An algorithm is a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or problem-solving, especially by a computer. What if there was a system that people used knowingly or not, to become wealthy? Is there a mental process that people can use to program their selves to be successful and rich as a byproduct of a process?
After reading the autobiographies of many billionaires and studying how they operate their businesses I see four big overlying mental models they use to achieve success and win in their fields.
Notice Potential Opportunities
“I found this fact on a website that the web was growing at 2,300% per year,” Bezos told CNBC in a 2001 interview. “The idea that sort of entranced me was this idea of building a bookstore online.”
For each billionaire they had a different opportunity in their own lifetime based on the timing of their age and the current technology and industry. Also, where they lived many times determined their opportunity based on their city and country.
John Rockefeller identified the early opportunity of the commodity of oil for distribution.
Henry Ford saw the opportunity of manufacturing affordable automobiles.
Steve Jobs saw the original opportunity to create an affordable personal computer.
Bill Gates seized the opportunity of software by creating an operating system for personal computers.
Jeff Bezos knew that the internet was the future and started an online bookstore because that was the best fit at the time.
Elon Musk focused all his capital, time, and energy on electric cars and space travel.
Billionaires have a knack for both seeing opportunities in real time and also seizing them by developing a business that will monetize their vision for profits. They are also able to stay flexible and continue to grow their business by pivoting with the current needs of customers and the new uses of technology. Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are some of the greatest examples of staying up to date and moving their self and business to where new opportunities emerged.
Here are the steps for seizing opportunities.
- Stay up to date with technology, economic growth, and trends.
- If you find an opportunity study it thoroughly, look at its current uses, potential uses, and growth rate.
- Explore what kind of business you can create to monetize it.
- Look at the risk/reward ratio in starting the business.
- If the upside is worth the risk start the business.
- Scale the business and adjust its operations by doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t work.
- Hire employees to scale when needed.
- Get investors if needed.
- Grow it.
- Take it public.
This is the path to billionaire, but just getting through a few of these key early steps can make you financially independent from a job or a millionaire, and possibly a multi-millionaire. The billionaires are the ones that never stop growing the business even after going public.
How Bad Do You Want It?
“People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.” – Tony Robbins
You must want success more than you want other things. You must want a business more than you want to watch television. You must have goals that inspire, energize, and motivate, or you will not do the work required to achieve them.
Once you have your life goals you need to feel excited and believe they are worth the work to achieve. Billionaires have a clear vision of what they want to build. They can see the future and they intend to create it. They can have almost a natural high with the excitement that their vision creates.
The thing that separates the billionaires that succeed from others that fail is they want it bad enough to overcome obstacles and setbacks as they go. The line to their success isn’t straight, they go through many problems, trouble, and some sleepless nights on their journey, the difference is they don’t quit, they keep going until they fail or win. Even if they fail, they start again later. Why are they able to do this? They want it bad enough to never stop.
Doing Whatever It Takes
“If you’re interested, you will do what is convenient; if you’re committed, you’ll do whatever it takes.” – John Assaraf
Billionaires don’t have roadblocks to their success, they are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. They accept the risks, they do the work, they put in the time, they learn what they need to know, and they adjust effort and processes with new information.
They don’t say “no” to new requirements, they do what is needed of them. Once there is something you won’t do that is needed for success you will start to fail. The biggest secret to success if there is one, is simply doing whatever it takes to succeed once you know what is required, and not quitting until you win.
Step 1: Set you goals.
Step 2: Learn what the price is to achieve them.
Step 3: Pay that price.
Follow Your Effort
“Rather than following your passion, follow your effort,” says Mark Cuban: “Look at where you apply your time. You may or may not realize it yet, but how you use or don’t use your time is going to be the best indication of where your future is going to take you.”
Billionaire Mark Cuban explains:
Time is the most valuable asset you don’t own. You may or may not realize it yet, but how you use or don’t use your time is going to be the best indication of where your future is going to take you .
Let me make this as clear as possible
1. When you work hard at something you become good at it.
2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more.
3. When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it
4. When you are good at something, passionate and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.
Don’t follow your passions, follow your effort. It will lead you to your passions and to success, however you define it.[1]
If you want to know where to invest your time and energy look at what you spend the majority of your time doing each day. What you choose to do each day can give you the clues to your destiny. What you will work on and do for free because you enjoy it holds the keys to what type of business you need to be trying to monetize.
People can claim to have passion for a lot of things but where they invest their time shows their true love. If you can create a business around what you love doing, the effort to operate it will be easier with the energy you have naturally for it.
Billionaires Club
Of course these are the big picture principles and whether someone succeeds or not also depends on many other factors like timing, work ethic, execution, selecting the right business partners and employees along with a little luck. Implementing these four mental models into your life can lead to eventual big success in business or your career if you stay on track. This is the mental road map that can take you to some level of wealth if you do the work.
If you’re ready to start creating your own success algorithm in personal finance, investing, or trading, my books on Amazon here can teach you what I’ve learned from studying billionaires for 20 years. I have created eCourses on my NewTraderUniversity.com website here that can save you time if you’re interested in trading.
