Mark Morgan Ford started his first business when he was 11 years old. He’s started hundreds more since then.

It would be fair to say he’s worked in almost every industry imaginable — roofing, carpentry, house painting, restaurants, travel agencies, art galleries. He started a rare coin club. He’s written direct mail selling everything from sunglasses to grandfather clocks to tomatoes.

But when he discovered the publishing industry, he knew he’d found something he really cared about.

Today, he’s a self-made multimillionaire. He’s also a New York Times bestselling author and a successful business builder.

If his face looks familiar, it’s because it is…

You maybe have known him by his pen name Michael Masterson, which he retired a few years ago.

Since 1993, he has been the chief growth strategist for Agora, Inc., international publisher of newsletters and books with revenues of over $1 billion annually.

As a man who has built many, many business and accumulated more wealth than he could spend in three lifetimes, one of Mark’s passions is teaching others how to create successful businesses.

Now here are a few things you may not know about Mark …

He grew up in Brooklyn and Long Island, NY. He has a BA from Queens College, CUNY, a master’s degree from the University of Michigan, and did PhD work at Catholic University.

After college, Mark joined the Peace Corps and spent two years teaching students at the University of Chad in Africa.

Despite his incredible business success and intellectual acumen, he has been quite the failure — at retiring.

In 1982, Mark moved to Palm Beach County and took a job with a small publishing company. He worked as an apprentice to a well-known businessman in South Florida. He helped that company grow to $135 million in annual revenues, became a multimillionaire himself, and retired at age 39.

But retirement didn’t stick. After a year of writing poetry, he became a consultant to the health and investment publishing industry. He was involved in the development of dozens of multimillion-dollar businesses, including one whose revenues recently exceeded the $1 billion mark. And then he retired again.

Now that he’s turned over 70 years old, Mark has “retired” again. He now focuses on growing his investments and writing for his blog and for DIYwealth.