5 AWESOME things modern billionaires have in common

folarin okunola

May 31, 2016 9:01 AM

Observing how the wealthiest people acquired their wealth, taking a little mentorship from it, and above all being inspired by it can be the difference between failure and success in life.

US billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is left handed

Money isn't everything, but when you have enough of it, it’s a start.

Right now, there are more billionaires than ever in the world, and opportunity, change, and consolidation are responsible for that.

Now, a new study is out revealing the commonalities in the ways some billionaires of today accumulate their wealth. Obviously, this article is by no means telling you to follow these exact same strategies and become ridiculously rich overnight.

However, there is nothing like learning directly from the source. Observing how the wealthiest people acquired their wealth, taking a little mentorship from it, and above all being inspired by it can be the difference between failure and success in life.

Here are the five things modern billionaires across the world have in common:

1. They're self-made, at least most of those in America: While most of the billionaires in Europe are more likely than not to inherit their wealth from their dad or mother, Americans are more likely to create their fortunes themselves. "20 percent of Europe's inherited fortunes were four or more generations old, compared to less than ten percent in the U.S.," says data from the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

2. They got started young (and made their money really early): Bezos, Zuckerberg, Brin, Page, Gates, Buffett - all these names started off early and crossed the $1 billion mark before an age when most of us are still trying to figure out what to do without lives.

3. They go where the money is: Most times, that means abroad or outside their native country. "Billionaire wealth in emerging economies increased from less than $500 billion in 1996 to roughly $2 trillion by 2015, compared to around $3 trillion for advanced nations in 2015," says Richard Florida for Inc.

4. They focused on technology…: When you think of household names that have accumulated $1 billion or more in the US, founders of tech companies from Alphabet to Uber come to mind. "The U.S. has a much greater number of self-made tech billionaires (56 billionaires, or 12 percent) compared to 17 billionaires, or just 5 percent, in Europe," writes Florida for Inc.

5. …Unless they made their money in finance: The only category making more billionaires than tech right now is finance. "More than 40 percent of the growth in the U.S. billionaire population can be attributed to finance--particularly hedge funds," Florida writes, "compared to 14 percent of the growth in Europe and 12 percent in other advanced countries."

All of these go to show that when it comes to making that billion dollar mark, there are some generalities. All of these points and tip may not work for you, but there are key lessons to be learned. I hope you can find them. Happy hunting!

folarin okunola