When I finished this book in the summer of 1997, who could ever have imagined then that there’d be more? That instead of “high-tech millions,” we’d be accurate in describing IDT as a Billion Dollar Company.

Well, that’s just what’s happened since then. Let me share a few highlights with you.

As our international phone traffic grew, we were able to start putting in our own international lines. This raised our profit margins and enabled us to lower our prices. Soon IDT was providing international service for most of the largest phone companies in the world. Ironically, AT&T and France Telecom, our former adversaries, were now among our most important relationships. Our formerly money-losing concern had, in fact, become a veritable profit machine. By early 1998, we were already earning millions of dollars a month for our shareholders on tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Even better, both revenue and profits growth not only are the fastest in the industry, they also show no sign of slowing.

Our Net2Phone service, which allows users to make phone calls over the Internet for a fraction of the price of a normal phone call, is not only a technical breakthrough but a business triumph as well. By early 1998 the new service, which pundits just a year ago said would never work, had already profitably done millions of dollars in business. IDT, the company that only a year earlier had teetered on the verge of bankruptcy, now virtually dominates this new field, which makes headlines daily. While larger competitors announced plans to experiment with this new technology, we’ve actually made it available to the general public at just 5¢ a minute for domestic long distance. That’s less than half of our competitors’ best prices. This guarantees IDT a position not only as a large international wholesale carrier but in the consumer market as well.

Naturally, all this good news on the business front couldn’t help but have a big impact on our stock price. By early 1998 it had doubled. Suddenly, Wall Street loved us again. Underwriters began calling, imploring us to do a secondary stock offering. Just sell 4 million more shares of IDT stock and you’ll have $80 million. Wow! With $80 million we’d be able to put our network all over the world. We said yes.

Out of loyalty, we wanted Cowen to participate in the offering, but they didn’t want to share with our other underwriters. We were conflicted, but we had to do what was best for IDT, so we went with another firm. Soon after, Cowen and Co. was sold to a French banking conglomerate, and Maria Lewis, our guardian angel and confidante from the beginning, was terminated. Whatever lingering doubt I had about switching underwriters has been erased now that I’ve seen how my friend was treated.

The underwriters told us to expect that 4 million new shares on the market would push our stock price down. A funny thing happened, though. Once we got out on the road and were able to meet all the big institutional investors, they were so excited about IDT’s prospects that the great majority put in big orders for our stock. Demand was so strong that the stock price climbed to 25 even before the shares were actually offered for sale. Then it wound up that even at the higher price there were enough institutional orders for over 20 million shares, even though we were offering only 4 million shares. To control demand we were compelled to sell an extra million shares, putting more than $120 million in IDT’s bank account.

Bond investors then offered to lend us another $200 million. This money not only would further fuel our expansion, but virtually guaranteed we would never again be put in the position of having to sell equity to raise cash. Still, $200 million seemed a bit extreme to me. So I just took $100 million and turned down the rest.

I’ve already mentioned the old Yiddish saying that every baby brings its own luck, and that, on January 28, 1997, my wife gave birth to twins. When they were a few weeks old, our stock price had collapsed, the bottom fell out on our stock, and we fired closed to half our staff. Some luck, I thought to myself, as the babies cried and fussed into the night, and I put up my life’s savings just to keep IDT afloat. Well, a year later, I see the luck. Twins didn’t just double our good fortune, but in the year since their birth, IDT’s value has risen 800 percent!

It’s just unbelievable. A year ago we were on the skids, and today what a roll we’re on! The company is worth a billion dollars. We’ve got over $225 million in the bank, and I just turned down $100 million more. What a country!

When money was really tight and hard to come by, a friend agreed to set up a meeting with a big-time financier, the kind of guy who could single-handedly change our destiny, or so I thought. A meeting was arranged between me and Mr. Big Bucks at the “21” Club. I put on my best Road Show suit and headed down there. An officious maître d’ ushered me into a private dining room, where an elderly gentleman was sitting with a beautiful blonde, who appeared to be about nineteen. The gentleman shook my hand and invited me to make my presentation. While I went on and on about the virtues of IDT, its great promise and potential, the blond beauty kept stroking the leg of my financier. Well, he couldn’t concentrate (on me, at least), and neither could I. IDT didn’t make a penny that night—I can’t speak for the blonde.

Last month I was once again invited to make a presentation at the “21” Club, this time in front of some of the industry’s leading bankers and money managers. All eyes were on me as I walked to the podium. I told them about my previous experience at the “21” Club, and they all laughed nervously. I couldn’t help but think of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, as he sings in “If I Were a Rich Man” that when you have money, people think you really know. Unlike my previous “21” experience, everyone was paying attention, focused on my presentation, my every word. The only thing that got stroked, though, was my ego, and IDT’s valuation.

The funny thing is, I’m not any smarter than I ever was. I still know that it’s just as hard to run a hot dog stand, and the real challenge in life is not to make money, but to run a business that even my grandmother would be proud of. Just because on paper your business is worth a billion dollars (a billion!) is no excuse to be stupid. You don’t waste hot dog buns, or millions either.

In early 1998 IDT was named the seventh-fastest-growing high-tech company by the accounting firm Deloitte and Touche, and one of the one hundred most dynamic companies in America by Forbes magazine.

And yet, with all this success, there are days when I can’t imagine anything sweeter than my hot dog stand. But do you know how many days it takes to make a billion dollars with a hot dog cart? Forty thousand, and that’s only if you’ve got a really great spot.

Nonetheless, if you learn one thing from this book, I hope it’s this: Never count the little guy out. One day he’s cooking onions over propane in a converted baby buggy, and the next thing you know . . . he’s on a roll!