STAY SHARP – BILLIONAIRE HABITS
Ok, so I’m no Billionaire (just yet), but I do believe with the right mind set and attitude you can reach the top, you only live once, so why not try and achieve as much as you possibly can. Richard Branson (Virgin), Mark Zukerburg (Facebook), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), and Oprah Winfrey are just some of the fortunate few to achieve billionaire status, something which most of us can only dream of achieving in our life time. I’m truly fascinated with how they were able to achieve such great success and have broken down some key habits they all have in common.
Richard Branson, although not the greatest academic in his school days due to his dyslexia, had a passion for practical tasks and motivating people to get things done. When you do something with passion, a job or task, it doesn’t feel like work, naturally the drive kicks in when you feel you can achieve greater results by pushing yourself and working at full capacity.
“Passion is what drives me forward. Passion is what makes me go to bed at 2am and wake up at 6am.” Aliko Dangote
If you think small, you’ll remain small. Billionanires think BIG! When Mark Zukerburg kicked off Facebook, his vision was to connect people across Universities/college campuses, but as popularity grew, he realized that he had created a network with huge potential to attract the mass market. Although, if your looking to setup a business, I would suggest starting small, research everything you can about your industry and focus on being the best in one specific area. Take the company Zappos for example, they only sold shoes when they started out and became top dog at selling shoes online, they then branched out into clothing and selling other things – that company later sold for $1,300,000,000!!! I believe Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, succeeded through his insane focus on creating a culture and outstanding customer service as oppose to solely focusing profits. I remember him saying in one video “Get the culture right, and everything will work out fine”, and it kinda did.
“I like thinking big. If your going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.” Donald Trump
If you want to be a billionaire, you have to work harder than anyone else, straight. Even if that means sacrificing your social life, holidays, relationships, sleeping in, basically all the things everyone else enjoys, you gotta sideline that stuff and prioritise. The difference between one persons success and another persons failure can rely on the ability to move faster, commit more personal energy and work longer hours than the other.
Hard work with a smart approach will always win over simply putting in the work for the sake of it. But this is something you learn over time, hopefully. When your young, I believe you should try different things, work in different environments, and jump into new experiences as much as possible. This will you open you up to find your strengths and passions, and allow you to put that work rate into something you believe in, instead a job which you soooooo don’t want to do!
“I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented, where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic. While the other guy is sleeping, I’m working. While the other guy is eating, I’m working.” Will Smith
Time is money. Billionaires know this. I suggest we should know too. When you give your time to something which you have no interest in, your killing time, in other words, your decreasing your potential value. Bill Gates understands the importance of diligent time management, as each minute or hour lost, can equate to thousands of pounds being washed away. With an average rate of $300 per second whilst working at Microsoft, im pretty sure Mr Gates wouldn’t be wasting his time looking aimlessly into the air and daydreaming about donuts and sneakers (I hold my hands up!). I find a time diary helps a great deal where you record your day hour per hour and note how your day was spent. This helps you assess where your time is wasted and where you need to focus on to achieve better results the following day.
“It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste time.” Henry Ford
When it comes to profit, Billionaires buy low and sell high. They invest greatly in marketing and promotional campaigns, as well as focusing on quality control in branding and product selection. No matter what you great product you sell, if the marketing or branding isn’t great, that product will stay on the shelf. The crazy rise of Apple is no joke, it is all based on diligent planning and focus on a quality product. In some cases the product is bad, but the marketing sells it, in others, the marketing is poor, but the product is great and sells it self…in Apple’s case, they tick all the boxes (so far), great product and clever marketing. When your company reaches Apple status, your able to produce more at a lower cost, thus, increasing profits nicely.
“Make every thought, every fact, that comes into your mind pay you a profit. Make it work and produce for you. Think of things not as they are but as they might be. Don’t merely dream – but create!” Robert Collier
Most people don’t take risks as they’re afraid to fail, but Billionaires know that if they don’t take risks, they’ve already failed. They know how to take calculated risks, which can involve a strong risk management strategy, ensuring their success rate. Without taking risks, you prevent growth.
“To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.” Bill Gates
In a nutshell, we look for ways to spend money, Billionaires look for ways to invest money. So next time you get that pocket money, paycheck, bonus or ‘hustle’ change, finds ways to ‘flip it’, to get greater returns without doing much work. Reading up on people such as Warren Buffett (big time Investor) and Robert Kiyosaki (Investor and author of ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’, highly recommended!) can educate you on the basics of how to make money work for you, something which they don’t teach in schools…however, schools do teach you to get really good grades so you can get a nice little ‘JOB’ (Just Over Broke), funny that…
“Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1” Warren Buffet
As mentioned in the Zappos example above, it’s all about focus, focus, focus on one area and establish yourself as an expert in that area. This is what Billionaires do. Bill Gates focused on software, Ralph Lauren focused on fashion, Walt Disney focused on entertainment, Henry Ford focused on automobiles, Ray Kroc (McDonalds) focused on fast foods, Lakshmi Mittal focused on steel…without insane focus, you simply wont cut it.
With social media and daily going ons in a fast, ever changing landscape, distractions are everywhere and focus can be the hardest thing to achieve. But I do believe the harder we are on ourselves to get disciplined, the easier it becomes to achieving your goals…I would recommend taking a ‘social networks’ break every so often and switch off them ‘Push Notifications’ on your iPhones…tweet tweet, sorry, will switch off!
“At the end of the day you have to keep emotions away.” Lakshmi Mittal
We all make mistakes, but billionaires don’ make the same mistakes twice. They learn from them, correct them and move forward as quickly as possible. They don’t phraff about worrying about them as most people do, they get on with being better the next time.
“Only those who are asleep make no mistakes.” Ingvar Kamprad
If you don’t believe, you don’t achieve, but Billionaires believe in themselves and their ability to achieve their set goals. Fate doesn’t play a part in their world, as it may do in many of our lives, they rely on taking charge of their destiny and not waiting for some miracle to put success in their lap.
“You become what you believe. You are where you are today in your life based on everything you have believed.” Oprah Winfrey
…i’ll see you at the top 🙂
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Tags: billionaire, status, habits, rich, wealth, business
