When the time came to cash in on the auto-lending empire Thomas Dundon started in the back room of a used-car dealership, Dundon and his partners split $636 million. His partners walked away. Dundon took a smaller share, kept a 10 percent stake in the business and continued to run it after it was bought by the Spanish banking conglomerate Santander in 2006.
It was, essentially, a bet on himself and his ability to continue to grow the business.
Eight years later, Santander took the division public at a valuation of $8.3 billion. When he left in 2015, Dundon walked away with $715 million.