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A Recipe for Riches (Traits that billionaires share)

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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:07 PM
Original message
A Recipe for Riches (Traits that billionaires share)
Edited on Sun Oct-11-09 01:32 PM by WriteDown
Want to become a tech titan or hedge fund tycoon? Up your chances by dropping out of college or going to Harvard and working at Goldman Sachs.

Are billionaires born or made? What are the common attributes among the uber-wealthy? Are there any true secrets of the self-made?

We get these questions a lot, and decided it was time to go beyond the broad answers of smarts, ambition and luck by sorting through our database of wealthy individuals in search of bona fide trends. We analyzed everything from entrepreneurs' parents' professions to where they went to school, their track records in the early stages of their careers and other experiences that may have set them on the path to extreme wealth.

Our admittedly unscientific study of the self-made members of the Forbes 400 yielded some interesting results.

First, a significant percentage of them had parents with a high aptitude for math. The ability to crunch numbers is crucial to becoming a billionaire, and mathematical prowess is hereditary. Some of the most common professions among the parents of Forbes 400 members (for whom we could find the information) were engineer, accountant and small-business owner.

Consistent with the rest of the population, more American billionaires and near-billionaires were born in the fall than in any other season. However, relatively few of them were born in December, historically the month with the eighth-highest birth rate....

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/107927/a-recipe-for-riches.html?mod=career-leadership

Very interesting.
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valerief Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:08 PM
Response to Original message
1. I wonder how many come from poor families. Zip, maybe?
Oh, BTW, the most common trait is that THEY HAVE A BILLION DOLLARS AND DIDN'T CARE HOW THEY GOT IT.
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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:17 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Did you read the story?
A whole section is devoted to self-made billionaires.

Here's an interesting run-down on what usually constitutes a millionaire.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/stanley-millionaire.html
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HughBeaumont Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:23 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. There's no such thing as a "Self Made Billionaire".
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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:32 PM
Response to Reply #4
8. Given those criteria....
There is not a self-made anything. Figures the one who wrote that is from NC State.
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tosh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:28 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. "Did you read the story?"
Well, I'd like to but you forgot the linky.
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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. Doh!
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MindPilot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:32 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. No, I didn't because there isn't a link.
Edited on Sun Oct-11-09 01:34 PM by MindPilot
But without reading the story I suspect a lot of it has to do with risk tolerance. I was in a chat on LinkedIn between a couple of former executives from where I used to work. These are guys who probably make in the high six to low seven figures, and one of them was talking about his idea for a new business start-up. The conversation immediately turned to how exhilarating and what an unable-to-duplicate-in-any-other-way rush it is to launch a business.

Never could I imagine feeling that way about a business. In fact when my (now ex) wife and I were running a business, mostly all I ever felt was cold rigid fear that we wouldn't make the mortgage payment, that one of us would be too sick to work for too long, or the IRS would hang us for some innocuous little screw-up.
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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:34 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. Thati s a HUGE part of it...
Of the friends I've had who have done EXTREMELY well, generally their risk tolerance was ridiculous. Zero fear of losing it all.
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valerief Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 03:47 PM
Response to Reply #2
16. Uh, yeah, I read it. MBA, dropout, Skull and Bones, Goldman Sachs, yadda yadda yadda. nt
Edited on Sun Oct-11-09 03:47 PM by valerief
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mainer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 03:53 PM
Response to Reply #2
19. Interesting. 80% are first-generation millionaires.
It coincides with what I've noticed among the millionaires I know. The richest one started off dirt-poor, married his housekeeper, and is now worth in the tens of millions. Yet you sure wouldn't know it looking at them.
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:37 PM
Response to Reply #1
11. Jobs is probably the closest to coming from "modest" means. The overwhelming
majority came from established money. I would also point out that Forbes doesn't define "self made". Same old scam, with the same agenda.


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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:39 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. Link?
To those statistics?
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 03:23 PM
Response to Reply #12
14. Start here.
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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 10:48 PM
Response to Reply #14
22. That doesn't support your argument. nt
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-12-09 04:49 AM
Response to Reply #22
25. It does if you bother to read and do a little research. I know that's asking a lot
and it assumes that you really want to know, but from your replies it seems you aren't interested in knowing.


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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-12-09 08:49 AM
Response to Reply #25
27. I did...
Please feel free to point out to what you are referring.
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-12-09 08:28 PM
Response to Reply #27
28. If you had, you wouldn't be asking this.
Sorry, but through trying teach the willfully ignorant and the hopelessly stupid.

Good luck, I'm sure you will one day be a master of destiny.


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DJ13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:21 PM
Response to Original message
3. Did it mention a lack of morals?
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CrispyQ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:33 PM
Response to Reply #3
9. I'm reading "Threshold" by Thom Hartmann
& he dicsusses that. He thinks there is a good amount of sociopathic tendencies in the very highly paid CEOs - an ability to make decisions that will adversely affect millions of people, without feeling any moral conflict.
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DJ13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 01:46 PM
Response to Reply #9
13. Sounds like a good read, I'll have to check it out
Thanks!
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valerief Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 03:49 PM
Response to Reply #3
17. I said they didn't care how they made their billion and was asked by the op if I read the article.
How come you didn't get asked "the stupid question" too?
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KittyWampus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 03:53 PM
Response to Reply #3
18. Are Ben & Jerry immoral? The woman who created Burt's Bees?
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mainer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 03:58 PM
Response to Reply #18
20. Or every successful actor, musician, or writer ...
not to mention some of my engineering genius pals who invented gizmos that everyone wants.

Of course they're not immoral. They just have the right combination of brains, talent, timing, and luck.
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 04:01 PM
Response to Reply #18
21. None of them are even close to being rich enough to make the list,
let alone being rich enough to qualify but stay off the list.


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Hannah Bell Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 03:32 PM
Response to Original message
15. um, let's see: go to harvard but drop out, be born in september, be good at math.
Edited on Sun Oct-11-09 03:33 PM by Hannah Bell
wow, news you can use!!

what a bunch of stupid crap.

what the forbes 400 have in common = money & connections.
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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-11-09 10:49 PM
Response to Reply #15
23. I imagine....
very few spend time posting on web forums like you and me as well. :)
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Hannah Bell Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-12-09 12:54 AM
Response to Reply #23
24. the "tips" are bullshit pap for idiots.
Edited on Mon Oct-12-09 01:11 AM by Hannah Bell
sure, those computer billionaires *never* spent time farting around with computers, that's the difference between them & you. you just keep believing it.
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WriteDown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-12-09 08:48 AM
Response to Reply #24
26. They are not tips...
Its just pointing out qualities that they share. I would not treat it as an instruction manual.
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