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In my five-year Rich Habits study I posed 144 questions to two groups of people: 233 who were millionaires — including 177 who were self-made — and 128 poor people.
I made three profound discoveries:
- There were certain Rich Habits that created Wealth
- There were certain Poor Habits that created Poverty and
- There were 4 Paths to Building Wealth: #1 Saver-Investor Path, #2 Big Company climber Path #3 Virtuoso Path and #4 Dreamer-Entrepreneur Path
How long did it take the self-made millionaires in my study to become wealthy?
Saver-Investor Millionaires – 32 Years
Big Company Climber Millionaires – 20 Years
Virtuoso Millionaires – 21 Years
Dreamer-Entrepreneur Millionaires – 12 Years
So, if you want to fast-track becoming wealthy, the Dreamer-Entrepreneur Path is the way to go.
The problem is that not everyone has the Personality to be a Dreamer-Entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs share the following Personality Traits:
- High Risk Tolerance – Entrepreneurs are willing to take risks most would run away from. They develop this fearlessness by taking calculated risks, which are well thought-out risks. They also develop this risk fearlessness due to successfully surviving previous risks they have taken, which gives them valuable knowledge and insight as to what works and what doesn’t work.
- Highly Competitive – Entrepreneurs thrive in competitive environments. They have a winner-takes-all mindset.
- High Stress Tolerance – Entrepreneurs have an either innate or highly developed ability to shoulder great stress. Most Entrepreneurs do not start out with an abundance of working capital. Whatever working capital they do have must be stretched over at least three years, which is the average number of years it takes a successful business to start making profit. Some take longer. During this startup period, the Entrepreneur will almost certainly struggle with cash flow issues. Making payroll is a particularly common stressful experience of new Entrepreneurs. So, being able to handle financial stress is critical to becoming a successful Entrepreneur.
- Strong Work Ethic – Entrepreneurs are willing to work oppressive work hours in an effort to succeed in realizing their dreams. They are willing to travel often on company business, which takes them away from family and friends. They prioritize work over family and friends. Work comes first for Entrepreneurs.
- Good Multi-Taskers – They have an either innate or highly developed ability to juggle many things at one time. They are very good at switching from one task to another, almost seamlessly.
- Creative – Entrepreneurs are highly creative. This creativity allows them to solve numerous problems and overcome many obstacles, even while under significant stress.
So, before you decide to dive into the world of Entrepreneurship, make sure you have the right personality for it. If you don’t, you’ll eventually quit and lose all of the time and money you invested.
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner and author of “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life”, Effort-Less Wealth, Change Your Habits Change Your Life, Rich Habits Poor Habits and “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.”
