I’ve met and worked with countless high-net-worth individuals. Over the years, I’ve noticed some consistent patterns amongst them and it’s enabled me to pinpoint six skills that every future millionaire must master. When you build on these six skills, you’ll set a foundation for the life that you want to have. Once you incorporate these skills into your daily interactions, you’ll be on your way to achieving your financial goals.
Persuasion
Persuasion is the ability to convince someone to see things in the way that you want them to. When you’re starting out in real estate investing, the most important person you need to persuade is yourself. You have to believe that you can accomplish what you’ve set out to do and persuade yourself to keep moving forward, especially when you start entertaining self-doubts. You have to have the ability to persuade investors to invest in you and employees to work for you. Persuading is not pressuring or distorting the truth, it is a form of selling. Therefore, if you develop an ability to be persuasive, you’ll be a good salesperson.
Reading People
Reading people is a very important skill. You need to be able to have good instincts about people and knowing whom you can trust. Being able to read your investors and your customers, including being able to pick up on nonverbal cues or the unspoken message of what they’re telling you, is a priceless skill. It will increase your ability to know when your investors need to feel assured in their investment. Developing the ability to be preemptive about understanding your customer’s needs will foster an ability to give them what they want before they even have to ask for it. Being ahead of the game is a great way to make sure that you never fall behind.
Share the Wealth
Sharing your wealth is a very important skill to maintain throughout your life. There are countless ways that you can use this skill, whether it’s by sharing your wealth in monetary or time contributions. That can mean giving to charity, being generous with your employees or independent contractors, mentoring someone, or letting people test your products for free. I never worry that I’m giving too much. There’s a pragmatic advantage of sharing the wealth, which is that it can help you build a reputation and referral source from clients, but I also enjoy giving and sharing. Otherwise, you’re just accumulating wealth without using it to make a difference.
Leverage
Real estate investing is all about relationships and being able to leverage them. I’m not talking about using people, but instead, including them in win-win partnerships that they will want to be excited about. Leverage is more than just about how they can help you, but also how you can help them. You cannot leverage on only one side of the playing field. You have to be willing to give as much as you get.
Problem Solving
You have to be able to solve problems rationally. When you’re a new investor, it’s easy and common to be unduly swayed by roadblocks. Don’t be. Real estate investing is all about persevering beyond roadblocks. You have to learn to calmly handle these problems as they come up. If you cannot learn to address problems, then over time they’ll start to have an effect on your business. Real growth occurs from being able to face problems as they arise.
Saying No
You have to be willing to say “no” more than you say “yes.” There is a guilt that can sometimes come up when we say no to things, whether it’s out of a sense of wanting to be helpful to others or an erroneous belief that we should be jumping at every opportunity. You have to remember that your time is valuable and you need to give your time to the things that are consistently making you money. This is why it is an important skill to know when to say no and stick to that as your answer.
Conclusion
So those are the six skills that I’ve seen firsthand in the majority of wealthy people. Don’t worry if any of them feel counterintuitive at first. Stay focused on them over the years, and they will help you grow your business and your life.
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Until Next Time,
Ken
