MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR - 8 rules
Real people make gobs of money in the real world:
1. Start with nothing and grow up in a rough neighborhood. Lots of billionaires started with nothing and worked from a very young age, and then made it big. They are more resilient people, relate to a larger variety of people and are less fearful - the work ethic has to be instilled YOUNG - hopefully in your teens and learn to juggle school and work all year round (multi-task, group things together in your life to get more done and schedule your time). People that don't start working at a young age generally end up as criminals (whether the person goes to jail or not doesn't matter, if you commit crime you are a criminal) of some sort or end up a jerk. Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schultz and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein grew up in Brooklyn. Self-sufficiency and self-reliance breed resiliency, and resiliency breeds great leaders. Narrow-minded people are as harmful as criminals, they are bad leaders.
2. Do what you love ... and maybe there's a market for it. Steve Jobs said, "The only way to do great work is to love what you do. Then its not work, in the bad sense, its not labor, its doing what you love most and getting paid for it. If you haven't found that, keep looking. Don't settle."
He was absolutely right. If you follow your passion — and so do customers — the money will follow.
3. Follow the yellow brick road ... to Silicon Valley. The high-tech industry has created enormous wealth for millions of people, and not just top executives, either. Microsoft alone accounts for an estimated 12,000 millionaires among former or current employees. The reason? Technology startups are the land of equity and opportunity.
3. Own your own business and live like a monk. Two-thirds of America's millionaires are self-employed. The vast majority are small business owners who live on budgets well below their means, invest their money, and never received any kind of inheritance, according to the book "The Millionaire Next Door." Do you really need that new car or iPad? Nope. You need a car that runs well, minimal maintenance and when you turn the key in the ignition it goes on. What's an iPad?
4. Take risks, make mistakes and trust your gut. Most people are either ridiculously risk averse or take dumb risks they know they shouldn't take. Take smart risks, the ones that make sense to you. Trust your gut. You'll be wrong more often than not but that's okay. Nobody gets ahead by playing it safe.
5. Work your living tail off and make lots of sacrifices. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is a serious workaholic who works 90 hours a week. So does Elon Musk, who runs two companies and is not much of a delegator. The same was true of Steve Jobs when he ran Apple and Pixar. You get out of life what you put in. And know when to stop, the point of making money is to enjoy living and to give back.
By the time you are 40 you should have chosen charities to work on, instead of just selfishly hoarding money earned. If you can't decide, then start attending fellowship (the carnivals and dinners and thriftstores) of several churches and make sure you buy when you are there or buy a 50/50 raffle ticket so you are giving back. Churches are structured to give. If you can't decide than give/volunteer at churches and they will give.
6. Manufacture your own luck. It's said that luck is when opportunity meets preparedness. While it's true that I've been very, very lucky, it's also true that I never stopped searching for opportunities and never hesitated to go for it when I found even a glimmer of a possibility. My advice: quit tweeting and linking and get out and blend with the real world and real living things. Computers are nice, but they aren't alive - its a machine!
7. Stay married unless your spouse is abusive in some way, if so, get out as quick as you can and as far away as possible. If you are divorcing from boredom its a whole other thing: one of the most common killers of wealth is the good old "divide by two." Think about it. Each time you get divorced, that's another divide by two. Divorce is a geometric progression — to the poor house. That's why only the poor and very rich can afford it. If you're in the middle, forget it. Life is a circle, the poor live very similar to the rich, both have nothing to lose, but in the middle, you just keep losing. You can also stay single and live together and just SAY the other is your spouse. Youth today, does that all the time. They are trying to outlaw marriage in Brazil. No person should own another person. The Brazil of the future, people will incorporate if they want to mix funds and it doesn't matter what gender those incorporating are.
8. Diversify, diversify, diversify. That age-old axiom is so true it isn't funny. I have an old friend — a former senior executive like me — whose investment strategy has always been to put his money in as many different places as possible. It takes time and effort but the payoff is huge. Never put all your eggs in one basket, is still true. Save some money, invest it wisely and diversify.
Of course, you can always call yourself a social media entrepreneur or a self-branded CEO of one and generate all sorts of free online content while the folks at Google and Facebook get rich. The truth is, nobody ever got anywhere by doing what everyone else is doing. You may as well just buy lottery tickets and pray for a miracle.
The point isn't really "money" anyway, its having control over your own time and freedom to do the things you love most (that doesn't mean crime by the way, crime is crime, don't twist this).
Read more:
How to Get Publicity for Your Crowdfunding Campaign
12 Strategies for Promoting Your YouTube Videos
4 Ways to Maximize Your Loss Prevention Strategies
Stop Spending Time With Toxic People
Want to Make a Successful YouTube Video? Read This.
1. Start with nothing and grow up in a rough neighborhood. Lots of billionaires started with nothing and worked from a very young age, and then made it big. They are more resilient people, relate to a larger variety of people and are less fearful - the work ethic has to be instilled YOUNG - hopefully in your teens and learn to juggle school and work all year round (multi-task, group things together in your life to get more done and schedule your time). People that don't start working at a young age generally end up as criminals (whether the person goes to jail or not doesn't matter, if you commit crime you are a criminal) of some sort or end up a jerk. Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schultz and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein grew up in Brooklyn. Self-sufficiency and self-reliance breed resiliency, and resiliency breeds great leaders. Narrow-minded people are as harmful as criminals, they are bad leaders.
2. Do what you love ... and maybe there's a market for it. Steve Jobs said, "The only way to do great work is to love what you do. Then its not work, in the bad sense, its not labor, its doing what you love most and getting paid for it. If you haven't found that, keep looking. Don't settle."
He was absolutely right. If you follow your passion — and so do customers — the money will follow.
3. Follow the yellow brick road ... to Silicon Valley. The high-tech industry has created enormous wealth for millions of people, and not just top executives, either. Microsoft alone accounts for an estimated 12,000 millionaires among former or current employees. The reason? Technology startups are the land of equity and opportunity.
3. Own your own business and live like a monk. Two-thirds of America's millionaires are self-employed. The vast majority are small business owners who live on budgets well below their means, invest their money, and never received any kind of inheritance, according to the book "The Millionaire Next Door." Do you really need that new car or iPad? Nope. You need a car that runs well, minimal maintenance and when you turn the key in the ignition it goes on. What's an iPad?
4. Take risks, make mistakes and trust your gut. Most people are either ridiculously risk averse or take dumb risks they know they shouldn't take. Take smart risks, the ones that make sense to you. Trust your gut. You'll be wrong more often than not but that's okay. Nobody gets ahead by playing it safe.
5. Work your living tail off and make lots of sacrifices. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is a serious workaholic who works 90 hours a week. So does Elon Musk, who runs two companies and is not much of a delegator. The same was true of Steve Jobs when he ran Apple and Pixar. You get out of life what you put in. And know when to stop, the point of making money is to enjoy living and to give back.
By the time you are 40 you should have chosen charities to work on, instead of just selfishly hoarding money earned. If you can't decide, then start attending fellowship (the carnivals and dinners and thriftstores) of several churches and make sure you buy when you are there or buy a 50/50 raffle ticket so you are giving back. Churches are structured to give. If you can't decide than give/volunteer at churches and they will give.
6. Manufacture your own luck. It's said that luck is when opportunity meets preparedness. While it's true that I've been very, very lucky, it's also true that I never stopped searching for opportunities and never hesitated to go for it when I found even a glimmer of a possibility. My advice: quit tweeting and linking and get out and blend with the real world and real living things. Computers are nice, but they aren't alive - its a machine!
7. Stay married unless your spouse is abusive in some way, if so, get out as quick as you can and as far away as possible. If you are divorcing from boredom its a whole other thing: one of the most common killers of wealth is the good old "divide by two." Think about it. Each time you get divorced, that's another divide by two. Divorce is a geometric progression — to the poor house. That's why only the poor and very rich can afford it. If you're in the middle, forget it. Life is a circle, the poor live very similar to the rich, both have nothing to lose, but in the middle, you just keep losing. You can also stay single and live together and just SAY the other is your spouse. Youth today, does that all the time. They are trying to outlaw marriage in Brazil. No person should own another person. The Brazil of the future, people will incorporate if they want to mix funds and it doesn't matter what gender those incorporating are.
8. Diversify, diversify, diversify. That age-old axiom is so true it isn't funny. I have an old friend — a former senior executive like me — whose investment strategy has always been to put his money in as many different places as possible. It takes time and effort but the payoff is huge. Never put all your eggs in one basket, is still true. Save some money, invest it wisely and diversify.
Of course, you can always call yourself a social media entrepreneur or a self-branded CEO of one and generate all sorts of free online content while the folks at Google and Facebook get rich. The truth is, nobody ever got anywhere by doing what everyone else is doing. You may as well just buy lottery tickets and pray for a miracle.
The point isn't really "money" anyway, its having control over your own time and freedom to do the things you love most (that doesn't mean crime by the way, crime is crime, don't twist this).
Read more:
How to Get Publicity for Your Crowdfunding Campaign
12 Strategies for Promoting Your YouTube Videos
4 Ways to Maximize Your Loss Prevention Strategies
Stop Spending Time With Toxic People
Want to Make a Successful YouTube Video? Read This.
Replies
Really interesting article! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome advice. And all 100% true.....spoken from the mouths of the rich and famous. I often wonder if all that hard work, money and luxurious lifestyle has truly satisfied them within....ya know what I mean? Money isn\'t everything. A lot of these people suffer from severe depression. Somewhere in that equation should be the reference to being able to share that wealth with someone you love. I think it makes the whole world a better place, when two people share the bounty together.
Everybody needs somebody!!
i think there should be a cap on it, some of the salaries are ridiculous. though the claim here is that most of the billionaires out there own their own businesses. they have surveys on who gives more? percentage wise, the president of uruguay gives out 90 percent of his salary to the people who need it.
peru and bolivia are now GIVING poor people solar panels so they have FREE electricity. why don\'t we have stuff like this in usa?
This is excellent and so glad I read it!!!!
I wish the USA would give people the solar panels so we could get free electricity. Maybe our politicians are too greedy??? Whatever it is a wonderful idea.
Great post with great info!
they have solar panels in peru and bolivia, gabby, and the governments there give them out for free.