: he still needs to know exactly what to do.

Tyler G. Hicks approached the subject differently. How to Buy a Business With No Money Down walks the reader through the actual process of buying a business. It covers

• how to find businesses for sale
• why buying an existing business can be preferable to starting one from scratch
• how to understand why owners sell, how to think about valuation
• how to read and interpret financial information
• how to make an offer
• how to negotiate
• how to handle objections
• how to structure terms
• how to move toward closing

That practical sequence gave the book its value. The forms gave it its force. Hicks included

• buyer profiles
• buyer financial statements
• confidentiality agreements
• letters of intent
• counter-offers
• contingency removals
• lists of furniture, fixtures, and equipment
• promissory notes
• purchase and security agreements
• accounts receivable lists
• accounts payable lists
• and other closing-related documents

These were the kinds of forms a serious buyer could study, adapt, and use.

That matters. Forms turn a concept into a procedure. They give a buyer language. They give shape to the transaction. They tell the reader what questions to ask, what information to gather, what terms to consider, and how to begin moving from interest to documentation.

In that sense, the forms represented the IW$ philosophy in its most practical form. Tyler Hicks understood that entrepreneurial education should lead somewhere. A person who wants to buy a business needs far more than encouragement. He needs structure, questions, examples, documents, and a working understanding of how a deal comes together.

That was what the book supplied.

One Well-Placed Email

At some point, I heard that Tyler G. Hicks had passed away. I had never had the chance to speak with him in person, though we had exchanged messages once on Facebook. That brief exchange stayed with me, partly because Hicks had been one of those writers whose work had entered my life and remained there. His books had influenced the way I thought about opportunity, business ownership, and the practical possibilities available to a person willing to learn.

After hearing of his passing, I began thinking about International Wealth Success itself. Here was a company founded in 1966, built over decades, and filled with books, kits, guides, directories, newsletters, files, and accumulated business knowledge. It had history. It had a recognizable philosophy. It had the sort of practical entrepreneurial material that deserved to remain alive and useful.

Most of all, I liked the books! I was a user, so to speak, of the products.

That thought eventually led to one direct action. I emailed International Wealth Success blindly and asked whether they had ever thought of selling.

There was no elaborate acquisition memorandum. There was no theatrical overture. I was a publisher with a genuine interest in the company and its legacy, and I asked a simple question. That is how many real opportunities begin. Someone sees value, asks plainly, and then follows the conversation where it leads.

Tyler Hicks’ son, David Hicks, replied and we began talking. The conversation developed naturally, with the seriousness appropriate to a business that also carried a family legacy. David had inherited the company from his father. I came to it as a publisher, a reader, and someone who believed the IW$ material had a future.

From that first email, the possibility became real.

Using the Book to Buy the Company

When the time came to structure the acquisition, I returned to How to Buy a Business With No Money Down. That is the part of the story that still gives me the greatest satisfaction.

I used the forms from the book to buy International Wealth Success.

I copied them, adapted them, and applied them to the transaction at hand. Every acquisition has its own facts, terms, and particulars, but the underlying framework came from Tyler Hicks’ own business-buying guide. The book that taught readers how to buy a business helped me buy the company that published the book.

There is a rare kind of symmetry in that. I had bought the book because I admired Hicks and wanted to study acquisition. I used the book because it gave me real tools. Then I acquired the company whose entire mission was to teach people how to recognize and act on business opportunity.

The acquisition included the assets of International Wealth Success: the brand, the books, the files, the materials, the publishing assets, and the legacy Tyler Hicks had built over decades. It was a practical business acquisition, certainly, but it was also the purchase of a body of work that had influenced me for years.

I entered the story as a reader. I became the publisher.

Bringing IW$ Forward

Acquiring a company is one act. Carrying it forward is the real work.

Since acquiring IW$, I have been reviving and modernizing the catalog. The goal has been to respect the original material while giving it the presentation, structure, and reach it deserves today. That means updating where appropriate, improving design, clarifying product lines, strengthening the website, and making the books easier for a new generation of entrepreneurs to discover and use.

The IW$ website has been revamped. The long-running IW$ newsletter has been given a new identity and a stronger editorial direction as ATTAIN. The IW$ Guide series has been created to bring key titles forward in a recognizable and useful format. The larger catalog is being reviewed, organized, redesigned, and returned to circulation with renewed purpose.

How to Buy a Business With No Money Down became part of that effort. The original title was simply How to Buy a Business With No Money Down. Under the new IW$ publishing program, it has been brought forward as The IW$ Guide to How to Buy a Business With No Money Down: A Step-by-Step Blueprint for Acquiring a Thriving Business with Little or Zero Capital.

That title places the book where it belongs: inside a larger system of practical entrepreneurial education. The strategies remain. The forms remain. The Tyler Hicks spirit remains. The presentation has been improved, the positioning clarified, and the book now stands as part of a growing series designed for entrepreneurs, business buyers, dealmakers, and ambitious people who want practical access to business ownership.

Why the Story Matters

Every publisher should believe in his books. In this case, my belief comes from direct experience. I used How to Buy a Business With No Money Down in a real acquisition. I used its forms, its structure, and its principles to acquire the assets of International Wealth Success. That gives me a special relationship to the title. I can praise it as its publisher, value it as a reader, and point to a completed transaction as evidence of its practical usefulness.

Still, I would phrase the matter carefully. The book did not buy the company. I did the work. I sent the email. I carried on the conversation. I studied the opportunity. I adapted the forms. I negotiated the acquisition. I completed the transaction.

What the book provided was knowledge.

That distinction matters. Knowledge is powerful when it is applied. Knowledge sitting on a shelf is potential. Knowledge used with discipline becomes leverage. Knowledge used with courage becomes movement. Knowledge used day after day becomes a changed business life.

That idea runs through the best authors I have published and preserved. Charles F. Haanel, whose work I have also helped carry forward, taught that knowledge must be applied. Application is the key. Knowing a principle has value; using the principle gives it force.

Tyler G. Hicks lived and taught the same idea in his own direct, entrepreneurial way. He urged readers to keep trying, to take action, to do something every day that would increase their wealth, and to persist until effort became result. His books were filled with methods, examples, forms, and directions because he understood that success requires more than interest. It requires application.

That is the heart of this story. How to Buy a Business With No Money Down gave me knowledge I could use. It gave me a framework. It gave me documents. It gave me a practical path for thinking through an acquisition. Then I had to take that knowledge and act on it.

That is what IW$ has always stood for: practical access to opportunity through usable business knowledge. It gives readers tools for ownership, dealmaking, financing, selling, buying, negotiating, building, and expanding. It speaks to people who want to move from interest to action. It teaches that ownership can begin with knowledge, preparation, courage, and the willingness to ask.

My acquisition of IW$ is one expression of that philosophy. It began with a book, moved forward through one well-placed email, developed through a serious conversation, and became a completed acquisition. From there, it became a publishing mission.

The Living Legacy of Tyler G. Hicks

Tyler G. Hicks built a phenomenal business legacy. He created books and materials for people who wanted to improve their financial lives through enterprise. He wrote about business opportunity as though it belonged to the person with enough desire and discipline to pursue it. He understood that wealth-building is learned through ideas, examples, tools, and repeated action.

That legacy deserves to continue. IW$ today is being expanded and extended with that conviction. The purpose is to bring Hicks’ work and the broader IW$ philosophy to the entrepreneurs, business owners, real estate operators, brokers, lenders, importers, exporters, acquisition-minded buyers, and ambitious readers who need practical guidance now.

This article tells a personal story, yet the lesson reaches beyond one acquisition. A useful book can alter the direction of a business life. A practical guide can lead to a real transaction. A simple question can open a door. A company founded in 1966 can find new life in the hands of someone who first encountered it as a reader.

That is why this story matters. The book did exactly what Tyler Hicks intended his books to do: It gave a reader knowledge he could apply. I bought the book, studied the book, used the book, and then bought the company that published it.

And today, that company continues to move forward boldly with new books, updated editions of classics, with the magnificent ATTAIN, and, most significantly, through every reader who discovers that business ownership may be closer and more practical than he once believed.