Post Recession Millionaires: Be All You Can in 2011

Just what is it that makes successful people wealthy, financially independent and what is it that makes them millionaires?  All the research indicates that Peter Drucker, management thinker, writer and Guru, is right,.  Choose an occupation which you would willingly pursue which immerses you totally and gives you 100% satisfaction – then become the best at it!  It has to be something that you would willingly engage in and never be paid.  It has to be a real focused passion.  

Decide what it is that you really enjoy doing and then throw yourself, your energy and your time into doing it 100%. There is a direct relationship between excellent performance and the kind of high income that leads to financial independence.

Second, ask yourself honestly on an ongoing basis. Is what you are doing right now going to lead you to financial independence, or do you have to begin making some serious changes in your work and in your life? Whatever your answer, commit to it immediately.

How you think about money will determine how much of it you accumulate more than any other factor. Your attitude toward money affects your emotions and your motivations.  Too many people feel guilty about wealth or have ‘learned’ behaviour installed by parents and other authority figures suggesting that acquisition of wealth is wrong and unethical.

What is wrong is not taking care of yourself, your family and helping others acquire wealth.  Many years ago in the 1930’s Napoleon Hill was commissioned by Dale Carnegie to interview as many millionaires as possible to assess whether others could learn their traits.  That research is still ongoing in other formats and is available to you should you attend our upcoming programme on ‘Be All you can be, in 2011+’.  But what does it take to acquire that millionaire status and what does the research tell us?

Five key Ways to Become a Millionaire

1. Top of the list is self-owned businesses

People who grow their business and own it are in a much better position to achieve this status.  Approximately 74% of millionaires have grown their own business in a variety of areas.  Just love what you do, demonstrate clarity of purpose and pay the price of building your business.

Most wealthy people started businesses and built them from the ground up. In the 20th century, especially in the last few years, businesses and fortunes alike have been built by people like Alan Sugar, Tom Farmer, Richard Branson and many others. Each of these people started with nothing and succeeded in building a business from scratch.

2. Senior Executives

The second major source of self-made millionaires is acquiring senior executive status whether in engineering, banking, insurance or hotels. 

10% of the self-made millionaires are men and women who have joined large organisations and worked with those businesses for many years. They rose to positions of seniority, were paid extremely well, given bonuses and profit sharing  and through shrewd investment they became self made millionaires.

3. Professional Expertise

The third source of self-made millionaires is  through acquiring niche professional status and expertise.  These 10% of self made millionaires includes doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Men and women who become expert and  very good at what they do rise to the top of their professions.  Through their expertise they are eventually paid, very, very well. The top five percent in every business context or market  can earn 10 and 20 times as much as the average person in that field. In the USA this is even more pronouced.

4. Sales & Business Development Profession

The fourth major route for acquiring wealth are those in the sales profession.  Here are the sales people who sell ‘big ticket’ items, are key account managers for major brands and commit 100% to delivering customer excellence. 5% of self-made millionaires are people who are the top sales people in their fields.

They may not be as well eduacted formally as the group above. They may never have started their own businesses but they do acracking job for business owners and make their mark on business development. They may never have been through tertiary education. They just became very good sales people for their products or services.  This assumes that they invested their rewards wisely and let it grow.

These four reasons account for 99% of self-made millionaires come from these four categories: entrepreneurship - 74%; senior executive or management positions in established companies - 10%: professionals such as dentists, accountants, doctors, lawyers and other professionals - 10%; and sales and business development people - 5%.

The Remaining 1%

The remaining one percent of self-made millionaires comprises the people who have made their money by inventions, in entertainment, in sports, through authorship of books and music, lottery winners and through inheritance and property. These people make up only one percent of the total.

Whether you or I ever achieve this status is dependent on how clear your are on what you want to achieve, the love of pursuing that activity 100% and being honest with how you spend your time.  You may want to think of attending our self development sessions on ‘Be All You Can Be in 2011+.  For further details email Philip@philipatkinson.com