Posted on: April 1st, 2021
We have seen that many of the Super Rich (with a net worth of $500 million or more) are business owners or executives in charge of companies. And in our experience, creating truly great wealth often requires taking business risks.
How people view business ventures—the opportunities and the risks involved—can tell a lot about their prospects for generating significant wealth. The ability to be attentive to downside risks while also being on the lookout for outsized opportunities is a learnable skill that can make a big difference to your bottom line. Another skill is understanding the advantages you possess and how to use them to make more insightful business decisions.
Here’s a look at how people with truly significant wealth tend to navigate the world of business risks—and the lessons you can learn from them.
We find that the Super Rich tend to understand their core advantages and harness them effectively. Knowing the advantages they bring to the table, they are able to evaluate opportunities to determine how their advantages can translate into above-average returns in a business endeavor.
Through determined effort and a lot of experience, the self-made Super Rich are able to fairly quickly size up situations and effectively evaluate the levels of risk involved.
There are four powerful categories of advantages (see Exhibit 4). The self-made Super Rich have worked to understand how each of these categories contributes to their success. Moreover, they are astutely aware of the elements in each category that they can capitalize on.
There are many personal qualities you might have that can potentially contribute to a company’s success and consequently your success. You may have an incredible drive to excel or a tremendous intellect or an outstanding ability to build rapport with other people. There is almost always some combination of personal attributes that define each of the self-made Super Rich—and that they strategically use to their benefit in business.
What is it about you personally that is extraordinary and can make a difference in business?
A common cornerstone to business success is whom you know and can call on. The nature and quality of your network can be instrumental to your ability to add substantial value to a business endeavor. By and large, the self-made Super Rich are remarkable networkers. They are able to call on many extremely talented people to help them in their business endeavors.
With whom can you connect for specialized information, expertise or other resources?
You might have a high-level technical proficiency that matches the needs of a certain company. You might be very adept at particular interpersonal skills, such as being a very talented negotiator. Your skill sets, when they address the needs of a business endeavor, can become a monumental advantage. The self-made Super Rich are quite familiar with their skill sets and know how they can be used to provide a competitive edge.
What high-level skills can you bring to a business endeavor?
More than ever before, brand capital can contribute to the success of a company. Being a thought leader, for example, regularly contributes amazing growth in many businesses. The self-made Super Rich are very much aware of their brand capital. They know how to continually build it and how to dexterously use it.
How can your stature be used to enhance the success of a business venture?
Most people have these types of advantages or can acquire them. But while having them is necessary, it is not enough. You also need to be keenly aware of your advantages. At the same time, you need to understand how they can be applied in specific business situations. With these insights in hand, you have to take action and systematically leverage them to your benefit.
Important: While some of the self-made Super Rich have truly exceptional insights and natural abilities—blinding brilliance or disarming charm, for example—that have enabled them to create astronomical fortunes, we find that most are highly motivated and capable individuals who work hard to build up their advantages and use them effectively.
Because they understand their advantages and how they can be capitalized, the self-made Super Rich approach a number of situations differently than do most people. In particular, they approach the nature of business ventures in a way that often leads to greater accomplishments and personal wealth. For example:
Part of the self-made Super Rich’s willingness to take on greater risk for greater reward is their belief in their ability to come back from a business failure. Believing they can bounce back gives them a mental safety net. They tend to carefully consider and evaluate their advantages in determining how fast they can recover and to what degree.
In particular, the Super Rich tend to be excellent at identifying asymmetrical opportunities—business endeavors in which they can use their advantages to create disproportionate gains. For example, by knowing their brand capital, they can ramp up revenues at a rate that would otherwise seem impossible. Another example is being able to use their networks to gather up resources at lower costs than they might otherwise have done.
With asymmetrical opportunities, risks of a business endeavor are mitigated because of the advantages enjoyed by the Super Rich. Synergies are created that meaningfully increase the probability of success—as well as potentially open the door to even greater new opportunities.
Once you recognize and understand your own advantages that you bring to a business situation, you can start putting them to work—sizing up risks, scanning for big opportunities and how you might deploy your specific advantages to improve the risk-reward profile of the venture in front of you. In the end, you should arrive at a better way to assess the possibilities for failure and success—including the likelihood that you have the opportunity to create a massive success.
This report was prepared by, and is reprinted with permission from, VFO Inner Circle. AES Nation, LLC is the creator and publisher of VFO Inner Circle reports.
Disclosure: The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra IS or Kestra AS. The material is for informational purposes only. It represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events, or a guarantee of future results. It is not guaranteed by Kestra IS or Kestra AS for accuracy, does not purport to be complete and is not intended to be used as a primary basis for investment decisions. It should also not be construed as advice meeting the particular investment needs of any investor. Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS.
Fusion Wealth Management is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS. https://www.kestrafinancial.com/disclosures
VFO Inner Circle Special Report
By Russ Alan Prince and John J. Bowen Jr.
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