What are “Rich People” REALLY Like?
Posted in Entrepreneurship
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(My conclusion, derived from years of after-school research)
Have you ever noticed when wealth-building and investment gurus say things like “what the rich do that the poor do not?”
Am I the only one who doesn’t believe that you can’t lump together all wealthy people into one category and speak for all of them? Wealthy people range anywhere from the Queen of England to Howard Hughes. How could I recommend that you “do what the wealthy do” when for some, that would involve locking yourself in a dark room for months, growing 6-inch fingernails, and urinating in glass jars?
Now I’m kidding a little, but think about it. There are absolutely some common characteristics that self-made millionaires have in common. But there are many paths a person could take to get there, so I take anything I hear with phrases like “doing what the wealthy do” with a grain of salt.
Who exactly are “The Wealthy?”
I don’t think think you can generalize any group of people, including rich people. How can you possibly speak for all of them? It’s like saying what all black people think, or what all people from Oklahoma are like.
For example, when someone says “rich people,” I like to know exactly whom they are referring to:
Rich people in this country?
Rich people who are wealthy through what means?
If a business, what industry?
How long did it take them?
What age were/are they?
What net worth–$1 Million? $10 Million? $100 Million?
If you are interested in finding out what real rich people are like, though, I can recommend 2 books to read:
Now that I think about it, though, if something works for a lot of people, it might be wise to at least consider adopting the same strategy, if nothing else as a Plan B.
2) Richistan by Robert Frank — This was written by a journalist who actually interviewed a ton of people with net worths of $10,000,000 or more and identified what they had in common. These are the “new rich” and they behave a lot more pragmatically than America’s wealthy in the past, who seemed to be a lot more restricted socially.
These books each focus on a different sub-group of wealthy people, and are both fascinating, though The Millionaire Next Door is a little long. But at least they are based on actual research on wealthy people’s demographics and actual habits and lifestyles. I recommend reading both of these books, as they offer more insight on what self-made millionaires really are like, as opposed to some guru spouting “Buy my course and start doing what ‘the wealthy’ do.”
