About how the average millionaire made his fortune
Who wants to become a millionaire? The answer is – practically everybody. But, how many millionaires are there in the world already? The answers are a lot less clear on that one.
In 2021 the number of millionaires in the world reached about 56 million. Which makes me ask myself how did all those guys earn their money? The answer to this question however surprised me a lot, and I am sure it will surprise you too!
What is an average millionaire?
an average millionaire is just a normal person with more than average money. Besides that, he is a person, who doesn’t have a lot of fame, like for example Elon Musk (which is also one of the many reasons why Elon definitely isn’t an average millionaire/billionaire).
Statistics About Millionaires
- There are 56.1 million millionaires worldwide at the moment.
- The number of billionaires in 2021 reached a new, all-time high: 2,755 individuals.
- One hundred billionaires live in Beijing, 99 in New York.
- 88% of all millionaires are self-made, and 84% have a college degree.
- It takes the typical self-made millionaire at least 32 years to get rich.
56 million millionaires are a lot of people, and knowing that all of them have at least a million dollars in their bank account makes this statistic even more impressive. I know that you probably want to be one of them in the future (Else you probably wouldn’t read this). So you have spent some time philosophizing about how you are going to become it, too, just like I do. A lot of people, however, think that you need a super complex and innovative startup to become rich or just a lot of luck. But recently I have heard interviews with average millionaires, and what they said about how to become rich surprised me:
You don’t need a fancy startup or an amazing business idea to become rich.
Most of them said that the reason why they are rich isn’t that they had a mind-boggling idea and build a successful company around it. Instead, most of them said something different. They said that:
You need to pick one thing and become the best at it.
Although this is quite simple, I didn’t believe it myself at first. I mean: how can it be true that I don’t need a company to become rich? All rich people I know from the internet (and therefore all rich people I know) have their own company or maybe even multiple companies. I made the mistake a lot of people make. I assumed that the things I knew from a few famous individuals automatically apply to all people in the same group as they are in.
After some time, however, it started making sense to me. You will understand it too if you think about how many important and therefore well-paid positions are out there in every single company. This is why the owner is never the only person making a lot of money in a company. He might be the one who makes the most, but this doesn’t mean that there can’t be someone making a lot of money besides him.
This is the reason why you don’t need your own company to become rich, however, it is exactly this, that we tend to assume when thinking about rich people. A stereotype like this is very dangerous because it can lead people to ruining their lives. Some think that they need their own company, which is why they even start with a bad business idea. In the long term, this leads to them going bankrupt because no matter how good you are as an entrepreneur if you have a company with a bad idea at its core it will fail no matter what you do.
Think of the company as the house and the idea as the house’s foundation. No matter how beautiful you paint the house or how nice you decorate it if the foundation is badly made, the house will inevitably collapse when the next storm comes.
I hope I could teach you a lesson because you don’t need a company to become rich. You can also become successful without one. What matters much more, in the end, is that you follow some key principles:
- You work hard (discipline).
- You stay consistent with what you do (consistency).
- You do everything in your power (dedication) to become the greatest at what you do (greatness).