Traits of the rich

 Think Rich                                  

 Traits & Habits of the Rich.

The pursuit of riches throughout the ages has been the driving force in the advancement of mankind. Mankind has prospered from these pursuits. The results were achieved by an energy that knows no bounds, by an unyielding human spirit that laid a foundation of prosperity overcoming temporary failures. If you practice the habits of continuous learning, an accumulation of skills and increasing your knowledge, coupled with the traits and habits that are practiced by wealthy people, you will have laid down a foundation of true prosperity.

Everybody admires the courageous spirit that overcomes difficulties and rises to the occasion. To succeed you will need to acquire these traits and most of all you need to put them to use until they become a habit, a way of living life.

Over the years I have met and talked with many self-made people. I studied these people looking for traits that made them different or that contributed to their success. Each person I talked with had many general attributes that are considered good, or that were specific to their personality that I have not listed here. Rather I have listed here the traits that I have found that self-made, financially well off individuals all tend to have in common.

These then, are the traits and habits of success:

Desire:

First and foremost is desire. If you truly want to become rich, if you want it so much that it becomes an obsession, nothing will be able to keep you from achieving your goal. You must want it so bad that if you go broke, you will start again. Desire wealth so much that you will not associate with those who have negative attitudes, or who do not have your best interest at heart. It is this obsession that will allow you to build upon your failures, to work long hours, and it's this obsession to be rich that will drive you to pile up one success after another.

Confidence:

Self-confidence is that unshakable belief that you are deserving, and that you will succeed in that which you set out to do. There is no defeat except from within, you control your own destiny. You build confidence with small success, taking calculated risk, and shunning negative thoughts.

Perseverance:

Steadfastness, persistence - that ability to stay with it until you succeed. To find another way, to overcome any obstacle. There are no insurmountable barriers except weakness of purpose. You must have a firm resolution that you shall over come any hindrances. That you will clear any difficulties from your path that interfere with your achieving success. Success does not come uninvited, and must be won with effort. Do not associate with those who see the glass half empty.

Planning:

You must formulate a plan and put the plan into action. Plan the work, and work the plan. If you think of all that you have achieved so far in life you will come to realize it was done by plan, maybe not your plan, but someone planned it. In high school the school had a plan by which you would graduate four years hence; it had a time line, a sequence of events, and goals to be achieved as you went along. The plan was flexible, and you could choose some parts of it, and some were pre-chosen for you. All the requirements of a good plan were there. It had a time line (four years), it had a step by step method (you had to take ninth grade classes before tenth grade classes), it had flexibility (if you stumbled you could make it up in the summer) and if you got ahead you could add extra activities or classes. The schools plan was measure-able (remember the test and grades), and you knew when you succeeded (the diploma). To be rich you have to do your own planning, and implementation.

Patience:

You must have patience. Get rich quick schemes do not work. Decide what road, or roads, to wealth you will take and allow enough time to get down the road. The next five years will pass whether you start down that road to riches or not. Get started! Starting now will make time your ally. For example; If you choose land lording as your road to riches it can take years for the mortgages to be paid down, for rents to rise, and property values to increase. That spread of time between the mortgage balance and increasing property values, can make you rich. If you are like most rich people you will be on many different roads over the years and they will converge and change over time.

Positive Attitude:

Smile - it is the way to start the day. If I had to pick a number two on this list "Optimistic Attitude" would come right after desire. The other day I was talking with a financially well off 80-year old young lady who has had both knees replaced with artificial ones this year. Imagine the pain, the recovery, the physical therapy sessions, and the inconvenience she has been going through. Her comment, "look at the marvelous things that they can do today." "isn't it great!" I can understand how she accumulated her wealth.

Optimism:
The rich tend to have a positive outlook on life. The rich see the glass half full. Dwell on that which you have that will help you get richer and not that which you think is lacking. Rich people tend to look at each situation for an understanding of how it might enhance their wealth or improve their life.

Do not associate with those who always take the path of least resistance.

Opportunistic:

When someone presents you with a problem, do you search for the positives or do you dwell in the negatives? When the stock market is down, do you see the loss in your portfolios value, or due you see an opportunity to buy low? Rich people keep their financial house in order so that when an opportunity comes along they are ready to take action. They find opportunity because they look for it.

Risk Takers:

Rich people tend to be calculated risk takers. When I am talking with wealthy people about risk, they say that they think of themselves as risk adverse. But when they tell me how they got where they are, it is almost always from having taken the calculated risk. For example: I know a dentist that takes the profits from his practice and purchases discounted secondary real estate loans, (2nd. mortgage notes), that return him 14% to 20% per annum. I know a ex-salesmen who retired after working 20 years with an auto parts company, this man is so conservative that he keeps his cash in bank CD's. He has accumulated 22 rental (trailers) homes over the last 20 years. They bring in $12,000 + per month in rents and he does not consider them risky at all. Both of these people took the risk in areas that they felt comfortable with, and thus they do not consider their ventures risky.

Honesty:

The rich people I have met appear to be honest. I have gotten the impression that they feel the best deals are those deals were both parties win. For the most part I find rich people to be good, honest folks. From my own point of view, I find it easier, and a far better use of my efforts to be honest and not worry about what dishonest deed might come home to roost when I least expect it. From honesty comes honor.

Education:

Most rich people are educated in the subject areas were they need to be in order to accomplish their goals. A formal education is not a prerequisite to getting rich. Many rich people that I have met lack university degrees. You only need to know where the library is, where the book stores are, and your way around the Internet. There is more information available to you today then there ever has ever been in the history of the world. The point is rich people never stop learning.

Punctuality:

Be on time! Being on time is the prelude to confidence. Say what you mean and do what you say. Punctuality is the way to win friends and influence people. Punctuality also applies to returning calls or answering mail. Keeping anyone waiting is a mistake that you will un-knowingly pay for.

Self-Reliance:

Do not take too much advice, and shun those who are of a mostly negative attitude. Think for yourself. If the numbers work and the risk-reward trade offs are acceptable to you, that should be sufficient. Do not let all those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat talk you out of it. For if you ignore them and then prove successful, they will be the first in line wanting a piece of the action. Surround yourself with like-minded friends with similar goals and ambitions. Only 5% of the population will become rich. Do not listen to the other 95%. Your independence will add vitality and inspiration to your labors.

If you let fear dominate, it will keep you poor.

Good Credit:

You need money to get rich! The good news is, it does not have to be your money. You must have A-1 credit. A good credit rating is your number one asset. Your access to the capital markets increase as you go down the road to wealth. The more assets and cash flow you accumulate, the more access to capital will be made available to you. That is why you see more older rich people than young rich people. If I went broke tomorrow I could rebuild as long as I have my credit rating.

Having said the foregoing I will all so say that borrowing increases risk. If you can pay cash things are easier and cheaper. It is very hard to go broke if everything you have is paid for. Credit used wisely for income producing ventures can be a good thing. Wisely is the key word.

Resilience:

Each person of means that I have met can tell me of the failures they have had. It is most interesting to hear them speak of the failures for they do not dwell on the details of the failure, but rather what they learned from them. Then, they almost always tell you how they took the ruins of that failure and turned lemons in to lemonade.

Build on your failures; it makes for a strong foundation.

Luck:

Rich people are lucky. I once purchased a three-bedroom two bath home for $15,000 and sold it six months later for $37,000. I cannot tell you the number of people that commented to me how lucky I was to find such a sweetheart deal. Not one of those people who said I was lucky asked me how I got that lucky. Actually, I had been passing out business cards that said I buy houses for about a year and had looked at over a hundred homes before I stumbled across this fixer-upper bargain.

You make your own luck. Rich people are lucky because they work at it.

Reputation:

If you practice all the maxims listed here you will garner an excellent reputation and deals will tend to come your way. It is not what you say, but rather what you do that becomes your mantle.

Problem solvers

Rich people are problem solvers. One of the most important thing I have noticed about people who have made themselves rich is that they tend to think of the solution to problems and not dwell on the problem. Most people are so consumed by the problem and the causes of the problem, that they forget the only way to make a problem go away is to find a solution. By concentrating on the solution you can stay in control of the situation. That greatly reduces the unintended consequences and often turns a problem into an opportunity. 

Rich people are not smarter, their practices make people think they are smart.

To summarize, the rich folks I have met all were self-confident, knew they wanted to be successful, trained themselves to recognize opportunity, and acted on those opportunities in their own individual way. If I had to choose one thing that makes successful people more successful, it is that they were prepared to take action on an investment opportunity when it presented itself.

The most important things they did was to get started and work at it relentlessly until it became a habit, a way of thinking.

11-16-09