The world’s most famous billionaires share how they became successful. In How Can I Become a Billionaire? you’ll learn from the shocking, inspirational and straight to the point opinions of Richard Branson, Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Ma and many more. Learn their secrets straight from the mouths of the super wealthy in an easy to read conversational tone.
Can you name the world’s wealthiest people? Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a billionaire? Who are the most influential entrepreneurs in the world? Frederick has distilled his years of research on billionaires into the teachings of this book.
What Is a Billionaire?
Simply stated, a billionaire is a person who has a net worth of $1 billion or more. In other words, if you can sell all of your assets for cash, pay off your debts, and have $1 billion remaining in the bank afterward, you are a billionaire. Having $1 billion in assets with debts of $900 million doesn’t make you a billionaire, although you and your family are unlikely to worry about future college expenses or retirement.
Start With a Dream
“I intend to be, the richest man in the world.” – Howard Hughes
“It does not take money to make money.” – Robert Kiyosaki
Becoming a billionaire begins with a dream. One of the free gifts given to us by our creator is the gift of imagination. It costs nothing to dream. Yet, most people don’t dare to dream and those who do, dream small.
“People who dream small dreams continue to live as small people.” – Rich Dad
“Aim for the highest.” – Andrew Carnegie
On several occasions, I have shared my dream to create wealth and be a billionaire with friends and all I got were fingers pointing at me saying; “you must be a joker.” Do statements like that deter me? My answer is no. I still continue to dream big and pursue that dream vigorously. If becoming a billionaire is your lifetime goal; then allow your mind to wander; dream big and shut your ears to critics.
“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.” – Warren Buffett
“You are nuts and you should be proud of it. Stick with what you believe in.” – Trip Hawkins
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day and find out that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.” – T. E. Lawrence
Increase your Business Skills
“Skills make you rich, not theories.” – Rich Dad
Increasing your business skills is essential to the entrepreneurial process. In fact, becoming a billionaire requires more than just business skills. It require financial intelligence, strong intra personal skills and investing skill. Making money is a skilled act; making money is all about utilizing your acquired entrepreneurial skills.
“The ability to sell is the number one skill in business. If you cannot sell, don’t bother thinking about becoming a business owner.” – Rich Dad
Develop the Billionaire’s Mindset or Thinking Pattern
“If I lose a billion dollars, I will have it back in less than five years.” – Henry Ford
The second step to becoming a billionaire is to develop the mindset of billionaires. Do you know that the thinking capacity of millionaires differ from that of billionaires? To become a billionaire, you must develop your mindset to accommodate that status. You must think big and you must also increase your capacity to handle the corresponding risk.
“You must take risks, both with your own money or with borrowed money. Risk taking is essential to business growth.” – J. Paul Getty
Becoming a billionaire means being willing to risk failure; you must also bear in mind that achieving any worthwhile goal in life requires sacrifice. You must see possibilities in the actualization of your dreams and ultimately, you must train your eyes to see opportunities disguised as problems; you must see opportunities others don’t see.
“Someone asked me, ‘how can I find a good business opportunity? I replied, ‘go and look for adversity.’ If you can handle adversity, you will find opportunity. Adversity and opportunity are two inseparable twins.” – Ajaero Tony Martins
“A good businessman must have nose for business the same way a journalist has nose for news. Once your eyes, ears, nose, heart and brain are trained on business, you sniff business opportunities everywhere. In places where people see a lot of obstacles, I see a lot of opportunities.” – Orji Uzor Kalu
“If you want to go broke; go it big. I will prefer to lose a billion dollars than to lose a million dollars.” – Ajaero Tony Martins
Develop a Fast Business idea
“There are fast ideas and slow ideas, just as there are fast trains and slow trains. When it comes to money, most people are on the slow train looking out the window watching the fast train pass them by. If you want to become rich quickly, your plan must include fast ideas.” – Rich Dad
From my personal point of view, this is where the work begins in the entrepreneurial process to becoming a billionaire. To achieve your dream of becoming a billionaire, you need a fast business idea; accompanied by a fast plan.
“All achievements, all earned riches have their beginning in an idea.” – Andrew Carnegie
Now what do I mean by a fast business idea and a fast plan? In previous articles, I stressed the point that the world is filled with brilliant ideas but the world lack seasoned entrepreneurs. This is why I emphasized you increase your business skills before ever starting a business; the world is filled with brilliant ideas.
Any idea can take you to the place of your dreams but if becoming a billionaire is your priority, then any idea is not enough. You need a fast business idea. A fast business idea is an idea that’s hot in demand; an idea that’s in line with the growing trend.
A fast idea solves a very critical problem and most times; fast ideas are usually the pioneer solution to people’s problems or needs; or let me rather say innovated/improved versions of other people’s idea. As an illustration to prove the importance of developing a fast idea, I will share with you the following stories.
Early 1900, there was a growing demand for oil throughout the world and entrepreneurs such as John D. Rockefeller and J. Paul Getty took advantage of this growing demand; and they became billionaires. When the demand for affordable means of transportation came up, Henry Ford took advantage of it and became a billionaire; so also did Cornelius Vanderbilt.
“I have no complex about wealth. I have worked very hard for my money; producing things people need.” – J. Paul Getty
Aliko Dangote saw a growing demand for commodities in Nigeria and he positioned himself as a fast solution provider; today, he is not only a billionaire but also the richest black man in the world. Computers came as a trend and Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Ted Waitt and Michael Dell developed fast ideas to take advantage of this trend; and they ended up becoming billionaires.
“I’m the NO 1 developer in New York. I’m the biggest in Atlantic City, and maybe we will keep it that way.” – Donald Trump
The internet came as a trend and Larry Page, Jerry Yang, Steve Case, Jeff Bezos and Pierre Omidyar developed fast ideas to take advantage of the trend and they became billionaires. Mark Zuckerberg saw a there was a growing need among people to reconnect with their high school mates or lost friends. He stepped in with a solution (Facebook) and became a billionaire.
So if you want to join this list of billionaires; you need to develop a fast business idea. I don’t know, but a great way to start is to ask yourself the question; “What is the next coming trend? Will it be biotechnology, alternative power, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence or something else? Only time will tell.
Start a Business
“To build wealth today, you must be in your own business.” – J. Paul Getty
What has starting a business got to do with becoming a billionaire? My answer is everything. Take a look at the successful entrepreneurs who are billionaires; take a look at the school drop out billionaires of this world like Larry Ellison or Bill Gates and you will observe a pattern. They all built mega businesses and those mega businesses made them rich. To make you understand the point I am trying to buttress, take a look at the list below.
How Billionaires Made their Money
- 1900 – Andrew Carnegie made his money from steel in the united states – 5 million
- 1910 – John D. Rockefeller became a billionaire in oil – $1.4 billion
- 1920 – Henry Ford became a billionaire in the auto industry – $1 billion
- 1940 – Howard Hughes became a billionaire with military aircrafts, contract, tools and movies – $1.5billion
- 1957 – J. Paul Getty became a billionaire in oil – $1 billion
- 1962 – Henry Ross Perot became a billionaire with EDS – $3.8 billion
- 1970 – Sam Walton took Wal-Mart public and became a billionaire – $22 billion
- 1980 – Ron Perelman made fortune as a Wall Street deal maker – $3.8 billion
- 1990 – Jerry Yang founded Yahoo! – $3.7 billion
- 2008 – Aliko Dangote became the richest black man in the world as a manufacturer – $3.3 billion
- 2010 – Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire with FaceBook.com – $6 billion
Conclusion
Wealth is a blessing and gives us the ability to help the world become a better place. I am sure you want to know how can you become a Billionaire? The answer is simple, Stay motivated and inspire others. Motivation like anything else is a process that starts with knowledge then ends with taking action on that knowledge.