| RICHEST BY STATE: NORTH DAKOTA

Hotelier Gary Tharaldson’s biggest mistake was stepping back from the motel business.

Plus: the 30 Under 30 founders modernizing manual labor.

Population: 757,952

2016 Gross state Product: $52.1 billion

Gsp Per capita: $68,724 (ranks no. 5 nationwide) number of billionaires: 0 richest: Gary tharaldson net worth: $900 million

Twelve years ago, Gary Tharaldson sold most of the hotels he owned—143 in total—to Goldman Sachs for $735 million net. He plowed part of those proceeds into ethanol, water and land, and in 2015 he swore he was well on his way on to creating a new billion-dollar fortune.

Selling out to Goldman, he now says, was the biggest mistake of his life: “It took me away from the business I truly love. My passion has always been in the motel business.” Those ethanol, water and land investments aren’t worth more than an estimated $500 million today, and Tharaldson,

72, is returning to his roots. He plans to open another 61 hotels by 2022, adding to the 39 he has today (he opened 6 last year).

If anyone can make money in the lodging game, it’s Tharaldson, who over the years has built more hotels than anyone in America.

After growing up in a town of 200 people in a house without running water, he bought his first two motels—in Valley City and Devils

Lake, North Dakota—in 1982 for $1.1 million. “I don’t need any money. I’m past that stage,” he says. “I do what I love to do.”