UBS Group AG, a multinational investment bank, and PricewaterhouseCoopers are the latest to attempt to try to understand what makes billionaires different from the rest in a report titled, “Billionaires insights 2019.”
According to the research, these wealthy individuals possess three things that help them build and sustain their wealth. These traits are:
- An appetite for smart risk-taking
- Long term focus on their business and
- Sheer determination.
Possessing these three traits, which UBS and PwC dubbed the “billionaire effect,” helps billionaires see things differently and outperform the rest.
Explaining how these traits work, John Matthews, the Group Managing Director of UBS’ Head of Ultra High Net Worth Americas, said, “[I had a] conversation with a client talking about their success and how he has become successful with his company and his comment to me was, ‘John, I don’t think in quarters, I think in 10 years.’ It’s a different mindset.”
The research also found that companies run by billionaires tend to do twice as well as others.
“Over the 15 years to the end of 2018, billionaire-controlled companies listed on the equity market returned 17.8% versus 9.1% of the MSCI ACWI, almost twice the annualized average performance of the market,” the report stated.
The downside to being a billionaire
While having these traits makes wealthy people super successful, it could also be their Achilles’ heel.
After interviewing 21-self made billionaires over five years, entrepreneur Rafael Badziag found that “Billionaires are nonconformists who demonstrate individualism at an early age when they break more than a few rules.”
“Knowing when to make the leap versus when to run in the opposite direction often means the difference between bankruptcy and billions,” he added in his book, “The Billion Dollar Secret: 20 Principles of Billionaire Wealth and Success.”
See here for additional tips from a man who has interviewed over 150 millionaires.