5 Essential Skills you need to Become a Billionaire

image:linkedin.com
culled from:mindtools.com

What does it take to become a billionaire? What are the skills needed to make a billion dollars? Well, i advice you read on to find out.

It’s been quite a while since I set a personal goal to become a billionaire. If you are a regular reader of this business blog, then you should be aware of this goal of mine and how I intend to achieve it. If not, then let me give you a brief insight into my goal. In 2010, I set a personal goal to become a billionaire in my life time and I went on to explain in detail how to become a billionaire, why I want to become a billionaire and how I intend to achieve the goal.

    “Most people think small because most people are afraid of success, afraid of making decisions, afraid of winning. And that gives people like me a great advantage.” – Donald Trump

Now for those of you who are big thinkers and are motivated to set big financial goals, I think it’s worthwhile I share with you some necessary skills you need to achieve your goal. Even if your goal is to retire with a million or billion dollars, you are definitely going to need these skills. Before I proceed into today’s subject, I want you to know the journey to achieving my goal has been a great learning experience. To be sincere with you, the journey hasn’t been easy and why I struggle to stay focused on my business and personal objectives; I try harder not to become obsessed with the goal.

    “Money was never a big motivation for me except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.” – Donald Trump

    “Build wealth as a by-product of your business success. If wealth is your only objective in business, you will probably fail.” – J. Paul Getty

Now in the process of attaining great financial heights, you will definitely need a certain kind of mindset and skills. To develop the billionaire’s mindset, I will suggest you read the articles “how to think like a billionaire” and “17 uncommon traits of billionaires.” After developing the right mindset, skill development comes next.

    “Skills make you rich, not theories.” – Robert Kiyosaki

As I pursue my goals and build a business, I have also taken some proactive measures to enhance my skills. I have attended seminars, read books, listened to tapes and held one on one consultation with experts. I also receive mentorship advice from other entrepreneurs and investors who are ahead of me in the game. Now what exactly are the skills I am striving to develop? You will find your answers below.

    “One of the most stupid things to do is to pretend you are smart. When you pretend to be smart, you are at the height of stupidity.” – Rich Dad

    “Seek advice on risk from the wealthy who still take risks, not friends who dare nothing more than a football bet.” – J. Paul Getty

Five Essential Skills You Need to Be a Billionaire

1. Money Management Skills

    “The philosophy of the rich and the poor is this: the rich invest their money and spend what is left. The poor spend their money and invest what is left.” – Rich Dad

The first and fundamental skill you need to achieve your financial goals is money management skills. Without money management skills, forget about becoming a millionaire or billionaire. Business and investing is a game and money is how we keep score of the game. To become successful financially, you must know how to manage your money; you must also know how to control your income and expenses.

    “Your money should be a good bird dog. It helps you find a bird, catch the bird and then goes out to get another bird. Most people’s money acts like the bird that just flies away.” – Rich Dad

Another important element you must effective control over is your debt to equity ratio. To achieve big financial goals, you must know how to competently take on debt and use debt to your advantage. Debt, in the world of money is a form of leverage but you must possess money management skills to control and use debt to your advantage.

    “Be careful when you take on debt. If you take on debt personally, make sure it is small. If you take on large debt, make sure someone else is paying for it.” – Rich Dad

    “The most important word in the world of money is cash flow. The second most important word is leverage.” – Rich Dad

2. Sales Skills

    “The ability to sell is the number one skill in business. If you cannot sell, don’t bother thinking about becoming a business owner.” – Rich Dad

One of the most important jobs of an entrepreneur is to sell; but unfortunately, selling is a task most people hate. Why? The reason people hate selling is because they are afraid of rejection. If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, then you must hone your sales skill. Do you want to know why sales skill is the most important of all skills? Then read the article “Why you must develop your sales skills and learn how to sell.”

    “I’ve never felt like I was in the cookie business. I’ve always been in a good feeling business. My job is to sell joy, my job is to sell happiness and my job is to sell an experience.” – Debbi Fields

3. Leadership Skills

    “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” – Sam Walton

One challenge of being a big thinker and having big financial goals is that you have to be in charge; you must be at the forefront. People are naturally afraid to go beyond their comfort zone, so they are going to stand aside for you. Nobody is going to do the dirty work for you; since you set the goal, you must do the work. This puts you at the forefront of the quest.

    “I have run engineering since day one at Oracle, and I still run engineering. I hold meetings every week with the database team, the middle ware team, the applications team. I run engineering and I will do that until the board throws me out of there.” – Larry Ellison

Secondly, if you are aiming to become a billionaire alone; then you can as well give up the goal now. Why? The reason is because business and investing are team sports; you can play alone to win but you can’t play alone to win big. Just as money management entails effective directing of cash; leadership entails effective directing of human resources. To be a billionaire, you must possess the ability to attract smart people and build great business teams.

4. Accounting Skills

    “Accounting is the language of business.” – Warren Buffett

Lack of accounting skill is the reason most successful people become poor again. To succeed in life and business, you must at least know the basics of accounting. You must know the difference between asset and liability, gross profit and net profit. Most importantly, you must know when to spend more and as well know when to cut back on your spending.

    “If your cash is about to run out, you have to cut your cash flow. CEOs have to make those decisions and live with them however painful they may be. You have to act and act now; and act in the best interest of the company as a whole, even if it means that some people in the company who are your best friends have to work somewhere else.” – Larry Ellison

    “Managers thinking about accounting issues should never forget Abraham Lincoln’s favorite riddles: ‘How many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg. The answer is four because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” – Warren Buffett

5. Investing Skills

    “The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money.” – Warren Buffett

Regardless of how smart you are and regardless of how smart your team is; you can never take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. So you just have to sometimes give your money to other entrepreneurs and investors; and hope they do a good job with your money. Now the challenge lies in identifying good investment opportunities?

    “Never invest in a business you can’t understand.” – Warren Buffett

How can you tell a good investment opportunity from a bad one? How can you identify a competent management team from an incompetent one? How can you evaluate the risk to reward of an investment? Which investment vehicle is the best? When is the right time to buy and when is the right time to sell? How can you spot trends? This is where your need for investing skills come into play.

    “Buy when everyone else is selling and hold when everyone else is buying. This is not merely a catchy slogan. It is the very essence of successful investments.” – J. Paul Getty

As a final note, these are not the only skills you need to become a billionaire. There are many other skills that will aid you in the pursuit of your goal but the five skills listed above are the most important. Without them, you won’t even come close to achieving your goal.