Secrets of Billionaires

Billionaires may have many secrets just as less wealthy people do, but when it comes to their money, it's no secret how most billionaires became rich. In fact if one simply looks at the professions of most U.S. billionaires the overwhelming majority of them are in business of one kind or another. Thus, the first secret of being a billionaire is to do very well in business. The following billionaires compiled by Forbes magazine in 2010 all "made" money from business and did not inherit their wealth, the range of businesses includes retail, information technology, film production, insurance and other fields.

• Jim, S.Robson, Christy and Helen Walton
• Warren Buffett
• William Gates
• Sumner Redstone
• Steve Jobs
• Donald Trump

How billionaires become rich

It is clear how billionaires become rich, which makes the source of their wealth a non-secret. In fact, whatever secrets billionaires do have are just that i.e. secrets and real secrets don't become public or are only known by a few people. Thus, one is left to glean and infer what money making secrets billionaires actually have. In order to do this it can be a good idea to see what similarities exist between them. Three similarities billionaires have are as we have seen 1) business success and 2) inherited wealth and 3) investment savvy.

However, many more people who also have been affiliated with 1 or more of the above circumstances are not billionaires. In these instances, one can then infer what it is the billionaires did that the rest didn't. Naturally, this can be done to an extent, but not completely as financial lives and events have many if not an infinite amount of variables including luck. Nevertheless, some of the World's billionaires are known to possess some of the following traits:

• Motivation
• Work ethic
• Intelligence
• Know how
• Business sense

The secrets of billionaires may quite possibly be a blending of all the above traits in a way that is advantageous in such a way as to position them for gaining tremendous wealth. While there probably is some element of risk, chance and luck in all billionaires lives there is probably also a significant amount of skill, drive and capacity to achieve great wealth. In the case of recent generations of billionaires, ingenuity and being in the right industry at the right time has also been a factor.

Generational traits of billionaires

Becoming a billionaire is not a constant technique as evident in the generational characteristics of billionaires. That is to say, according to money central at msnmoney.com, billionaires from older generations followed a different path to billionaire wealth than newer generations. Specifically, the oldest billionaires "made their money incrementally, on old line industries such as oil and banking, after young lives spent toiling at odd jobs brought savvy and street smarts" (msnmoney.com).

The most recent generation of billionaires however did not follow the same path to massive wealth making their money more quickly in high growth industries such as information technology. Of these billionaires, education and knowledge are more significant to their wealth creation than old school billionaires.

Future generations of billionaires may be involved in new industries requiring different skills and backgrounds if the history of billionaires is any indicator. Moreover, generational traits of billionaires reflect a changing wealth landscape in which the "secrets" to wealth evolve and change with economic developments.

Astrological aspects of billionaires

According to Forbes magazine, the most common astrological sign of billionaires is Virgo at 12 percent followed by Aries and Aquarius each with 8 percent. If one wants a comprehensive look into the character of billionaires, including astrological profiles may be an added common denominator. So what do Virgo's do that the rest don't? Forbes magazine claims it's the utilitarian, productive and altruistic natures of the Virgo sign.

The viability of astrological signs as a predictor of wealth is probably only partially accurate because the range of zodiac signs is fairly evenly distributed with the lowest percent being 6 and the highest 12. That is to say, all zodiac signs have a fairly even chance of being billionaires because a 100 percent even distribution would account for 8.33 percent of each astrological sign.

To illustrate further, in terms of deviation from equal distribution the maximum is 3.67% and 2.33% on the low end. However, taken in terms of even distribution percentages themselves i.e. 8.33% the deviations become more significant i.e. 69.4% on *the high end, and 72% at the low end. So how one looks at the statistics can influence one's perception of the astrological impact on wealth.

Summary

Secrets of billionaires will never be secrets if the billionaires divulge everything they know, however, if becoming a billionaire takes an extraordinary amount of anything whether it be intelligence, motivation or love of money, then not even knowing their secrets will necessarily mean the rest of the world will also become billionaires. Furthermore, the money supply is and is likely to always be limited such that there only can be a finite amount of billionaires.

It is within the realm of reason that billionaires are fortunate enough to harness some of the Worlds greatest needs and meet those needs through ingenious commercial mechanisms. Billionaires achieve more money by financially outperforming the markets through a combination of their skills, personal traits and ability.

Many billionaires make their money through business or investing and a few through inheritances. Interestingly enough, no two billionaires are exactly alike implying at least in part, that whatever secrets one billionaire uses are less likely to yield similar results if simulated. Thus, the "secrets" of billionaires can be inferred to be unique to the character, life, skills and particular circumstances of each billionaire.

Sources:
1. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8G8BKE83&show_article=1
2. http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/28/billionaires-horoscope-astrology-cz_lk_0328billyhoroscopes.html
3. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Forbes/TheWorldsOldestBillionaires.aspx