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Business Brilliant
Book

Business Brilliant

Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons

Lewis Schiff
HarperBusiness, 2013
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Recommendation

Wealth doesn’t occur in a vacuum. People rise from the middle class to become self-made millionaires for a reason. Although luck and good fortune play a role, successful businesspeople are remarkably similar to the average worker whose fantasies of financial independence somehow never pan out. The difference, author Lewis Schiff makes clear, is that self-made millionaires understand the principles of wealth-building and are willing to implement them. getAbstract recommends Schiff’s hard-nosed, real-world advice to those who want to get ahead.

Summary

A Cut Above

In 2006, author Lewis Schiff and wealth management consultant and coach Russ Prince conducted a survey to identify the distinguishing traits of self-made millionaires with a net worth of “between $1 million and $10 million” each. The results found striking similarities between those who rose from the middle class to attain financial success and those who stayed in the mid-income range. Nine out of 10 people graduated from college, 75% were married, nearly everyone valued “love and health” above all, and some 85% equated money with happiness.

The key difference was the millionaires’ unique understanding of the mechanics of producing wealth. Only 2% of the self-made millionaires believed the old adage that following your passion would bring you wealth. They also rejected the widely held notion that you can gain real wealth by cutting corners to save money. The millionaires’ philosophy for success arose from these principles: Own a financial stake in what you do; find investors to back you; make as many contacts as possible; and learn from your business mistakes.

Self-made millionaires’ wealth-building practices had little in common with traditional ...

About the Author

Lewis Schiff, co-author of The Middle Class Millionaire and The Armchair Millionaire, is the executive director of the Inc. magazine’s Business Owners Council.

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