I have read over a hundred books and watched over tens of thousands of interviews of the most successful people in the world (interviews, speeches, compilations, etc.). I am not saying this to brag. I am saying it to give you some credibility on why you should listen to me. 

You pick up on some common themes after going through so many. I created a minimalist outline of the core things I have found that can increase your chances of achieving success and wealth. It ended up being longer than I thought. I went into a little detail to give you a couple real life examples to show you I actually know what I am talking about. Prepare to learn the billionaire secrets to success in life and the habits of millionaires. 

21 Billionaire and Millionaire Success Habits

Before we begin, I think it’s important to define “success” as it is a broad and vague term. By success, I mean the desired amount of money you’re after and achieving your goals while staying happy. If you’re interested in doing this while not having regrets (like sacrificing time with your family), I cover that in other articles.

1. No entitlement or complaining
   1. While losers are pitying themselves and complaining, winners are working hard to build their dreams.
   2. Those who act entitled do less, look at the world negatively, and accomplish less.
   3. Dream-building is an athletic, strenuous activity.
   4. The world isn’t fair, and that’s okay. The world isn’t trying to screw you over. You’re not that important.
2. Enthusiasm
   1. Even for the lowliest of positions or occupations you have to take (unpaid intern or janitor)
      1. ““If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music … Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.” -MLK
   2. Napoleon Hill spent his life studying the richest people in the world in person. He found this to be a key trait in rich people.
3. Form great habits
   1. See The Power of Habit Book Summary
   2. The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
   3. Humans are creatures of habit.
   4. The younger you form them the better. The older you get, the harder it is to form and break habits.
4. A Positive Mental Attitude (PMA).
   1. This doesn’t mean to have an extreme, unrealistic optimism at all times. You can have a dose of realism. It means staying positive when times are tough so you can persevere.
   2. Another Napoleon Hill success pattern.
5. Honesty
   1. Do unto others as you would them do until you.
   2. In the modern world of digital transparency, your reputation follows you around. You can use this to build a massive brand people trust or one people run away from.
   3. Be NICE to people. Be friendly. Be positive. Having a pleasing personality is huge.
6. The willingness to not care what others think of you
   1. When pursuing your goals, you can’t let your fear of people disliking you from stopping you from making the moves necessary.
   2. Ray Dalio tested some of the world’s top leaders, like Bill Gates, with a personality test. He found that all of them scored high on being willing to have people dislike them to achieve their goal. Along the journey, you will inevitably find people who don’t like you and that’s okay.
7. A clear vision of your goals
   1. You can’t get somewhere efficiently if you don’t care where you’re headed.
   2. Write your goals. Writing burns them into your subconscious.
   3. Napoleon Hill says your purpose should be as definitive as possible. Sometimes, I feel you can’t have everything figured out and your purpose or career in life may not be crystal clear. However, you can still make your goal clear. For instance, my goal can be to test things out and find out what industry and career path if I don’t know what that is yet.
8. Open-mindedness and constant learning
   1. You have to be open to the idea that you are wrong because sometimes you are.
   2. As long as it’s not a big, unethical failure, such as one that lands you in jail or destroys your reputation, it’s fine. Do not fear failure or rejection. Don’t be so paralyzed you don’t act. 
   3. Many types of failure have tiny bad consequences. We blow it out of proportion. Failure is often times useful and necessary to get to where you want to go. They are learning experiences to guide you. Many successful people have failed many times whether it was in business ventures, ideas, products, or computer programs.
   4. “If you’re not failing, you’re not trying.” See Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset book for more details.
   5. One of the greatest problems is comfort of the mediocre. It is not so bad that it prompts you to take action and so you sit there doing nothing.
   6. Most of the most successful people in the world (Usher via MasterClass, Seth Godin via Tim Ferriss podcast, and many billionaires) have failed 10x more than the average person. That is what increases their chances of success. They try more. 
9. Pursuing asymmetric risk-reward opportunities
   1. Richard Branson found opportunities with very little downside and massive upside. For example, he struck a deal to return his rented first airplane at very low cost if his airlines business didn’t take off after the first year. If it succeeded, he would make a boatload.
   2. Napoleon Hill and Henry Ford both found that those who were unable to make a fast decision after all the resources were there usually failed to follow through and succeed in life.
   3. Some people know what to do but don’t take action. Some people accomplish nothing by never taking action on what they’re told. They believe they have but they’re not.
10. Patience and persistence
    1. Patience in how long it takes you to achieve your goal, even if it’s several years or decades.
    2. Perseverance separate winners and losers. If the front door is opened, try the window, then the back door, then sneak in with the pizza delivery guy.
    3. The moment losers give up (which is usually after repeated failures) and winners persevere is the beginning of success.
    4. Steve Jobs says he kept going when any rational person would’ve given up. Loving what you do helps you persevere. Find your bliss.
    5. A lot of people give up when times get tough. As Steve Jobs said in the one interview he had with Bill Gates, if you love doing something so much, you will keep going even though everyone else has quit because it is logically insane to keep going. And that’s when the breakthroughs happen. Persist. Persevere when others don’t.
11. Find your passion
    1. “If you can do it for joy, you can do it forever.” -Stephen King
       1. Passion helps you persevere
    2. Ideally, you want to get to the point you are excited and jump out of bed to go do the work. There will be tough days for any job though.
    3. You want to consider how competent you are at this work or skill. If your potential for competence will never be there than this may not be what your calling is.
    4. I suggest listing out things you like and dislike about careers you test out to move towards things.
    5. Look for the alignment between something you enjoy, something you have the potential to be very competent at, and something that can pay you (to accomplish this last point and really squeeze the juice out of this, you may have to be very creative and/or very entrepreneurial)
    6. It makes it a lot easier to not give up because you enjoy it so much. You will keep going when others quit when times get tough.
12. Do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do
    1. This requires Self-control (willpower).
    2. While some activities will be fun because you’re passionate about them, you will still run into activities that you dread or despise. Going through the pain and putting in the hard work will pay off because others are unwilling to do so.
13. Always go the extra mile and do more than they pay you for
    1. Doing the bare minimum will give you minimum results and growth.
    2. While you may slide by in the short-term, it cuts off your long-term potential.
    3. Do the best work even when your boss isn’t looking.
14. Focus
    1. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates say this is the number one thing. Focus on your craft and perfecting your skill is key. Warren and Bill focused intensely on computer programming and investing/accounting for years, which is what they say got them to where they are.
    2. The more you focus, the faster you get good because you spend more time on it.
15. Don’t do it alone. Have a team.
    1. The founder of Nike says great things are done by a team. You can’t do it alone.
    2. Even Will Smith has a massive team he’s been with for decades working behind the scenes for him, including a business partner.
16. Spend less than you make
    1. Simple but more important advice to build wealth.
    2. The more you save, the more money you have to use to make more money.
    3. Avoid spending money on items that don’t make more money. Clothing and cars rust and deteriorate in value.
17. Health, fitness, and nutrition
    1. Take care of your body. You only get one.
    2. Nutrition – eat healthy foods. This is fuel for your body. You already know what’s healthy. It’s common sense. Fast food and sugars in excess aren’t good for you.
    3. Sleep – get as much as you need. Sleep deprivation destroys performance and focus.
    4. Stress – eliminate as much as you can. This is partially mindset too. I am striving for a personality that cannot be stressed out or knocked. This is how some of the longest living people are like.
    5. Exercise – I try to do at least 30 minutes of aerobic/cardio workout every day. This is key and this is what everyone needs to get to at the very least.
18. Lifelong learning
    1. Learning doesn’t stop when you finish school. Go to bed at least a little better every day than you woke up.
    2. Do this in a few key areas: Wiser (more knowledge), healthier (exercise/nutrition/etc.), and Richer (more money)
    3. Billionaire Charlie Munger has said you do this for being wiser. Kevin O’Leary has said you do this for more money.If you have the fortune of living to an old age, these investments compound. Every small piece of knowledge grows to something huge overtime.
19. Outwork competition
    1. Work and practice on your craft every day for hours. WORK ETHIC IS HUGE. If you can outwork your competition you are ahead. If you’re working while they’re sleeping or partying, you will get ahead in the long run even if you’re equally talented.
    2. Will Smith, Elon Musk, Gary Vaynerchuk have all admitted how they work 3x harder than their competitors. When you’re taking a break, they’re working.
20. Give more value than you get
    1. The more value you give out, the more opportunities you’ll get. Sometimes, it’ll take years for you to see the return because you want to build goodwill rather than one-for-one transactional exchanges. Eventually, you’ll get the opportunities to ask for something back.
    2. “You can have everything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” -Zig Ziglar
    3. Give your music, give your craft, give your services, give your time, give your energy, etc. In time, the more competent you get at something, it will come back to you in one way or other, whether it is growing buzz about you or through connections.
    4. People can sense when you have a hidden agenda to get something back immediately for something you gave for “free.” This turns them off.
21. Believing and seeing what’s possible when others think it’s possible
    1. We all have a number of assumptions or beliefs that are often not true.
    2. If you don’t believe something is possible, you won’t even try. Without trying, your chances of success are the closest to 0% as possible.
    3. Find your limiting beliefs, eliminate them, and you stop them from holding you back.
    4. People thought artificial light, airplanes, and wireless communication were impossible and fairy tales not that long ago.

Morning and Daily Routines of Successful People:

1. Be present with people, your environment, and your work
   1. Give people your full attention. Don’t be thinking about the future, other things, or the past while you are with people. Be fully ENGAGED. Meditation helps with this.
2. Be friendly, nice, and over-deliver. Establish good relationships with people.
   1. This will bring customer loyalty, which will bring people back, referrals, and more.
3. Have a sense of humor, don’t take yourself too seriously and find some way to laugh everyday
   1. This can be done in multiple ways: surround yourself with one or more people who make you laugh a lot OR watch a lot of stand-up comedy.
   2. This has proven to help with your health, your healing of illnesses, your longevity and your happiness. There’s science behind this.
   3. Some people take failures or bad events way too seriously and it affects them too negatively.
4. Wake up early and get things done before people even wake up.
   1. A lot of successful entrepreneurs have this routine. Most wake up quite early. (Not all of them depending on the industry. Some have to work at night)
5. Start the day with working on your #1 priority.
   1. Use the 4 quadrants technique: Organize things into these 4 categories and do it with this priority queue: urgent and important, important but not urgent, not important but urgent, and not urgent and not important. The last two can be skipped.
6. Realize that the mind is a changeable thing and you can change it for the better over time. Realize that the traits you admire in someone you can acquire for yourself. The things you respect in someone whether it is their hard work or trustworthiness or friendliness can be acquired for yourself.  
7. Don’t Complain
   1. Learning about other people’s lives can help a lot with this. There are plenty of books out there of real life stories of people who have been born in the country you are with less opportunity who have gone on to do bigger things. A good one is The Glass Castle
8. Turn your weaknesses or differences into strengths
   1. I’ve seen this quite a few times from Arnold Schwarzenegger getting rejected for acting because of his accent and enormous physique to hip hop artists being rejected because hip hop was a new thing that was thought to be a fad and wouldn’t last long.
9. Find mentors or people to model success after. Pick people who have already gotten there. Make sure you pick well. Honesty and ethics are a must in my opinion. This is VERY Important. I cannot tell you how many successful people, including billionaires, stress the importance of a mentor.
10. Meditation
    1. Tim Ferriss is a huge supporter of this. In his podcast, which has over 100 million downloads, he’s found that most of the top performers he interviews meditates or has a meditative-like practice. 
    2. Meditation has been shown scientifically to help with your:
       1. Focus.
       2. Willpower.
       3. Emotional stability. 
       4. Ability to separate from distractions and operate out of stillness (LL Cool J to Biggie Smalls to Jay Z had this).
       5. Stress management.
       6. Happiness.
    3. A meditative-like practice can be one that simply keeps your mind on the task when it tries to drift to thoughts, like a sport. 
11. Journaling and Goal-setting
12. Gratitude Exercises
13. Realize that you control how you react to situations. You may not be able to control the stimuli or the environment but you can control your reaction to things.

Business-Focused Tactics on How To Become A Billionaire

1. Make sure the product or service is really good. Always keep trying to make it better. You can do marketing but if your product sucks or is not good enough, customers will not stick.

1. 1. Billionaires Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, John Paul De Joria, and Jeff Bezos have said something similar.
   2. As a caveat, don’t be so honed in on perfection that you are paralyzed and never release anything. Sometimes, your first thing is crap but you release it to get things going.
2. The customer is priority. Customers are #1. Do as much to give to your customer what they want as you can. Develop the best product or service the customer could want as possible
   1. Customer service is very important.
   2. Customers can sense if you really want to help them or are just after their money
   3. Employees are #2, and technically are also, #1. This is because how you treat your employees will reflect directly on how they treat their customers. I cannot stress how many times this has been mentioned by successful entrepreneurs. Notable people who have mentioned this include the billionaire Sam Walton and Lee Cockerell of Creating Magic.
3. Find the right Business Partner. Take your time to really get to know this person. Ideally, spend years. This must be someone you can trust, fully understand, and is honest.
   1. You want your partner to ideally cover your shortcomings. If you are into business, he must be into something else like sales.
   2. I cannot stress how important this is. There are SO many entrepreneurs who have said this and embody this. There are so many successful businesses, some of them very recent, who emphasize this. This is because a business partnership is the core element of the business and if the partner leaves, betrays you, or takes the money and leaves, that could mean the end of the business. It is often not as easy as replacing the partner. This happens quite often.
   3. It is not a requirement that you know your partner for years and be best friends, but it is better so that you can really get a good sense of who they are. Also, this does NOT mean you partner with someone just because they are your best friend. Business is tough and has ended many friendships.
   4. There are dozens of examples of successful people who embody this. The following are pairs of billionaires who knew eachother for years: Paul Allen and Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Woz, Rich Devos and his best friend grew up together and fought in WW2.

This page is constantly being updated as I consume more advice, add more, and remove unnecessary things.

Conclusion

The biggest problem with any advice that tells you how to be rich and successful is that it is usually not the information that is the problem. It is the execution of that knowledge. You may know the billionaire mindsets but it is tough to take action on it. That is why I recommend reading my post on how to form good habits.

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What’s the 1 thing you will take action on RIGHT NOW?