How to become rich....

[guids]

Faced with an investment opportunity in a legitimate business, I have been thinking over the last couple of weeks. I dont want this discussion to center around the already rich obv, but rather about how you can go from "nothing" to having gobs of money. By "nothing" I dont mean destitute, just your average college grad.


A few questions Ive been pondering:

1. to be rich, should your main career focus be on becoming rich? a lot of people can get a degree, go work for a corp, and make 80k a year, rarely will these people ever parlay any of their money into becoming wildly succesful financially. They will be safe and secure, but it is pretty doubtful they will be able to raise a family, own a million dollar house and drive a ferrari.

2. Is becoming monetarily successfull more a product of someones drive to become rich and being open to any and everything to make them rich, or is it a product of finding one skillset and developing it into something that can put money in your pocket?

there are other questions that i had but I cant think clearly now, they will hopefully come to me.


I also dont want to get into a discussion on your consideration of what is "successful". some people are perfectly happy with a family, making 80k, living in a 3 bedroom house, thats cool, and I consider anyone who reaches their goals successful, what Im interested in is a discussion on making a couple of million, and parlaying that into more and more etc.

[iSTRONG]

I can't remember the source but i read somwhere that 80% of the richest 100 american citizens had made their money starting their own buisness.

Being an employee for a big corporation will never make you rich. At best it gives you security. And might provide you with the experience/capital to start your own entreprise.

[guids]

I guess my main question is which came first for these people:

teh drive to be one of americas richest


or the product they had luckboxing into making them one of americas richest


and which of the two is more important to being wildly rich.

[iSTRONG]

Personally I think drive is essential but not sufficient. If we're talking silly rich, you need to be at the right place at the right time & that involves a lot of luck.

But obviously, to make the most of the opportunity when that opportunity comes, drive is very important. I haven't heard of many people becoming extremely rich from nothing without blood sweat and tears. Except from lottery winners obv.

[ArturiusX]

I find that 95% of people that say "I want to be rich and I don't care what it takes" sell out when they reach a comfortable wage.

[guids]

[ QUOTE ]
I find that 95% of people that say "I want to be rich and I don't care what it takes" sell out when they reach a comfortable wage.

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comfortable is relative though imo. For me, if I had 5 million liquid, making 5% for me, that would be enough to afford me pretty much everything I would ever want, being young, living in a low cost area, etc. this is what I consider "rich"

[TheWorstPlayer]

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Being an employee for a big corporation will never make you rich. At best it gives you security.

[/ QUOTE ]
ORLY?

http://www.forbes.com/static/execpay2005/totcomp.html

Few of these guys started these companies. And they're pretty darn rich. And if you qualify 'rich' as, say, having $10MM in net worth, then you can most certainly get there by working for an established company. A lot of people on this site are either completely out of whack with what they consider 'rich', or they are completely misinformed about executive salaries. And you dont need to be a top exec at a top company to make $1MM per year.

[iSTRONG]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Being an employee for a big corporation will never make you rich. At best it gives you security.

[/ QUOTE ]
ORLY?

http://www.forbes.com/static/execpay2005/totcomp.html

Few of these guys started these companies. And they're pretty darn rich. And if you qualify 'rich' as, say, having $10MM in net worth, then you can most certainly get there by working for an established company. A lot of people on this site are either completely out of whack with what they consider 'rich', or they are completely misinformed about executive salaries. And you dont need to be a top exec at a top company to make $1MM per year.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was not talking about being just rich. I'm talking about wealth. $1M per year is way lower than what I'm talking about.

Also, you're right, you don't have to actually start your own company. A lot of the people who became wealthy with microsoft just joined early and made their monies from stocks that were given to them when M$ was just a startup.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Being an employee for a big corporation will never make you rich. At best it gives you security.

[/ QUOTE ]
ORLY?

http://www.forbes.com/static/execpay2005/totcomp.html

Few of these guys started these companies. And they're pretty darn rich. And if you qualify 'rich' as, say, having $10MM in net worth, then you can most certainly get there by working for an established company. A lot of people on this site are either completely out of whack with what they consider 'rich', or they are completely misinformed about executive salaries. And you dont need to be a top exec at a top company to make $1MM per year.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was not talking about being just rich. I'm talking about wealth. $1M per year is way lower than what I'm talking about.

Also, you're right, you don't have to actually start your own company. A lot of the people who became wealthy with microsoft just joined early and made their monies from stocks that were given to them when M$ was just a startup.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think some traders from Goldman Saches got $100 million bonuses last year. Is that rich enough for you?

[TheWorstPlayer]

Ya, seriously. Get a clew, please...