What does it take to make one a billionaire?

Just how much skill does one require to be extra wealthy? What’s that extra something that they do that sets them apart from the masses.

The Billionaire Insights 2019 report by investment bank UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) revealed three distinct personality traits that explain billionaires’ success - smart risk-taking, business focus, and determination.

When it comes to taking risk, the report says, billionaire entrepreneurs have a very optimist attitude.

“They focus on risks they understand and find smart ways to reduce them,” notes the report while adding that billionaires “have an obsessive business focus constantly scanning the world for new opportunities”. They are highly resilient, undeterred by failures and roadblocks.
The report said that billionaires’ enterprises tend to have a long-term strategy.

“Like family businesses, billionaires’ enterprises tend to pursue a long-term strategy that benefits from an exceptional alignment between performance and management incentives, whether the founder remains in control or a CEO from outside the family is hired.” This, the study indicates, leads to laser-focused research and development, concentrated on products most likely to create future value as well as investment in the workforce.

The report further states that billionaire businesses often lead the way because they understand their customers and innovate relentlessly.

The UBS and PWC report mirrors that of several studies that have established that the super-wealthy have unique traits and approaches that set them apart from ordinary people.

Steve Siebold, who interviewed wealthy people around the world, and wrote the book How Rich People Think established that the main difference between the rich and the poor boils down to their mentality about money.

“Average people think money is the root of all evil. Rich people believe poverty is the root of all evil” he said.