“How did you become so wealthy”?

Wealthy people say this is the most popular question they get from people.

Hardly will you find a wealthy person without these attributes.

1. They believe in divine providence

Providence means divine guidance or care. Some people call it divine providence, some schools of thought call it wisdom, foresight, luck, fate, etc.

The laws that govern nature’s activity reflect the divine providence, ensuring the stability and order of nature. These insights and associated tools can therefore support providence and exploration with either least or specific design decision commitments.

The Yoruba believes that the supreme essence or force from which all creation emanated is recognized as Olodumare or Olorun which means ‘Owner of Heaven’ or ‘Lord of Heaven’, ‘The Supreme Head of all divinities’. Olodumare is the author and source of all living things and the foundation from which men derive their soul and life-sustaining breath –  and from him all divine providence emerge. Hence the word is referred to as a divine order born by the supernatural union of life that resulted in the source of the everlasting providence as well as an active movement of divine power

2. They are educated

Financial literacy cannot be overemphasized. If you must start the wealth creation journey, you must be educated. I am not talking about formal education here, I mean financial education, being prudent with money, and learning the tips of building wealth. If you have been following this column you would have mastered a lot of the tips we have learnt here and applied them.

3. They are exposed

Be open to learning. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” That witticism—I’ll call it “Einstein Insanity”. They are not rigid. They travel wide, learn new things.

4. They are skilled and have an entrepreneurial spirit

An entrepreneur combines the factors of production (land, labour and capital) to create products; services, and job opportunities. The average entrepreneur sees opportunities that others do not perceive or care about and uses relevant data and information to create something new. Entrepreneurship is one of the keys to wealth creation.

5. They have mentors

Mentoring is also an important key to wealth creation. Look out for a business owner, someone who is in the same business field or similar line. Someone that has been successful in business, someone who has successfully built a business from the scratch and grown. Not just anyone with lots of cash with no record of building a business. Don’t just pick anyone with lots of cash, because wealth creation is much more than having loads of cash. Find yourself a mentor who has experiences that can challenge and encourage you. Someone that can show you his/her failures and success.

While compatibility is important, it’s also helpful to think about how a mentor can help you grow in new ways. If you have a business/ professional challenge or weakness, a skill you are looking to master, try to find someone who has mastered that. A mentor can help you grow in that area by giving you the specific tips and resources that their own personal experience has given them.

What took a mentor twenty years to achieve; you can achieve in 7 to 10 years with the right mentor.

6. They never give up.

They never back down in the face of challenges. In fact wealthy people love challenges; because they believe that is their source of direction.

Jeff Bezoz’s quote “I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”

“Always see challenges as opportunities in disguise. It’s not really about how much we possess, but rather how well we manage and use what we are entrusted with.” – quote from Folorunsho Alakija

7. They take risks.

“ The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” (Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg).

8. They are hard-working.

If you must embark on the wealth creation journey, you must dedicate yourself to the life of hard work. There is no shortcut.

“I enjoy myself a lot but I derive more joy in working. I believe in hard work and one of my business success secrets is hard work. It’s hard to see a youth that will go to bed by 2am and wake up by 5am. I don’t rest until I achieve something.” –Aliko Dangote

9. They are patient.

Some of them have built businesses from the scratch for over 50 years and they are still working.

“I built a conglomerate and emerged the richest black man in the world in 2008 but it didn’t happen overnight. It took me 30 years to get to where I am today. Youths of today aspire to be like me but they want to achieve it overnight. It’s not going to work. To build a successful business, you must start small and dream big. In the journey of entrepreneurship, tenacity of purpose is supreme.” – Aliko Dangote

10. They invest in relationships.

Wealthy people are well connected and intentionally invest in relationships in their lives. They believe in relationships and invest in them. They understand the power of their network, as the popular cliché – Your network is your net worth. They don’t just look for where to grab from someone and go; they sincerely invest their money, time, resources in people. Pay it forward and leverage relationships. Keep in touch with former colleagues and alums. They are strategic and create diverse networks. A strong network is like money in the bank. Your network can help you build visibility, connect you with influencers, and open up doors for new opportunities.

Wealthy people respect individuals, they don’t look down on anyone, no matter their social level or capacity.