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Then Ronald Reagan fired 10,000 air traffic controllers. Jacob applied, passed the federal test and worked for 13 years in Cut Bank, Mont., and Littleton, Colo. His performance on tests and in the job was self-revealing.

"Until I became an air traffic controller, the question was who would John be?" he said. "When I became an air traffic controller, it was like they put 'Doctor' on my name. It made me understand what I could be."

He said he found he could solve problems in two hours that took others two months. He realized there were things he wanted to do — he decided 12 years ago he would run for Congress — but knew he needed money.

"I made up my mind I'd never put myself in a position not to buy what I wanted for a lack of money."

He had purchased some land in Cedar Valley west of Utah Lake and Saratoga Springs. He decided to add to it and sell the land in 5-acre lots, and he began to buy and develop water rights. Within a year and a half of leaving his job as an air traffic controller, he made his first million.

Jacob had tried to get the developers of The Ranches, in what is now Eagle Mountain, interested in his land. They weren't, until a rancher whose land they wanted required them to put up another piece of land as collateral to buy up his. The developers gave Jacob 5 percent to put up his land.

They told him he'd get another 10 percent if he could find water, and he did.

"I made 20 times what I put into it," Jacob said. "I obviously fell into it."

He began to develop water and is now among those who file the most applications with the state, where he said he has pushed the envelope.

"Mr. Jacob is creative, and he's tried some different things over the years," Utah state engineer Jerry Olds said. "Most we've worked through, and there are still some others on file."

The Utah County Commission appointed Jacob to Eagle Mountain's first City Council in December 1996 when another proposed appointee was considered to have a conflict of interest with the developers. Jacob, of course, was involved, too, which he thought was a plus for the city because he understood the inside of the deals that were happening, but voters didn't agree a year later when the city held its first elections.

Jacob won just 21 votes of a possible 102 and finished last in a field of four vying for two seats.

Eagle Mountain politics have proved to be a hornets' nest, where Jacob has his enemies. Among them is Councilman Dave Lifferth who accuses Jacob of being a liberal who attempted to set up a socialist community, blaming him for $16 million in debt the city incurred early in its history.