What can we learn from wealthy people?

The truth is, everyone craves to be wealthy. We secretly wish we could be like the wealthy. We look at them with a combination of admiration, envy and wonder. What exactly did they do to be so blessed? 

Yes, the super-wealthy rule the world. They live in the biggest mansions and own the choicest properties. They ride the most luxurious cars and marry the most beautiful women. When they speak, their words are carried by news media around the globe. 

The super-wealthy are abound in commerce, politics, entertainment, sports, IT, finance, oil and gas, to mention a few. In short, they abound in every sphere of human endeavour. 

The following names, not in any particular order, readily come to mind when we talk about the super-wealthy: Bernard Arnault, Bill Gates, Jack Ma, Elon Musk, Jay Z, Beyonce, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey and Jeff Bezos. 

Among the super-wealthy you can count Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, non-believers, Blacks, Whites, Browns, mixed races, men, women, and people from all continents. 

What exactly then separates the super-wealthy from the poor? If not some undue advantage in opportunities, skin color, religion, intellect, industry, talent, place and time of birth, what?

Here they are: 

Focus their Attention

The wealthy pay undivided attention to nurturing and multiplying their wealth. For instance, Bill Gates attributes his wealth not so much to what he makes as Microsoft's co-founder, but to the excellent work of his portfolio manager, Michael Larson. On the other hand non wealthy spend their money on trying to look rich. In short, the poor tries to copy the "Millionaire Next Door." To be wealthy, be wealth conscious and focus attention to not just making money but how to grow it and make your money work harder for you. 

Productive with their Time 

Time is the most precious and scarcest resource. As economists say, its supply is inelastic. You can't store or delay it, you can't stop it, and you can't increase it. Effective use of time requires a mindset that is productive. The super-wealthy use time well. While time is an abstract, how you use it is a mindset. Regardless of wealth, we all have the same amount of this most invaluable resource? From birth until death we have equal amount of time daily: 24 hours. You will be wealthy to the extent to which you judiciously use this limited resource. 

Focus On One Thing

To be wealthy, develop FOCUS. Focus on one thing at a time. While the wealthy focus on one thing at a time. Whenever the wealthy pursues an end, he burns his boat and never looks back. Take for an example, Jeff Bezos. He focused on ECommerce, Bill Gate on computer coding, and Jay Z on entertainment.

Think Big 

If you look closely, all the wealthy think big. Jeff Bezos is not just building an E-Commerce company, but the most customer centric company on the planet. Bill Gates did not just go out to build Microsoft, but the biggest software company in the world. Not to be outdone, Mark Zuckerberg's empire now includes Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger. Thinking big is about being methodical, seeing the bigger picture of "what could be." It's about having an uncanny vision of the future and setting your sail accordingly in the direction of that vision without being distracted by other "opportunities" along the way. It's about saying "No" to a thousand things so that you can say "Yes" to the "one thing" that matters to you. So thinking BIG is one of the hallmarks of the wealthy. Really, why think small if you can think BIG by focusing on one grandiose end at a time? 

Proximity 

Don King, the boxing promoter, once told Dennis P. Kimbro, the co-author of Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice, his plan for becoming a billionaire was "by hanging around billionaires, learning all they know." So hatch a plan and find a way to rub shoulders with the wealthy. By so doing, you'll be sucked into the world of the wealthy. This will reprogram your mind. Hanging around the wealthy is not just about networking, but it's about getting close enough to be mentored by the wealthy. What can you do to enter the radar of the wealthy? Write a book, start a podcast or a YouTube Channel to mention three. You can't be wealthy unless you reprogram your mind to think like the wealthy. The easiest way to do that is to enter into the world of the wealthy through the back door - through what you do. 

Work Hard and Smart 

Most of the time, the things associated with the wealthy are Gulf Stream Jets, Super Yachts, Golf Courses, Ocean Blue Islands, Hot Air Balloons and mansions designed in heaven. These are what you see at the front end. But peel the curtain a little and what you'll see at the back end is hard work. Many believe hard work does not matter in today's digital world where you can "set everything up to work on autopilot." Beware; nothing could be further from the truth. Do you know that Jeff Bezos used to kneel to sort parcels when Amazon first started in 1995? Till date he exhorts his people "It's Always Day One", meaning maintaining the spirit of entrepreneurship of a start up. If you're not willing to work hard, then perish the thought of getting wealthy. In his Good to Great, author Jim Collins wrote about the concept of the "flywheel." That's what hard work is all about. No wealth is ever created by standing with hands akimbo. 

Keeps Learning and Growing

Learning in this context is not about amassing many PhDs and MBAs in assorted disciplines. Learning is not about endless webinars. It's about getting personal coaches to make you better and performing at your peak in all dimensions of life. It may interest you to know some super-wealthy started out with no to little money but through a dint of hard work, learnt to overcome the bad hand that fate dealt them at birth. One well documented example is John H. Johnson of Ebony Magazine fame who in his day rose to become the 400th richest American. 

In his book, Succeeding Against the Odds, he stated that his family was not only poor, but they were the "poorest of the poor." John H. Johnson learnt to speak despite being born with a stammer; he learnt to believe in himself despite being born into extreme poverty, he learnt to sell and ended up buying the insurance company that employed him. 

So don't blame your start in life, just keep learning and wealth will be within your grasp. 

Source: Paul Uduck