how do the wealthy become wealthy? what sets them apart from the other 99% of people?

Gavin83

Let's be honest, the super rich (multi millionaires) fit into one of 4 categories:

1) Those who inherit from rich family.
2) People who are successful in business.
3) People who win it, via the lottery for example.
4) People with a marketable skill, like musicians, sports people, actors, etc.

Two of those above require extremely hard work, all four require shed loads of luck.

You can certainly be extremely well off just by doing a regular job with salaries hitting up to a million. To be worth huge sums I doubt you'd do so without fitting in the above categories though.

Marktheshark

Empathy or rather the lack of it.
From my observations, you have to be ruthless enough to befriend people, pick brains, use them for every ounce of worth they have to you and then turn your back when they need you in return.
Always looking for the next mug or idiot with a skill or talent you can utilise like a battery to power your life for you.
Better still have the next mug lined up.
Every decision must be void of empathy and solely taken on what benefits you.

Thats why the Rich, make kids shoot animals, gets all that sympathy and empathy stuff out of the way early doors.

DKLS

Cubanista wrote: »

hi,

i have always been fascinated by how that 1% become wealthy, super rich, mega rich, whatever you want to call it. you never really hear of people of everyday professions becoming super wealthy such as nurses, physios, teachers, tradesmen, or even doctors, lawyers, surgeons etc.

i am sure the later professions can provide a great income, but it's unlikely that they ever become millionaires.

I can tell you how 3 people I know who were in professions you mentioned who have become millionaires.

1. Mate at school, thick as the proverbial , quit school with no GCSEs to train as a plasterer, bought, sold and built houses and is now minted.

2. Clinical coder had a good idea, built algorithm, got a number of pharma companies very excited, she coded the software and now earns between 10-15 million a year in royalties.

3. Nurse,who had a passion for training and after an incident with a Psych patient, decided to set her own training and consultancy business up. Which has recently been subject to a buy out.

Whats made these three different from other plasterers, coders and nurses. In the case of the coder she is a genius and it was only a matter of time, the nurse was passionate about improving healthcare outcomes via training and was willing to take risks, invested in innovation, and made some very clever deals despite not having any business training.
The plasterer, well simply he was a grafter and bought well and had the talent to add value to a house, initially he just wanted a big house and a motorbike now he has a number of big houses and at the last count 25 motorbikes. Still a bit thick mind

getmore4less

We all have a 40year work span.(20-60)

Take a couple earning £25k each over 30 years, the first 10 were spenders.

£3348pm take home, £1k mortgage@4%, £1k savings @3% £1k living and £348 squander.

in 30 years

£580k savings
£200k+ house mortgage free

Would not take much to get the rest and this is without trying to be a bit smarter just doing your job and being carefull about spending.

The never sell a house will get many into the millionare bracket if they buy with the view to letting when they move on, many buy places they like rather than places that rent well.

The big killer for the potential millionaire is kids.

IMO a million should be easy, it is the next one that determines the rich from the rest,

the rest give up at the first million.

SandC

All of what the above have said with regards to being in the right place at the right time, potential assistance from relatives maybe, hard graft.

The ones I have known personally who are now hugely wealthy have sacrificed other areas of their lives.

I was PA to someone and only worked for them for 4 years but in that time she worked 7 days per week, in the office from about 9.30am (gym before work) until at least 8pm (the business was a 24/7 concern, weekends and bank hols being the busiest times). She took no holidays in those 4 years I was there, she had Xmas day off and I recall 2 Xmas eves off. The only other day off she had was a spa day someone had bought her and she said she hated it and was thinking about work the entire time.

Someone else I know, dunno if they are millionaire level yet but the same kind of mindset, put personal life aside and work, plough every penny earned back into the business.

InsideInsurance

Cubanista wrote: »

i have always been fascinated by how that 1% become wealthy, super rich, mega rich, whatever you want to call it. you never really hear of people of everyday professions becoming super wealthy such as nurses, physios, teachers, tradesmen, or even doctors, lawyers, surgeons etc.

All of those can become super wealthy but generally do so by adding a business to their skill set. So a plumber who sets up his own company and grows it or creates a new tool/solution and develops it into a product.

Some will have financial support from others but there are plenty of "rags to riches" type stories. A lot of people, in my experience, have just worked damned hard, taken some risks and dont let a difficult problem put them off.

I've also known several people who claim to have "nearly made it", often having produced some software but they decided to go with the safety of employed life rather than gamble on trying to take their software to market.

Pinkypants

DKLS wrote: »

I can tell you how 3 people I know who were in professions you mentioned who have become millionaires.

1. Mate at school, thick as the proverbial , quit school with no GCSEs to train as a plasterer, bought, sold and built houses and is now minted.

I have a similar friend from working at Center Parcs as a lifeguard. Ok he started 2 years before me, but he was so dense he didn't even know the pH of water was around 7!

He pushed and bullied he's way to the top and last I heard he was Operations Director of a massive swimming pool complex in Dubai with a massive salary to boot.

mustang121

Dishonesty and lack of morals.


Apple users suppliers in China practically uses slave labour and they source the raw materials of their products from unfit mines. (Steve Jobs was reported to be a ruthless, uncharitable, obnoxious sorry excuse of a human being).


Amazon / Sports Direct / Next / Maplin electronics have no morals that treat employees like a number.


Practically every German manufacturer that existed in the 1940's has a dark-side (Whether they cooperated willingly or were forced is another question)


I'm struggling to think of a person / company that earned there billions by being completely moral and ethical.