4 Success Tips from Accomplished Millionaires (and a Bonus!)

We are living in Startup Era! It’s never been easier for both white and blue collar employees to quit their jobs and start their own entrepreneurship project. When you decide to start your own business, it’s very important to listen to more experienced entrepreneurs and follow their advice on various business and life matters. Here are some of the best tips from some of the most influential millionaires.

Chris Gardner: “…Here’s the secret to success: find something you love to do so much, you can’t wait for the sun to rise to do it all over again.”

Chris Gardner’s success story is proof that the American Dream is still alive, at least for one in a million people who are persistent enough to get it. Gardner is definitely one of those people. You probably know him from his highly-praised book called Pursuit of Happyness (purposely misspelled) and the movie with a same name where his role is played by Will Smith. Gardner gave a great influential interview to Forbes’ contributor Carmine Gallo. He stated that he spends more than 60 hours a week on his business, but he doesn’t work for a minute. Instead of working hard, he learns, researches, speaks, writes, shares information and does a whole list of other things that make him joyous.

Timothy Sykes: “Be Safe”

Timothy Sykes is a penny stock millionaire. This means he’s very familiar with business risk, but even in the penny stock market, traders need to play safe from time to time. They should know that a huge part of great deals offered through e mails, social networks and cold calls are scams. Each business offer needs to be evaluated by conducting elaborate research. Sykes knows this and it helped him to create a perfect exit strategy and come out from the notorious Dot-com bubble crash, financially unharmed.

Steve Jobs: Seven Rules of Success

People often ask me why I put Steve Jobs’ citations in every article about influential millionaires that I write. It’s simply because Jobs spent a big part of his life in influencing others and creating what we know today as the Startup Era. Without Jobs’ advice many of our top entrepreneurs would still work 9 to 5 jobs and go to sleep each night with a conviction that their dreams would never be accomplished. That’s why I present to you, Steve Jobs’ Seven Rules of Success:

1. “Do what you love.” Same as Chris Gardner, Jobs also thought that a huge part of success lies in passion.
2. “Put a dent in the universe.” Entrepreneur needs to believe in his/her vision.
3. “Make connections.” This doesn’t only stand for business connections, but also for connections with other cultures and experiences.
4. “Say no to 1,000 things.” Jobs discontinued several hundred Apple products, just to put the most skillful employees on the dozen products Apple he believed in. You simply need to say No to things you don’t like.
5. “Create insanely different experiences.” Everywhere you look, from iPhone and desktops to the Apple store, you see innovative and different things and experiences you never had before.
6. “Master the message.” Jobs knew that marketing is the only thing that can make products sell.
7. “Sell dreams, not products.” Good products are the ones that help consumers reach their dreams.

Marissa Mayer: “I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.”

I know that most of you expected to see quotes from Warren Buffett and Donald Trump in this article, but I decided to focus on entrepreneurs, who are ‘one of us.’ These are people who served as inspirations and examples to college kids and corporate workers from cubicles. Marissa Mayer is definitely one of those people. The road to becoming one of the most influential businesswoman in the world led her through Stanford University, to being the key spokesperson of Google and becoming a president and CEO of Yahoo. During all this time she knew that the key to success lies in pushing yourself to go beyond levels of comfort.

Bonus

Charles Foster Kane: “You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn’t been very rich, I might have been a really great man.”

Citizen Kane is a fictional story about a millionaire who closely resembles William Randolph Hearst. This is one of the best films ever made, which offers a great portrayal of early American millionaires from the era preceding the stock market crash and Great Depression. Charles Foster Kane suffers all his life, despite his massive riches. He still recalls his childhood dreams and opportunities he missed.

Today’s millionaires don’t have these problems. New (more relaxed) business models and advanced technology have brought plenty of benefits. So now even the biggest and the most responsible entrepreneurs live their life to the fullest and are capable of making all of their childhood dreams come true.

Author: Nate M. Vickery is a business consultant and Editor-in-chief at bizzmarkblog.com. His fields of expertise are company management and efficient work environment through latest technology trends.