If you ask most people how to become a billionaire, they’ll give you the exact same answer: “Be born into the right family.” There are many people who will write you off if you aren’t born into the right family. But should it go this way? If this were true, would it be fair?
I want to be a billionaire. Who doesn’t? Billionaires have enough money to live pretty much any life they want, and the power to do a lot of good along the way. Plus, you get your own comic book series where superheroes battle it out with supervillains because of your efforts. It’s the American dream made real – except that actually reaching that level of wealth requires incredible talent as well as a little bit of luck.
Add value to the world
There are 151 billionaires in the UK as of 2019, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. Coming in 5th on the list, valued at £12.6 billion, is James Dyson, Inventor and Founder of Dyson Company. He was frustrated with vacuums that didn’t work, so he set about creating a better one.
Vacuums may not seem like a launching pad into billionaire status, but Adams reminds us that there are opportunities to grow enormous wealth in any industry, from cold-brewed coffee to energy drinks, so long as it is a new, quality product that people can’t get enough of.
Create a product of value, and you may become a billionaire overnight like Mark Zuckerberg, or become a billionaire in 10 years or more, depending on your invention, business strategy and marketing.
Create products that people love
Billionaire author JK Rowling started from nothing. Then her books brought magic to children around the world and she found herself richer than the queen.
Rowling embodied Adam’s first strategy for becoming a billionaire with no money: add an abundant amount of value to the world.
Invent new products, he says, rather than improving on the old. Create something people want, love and can’t easily substitute. Although you may not become a billionaire overnight, this strategy can work fast.
Provide a service in a high-growth industry
Adams says that most billionaires built their fortune by doing something more effectively than those before them.
Find a high-growth industry, Adams advises, any one at all, and “insert yourself into the industry by finding a unique way that you can provide the same service, but better, more efficiently and with greater reliability.”
That’s how Andrey Andreev, the Russian born and London-based entrepreneur and modern day cupid, made his mark on the world. He helped to build five successful online dating apps. His are hardly the first, but hundreds of millions of users feel he did it better. For example, Bumble empowers female users to make first contact with matches, and the Huggle app matches people based on locations they frequent. His reward? A fortune estimated at $1.5bn.
How many sources of income does a billionaire have
Forget about a regular salary and a singular source of income; millionaires and billionaires usually have several streams of income, including:
- Earned income – This is the income earned by doing something. It is usually a regular job where you are working for someone else. This is how most billionaires start out, but over time many of them do away with earned income and focus on other sources.
- Profit income – Profit income is where you sell something for more than what it originally cost you. Profit income comes from businesses large and small and requires a degree of entrepreneurship. Most billionaires will always maintain some form of profit income because when done correctly, it can earn you huge amounts.
- Interest income – Interest is the money earned on lending money, usually to the bank, and allows you to earn a passive income with basically zero effort from your end. Most billionaires will have multiple streams of interest income coming in each month.
- Dividend income – Dividend income is the money you make by being a shareholder in certain companies. It is also passive, and you’ll get a return on your shares and investments. Most billionaires are very business savvy and have expert financial advisors who can accurately advise them about which businesses to invest in.
- Rental income – Rental income comes from buying property and renting it out. While buying a property can require quite a large amount of money upfront, over time, you’ll be able to make your investment back and start profiting off your rentals. There are numerous billionaires involved in the property and rental market.
- Capital Gains – This is the money you receive for any assets you own that increase in value. Billionaires are likely to own many such assets.
- Royalty Income – Royalties are paid out for allowing someone to use your idea, design or product. A good example is JK Rowling earning royalties for every copy of her books being sold. As these books will continue to sell for years to come, she’s likely to enjoy a healthy royalty income.
The thing is that most of these income sources are only really worthwhile if you already have a significant amount of money, and in this way, it is often easier for the mega-rich to become even richer. Almost all of the income streams listed above are very difficult for the average person to get into.
What jobs do billionaires have
It’s virtually impossible to become a billionaire if you’re working a regular job, so what jobs do billionaires have exactly” Most billionaires are some sort of entrepreneur, with more than 42% of billionaires that got their first billion before the age of 40—doing so in the field of technology. The technological field is growing at an exponential rate, so there are a lot of opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs to make their fortunes. E-commerce is another industry in which we have seen many billionaires succeed.
Many billionaires have never been to college and instead embarked on pursuing their innovative business ideas from a young age.
Surprisingly, only around 20% of billionaires inherited their wealth. This means that the vast majority of billionaires made their money on their own two feet. While they may have had some help along the way, there are numerous billionaires that started out with very little and came from ‘normal’ backgrounds.
While most billionaires are entrepreneurs of sorts, almost all of them make passive income through investments and other passive streams of income, which brings us to our next question…
1. Investment banker
There’s plenty of confusion about what investment bankers actually do. Do they work in a bank? Do they invest? What exactly do they invest in, anyway? Essentially, an investment banker acts as the middleman between buyers and sellers of companies and is responsible for making these corporate deals happen. Their job, then, is to advise their clients on a sale, whether that be the acquisition of bonds, stocks, mergers or an equity or debt offering.
This is a top Wall Street career, but it can also be a highly demanding and stressful one, with investment bankers often clocking in 100 working hours a week. Their efforts, however, are rewarded with a highly lucrative sum, as this is one of the best careers that could potentially lead to a 7- or even 10-figure salary.
If you are thinking of tapping into investment banking then you could launch you career by familiarising yourself with the ins and out of the industry.
2. Author
Becoming a successful author is not a breezy walk in the park; it’s more like running a marathon on a scorching day without any shoes on. Indeed, from start to end, the process of writing a book and getting it published can be gruelling, even for the most talented wordsmiths out there. But when you do land yourself a book deal, there’s huge earning potential.
Quite frankly, the best of the best were never in it for the money. As talented storytellers, they wooed the world with their gripping narratives and made a fortune while they were at it. Take JK Rowling, for example: today known as the richest author in the world, Rowling’s manuscript of the very first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was finally published in 1997 and ultimately went on to shape an entire generation.
3. Athlete
As a top-ranking athlete, you not only get to enjoy the glory, fame and titles but also make a great deal of money. Indeed, thanks to endorsement deals, championship prize money and high salaries, the greatest athletes get to take home a lot more than just trophies and awards.
To join the likes of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Serena Williams, however, it takes undeniable talent and skill, while being dedicated to your chosen sport and enduring all its ups and downs could be determining factors for your success.
4. Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs are often the makers of their own fortune. In other words, you’ll rarely find a billionaire entrepreneur working for somebody else. Indeed, they paved their way to success by developing their own innovative products and services and taking the world by storm.
Take Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, two of the richest people in the world, as an example. These tycoons started off with a simple idea which they developed into a multibillion-dollar success.
Undoubtedly, working as an entrepreneur is one of the best careers that can make you a billionaire. From tech to media and retail to healthcare, 10-digit fortunes have been forged in numerous industries. So, in order to become a successful entrepreneur, you first need to find your niche before you can build your own empire.
5. Lawyer
Practising law is one of the best careers for incredibly high earning potential. However, while the median salary for lawyers can top $120,910 annually, this is a seemingly modest income compared to what the top dogs make. Of course, different areas in law can yield higher profits, and the most lucrative law careers that can make you a billionaire include corporate, criminal, patent, tax, real estate and intellectual property law.
When it comes to earning big as a lawyer, a steady success rate in courts and a list of big clients are two of the most important factors. In Wichai Thongtang’s case, for example, representing the former prime minister of Thailand, Thanksin Shinawatra, as well as having numerous top executives and corporations on his billing list account for a major chunk of his $1.9 billion fortune.
Conclusion:
It’s incredible how many self-made billionaires there are in the UK. See if you can guess who’s going to be on top! From footballers, to lawyers to cricketers, we’re going to go over a few of the wealthiest people in the UK today. The first step to becoming a billionaire is to become rich. There are many ways to make money, but becoming a billionaire isn’t likely to happen overnight. Still, there are ways you can begin working toward your billionaire aspiration today.