How desperate are you to become a billionaire? Chances are you won’t become one. But that doesn’t mean that there’s a barrier to you becoming a billionaire. A very big part of your financial success in life will depend upon the routes you take. It’s a statistical improbability to become one and the sad ugly truth is that the overwhelming majority of people never will. Especially if you aren’t already starting off with inherited wealth.
These are a few reasons why you will not become a billionaire and what you should be doing instead. These answers were first shared on Quora.
1) Justine Musk
You’re determined. So what? You haven’t been racing naked through shark-infested waters yet. Will you be just as determined when you wash up on some deserted island, disoriented and bloody and ragged and beaten and staring into the horizon with no sign of rescue?
We live in a culture that celebrates determination and hard work, but understand: these are the qualities that keep you in the game after most everybody else has left, or until somebody bigger and stronger picks you up and hurls you back out to sea. Determination and hard work are necessary, yes, but they are the minimum requirements. As in: the bare minimum.
A lot of people work extremely hard and through no fault of their own — bad luck, the wrong environment, unfortunate circumstances — struggle to survive.
How can you *leverage* your time and your work?
Shift your focus away from what you want (a billion dollars) and get deeply, intensely curious about what the world wants and needs. Ask yourself what you have the potential to offer that is so unique and compelling and helpful that no computer could replace you, no one could outsource you, no one could steal your product and make it better and then club you into oblivion (not literally). Then develop that potential. Choose one thing and become a master of it.
Choose a second thing and become a master of that. When you become a master of two worlds (say, engineering and business), you can bring them together in a way that will a) introduce hot ideas to each other, so they can have idea sex and make idea babies that no one has seen before and b) create a competitive advantage because you can move between worlds, speak both languages, connect the tribes, mash the elements to spark fresh creative insight until you wake up with the epiphany that changes your life.
The world doesn’t throw a billion dollars at a person because the person wants it or works so hard they feel they deserve it. (The world does not care what you want or deserve.) The world gives you money in exchange for something it perceives to be of equal or greater value: something that transforms an aspect of the culture, reworks a familiar story or introduces a new one, alters the way people think about the category and make use of it in daily life.
There is no roadmap, no blueprint for this; a lot of people will give you a lot of advice, and most of it will be bad, and a lot of it will be good and sound but you’ll have to figure out how it doesn’t apply to you because you’re coming from an unexpected angle. And you’ll be doing it alone, until you develop the charisma and credibility to attract the talent you need to come with you.
Have courage. (You will need it.)
And good luck. (You’ll need that too.)
2) Ryan Bennett, Creator of stuff.
Wealth is an ironic thing.
People who have made that amount of money (without inheriting it) tended to focus on creating massive value for the world, not accumulating great wealth.
Sure, luck is a factor, but there’s no reason to even concern yourself about luck when you cannot control it.
Stop focusing on the money. Start focusing on creating value. Then you have a shot.
3. Clarence Sherrick, Metaphysician, Artist, Psychic
There are not that many billionaires in the world. 1645 as of 2014. So out of 7+ billion people in the world consider the odds. However, if you do work hard and learn how those few billionaires became so, you might potentially get there. It never hurts to set goals. Even highly unlikely ones.
However, The pursuit of money to excess, may rob an individual of life. And the drive to obtain excessive money is nothing more than an obsessive compulsive behavior normally referred to as greed. If you want to spend your life acquiring money, do so. You may end up leaving it to someone who doesn’t appreciate it and certainly didn’t earn it.
