Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Have you ever thought about what you would do if you had a million dollars?  What would you do first?  Would you quit your job and go find work you really love?  How does someone become a millionaire today?  Dan Miller says, the best way to become successful with money is finding work you really love, and then start doing it 10% better than anyone else. 

If you are really serious about becoming wealthy, then you should know the top five sources of making lots of it.  Of all the self- made millionaires we have in America, most of them are not superstars in sports, Hollywood, or entertainers.  In fact, the best way to become a millionaire is to own a small business.  In America, 74% of self-made millionaires are small-business owners.  Surprising?

The great majority of wealthy people started businesses from work they love to do and built them from the ground up. In the 19th century, fortunes were built by people like Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Commodore Vanderbilt, and others. In the 20th century, especially in the last few years, businesses and fortunes alike have been built by people like Bill Gates, Ross Perot, and Sam Walton. Each of these people started with nothing and succeeded in building a business from scratch.  Stephen Covey, in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People says; “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

The second main source to becoming a millionaire is to move up the corporate ladder and rise to positions of seniority,  get paid extremely well, given stock options, profit sharing and bonuses, and as a result of holding onto the money, they became millionaires. This accounts for about 10% of the millionaires. 

The third source of self-made millionaires is lawyers, doctors, and other professionals.  Men and women who learn how to do their jobs better than most other people in their field and quickly rise to the top of their profession.  This also accounts for almost 10% of the self-made millionaires.

The fourth major source of self-made millionaires in America is salespeople and sales consultant, which accounts for 5 %.  These men and women are the top salespeople in their fields. Most salespeople never started their own business. They just became very good salespeople for their products or services and were paid very good money.  They follow Denis Waitley’s advice of, “Never rest on your achievements; always nurture your potential.”

If you are doing some quick math, this leaves us with the final one percent.  This group is made up of all the other areas, which usually gets all the headlines in the news; actors, sports players, entertainers, lottery winners, inventers, authors of books and song, and inheritances. 

My encouragement to you is to decide what it is that you really enjoy doing and then throw your whole heart into doing it extremely well. There is a direct relationship between excellent performance and the kind of high income that leads to financial independence.  Are you doing work you love and dong it 10% better than everyone else?  If so, enjoy the ride to success.