Just What Exactly Does it Take to Be A Billionaire?

Be a man – If you want to be a billionaire, make sure you were born a man. It seems that out of the 678 self-made billionaires, only 15 are women. And, out of that 15, only 4 are American. It seems that even in the world of the very rich, it is still a man's world. The hard truth is that even in this day and age, women make less on average than men and they also have more difficulties raising venture capital to fund their start-up.

 

Be born in September – Wow, I've got that one covered. It seems that out of the 678 richest people, 64 have September birthdays. Does this mean Virgos have better odds of success with start-ups? I don't know, but it is interesting to note that September and October are the most popular birth months. This might have something to do with it being 9 months after Christmas and New Years.

 

Live in California – The west coast can brag that they are home to 71 billionaires, including the Facebook billionaires, the guys that started Google and many others. The second most popular state for the super rich is New York, with Manhattan being home to 49 self-made billionaires.

 

Be a baby boomer – There are people who have made their fortunes before they turned 30, but it seems that the average age in America is 66. If you include all of the self-made billionaires, then the average drops to 62.2.

 

Get into the Ivy League – This seems like a no-brainer. 18% of Americas richest received undergraduate degrees from Ivy League schools. 14 went to Harvard, the Wharton School and Yale tied with 7 each. While not technically an Ivy League school, Stanford can boast about the fact that 7 billionaires are among their graduates.

 

Get a job on Wall Street – When all is said and done, it looks like Wall Street is still the best place to make your fortune. Although the tech industry start-ups get more attention, 80 of the billionaires worked in finance, or finance related fields.

 

Fail, and then fail again – At last, another quality I share with the super rich! Many of the self-made billionaires on the list have been broke, homeless, couch surfing and living in their cars while they were trying to get their business up and running. The thing that sets them apart is that even though they fail, they kept on trying. Donald Trump declared bankruptcy and lots of debt in the 90's. Steve Jobs dropped out of college because he couldn't afford the tuition, he started Apple and then watched as it failed. Most people would have given up at that point and tried something else, but he fought back and believed in his company. Now he is the 42^nd richest person in America.

 

Take your company public – While there are many private companies that are worth billions, the majority of people with start-up companies make their fortunes when they take their companies public. Selling stock in your successful company is the best way to make a fortune overnight.