Last week we talked about an essential trait of top-tier entrepreneurs: a trait without which all of a person’s other qualities would be useless for succeeding in business. This time, John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen, authors of The Self-Made Billionaire Effect, looked into the “mental habits” of 120 self-made billionaires and found a characteristic that would explain why these people manage to create a life full of wealth while everyone else can’t.
The authors admit that they expected to find common elements in the billionaires’ external circumstances, even though the people they chose for their study came from humble families and had not inherited their wealth.
Although there are 4 very striking differences between the way the rich think and the way everyone else does, these authors found something they call “dual-mindedness”.
Every self-made billionaire has been able to create this duality between imagination and madness.
Dual-mindedness is the ability to imagine something bigger, while other people see things only for what they think they are.
“Billionaires develop this mental habit in which they imagine something new, bring together the right people and the resources to create it, and then sell it to customers who didn’t know they needed it.”
Unlike self-made billionaires, everyone else tries to succeed within the existing system and structure. Their business model may be very profitable and may lead them to success, but there is a catch with their strengths: most people use their talent to reach the top level within a defined environment.
See also: Tony Robbins’ 13 best money tips for reaching your goals
In other words, ordinary people play by the established rules, within an established system, and try to reach the top of an established level, while billionaires create their own rules, create their own system, and there is no limit to how high they can go. You can always go higher. They are never satisfied. They always want more. They never reach a final goal.
(Read: Why success doesn’t exist for successful people)
So if we combine the previous trait, the ability and the obligation to take risks, with this other characteristic (dual-mindedness), we have the 2 essential ingredients for succeeding in business.
(Read: 10 ways the rich think differently)
As the saying goes, the only thing that separates a madman with an idea from a successful person is the result once the business idea has been carried out.
Many of these billionaires’ ambitions may have made them look like madmen with too many castles in the air, but it is that zone between imagination and madness that has made it possible for companies to exist today with a market capitalisation never seen before in the whole history of business.
See also: The 32 rules for becoming a successful entrepreneur
Featured image: Anders Zorn, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
