Courage...................................

    
      Fugger had a remarkable talent for investing.  He knew better than the rest how to size up an opportunity and where to park his money for the best return at the least risk.  He know how to run a business and mike it grow and how to get the most out of the people.  He knew how to exploit weakness and negotiate for favorable terms.  But perhaps his greatest talent was an ability to borrow the money he needed to invest.  With what must have been enviable charm, he convinced cardinals, bishops, dukes and counts to loan him oceans of money.  Without their support, Fugger would have been rich but no richer than the others at the club.  The fundraising - and with it the courage to risk debtor's prison if he couldn't repay - explains why he went down in history be the name of Jacob the Rich.  Financial leverage catapulted him to the top.

-Greg Steinmetz,  The Richest Man Who Ever Lived:  The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger

More on Jacob Fugger (1459-1525) here.