Do you have what it takes to be a Billionaire?

Monday August 9, 2010

On a recent flight to Wellington I happened to pick up the in flight magazine on Pacific Blue and enjoyed reading an article entitled “The Billionaire Genome” by Shane Conroy. Shane explores the question of what it takes to be a billionaire and opens up the nurture verse nature debate and comes up with some surprising results.

Conroy classifies billionaires into the following categories:

The Emperors

These are obsessive billionaires and wealth is a by product ; they are more interested in control and power. They are decisive, uncompromising, retain tight control of the day-to- day running of their business , they also try to influence others. Example of this billionaire is Rupert Murdoch with US$6.3 billion. He turned a single Adelaide newspaper into a global media empire.

The Survivors

This is the group that has overcome poverty or difficult childhoods to amass billion dollar fortunes, they are the rags to riches stories. They are tenacious, learn from their experiences and maintain an optimistic outlook. Frank Lowy (US$3 billion) the founder of Westfield shopping malls is a Holocaust survivor and turned a small family deli into a gigantic shopping experience.

The Bean Counters

Driven by the belief that you don’t get rich by spending money, some of the world’s richest people are renowned misers. They know the value of money and spent their childhoods thinking of innovative money making schemes. They are pedantic about the details and are good planners. Warren Buffet (US$47 billion) still lives in the same modest house he bought in 1958 and dislikes luxury cars.

The Whizz-Kids

Child prodigies that usually make their money at a young age and almost overnight from their innovations. They are technically gifted and adept at coming up with ideas that change the playing field. They are technically gifted and obsessive free thinkers. Examples of this group are Sergey Brin worth US$17.5 billion and one of the co-founders of Google.

Concluding “The Billionaire Genome” article by Shane Conroy is a quiz flow chart that left me with a smile on my face. The first question on the chart is “Were you born in September? According to a study by Forbes, babies born in that month are more likely to become billionaires”. After following the flow diagram down to the bottom and answering yes to most questions I meet all the criteria, the next question I have is... “How do I become a billionaire?”. That I believe has no shortcut just lots of hard work, self belief, determination and a pinch of tenacity.

This article is written by Robyn Viljoen, a director of Grow-Me Ltd.