Everybody wants to be a billionaire but only a few people are. Or maybe you don’t want to be a billionaire. But simply want to become a successful business owner, entrepreneur, or be the best in your career. Whatever your goal may be, what everyone genuinely wants is to succeed. And the only way you can become successful is if you have the right mindset for it. And where else would you get better advice than from some of the most successful people on the planet? If you follow their advice you might just end up living in a high-rise, driving luxury cars, and having your own personal armed contract security officer. That said, here are some of the best life lessons and advice from billionaires that you should take note of if you want to be successful.
1. Don’t settle
Back in 2005, Steve Jobs had a commencement speech at Stanford. And it would become one of his most unforgettable speeches especially after he died. He said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”
At that time plenty of people had mixed feelings and interpretations about his speech. Some thought that it was bad advice, saying that it wasn’t practical and was only possible if you were anything like Steve Jobs. But Jobs’ goal was not to tell these kids to become like him. He wasn’t telling them to become CEOs of large tech companies and become billionaires. His message was simply to tell them to find what they love and do it for a living. Don’t settle for a job that you hate, and you are completely miserable with.
Find a job that you love doing because chances are, you’re good at what you love and there will be people who will pay you to do what you love even if you would gladly do it for free. That’s why you shouldn’t settle with something you’re miserable with. Because when you love what you do and you’re good at it, the money follows. And even if it isn’t big amounts of money yet, at least you’re happy with what you do.
2. Learn from failures
Most billionaires weren’t born billionaires. Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban, and even Jeff Bezos, all had humble beginnings. And like any other ordinary person, their life wasn’t all successful. They faced failures just like you and me, and they might have failed more times than we ever had. What makes them different from the ordinary person (aside from being billionaires) is that they bounced back from their failures better than any of us probably have. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple. Mark Cuban was fired from three consecutive jobs. Jeff Bezos didn’t think Amazon would succeed. They all experienced failures, but instead of letting it wear them down, they used it as motivation to bounce back even harder.
3. You have to make an effort and work hard
Some billionaires inherit their money, but for those who didn’t, they had to make all kinds of efforts just to get where they are now. Take Mark Cuban for example, he wrote on his blog the story of his success and how he went from working menial jobs to becoming the owner of Dallas Mavericks. He was 24, with no stable job, living in a worn-down three-bedroom apartment with five friends, and drove a car with a hole in its floorboard. He worked all kinds of jobs. He was a bartender; he sold powdered milk and franchises for TV repair shops.
He wrote, “I worked jobs I didn’t like. I worked jobs I loved but had no chance of being a career. I worked jobs that barely paid the rent. I had so many jobs my parents wondered if I would be stable. Most of them aren’t on my resume anymore because I was there so short a time or they were so stupid I was embarrassed.” He was a hustler, and it was all the experience that he gained from these jobs that helped him build his own company. Working hard pays off, so keep working.
If there’s anything all these billionaires have in common, it’s that they all have the same mindset. A billionaire mindset. And if your goal is to become as successful as these people, you should learn a thing or two from their own experiences.
