THERE’S a story of an Italian billionaire who was asked if he had to start over from scratch what he’d do. He replied that he’d take any job to make $500, buy a nice suit, then go to parties where he’d meet successful people, the implication being that he would meet someone who’d offer him a job, share an opportunity, etc.
Learn relentlessly. Read books and books on success, people skills and anything that might have some inkling of a strand of wisdom about success and wealth. Especially read the biographies of successful people.
Become a people person. This is a learnable skill or set of skills. No one is born a great salesperson. There may be people, such as athletes, who are born with abilities. Some people are naturally outgoing. But the best learn, read, study and practise. Relentlessly. A lot of times, those with the best given talent don’t end up being the top in the field because, at the start, it came easy to them. The ones that do have to work at it, work relentlessly and don’t ever get complacent. And then one morning, they wake up and the effortlessness at sales or marketing or leadership that they never thought they would achieve, they now embody.
Work hard. As an employer, one of the things that stands out the most with employees is a good work ethic. It’s worth its weight in gold. Drop your expectations and ego, and put your nose to the grind and good things will happen
Take risks. Not dumb, fickle risks and not gambles. But smart, calculated risks where you have a good chance at succeeding. You won’t always succeed, but you will learn a huge amount in the process and you will garner an enormous amount of respect from people in doing so.
THE NITTY GRITTY
Get a job in a high-growth industry. This is where the quick money and the opportunities are. There’s a saying how everything rises with the tide. When you’re in a fast-growth industry (or company), the tide is rising.
Work for the best and most recognisable company you can work for. This gives you instant credibility. Starting as an intern at a recognisable company will get you opportunities right away.
Become an expert. Pick an area within your industry and learn it inside and out. Start writing
answers on the topic in Quora, start a blog on the topic, network with other experts. You’ll find pretty quickly that this type of knowledge and expertise will lead to a huge array of options.
Create multiple income streams. Start writing, consulting, tutoring, fixing things, just get busy with a second source of revenue. This will get you hungry for more and you’ll double your learning. You’ll see that a job, tutoring on the side, can lead to starting your own tutoring company on the side. Your marketing consulting job can lead to writing Amazon books on marketing.
Be too busy to spend money. Feel like you spend too much money? Feel like you don’t save enough or at all? Get busy working on everything, your job, learning, networking, consulting, projects, side jobs, overtime at work and you’ll find out you won’t spend a fraction of the amount of money than before.
Finally, start a company. Name a billionaire who didn’t start a company. Yes, there are a few. But they ended up running the company they joined (Sheryl Sandberg, Steve Ballmer, Eric Schmidt). Starting a company may seem completely out of reach and unfathomable, but when you’ve done all the preceding steps, it will be the most logical next one. Successful companies don’t start out with 50 employees and a $10 million in revenue, they start out small, tiny and scrappy. They start out in their dorm rooms or their parents’ garages or spare bedrooms. The founders beg, borrow and steal to get what they need. Michael Dell started his company by hacking together computers in his dorm room and selling them. Walmart started as a single variety store in Newport, Arkansas. Ever hear of Newport, Arkansas? Yeah, me neither. Richard Branson started out selling records by mail, one at a time. Don’t look at the most successful people and companies and see where they ended up or you’ll be overwhelmed. Look where they started and you’ll see how it’s achievable.
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