Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet hundreds of millionaires and learn valuable millionaire life lessons from them first-hand on and off my job as their wealth manager.
While their backgrounds, lifestyles, and fortunes vary greatly, there are some common traits that all millionaires seem to share.
In this blog post, I will share with you 12 life-changing millionaire lessons that I’ve learned from the world’s richest people.
My goal in sharing these lessons is to “finspire” and help you become the best version of yourself and build a path to financial freedom!
Let’s get started:
1. Investing in Personal Growth:
All millionaires invest heavily in themselves and their personal growth. They understand that growing as a person is a foundation for becoming wealthy and successful. Most wealthy people I’ve come across read a lot, meet with others more often, and usually have found ways how to satisfy their interest in many things to grow.
There is no more profitable investment than investing in yourself.
They invest time, money, and effort in their personal growth continuously.
2. Working Harder and Smarter Than the Average:
Successful millionaires usually work much harder, smarter (!) and longer than average people. This doesn’t mean that they sacrifice their time with family and friends or their health, but rather this is how they structure their life — to get more done in less time.
They don’t work for money and status, but to unlock more time and freedom.
A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.
They understand that hard and mostly smart work will take them further faster while they still maintain balance in their lives. They’ve learned to be very efficient, delegate, and automate as much as possible in their doings and focus on where they are needed the most: Putting the rubber on the ground.
3. Taking Bigger Risks:
The Millionaires I’ve served have developed skills to differentiate between good and bad risks. They understand risks are part of life and are not scared of them. They know that taking risks can open up new opportunities for them.
The biggest risk is not taking any risk.
Wealthy people know when to walk away from an investment or situation if it is no longer beneficial. They are smart in calculating their chances and setting themselves up with the right team around them. Success is about smart risk management, not about wild risk-taking.
Almost every one of them walked away from a day job at some point and took a risk.
12 Life-Changing Millionaire Lessons I Learned From Working with the World’s Richest People Click To Tweet4. Starting and Running a Business:
Most millionaires I’ve worked with either own or work as executive leaders of successful businesses — this is one of the main ways how these people become wealthy.
They have learned the skills to start, grow and run a business.
And they took the risk to go for it.
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
These are usually very successful people who have discovered their talents, passions, and interests and leveraged those through various businesses they own or lead.
5. Hungry And Curious, Always Open For Testing New Ideas:
Millionaires are constantly curious to learn, explore, discover and experiment with new ideas.
They are hungry for new opportunities, exploring what’s out there beyond their comfort zones and pushing themselves constantly.
They’re curious about how things work, why things happen the way they do, and how they can use this knowledge to their advantage.
I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious.
Albert Einstein
Every self-made millionaire I’ve met had a continuous desire to strive for more and test new ideas, even if it sometimes means taking higher risks.
6. When Bored Start Another Business:
Wealthy people know that getting bored with something means it’s time for a change.
They never stop growing and going into an even better version of themselves.
They don’t quit, they pivot.
What got you here won’t get you there.
I’ve come across several so-called “serial entrepreneurs” or “multipreneurs” as I like to call them.
They are constantly either growing something or starting over with yet another project while maintaining, delegating, or selling their existing old ventures.
They act upon opportunities they come across while still maintaining balance in their lives.
For them this is like a challenge, they don’t do it solely for the money anymore, it’s for fun:
Millionaires keep learning millionaire lessons!
7. Always Provide Value To Others:
All millionaires I’ve worked with gave tremendous value to others in some way or form — whether it was a product or service they provided, knowledge sharing, mentoring, or even just being a good friend.
They understand that in order to receive, one needs to give first.
Realize that everything connects to everything else.
Wealth is not about hoarding money, but rather giving both resources and knowledge to those around us who need it the most.
Karma has its ways.
Always.
8. Real Estate:
Real estate investments are popular among millionaires because they provide passive income through rental payments, capital appreciation over time, tax benefits and more.
In fact, I haven’t met a single multi-millionaire who didn’t also own “some” real estate.
Have you ever played Monopoly?
With proper research and due diligence millionaire investors can pick out great real estate deals that will generate returns for years to come. Some of them even go bargain hunting and made it their hobby to grow their real estate portfolio over time.
9. Diversified Investments And Income Streams with Higher Upsides:
Millionaires prefer diversifying their investments. A vast majority of them has a huge bulk risk in their own business[es] and is looking at how to spread their wealth across different countries, real estate, and asset classes like stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, and banks.
This is to ensure that any downturn in one area, country, sector, or bank does not cause a major dent in their wealth. They understand diversification and have learned to leverage it for higher returns over time.
Never depend on a single income, make an investment to create a second source.
On top of that, some of them tend to pursue multiple income streams by investing into businesses, angel investing, venture capital funds, and more — all with the aim of getting bigger incomes and potential capital gains from their investments.
I’ve meet hundreds of millionaires and learned valuable millionaire life lessons from them first-hand on and off my job as their wealth manager. Click To Tweet10. Making And Having Time:
Millionaires understand that without time, money has no value.
Their days have 24 hours like yours!
It’s all about making time work for you and not the other way around.
They know how to manage their time efficiently and maximize the available hours in a day by delegating tasks and outsourcing jobs that don’t require direct attention from them.
For them, time is precious, they make sure to install gate keepers and spam filters such as their executive assistant team. They shield themselves from external disturbances as well as they can and are very intentional about how they allocate their time.
They wisely balance their health and social life along with work.
11. Astronomical Goals:
It comes as no surprise that millionaires have big dreams and they strive to achieve them.
They are financial imagineers!
They set goals that are inspiring, yet seemingly out of reach so they can push themselves beyond their comfort zones, challenge their abilities, and stay focused on what matters most — having fun exploring their own potential.
Always shoot for the moon, even when you miss you’ll land amongst the stars!
12. Choose Their Friends:
Last but not least, millionaires understand the importance of having a great social circle around them with people who are like-minded and share similar interests.
You will become the average of the five people you spend most time with.
These individuals will provide support, valuable advice, resources, and connections to help them thrive in their passions and wealth-building journey.
Final Thoughts:
After having worked with many millionaires for decades, I’ve identified these 12 common traits among them which ultimately aided them in reaching financial independence and later abundance.
It took me a while too but in the meantime, I’m happy to have become one of them as well and it’s worth it.
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My key learning working with millionaires was: Every millionaire can provide a unique perspective on how to build wealth, manage money, think strategically, and make the most out of life. As long as you stay focused on your goals, take action, and never give up you can unlock your potential within just like they did.
I sincerely hope these millionaire lessons help you go and grow on your own path to financial freedom!
What millionaire lessons did I miss?
Fill me in in the comments below!
Be profitable,
Matt