Market Magic

Wanna be a billionaire? Emulate these 10 habits

BARUN JHA
INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2005 01:04:52 AM]


Money makes millionaires and billionaires, but it is their habits that give them superhuman status.

It is commonly said that people form habits and habits form futures. This adage holds true for the rich and mighty of this world as well. Moreover, when excellence becomes a habit, even an ordinary human being transforms into owner of large fortunes.

But the "habits form futures" rule does not necessarily hold true for the rich and famous. This turns out to be other way round in a number of cases as well and the phenomenal fortunes established by them lead to millions of billion-dollar habits.

Forget the millions of the individual habits and let's focus on just ten for now, which are among the most common ones in this elite club.

Hog the limelight

Anyone who has got money, and cupboards full of money at that, automatically becomes habitual of the arc lights, intentionally or unintentionally. However, the former is the case in most instances. Whatever a billionaire does is news – be it something extra-ordinary and out of the way or something that’s very ordinary that even the lesser mortals do.

The result is that when steel baron Lakshmi Mittal arranges a wedding ceremony of the size and glamour unheard of ever, the international media rushes to grab bytes. The same is true when airline tycoon Richard Branson rides an elephant during a visit to India -- it's there on front page of almost all the magazines and newspapers.

Writing books, especially the ones that are autobiographical in nature or are modelled on wealth-creation tips, is one of the most common habits witnessed among the rich and mighty people. Donald Trump’s Four Tips (Trumpisms), HL Hunt’s How to Become a Billionaire, J Paul Getty’s Eight Wealth Building Secrets and John D Rockerfeller’s Wealth Building Habits for Kids are just a few to name. No surprise, all the books penned by billionaires are instant bestsellers and the writers consolidate their position even further in the celebrity circles.

Play to win
The billionaires' interest in gambling-style card games appears hardly surprising due to the common skills required for calculating the odds of gaining a winning hand in both business and games. Moreover, most of the successful people on earth are know to possess an ability to read the pack, forecast the trends and understand the next move of their competitors before they make it.

Poker and bridge are two favourites most followed by the rich and famous of this world. No wonder, the owners of PartyGaming, the world's largest operator of online poker game PartyPoker, have themselves made large fortunes. Incidentally, the promoters and owners of the company are two Indian IT professionals and a Californian porn actress.

Among other card game-loving billionaires, Microsoft's Bill Gates, US-based oil baron Haroldson LaFayette Hunt, John Kluge, Kirk Kerkorian, Carl Icahn and Warren Buffet are just a few among many. Gates is said to have devoted a large part of his college-life to playing poker, while poker-made fortunes helped kick start the awesome fortunes created by Icahn and Kerkorian. Buffet moved one step further and has played on the Corporate America bridge team, which was a group of CEOs that used to play against opponent teams such as one of members of the British parliament.

Have got money, spend it
Can one care to lose a few millions when that can be raised in a matter of hours? HL Hunt might have utilised his poker-raised fortunes to support his family after losing two consecutive crops to floods in the 19th century and Kirk Kerkorian might have parlayed his poker winnings for bankrolling the launch of his first charter airline. But, gambling and games like poker and bridge are not always meant to raise funds for this elite class. The also love to play just for the sake of playing and to quench their spendthrift instincts. It never matters if they lose some millions to this habit, as did Australia's Kerry Packer some years back in a Las Vegas casino. It was just below $100 mn, which must have been raised again within days.

Marry and raise kid-billionaires
Habits are formed by repetition of particular acts and therefore even marriage and raising kids can be effectively classified as a habit of billionaires. Rarely one comes to know of a billionaire who has not married and has not given his name to more than one. HL Hunt had six children from his first wife. Still married, the oil baron married for a second time and had four children. After the death of his first wife, he went through the ritual and adopted four children of his third wife. Later it was disclosed that he was actually the biological father of the four.

Among other biggest billionaires in this world, Bill Gates, Lakshmi Mittal, Warren Buffet, Steven Spielberg, and Mexico's Carlos Slim Helu have all at least two children. And here we are only talking of those marriages and children that have legal sanctions.

You like it! Money can buy it
Movie mogul Steven Spielberg has a sweet tooth for anything related to films. He has himself got a number of Oscar statuettes, but still he bought Bette Davis' Best Actress trophy for $578,000 and Clark Gable's Oscar for $607,500. Oprah Winfrey has a penchant for Jimmy Choo shoes, which are said to be among the costliest in the world. The passion for high-flying designer labels, latest gizmos, adventurous holidays and anything that is beyond a common man's dreams is hardly a surprising habit among the billionaire club members.

Can't buy the Taj Mahal? Just clone it
Bunty and Babli managed to sell the Taj Mahal to a firang who wanted to present it to her fiance as a wedding gift. The billionaires might be college and school dropouts, but they do not belong to a dumb-and-dumber society who fall prey to such kind of pranks. They have acquired enough knowledge in the process of building their empire to understand what can be bought and what can not be. But who cares if some things can not be purchased in the original. He will go for a replica made of ice, wax or anything else, be it the Taj or Eiffel Tower, in the backyard of his mansion and will use it to propose to his new-found love.

In the process, his other habits also get fulfilled. The replica would become news; it would acquire a monument-like status itself and could be used to generate revenues, the wish to get a new family would be fulfilled and the whole exercise would obviously cost quite a fortune.

A ranch on earth, a jet in the sky
Billionaires just love to fly in their own jet to their very own personal ranch to spend a weekend. The ranch syndrome has become rather infamous after the Michael Jackson trial, in which Waco Jacko was prosecuted for child abuse at his Neverland ranch. However, the pop star's victory in the case has kept the must-own-a-ranch habit well in the good books of the rich and famous.

Among other billionaire ranch owners, George Lucas of Star Wars fame owns a 5,000-acre Skywalker Ranch worth more than $50 mn. Among the high-flying elite, Steven Spielberg has his own Gulfstream IV jet worth nearly $50 mn, while Oprah Winfrey also possesses a jet worth nearly $50 mn in her name.

Believe in it! Risk all for it
History proves bigger the risk, larger the chances of making it big. No wonder, most of the world's largest billionaires today are owners of self-made fortunes. Microsoft's Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Paul Gardner Allen believed in the power that was to be called Microsoft. The believed it would monopolise the world of computing and they reaped the fortunes consequently. This has been the case with most of the successful billionaire entrepreneurs.

Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway, who is regarded as the world's most successful investor, is known for his conservative investment style. But he also takes big risks, but his risks are much more calculated and a lot must be attributed to his capability to read the odds correctly that translate into big successes, which eventually makes his style of investing appear conservative in nature.

Show your love for mankind
It's not always splurging on lifestyle, luxuries, glamour and superhuman activities for the elite club. They also love to extend their support for causes that help the mankind. Come a tsunami and the billionaires are never left behind in standing up for the cause. Spielberg donated $1.5 mn to a tsunami relief fund, Gates constantly provides financial assistance to various governments and organisations for advancement of information technology across the world and Oprah is said to reserve 10 per cent of her annual income for various foundations and provides all-expense paid vacations to all her employees every Christmas.

The billionaires rarely miss any chance whenever there is a calamity anywhere in the world. Cynics would say that billionaires primarily target the tax-breaks through their philanthropic nature. Even if a secondary task, giving away millions in charily is not something ordinary.

And not-so-billionaire habits
‘Living life king size’ is not always the mantra for billionaires. They possess ordinary habits as well. But, the irony is these ordinary habits grab even more attention, as these people are not lifeless ordinary beings and nothing can be ever ordinary about them.

The greatest geek Gates has the dorkiest haircut that money can buy and has often driven his own car. Moreover, Gates loves to eat Happy Meals at McDonalds and is known for tipping badly. Warren Buffet used to drive a beat-up car for a long time, rather than the snazzy set of wheels one would think of. Ingvar Kamprad, who made a fortune with his furniture company Ikea, always preferred to travel economy class despite all the fortunes accumulated by him. The largest surprise comes in the form of the Saudi billionaire, Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud, who unlike many Arab royals with several wives has married just once. Nearer home in India, OP Jindal, the billionaire chairman of the Jindal group of companies, has always been known for his frugality and down-to-earth habits.

And then did you hear of one of Hyderabad’s Nizam, at that time one of the richest in the country, who smoked the cigarettes stubbed by his guests?

Some one said rightly, “Make good habits and they will make you.” And success is certainly one of the most common habits practised by the billionaire tribe and this habit makes them what they are.

posted by Arhaan @ 10:10 AM