Common Personality Traits in Self Made Millionaires. Each person’s path to wealth may be unique, but there are certain commonalities among the world’s richest people.
After studying the lives of 177 self-made millionaires over the course of five years, author Thomas C. Corley found that they all shared six traits, which he reveals in his upcoming book, “Change Your Habits, Change Your Life.”
How many of these traits do you possess?
Passion
“Every wealthy entrepreneur in my study who realized incredible wealth also had passion,” Corley writes.
Passion trumps education, intelligence, skills, and “any other advantage those who lack passion might have in life,” he emphasizes.
“Passion makes work fun. Passion gives you the energy, persistence, and focus needed to overcome failures, mistakes, and rejection. It infuses you with a fanatical tenacity that makes it possible to overcome obstacles and pitfalls that block your path.”
Persistence
Self-made millionaires are persistent, particularly in the face of failure.
“Twenty-seven percent of the self-made millionaires in my study failed at least once in business,” Corley writes. “And then they picked themselves up and went on to try again.
“Persistence makes you unstoppable,” he continues. “Persistence allows you to learn what doesn’t work and continuously experiment until you find what does work. Persistence is the single greatest contributor to creating good luck. Those who persist, eventually get lucky.”
Focus
Focus is key — and it all starts with goal-setting. Not only do wealthy people set annual and monthly goals, but 67% of them put those goals in writing, Corley found.
“Success is a process,” he writes. “It starts by developing a script of the life you desire. This script becomes your blueprint for success. It helps you define your long-term goals. Without a blueprint, without long-term goals, we are like leaves on a fall day, floating in the air aimlessly.”
Rich people also maintain their focus by cutting back on TV and internet time, getting enough sleep, and avoiding procrastination, Corley found.
Work ethic
The wealthiest, most successful people put in more hours — and they have fun doing it.
Corley found that 86% of rich people work an average of 50 or more hours a week, and only 6% of the wealthy people surveyed found themselves unhappy because of work.
Most of them find extra hours before the sun rises. Nearly 50% of the self-made millionaires in Corley’s study woke up at least three hours before their workday actually began.
Desire to learn
While the rich don’t put much stock in furthering wealth through formal education, they appreciate the power of learning long after college is over.
The rich would rather be educated than entertained. As Corley writes, “Eighty-eight percent of the wealthy in my study, long before they struck it rich, formed the daily habit of engaging in 30 minutes or more of self-education reading. This single, simple daily habit alone helped them to increase their cognitive abilities, which contributed to their success much later in life.”
Patience
Rich people are not only persistent and patient in the face of adversity, but they’re patient with other people.
They understand the importance of soft skills, good etiquette, and building relationships with other ambitious individuals.
“You have to know how to act and how to do certain things when you’re around people,” Corley writes. At the end of the day, “No one realizes success without a team of other success-minded people.”
Nelson: Join my team let build wealth together as a team anything is possible!
