There are usually misconceptions about the habits of rich people. You may have heard some of these misconceptions from certain motivational speakers. I remember hearing one say “if you sleep more than three hours every day, you’ll never be rich!” This may debunk some of those misconceptions.
We’ve also seen people say that those who are wealthy were just lucky! Making money is not magic and it’s not ritual, it is based on principles. All the known billionaires in the world are not money ritualists, you only get to see that in Nollywood movies. Money doesn’t answer to rituals, it answers to principles.
The world is about 7 billion people but there are only 2,000+ billionaires. Let’s see what some of their routine and habits are like.
They sleep between 6 – 7 hours.
Billionaires do not work all day, they could work late into the night, sleep well and still wake up early but not so early.
- Bill Gates sleeps around midnight and wakes up at 7 am. This means he sleeps for a total of 7 hours.
- Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple sleeps around 9.30 pm and wake up at 4.30 am which is also a total of 7 hours.
- Elon Musk sleeps around 1 am and wakes up around 7 am which gives him a total of 6 hours sleep per night.
- Jeff Bezos sleeps around 10 pm and wakes up around 5 am which gives him a total of 7 hours sleeps.
This seems to be the norm among so many successful and richest people in the world. Unlike many motivational speakers would tell you, successful people sleep well and wake up early.
They keep fit
Nobody actualizes vision on the hospital bed even when they have already developed an automated system that works independently every day. However, successful and wealthy people have been noticed to take fitness as a priority. Some of them also eat selectively.
- Mark Zuckerberg works out at least three times a week and it is usually the first thing he does when he wakes up. He also feels breakfast is a small decision and therefore don’t spend time on planning what to eat, he eats what he feels like eating.
- Bill Gates starts off his day with an hour on the treadmill while fixing his eyes on educational videos. Bill Gates is given to diet coke that he could take up to four can every day. He uses exercise to make up for his poor diet.
- Elon Musk is a very busy man but he still takes on swimming, playing tennis and working out at the gym regularly. Musk doesn’t pay attention to breakfast, he eats Mars Chocolate when he has to, probably all for the love of Mars. He has also said “I’m trying to cut down on sweet stuff, and I should have an omelette and coffee,”
- Jeff Bezos who works out with resistance training every day takes time to eat “convenience” and non-fatty foods.
They do not all do the same thing, they chose what they love to do and keep fit with it. We have also noticed that they do not depend on diet pills, they rather work it out.
They spend time reading
The richest men in the world spend their time differently. They don’t spend quality time on social media and they are very much intentional of how they use their resources. Most billionaires are readers!
- Mark Zuckerberg reads a book every two weeks. His choice of books is sometimes complex and voluminous like Sapiens, one of the most popular books in Silicon Valley. He reads about 50 books every year.
- Mark Cuban, another popular American billionaire spends three hours everyday reading. This means that in a year, he spends about 1,000 hours to read. We could say he reads about 200 books every year.
- According to Elon Musk’s brother, Elon Musk grew up reading two books every day. He also learnt Rocket Science by reading textbooks. Elon Musk was not a rocket scientist by training, he simply “read books”.
- Jeff Bezos is a passionate reader. He has a personal reading list which is considered a must-do for Amazon employees and executives.
No wonder, most rich people spend less time on Social Media but spend more time reading other successful people’s biographies and other materials and learning.
They are disciplined
Most successful and wealthy people in the world are very disciplined. Their results alone are great proof of their discipline. It takes a great deal of discipline to be able to achieve success and hold on to it.
This discipline reflects in everything they do. Elon Musk developed an interest in computing at the age of 10 and taught himself programming. At 12, Musk was already developing video games and selling codes. Many years later, Musk learnt rocket science all by himself by reading books. Whatever Musk became today was not by mistake, he was disciplined.
Many top billionaires have not only had successful businesses, they have also had successful families and have learnt to spend time with family rather than spend it on frivolities.
They take risks
Yes, risk is another profound habit of billionaires. As it takes the unconventional to become successful in this highly competitive world that is saturated with ideas, successful and wealthy people are always willing to take risks to kickstart those ideas. While many people don’t take risks as a result of fear, successful people become successful because they are not afraid of failure.
- Elon Musk spends most of his time taking big risks. I think his name should be a synonym of risks. We can’t chronicle his risks in this post. He said “…this is ridiculous. Creating a rocket company has to be one of the dumbest and hardest ways to “make money”. If it was about money, I’d just do another Internet company.”
- Bill Gate is a man of risk. In 1975 he dropped out of Havard University to focus on Microsoft. In 2008, he left Microsoft to focus full-time on Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gate said “to win big, you sometimes have to take big risks. Well private money can take risks in a way that government money often isn’t willing to”
- Jeff Bezos wrote “As a company grows, everything needs to scale, including the size of your failed experiments. If the size of your failures isn’t growing, you’re not going to be inventing at a size that can actually move the needle.” This clearly shows how Jeff Bezos is taking risks.
While risk is important for success and is usually key, it has to be calculated. Bill Gate said, “Whether we invest $100,000 or $100 million, the decision is always calculated.”
They are not conventional
Most world billionaires are not conventional thinkers. We use the word “most” because we don’t want to assume we’ve known all but for all that I have seen, none thinks conventionally. Just Apple logo alone was birth by unconventional ideas.
Sometimes we wonder why the rich keep getting richer. It is because the same mindset that made them rich keeps making them richer. They know when to break the rules.
- While people save money so that they can become rich someday, successful people take risks and invest their money. Whether they succeed or fail, they pick up lessons.
- Successful people do not see money as the goal, they see it as a tool of reaching their goals. Many successful people were not even after the money, they were after their passion.
- While pleasure is great, the richest people in the world are often not known for pursuing pleasures, their pleasure is in staying relevant, do big things, creating new stuff and achieving more.
Successful people do not always play by the rules, the create the rules.
They are investors
Rich people and wealthy businesses invest a lot, they pay attention to assets and equity and they see everything as something that can be sold or bought. Most businessmen do not solely own their businesses. They sell off parts of their businesses in shares to investors and also invest in other businesses.
- Bill Gates only own about 4.5% of Microsoft. Sounds small but that is about 330 million shares worth $55 billion. He owns shares in other businesses including Coca-Cola, Walmart, Exxon Mobil Corp, Apple, etc.
- Elon Musk founded X which merged with PayPal. He sold his shares later. He founded and owns 20.8% per cent of Tesla and 54% of SpaceX. Google also invested in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and owns about 10% of the private company. Elon Musk owns shares in DeepMind Technologies, The Boring Company and so on.
- Facebook didn’t create WhatsApp, Instagram some other products, they simply bought it. Google didn’t create Youtube or Android, they simply bought it!
These patterns repeat among all top richest men and businesses in the world. They don’t just invest, they also invest in rival businesses like we see Bill Gate owning shares in Apple, a clear rival.
There are many more habits of the richest people in the world but we believe that these few we have shared are profound and worth sharing.
