Dear Nova,

In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

But in 1972, a man bought a cruise ship for $1.

His name was Ted Arison and he bought the cruise ship from his friend Meshulam Riklis.

Deal of a lifetime some would call it.

But…

The cruise was old and on only had paint one side of the ship.

On top of that, as part of the deal he was also assigned $5 million in company debt.

So take what you want from Arison’s dealmaking skills.

However with $5 million in debt, a half painted ship and a dream Arison created what would one day become the largest cruise vacation company in the world.

Carnival Cruises!!!

But how was Arison able to do this?

His secret…

Trading!

In the early days of Carnival Cruise Lines Arison didn’t have money to buy advertising in order to fill up his cruise ship, so what he did was go to radio, television, newspaper advertisers and trade rooms on his ship for advertising.

And he did this in over 100 cities,

For 10 years.

Meaning for a decade Carnival Cruises received hundreds and thousands of dollars in advertising for $0 out of pocket.

And this resulted in Arison not only building the largest cruise vacation company in the world, but also becoming a billionaire and one of the richest men on the planet.

Now why are we telling you this story?

Because trading is awesome.

Arison was able to trade

Carnival Cruise Lines, a Florida-based cruise line which is now the largest cruise line in the world, started with
one ship and insufficient operating capital. The line traded empty cabins for radio, television and newspaper
advertising in 100 cities over a ten-year period. The cost of an empty cabin once the ship sails is minimal. Plus
the passengers may spend considerable cash in the bar, casino, gift shop and shore excursions; thus the net cost to
the cruise line to fill an empty cabin was literally less than zero. Stated differently, they made a massive profit off
the bartered cabin being occupied instead of going out empty.
Here’s the payoff to the cruise line. They used this technique to become the largest cruise line in the world and
continuously advertised in 100 cities for more than ten years without spending a penny of hard cash. A
conservative estimate of the amount of sales generated was $100,000,000. The owner of the cruise line is now a
billionaire and in the top ten on the Forbes richest list. And it all started with one 30-year-old ship and heavy
barter advertising.