Secrets of Financial Success From Money Magazine

The September issue of Money Magazine featured an section which included interviews wealthy people from around the U.S., What It Takes to be Rich. (This is similar to Thomas Stanley's The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind. Apparently, millionaires are able to make their own luck, as described in a 2003 article by Richard Wiseman called The Luck Factor. Wealthy people:

• listen to their intuition
• have positive expectations, creating self-fulfilling prophecies
• are resilient and are able to transform bad luck into good

More than half of the wealthy people interviewed had started their own business. My wife did this five years ago but it's been a challenging road to make it work. I tried working for myself a few years ago while in between full time employment but found that I preferred working full time. It does seem, however, that the financial rewards are potentially much greater when you are in control of your own destiny.

Unlike a key principle of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, the Money Magazine feature claimed that you don't need a burning desire to get rich to be successful. As probably my wife would agree who is a resume writer and career coach, rich people first "chase their passion." Sadly, many people go through life not knowing what their passion is, or having the courage to go after it.