There are billions of people in the world, and only a tiny fraction of billionaires. Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos have a combined net worth of approximately $195 billion.
Ever wondered what made them all self-made billionaires and rank among the world’s richest, most influential individuals?
While it’s hard to point out a single habit that made them the person they are today but if you adopt the following habits and patterns in your real life, you can surely attract success in any aspect of your life.
Let’s take a look at the following habits that can make anyone successful, provided they are willing to put in all the hard work and dedication it requires:
- Bill Gates: An Inherent Desire for Learning
Bill was passionate about computers and learned programming during his lunch breaks in his school. His first attempts were small but eventually, they grew to become advanced pieces of programming for a 13-year-old! As a teenager, he founded Microsoft, now one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world.
In 2019, when he returned to his alma mater, Lakeside School, to celebrate the prep school's 100th anniversary, he described himself as a “curious learner”. His only advice to young minds was to develop an unquenchable desire to learn and be curious about how things work in reality. He said, "For the curious learner, these are the best of times because your ability to constantly refresh your knowledge with either podcasts or [online] lectures is better than ever."
- Elon Musk: Self-belief
Musk was born to a South African engineer and a Canadian dietitian. Today, without a doubt, he can be referred to as an unmatched genius with unwavering confidence with the smashing success of Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk always had a big vision and even bigger self-belief. The initial mission of Tesla was “to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass-market electric cars to market as soon as possible.”
People thought he was insane whereas he is stubbornly passionate. He followed a plan with a precise vision. He invested in Tesla when it was a fairly small electric car company and set out to build affordable luxury cars to raise money for his future developments. It makes it clear how sure Musk was of his abilities and vision right from the beginning.
- Richard Branson: Create time for your success
When it comes to success, no one knows it better than billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson. Not only has he built eight billion-dollar companies in eight different sectors, but he’s also always on a look-out for the next big idea.
Even today at 69, he likes to wake up early to add more hours to his busy, successful life. He exercises and makes to-do lists to know what to accomplish each day. It gives him direction and clarity regarding his present and future endeavors.
During one of his interviews, he said, “Those people who spend their time working on things they love are usually the ones enjoying life the most,” He also added that, “They are also the ones who dared to take a risk and chase their dreams.”
- Warren Buffett: Nurture rich relationships
One of the most important — and overlooked — habits to be successful is to forge valuable relationships with individuals you aspire to be. The human tendency is as such that people like to associate themselves with like-minded people or with whom we feel the most comfortable.
However, the successful ones are selective when it comes to allowing people into their inner circle. They prioritize cultivating rich relationships with successful people.
Warren Buffett once said, “You will move in the direction of the people that you associate with.” Other mega-successful people such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs also agree that having positive and success-minded friends can help you to challenge yourself and achieve bigger goals whether personal or professional.
- Jeff Bezos: Take calculated risks
Today, Amazon is ubiquitous with probably the largest digital footprint on the web making Jeff Bezos one of the greatest success stories in entrepreneurial history.
Apart from the immense perseverance and his vision for a digital bookstore, one quality that made him successful is the fearless approach towards calculated risk-taking.
Interestingly, Bezos borrowed $300,000 from his parents to start Amazon despite investors warning him that his idea had a 70% percent failure rate. Going against the odds, he decided to pursue his dream, and the rest is history. He said, “I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I’m proud of that choice.”
On an ending note
One can learn a lot from the life experiences of all these ultra-successful people. All you need to do is to inculcate these habits into your life and create your own success story.
All the best!
