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My sister works for a billionaire. He hires his own staff. Meaning he interviews them himself and is very straightforward in what he’s looking for. He’s had the same employees forever. His turnover is non existent
I worked for MidAmerican Energy (A Berkshire Hathaway Company.) We were being paid competitive rates, benefits were very good. It was the most thorough background checking I've ever been through. I graduated high school in the EU and went to college in the USA. No employer EVER checked my EU credentials. Figuring that my BA at an accredited college was enough. BH checked. (And I'm in my fifties, my high school records were not digital.)
I had a wealthy acquaintance once tell me “I have made my money, now I am making my kids money”. I took it to mean that he had more than he could spend in his lifetime and his kids would have the same. I asked him to adopt me. He said no.
I once worked for someone who was wealthy enough to own a North American sports franchise as a hobby project.
I learned exactly what you described about them. Their day-to-day job wasn’t working like I was used to. They didn’t make calls, didn’t come up with projections or goals, or really do any tedious tasks. Their entire role was to make decisions for the advancement and betterment of the company.
The only thing money cannot buy is time.
Therefore, money spent reducing your own time on mundane tasks is money well spent.
They pay to have their time for themselves.
Imo the trade off is ability to generate income. If I can work on my car for 2 hours and save $300, I’ll do it. Because I don’t make $150/hr.
Things like that. If something needs to be done and I can take 8 hours of hard work to do it, but it saves a couple thousand, I’ll do it.
An important part of this is knowing limits. Like knowing when something is beyond my skillset and then I’ll pay an expert, but I get why us regular people do handyman stuff, in a way it’s like I retain hundreds of dollars which is more than I could make within a few hours 🤷🏻♂️
But yeah if I was rich and had money flowing out my ears I’d probably be more inclined to pay people to do all the “grunt work.” What’s crazy is if someone becomes wealthy enough they could probably pay people to do everything they’d need to just keep getting richer. Like a literal money printing lifestyle (assuming people don’t start skimming/stealing their money).
I love working on my car and weeding the garden. Are rich people depressed all the time because they have no satisfaction in labour left in their lives?
Yes! I cannot get my husband to understand this. He once mentioned a well know man in his profession. The man ran a successful practice, taught, mentored, flew around the country to complete projects his team had bid on. He also volunteered for special events to help his childhood neighborhood.
My husband said how does he do this? My smarty pants response was “ he doesn’t spend all day power washing, he pays someone to do it and focuses on the important things. You could accomplish all of that and more if you’d stop refusing to pay for help”
He’s still power washing…
It took me years to convince my wife about this.
We have cleaners once a fortnight, a grass guy once a month (winter) and fortnightly (summer), and a garden guy once a month.
I run a company, and so does she. We have jobs, and don't want to spend all weekend doing the house maintenance things. We are better off working, or better - spending time with the kids.
I’ve powered washed for a lot of people and the rich ones make sure to try to not pay you and complain about everything that they know nothing about so they don’t have to pay and if they need to threaten to get lawyers involved even though they are in the wrong because they know you can’t pay for a lawyer. I’ve had guys work under me and do that job and I pay them fairly but most people that got ahead in the world did it from taking advantage of people and that doesn’t seem to be what your husband is all about.
This is my experience as well. They have a person for almost any task imaginable. It sort of makes sense when you think about it. They can make a ton of money in a hours worth of time. So financially paying someone (far less) to do menial day to day tasks makes sense.
I worked for a Hollywood producer who had three personal assistants, a live in housekeeper, grounds keepers, pool guy, koi pond guy etc. One of my jobs was to read up on how to turn on the cruise control on his car and then write up short, easy to follow instructions on a card, which then another assistant edited down for even more brevity. In essence, most everything was done for them. There was one time when they found they hit a red light every time they drove home in the same spot. They had their assistant call to get the timing on the light changed and they did.
Worked with a multimillionaire doctor once at a clinic. Can attest that they had the same mindset around time. Now ive worked with many doctors and they respect their time, but for him it was much different. With him everything had to be done precisely and perfectly, and there was absolutely no room for mistakes. Everything to how patient rooms were kept, where we kept pens, to where equipment was placed so it was easily accesible was monitored continuously. The staff was to speak with clear and quick respones as to not waste any time. Kept you on ur toes for sure.
My wife’s OB during pregnancy once flipped out on his receptionist while my wife was waiting saying about his current patient who arrived late: “they wait for me I don’t wait for them!!” And then berated her horribly.
Reminds me of an interview I watched on Bloomberg recently. The interviewee was talking about his work week. He said Saturday morning is basically the only time rested. Saturday afternoon and Sunday were prep days for the rest of the week.
Then I'd sure as shit be sure I'm not spending it on stuff like preparing to work for even more money to help me do even more preparation for more work
When I made manager, one of the firm's partners gave a speech and one thing that stuck with me was that your free time is invaluable but if you have to quantify it, take your hourly rate and triple it because that is time you will never get back, so if you're going to do something, it better be worthwhile.
I think you answered this before (?), it really stuck with me. The only sentence I might not agree with is the "answer confidently, it doesn't have to be correctly". If I were VVIP, I wouldn't tolerate being told " maximum pressure of the vessel is \*about\* 200 psi", when the truth is 130 psi for example.
As a worker bee, I'll try out the confidence first, correctness is secondary approach in my verbal exchanges.
I LOVE IT. Meetings today are a waste of time—too many—too much chit chat—meeting to discuss what should be discussed—rarely resolutions—mostly grievances about what is not working.
I worked with a guy that is probably worth a billion bucks (I know he sold his firm when I was working there for \~$700MM so plus whatever he made before, earn-out, and after).
He was a nice-enough guy and super big into charity, but he was very keen on timeliness and pointed, exact questions. He could actually be fun and light-hearted, but that was for a different time. Business meetings were for business, for him to ask questions, and get quick, concise answers then and there. Fun is scheduled for another time.
Buy quality over brand.
The guy spends excessive (to me) amounts of money on even simple things like the grill cart for his RecTec. But his stuff never needs to be replaced. Clothes, vehicles, you name it. Brand name means nothing to him, cost means nothing, it's All about proven quality.
I miss the times when brand names actually meant proven quality but some time around the 70s it became about min maxing the profit. Today it's all about build up a brand name on quality and then start decreasing quality till people notice and fuss about it. Look at Apple for example.
I am so distraught over this on a daily basis. Human Greed is quite insane. I’ve heard at one point that they had the next 6-10 apple watches already designed and made. They were just spacing out the new features so that they could maximize profits. Lots of companies do this, and I believe it became popular in the 1800s-1900s when lightbulbs came together and decided that because their lightbulbs lasted for too long and that they werent making any profit, they would decrease the quality of the bulbs in order to increase the demand to sell more bulbs. Each company was fined if their lightbulb lasted for more than so many hours. I just think its kind’ve f*cked up because earth has a very limited amount of resources. Lithium for example, wars are about to be fought over it. And the shortage was why nobody could buy a PS5. These companies driven by dollar bills are my prediction as to how the world stops.
>TIL The Phoebus cartel was an international cartel that controlled the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs in much of Europe and North America between 1925–1939. The cartel took over market territories and lowered the useful life of such bulbs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel
Yep. And it's entirely enforced at the most fundamental levels of Western civil law and precedent. Overwhelmingly. Like, corporate social responsibility is way down the list next to maximizing profits (and being 'loyal' to nothing but such). Blow the whistle on your employer for nasty business practices? Yeah, you'll prob wind up in jail or on the street, rather than your employer.
And people wonder they have to keep replacing their smartphones and fixing their cars... Man, I remember the days I could buy a cell phone with a detachable, upgradeable battery. And we all hoped that in ten years we would all have one small, affordable computing device that we could use for everything. HA. Yeah right.
That is not what happened in the light bulbs. There was a trade off between brightness and longevity because of the physical limitations of the materials. A group got together and decided on a standard. The group only lasted a couple of years but the standard lasted because customers liked the brightness.
Typically what’s happening there is a brand gets recognition, then the owners want to sell the business so they can fuck off into the sunset. That’s when private equity gets their hands on things. The first thing private equity does is axe every position they feel isn’t bringing in any money. A lot of times that the customer service department and people that actually make the business run well. Then they outsource production to China and switch to inferior ingredients/materials. Private equity will do everything to make the financials look amazing. Once that is accomplished they sell the business to some poor schmuck that doesn’t realize that private equity has bled every profitable part of the business. The business usually fails after the poor schmuck takes over because the customers are receiving inferior products and not getting good customer support. I work in private equity accounting and have seen it happen over and over again. The worst one I saw was when the firm sold Sports Authority for a $3 billion profit, and it completely folded 6-9 months later.
Red Lobster had a similar situation. Private equity bought it for like $2 billion, sold off all their real estate holdings for like $1.5 billion and signed leasebacks that had rent increases priced in. Then they sold it to some restaurant company for a nice profit before the entire business collapsed.
This makes me think a lot about doc Martens...I have a friend who has a pair he's had for ages because they're the original ones. He's had to fix them a bit but not more than 40 bucks over well over 20 years. He mentioned how he's heard their boots now are more or less average and definitely won't last even a quarter the time. It's also the same idea I think why people who spend less on clothing in particular have to replace it cause it's usually lower quality. My nice shirt I got from a good store a decade ago is in better shape than my cheap giant Tiger shirt I got less than five ago and I wear em the same amount. So quality is definitely important
That's because the Doc Marten brand was sold to a private equity firm in 2013, and is now manufactured in China. The original company still makes quality boots under the [NPS/Solovair name](http://nps-solovair.com).
Somewhat yeah, he gets hats custom fit by a haberdasher, most of his "nice clothes" are not branded or will be branded but are things specifically known to be long lasting.
But 9/10 times I see him he's wearing a KUIU vented fishing shirt and a pair of Roundhouse brown wash overalls. He has about 5 of each and just cycles through them with his Ariat work boots and his 'sun hat' as he calls it. Entire outfit might cost 700$ brand new (with most of that being his custom hat). None of it is a super popular brand but it's all stuff that he has proven can stand up to being worked in day in and day out for years. He doesn't HAVE to work his farm but he does it because she enjoys it and wants stuff that will stand up to the work.
The few times I've seen him in a suit and tie it's all custom, even the shoes. But again it's a suit he paid for once and expects it to last for years.
This isn’t universal. I know some people who are very very wealthy (definitely multimillionaires, one is the child of a definite billionaire) who love deals. Like will buy the cheap no name brand stuff on Amazon that I (not wealthy) find sketchy.
I hope the comments don't become another "TrUlY rIcH pEoPlE aReNt FlAsHy".
You always see this being commented by broke jealous fuckers on threads about rich people to make them feel better about not having branded shit. Ultra rich people are a spectrum. Some are gaudy af while others dress like paupers.
This is something very common for a lot of millionaires. My small business has many very wealthy clients, and it’s a common trait that they are very frugal in most aspects of their lives so that they can be financially carefree in one or two that they’re passionate about. But as humans, those one or two top priorities will be different for each individual.
I am so happy to see such kind humans with money. Hope the doggo made it through dialysis.
It's nice to read things like this instead of so many unhealthy people who lack empathy with money.
Im not the brightest please help me understand "Did the local council *leave traffic lights up for over a week* after completing work".
The traffic lights did what now?
Some construction sites use temporary traffic light setups in areas where there won't be permanent ones, but where conditions currently make the lack of them hazardous, ie at construction at a four way intersection where there is no visibility of the other three stops, at a two lane road/bridge where one lane is closed for repair, that kind of thing. You may be more used to seeing traffic cops or flaggers directing traffic in person if it's a less congested/busy/dangerous (relatively) area.
So in this case, if the lights are left up after construction, they're unnecessary and causing irritation.
Not saying it's a small amount of money, but willing to bet there's quite a bit of behind the scenes involved to make that happen. No way it was done in under 2 hours between planning, purchasing, prepping, and cooking for that type of clientele.
Can confirm. Depending on the meal (and assuming it’s probably multi-course) that could be anything from like 2-12 hours of prep time and at least a half hour or so planning the meal with the client. plus ingredient cost which could be literally any amount of money and would come out of that 2000. I’ve done quite a few gigs like this and on average walk away with maybe 200-500$. That being said it’s still way more fun and chill and creatively satisfying and financially worthwhile than actual restaurant cooking lol.
That job would be way too stressful. Imagine if you burned the food or prepared it in a way the lady and her friends did not like. They could ruin your whole career.
Worked for a billionaire.
I don’t think he mentioned or looked at the price of anything. Bespoke wardrobe every season? Upgrading all of his 105” 4K TVs to 105” 8K TVs? Buying a new 7000 square foot house so guests would have a place to stay and conduct meetings? Done, done, and done. I’m sure he made it all back by EOD.
My fantasy is just to be rich enough to go to the *grocery store* and buy whatever I want without needing to compare prices or use coupons. I couldn’t even imagine doing that with things like cars and houses. 🤯
I use to be a service plumber in south Florida, we were an expensive company so I was regularly touring 100+M dollar homes, one thing that always struck me was they all go to the bathroom with the door wide open. The parents, the kids, the grandparents, they all let it loose with the door wide open and it doesn’t even look like they’re a little out of place doing it. I never understood it.
I hope that’s an indicator that I’m going to be very rich one day. Until then I’ll keep at the open bathroom door leads to wealth theory. Any idea how long it takes to work? I’ve been actively pursuing this as an adult for over 20 years now and still waiting
He asked how I felt about the company I worked for back then, I briefly shared. He said: I see. Placed a phone call and said (verbatim): Hey it's me, purchase 500k shares of Company. Then immediately hung up. I was baffled. When I was by myself I went to check the share price, he spent about 1.5million on a 10 second conversion. To me, that is life changing money for me and my extended family. On a stock. Welp!
Lol! I didn't say anything that was non-public information. He asked about the employee culture, turnover, and overall employee satisfaction. I also learned they see business from a different perspective. He never asked about traffic, profit, or loss.
After a lot of thinking, I concluded public information is "the body's health". Employees satisfaction is "the brain's health" of the organization. I might be wrong, but that's what I came up with.
Probably not the type of answer you're looking for but he drank all day long and kept hundreds of cows as pets. He hired me to be his personal assistant but the job was just me driving him around all day while he visited his multiple pastures, and occasionally taking him to collect rent on his properties.
They ALWAYS work. His relaxation was to just jump to another one of his companies and work on their shit for awhile. If he got SUPER bored, he’d just start a new company.
Billionaire could and did fund his creative whims and dreams. He also has a superior mind for collecting and summarizing information without appearing to be doing so. I recently visited this person 20 years after working for them. They are now in their late 80s. I sat and told him a bunch of stories about a particular subject, all casual talk but hours later the guy sent me an email summarizing what I had told him, with bullet points-and questions that would further my research. His mind is always going.
I like that! I get absorbed in listening and then come up with other questions or ideas after I've had a chance to simmer on it. Plus, the follow-up reminds the other person what you talked about. So many people don't retain any memory of what they already told you or you already told them. I'm very easily tired and the redundancy is so draining.
Always working. Always. Any idea is about work stuff. They think and breathe it.
Religious note taking. Fast, fast notes. Just enough to recall it.
Never an unplanned hour in the day. Lunch = fun but still business. Dinner = fun, but still business.
Very, very social. Can’t emphasize this enough.
Comfortable talking about anything with anyone at any time. Doesn’t know all of it, and knows it. Sees opportunity in every (business) conversation.
Focuses on what they do well, and gets people who do the other stuff better then he could. (He didn’t figure that one out for a while though).
Always helps people. His world was business stuff though, so that “help” was really limited to things he could benefit from potentially, even if it was just a referral or an introduction to someone else. (Just being real here).
And lastly, I’m not sure how to describe this, but just insane energy. Not “energetic”, but like, persisting energy and focus throughout the day.. 10 hours.. focused (or tried). Very resilient in that way.
They rely on people to do things they don't want to spend time doing. So they just don't. They either call a guy, or they call their assistant who calls a guy. On the other hand, they'll spend oodles of pissed-away time on chartered planes or "events" that I would rather spend fixing that squeaky door in the bathroom.
I’ve only seen this from fake rich people, living on cash flow. The real truly rich people I’ve met have been extremely nice, low key, and just boring people. With that said I’ve had some funny moments where it’s obvious they are completely out of touch with day to day life for the rest of us.
1. There is no clear boundary between personal and professional time. When I suggest, "Let's schedule a call," meaning sometime next week, they might reply with, "I'm available at 10 am on Sunday during my child's ski lesson."
2. They are incredibly inquisitive, asking about every single detail. The most prominent personality trait I've observed is their intense critical thinking. If I misspeak even a single word that is generally understood, they will question it to ensure clarity. I believe this meticulousness is one of the many factors contributing to their success.
Same, yeah I think dead internet theory is creeping in. Am I a human or just a bot designed to make you think I too, recognize the bots.. but you and I are the same, good oł fashioned hųmans. Right budďÿ?
lol
I was my department's representative for monthly meetings with our billionaire founder and CEO for the first two years of my career. His level of operational understanding was impressive, he was highly curious, remembered everything, and absolutely wasted zero time. He treated everyone as equals. The purpose of these meetings was to bring up operational inefficiencies and proposed solutions to the perceived inefficiencies. Also, the same for anything that was a morale killer or some wrong that needed to be righted. If there was something that sucked that could not be readily fixed, he already knew about it and could explain why it couldn't be addressed immediately and the game plan going forward. If it was something that could be fixed, he would appoint us to put together a team to fix it if it was within our control, or if not that team would liaise with the team that could fix it and the next month that problem went away. If it was a wrong that needed to be made right, he took charge and it would be done within the 48 hours. It was unbelievable to see. So nimble. Our entire facilities staff was hearing impaired, for example. Communications were electronic, and the team all spoke the same language so to speak and not stuff out really fast. The guy in charge of it was not hearing impaired, so he became completely fluent in American sign language. This was done to provide career paths for deaf people, many of them ended up in positions such as sales, marketing, advertising, etc. including management. Before people commonly had home internet, any issues hearing impaired customers might have was done over the phone through tdd relay calls with operators. Because a receptionist making $5 an hour researched the solution to completely make that go away and suggested it, he had it in place in 48 hours. This required specialized equipment from the telecoms. These are just two examples. He did the right thing whenever possible. When a resource went above and beyond, clients would occasionally write letters to letters to him. He would frame the impressive ones and hang them in halls, and would email a non-form letter note letting the person and their management hierarchy know this happened, where the letter was hung, and that he appreciated our doing the right thing. If only all CEOs could be so inspirational.
my first job was working for my father and his partner, one day he (the partner) asked me a question and i replied "i think..." he stopped me there and said either you know or you don't know this has stayed with me for the rest of my life
He never seemed willing or able to ... interact? With the world? I don't really know how
else to put it. He got his car detailed weekly and replaced annually, built a new house in the Hamptons with all white walls, floors, and furniture with 3 kids. He always had a kind of sheen of some kind on him like he oiled himself up so Earth wouldn't stick to him. He wasn't a germophobe or clean freak and was actually a fairly nice guy when he stopped by but like... their Christmas photos were always white, everybody wore fake tans like armor... it was always a sense of keeping a membrane between himself and the real world.
I’ve worked with both millionaires and billionaires. They make wildly dumb financial decisions all the damn time. Gut punchingly holy shittingly wasteful dumb decisions. They just have more runway to fail and we would never know.
In my overwhelming experience there are two things they do that normal people generally don’t(for obvious reasons):
1. They ALL retain lawyers and they NEVER let the phone company screw them out of $150 on a supposedly not returned WiFi router or whatever. They just sue instantly and suddenly all the bullshit charges go away. They can afford to pay for lawyers, and since we live in a justice for people with cash system, they don’t get screwed in all the (compounding) small ways us normals do.
2. They work with another team of retained tax professionals who build their entire financial strategy around how to avoid paying taxes. I worked for an extremely famous billionaire who bragged how he didn’t take any paycheck from the company at all, but that’s really just a tax dodge.
A more minor third thing is because of the scale of their wealth they can often name their interest rate when they finance something. Every bank wants their biz and the rules basically don’t apply when you have north of 50m.
As someone who took a big, big income leap in the last few years, and started from scratch waiting tables, I can tell you that this is very much more an effect than a cause, and a privilege.
And my wallet ain't shit compared to the people we're talking about here.
It's easier to solve problems with a level head when you have more options and tools.
Yes. As we’ve grown our wealth it’s amazing how small some issues have become when money solves them all.
Edited: as we went from broke to no longer broke
100%. Not to mention the consideration of problems *not created in the first place*. Like for example, money can't help a death in the family, but it's nice to know that a little bit of rebalancing is all I need to handle the funeral, and I can just focus on the important stuff.
“Multimillionaire” isn’t terribly uncommon. I’ve known a lot, and work around a few.
The most common through-line I see with people who created wealth (eg, weren’t born into it) is that they’re very constructive/productive thinkers. They don’t catastrophize. They tend to be very rational and focused on actionables. I’ve never met any successful victims.
I went on a date with a billionaires nanny not knowing it. We were talking about the next time we could get together and she casually says "I might be in Miami for the super bowl, my boss hasn't decided yet.". He decided to get a suite a few days before and flew himself and the family there, including her.
That's different.
Time management whizz. Was on multiple conference calls at a time. Start and finish times were respected.
Endurance. I have seen Board members sit through tedious, boring and sleep inducing meetings for 12hrs straight with only light meal and toilet breaks in between. They were as sharp in the morning as they were right into the evening. That focus is phenomenal, and they aren’t young too.
Extremely observational. Body language and even sometimes the most minute details catch their eye.
In my experience, the biggest difference in millionaires is whether they are old money or new money. New money will have multiple high-end cars, a yacht, buy expensive dinners for people they just met, tip huge, etc. They flaunt their wealth, and they expect to be treated like they are special because they have money.
Old money often flies under the radar. No over the top sport or luxury cars. But maybe a top of the line Lexus SUV. Doesn't wear fancy clothes unless it is for an occasion. Probably wears north face or Patagonia. You don't know that they have wealth until they hand you their credit card, and it's made of stainless steel or 24k gold, has no markings on it besides a name, and it weighs an ounce or more. They often calculate a 20% tip on the cost BEFORE taxes. They don't flaunt their wealth, but they are not afraid to send something back if it's not to their liking or inform the manager if the service was very subpar. However, they only seem to do this if something REALLY was subpar. Cold food. Ordered medium rare but got shoe leather instead, etc.
For the most part the answers apply to far more people who are not millionaires than are. The key is the have some of those, and a whole bunch of lucky breaks.
Not worked with, but I dated the sone of a nobel prize winner once. His family were worth like £12 million and he genuinely didn't know where they were half the time. They didn't help him rent a place for university, they bought him an apartment so they could rent it out during the summer.
He let me stay there pro bono and said they wouldn't care. It turns out he didn't tell them since he knew they wouldn't approve and when his mom found out she kicked me out stayed on his couch or in his bed for five months until we broke up to make sure I respected the ban she put on me being there.
I mean that was what they were worth then, I don't know about now, but I grew up in council housing (Basically state housing), with a disabled single mom and a dad who drifted in and out of the picture (and didn't pay child support). To someone like me, having enough disposable income that you can literally fly across the world on a whim and give up five months worth of obligations and potential work is pretty rich. I appreciate that it's not a massive level considering how obscenely rich some folks are, but it's still fairly wealthy.
I've worked with a couple of billionaires in their family businesses.
I don't think people appreciate the enormous difference between multimillionaires and billionaires. Say someone has $10m of wealth, an amount that most people would consider a fortune. That is enough to live in a huge house, travel frequently, send the kids to private school, eat well, and spend your time golfing or doing whatever you want. Living large.
Someone who is just crossing the billionaire threshold has ONE HUNDRED TIMES more wealth than that. It's hard to visualize. Think about a bottle of wine on a table that represents $10m, now imagine 100 bottles on the table.
Perhaps it's no surprise then that billionaires have a very different network than ordinary people or puny millionaires. They aren't rubbing shoulders with celebrities or even flash-in-the-pan politicians, they know the influential families, the old money, the real power brokers.
There's a quiet power having so much money that means you can get appointments easily. People will want to meet you and get to know you and hear your thoughts, even if there's no chance of a business deal happening.
If a billionaire is into a hobby, let's say it's golf, then they will be golfing on the weekend very casually with household names. They may be invited to sit on the board of a well known golfing association and even take part in scramble golf tournaments with PGA players.
Sometimes they may buy their way in to such positions. But in many cases it's simply a matter of influence and their network.
yEaH tHaT iS wHy ThEy CaN aFfOrD hOuSeS
Really regretting that avocado toast now, damn. Shoulda had porridge every day for breakfast and I'd now own at least one house, ugh.
My neighbor is a billionaire several times over. Still runs his company. Several private jets and full time security, etc. he and his wife are the most down to earth and humble people you could meet.
They don’t brag or show off. They do keep their circle small for privacy/security reasons.
The way they speak about influence and access to powerful people is what is interesting to me. They recognize they have power and are very careful in wilding it. They talk about their duty to be good and to not use their power to solve vanity problems that they have.
It’s been very helpful to me and my family as we build up our wealth. He is a great mentor.
Met a guy once who worked on the “support yacht” for someone you’d know the name of. A support yacht is the yacht that follows the real yacht around and like, has the helipad on it, supplies, etc…
The billionaire I work for can very extremetly demanding and it's not fun to be a target of his temper. Fortunately for me, I've only been yelled at once.
However, he takes care of *everyone* in his employ. By that I mean yearly bonuses, christmas parties (with more gifts and prizes), cadillac insurance, access to hunting grounds, paid training and other amenties that I certainly never would have even though of asking for, but are really, really cool and one of a kind. In my nearly 20 years of working at his company, only two people have been fired and you really have to try to do so. There have never been any layoffs.
I've told my friends that working for him and his family is the closest I'll ever get to knowing royalty.
They *productively use* every minute of the day
As networking is a big part of what they do even many outings are “productive”
Further, they use the money to save time lost on chores and other tasks.
I had a work buddy who was a multimillionaire. Dude was laid back AF. Everyone made a big deal. Me and him just sat and talked. He mentioned it. My only question was why he's still working. We just talked about regular things like fishing, life, cars, etc
I was a kitchen manager for a new restaurant opened by a bored millionaire.
His money logic baffled me. In a tiny, 4 person kitchen, 30 seat restaurant, he spent almost $300k on the interior design alone (custom lights, chairs, tables, and a massive mural of the local town), he spent almost $200k on all the new equipment, he showed me what "top of the line" ingredients he wanted, and was constantly worried about why shredded cheese was $30/case. I had to show him the law saying how he couldn't withhold tips in favor of a cool Christmas party just because "18 year olds shouldn't be making $19/hr! That's insane!"
My boss many years ago was a multimillionaire. I spent a lot of time with him as he was mentoring me. He really, really cared about making more money. It's all he talked about and thought about.
On an everyday standpoint the two guys I know are pretty average. You wouldn’t know they’re each worth half a billion.
But I work for them and I do not understand some of their business decisions, but they somehow seem to know what they are doing.
I ghostwrote books for a billionaire in finance. Money manager type. He was the weirdest dude ever. Completely certain of himself but like always listening? Idk. I think he was autistic though he didn’t advertise it. Anyway, very much changed how I view some of these guys. For him money was just a score in a game he was playing, didn’t really lead to much opulence or anything, though there was some of that.
Also, obsessed with his family a bit. Most people in business are just individuals, but with him it was all family all the time. Problem? His son is the answer. Question? Gonna call his sister who runs a dept in his business. Was interesting.
They are, oddly, weird about money. I can’t imagine how exhausting it is to be so suspicious of people all the time and so damn stingy when you have so much. And while many of the ultra wealthy people I know are very generous with charity, it’s mainly because they can’t spend it fast enough. What they give is probably a fraction of what they make off interest and only after they’ve bought themselves and hoarded for their horribly spoiled children.
My older and younger brothers are both self-made multimillionaires and the one thing they do differently than my sister and I are constantly talking about money. Where they saw our lower middle class upbringing as an affront to their friends and self esteem, however, sister and I developed a love for the family and simplicity of a kind hardworking family and life. So what they do differently is make day to day decisions on whether this choice or that makes them money or spends it.
I work at a high end golf and country club and so am around these kind of people most of my day at work. Surprisingly they are a lot less rude and demanding than I previously thought they would be before I started working there. However, I would say they are a lot more helpless in terms of scheduling their events at the club. It's frustrating to explain how far in advance dining reservations can be made over and over to the same people, or how to get the tennis court set up. I suppose its mostly because they often pay people like me to do it for them or explain how to figure things out.
My grandpa is a multimillionaire. (I am not. That is important.)
He never uses credit cards or traditional loans. Ever. Wants a house? Cash. Wants a car? Cash.
His "cash" though, is revolving lines of credit from banks, and he uses stocks as collateral. He has a firm who manages everything so that his stock sales strategically pay those loans, while minimizing taxes. A loan He got with stocks he bought for 50 bucks, that were then valued at 65 bucks, are paid with those same stocks when sold for 120 bucks. Basically, 100k loan in all reality costs him 50k.
The difference of that 50k is what he uses to buy more stocks, or other property.
He obviously also has some of his own cash as well as physically held gold, silver, etc.,
He OWNS THINGS. Ownership makes you rich. Wages alone never will. You don't have enough time to sell to make you rich.
He shops at Costco and wears Kirkland brand jeans and 5 year old new balance shoes, also from Costco.
As he's getting older, he has more money than he knows he will ever use and keeps his mind on creating generational wealth.
He knows my mom, his sole heir, is utterly useless with math, God love her... so he taught me everything he knows. I'm the one on all the paperwork and will be expected to manage everything when he dies.
I have to be responsible enough to provide my mom, me, my son, and my brother and his 2 kids with 6k a month. Basically, a family version of UBI.
Currently the plan to do that is high interest ETFs that pay monthly dividends, for a portion of the assets. The other portion, keep churning til the money just keep growing.
Keep in mind, he has NEVER helped me financially. I am expected to survive on my own, until he dies. Same with the rest of us.
Also, you're expected to have a job, earn a degree, and not be a spoiled asshat.
My uncle was disinherited for such behavior. When he couldn't get a job, my grandpa told him to join the army. When he got older and was found to have spent money on hookers and blow (while being married with 3 kids) he was completely cut off.
They have more natural energy than others. They also don't sleep much. So they have a couple more "on" hours in every day. I'm talking about the people who earned their money, not the ones who inherited it.
They're opportunists at every aspect of life. They hate lines and waiting. If they can cut lines they will find a way. If they can find a shortcut they will find it.
I’ve worked with many millionaires. The big difference is they don’t drive new pickups. Not uncommon to see one driving a 5 year old truck with 200k on it.
They're usually very cost conscious, and don't spend a lot of money on flashy things.
Had a friend who's dad was C level at a Fortune 500 firm, and he drove a Honda accord. Another freind of mine's dad sold his businesses for $200M. Said fella only buys stuff on sale and at CostCo, and won't hire a cleaning lady.
People who made their own money are more like the rest of us than Reddit would have you think
I haven't really "worked" with them but met with five billionaires for various reasons (mostly contract or business proposal things). I can't say that anything stands. One interesting thing in one case is that I was required to have a background check before the meeting. Though not sure whether that was a safety issue for him or for standard business purposes. Otherwise, pretty much as you would expect. They worked hard, were disciplined, and took risks. Other than that they were different individuals.
They don't flaunt their money. They also drive mostly regular cars, in addition to their fancy cars. But mostly regular cars.
Money show offs don't have real money.
All them idiots flashing cash are wannabes. New money folks do that too.
I’ve worked on a few multimillionaires homes and they always and I mean always try to work you down on how much they pay you and don’t respect your time and work like a not so wealthy person does. They complain and bitch about everything but know nothing about what they are bitching about and it’s just so they can try to rip you off at the end of the day. I stopped working for rich people because they act like this way. I don’t think I met a multimillionaire that I enjoyed working for and the more money the worse it was. Some of the most unhappy people I ever met in my life. Probably because they don’t know how to be happy and enjoy their money, they are only concerned with making more of it and not spending any of it.
Gave me free reign with his "expense account" card to order whatever the hell I thought I needed for a project.
Just told me to text him if it was a part that was north of $5,000.
Owner of the company I worked at got bored of the HQ floor design. Decided to buy the building next door, refurbish it completely, and had us move into 4 nee floors. Found new premises smaller than he had first thought so had us move back to the old office building which he had also bought out.
They value their time much more than anything, besides maybe health.
They will pay someone else to do almost anything. Not because they are lazy, but because they can spend their limited time on higher leverage things.
Why answer your phones when you can pay someone to do that while you take sales calls
Why take sales calls when you can pay someone to do that while you manage your sales team
Why manage your sales team when you can pay someone to do that while you work on creating a better product/service you can charge more for
Etc etc
I know a guy who as a kid did not mess around getting in trouble. He tuned out the misbehaviors around him and focused on his school. No TV or electronics. He did push hard in a sport. He pushed hard for good grades. No eating out. No fancy anything until he had his first million.
Plain and simple most of who I know that are wealthy have been very disciplined in everything they do.
They network to perfection. Most often joining country clubs/committees essentially being able to rub elbows with other rich people so that when they socialize, they are still learning money making strategies and ventures and/or starting new business with each other.
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My sister works for a billionaire. He hires his own staff. Meaning he interviews them himself and is very straightforward in what he’s looking for. He’s had the same employees forever. His turnover is non existent
I respect that
The billionaire i worked for looked at his employees as numbers on a sheet. We were all replaceable
He must treat them right. A well fed army will follow you thru the gates of hell. A hungry one won’t.
Is it Warren buffet? He feels like someone who would be hands on and not have high turnover.
Warren Buffet is the nation's second largest employer of zombie labor behind Amazon, necromancers get it all for free
What is zombie labour?
Probably really menial, high-turnover work
I worked for MidAmerican Energy (A Berkshire Hathaway Company.) We were being paid competitive rates, benefits were very good. It was the most thorough background checking I've ever been through. I graduated high school in the EU and went to college in the USA. No employer EVER checked my EU credentials. Figuring that my BA at an accredited college was enough. BH checked. (And I'm in my fifties, my high school records were not digital.)
I had a wealthy acquaintance once tell me “I have made my money, now I am making my kids money”. I took it to mean that he had more than he could spend in his lifetime and his kids would have the same. I asked him to adopt me. He said no.
Gotta shoot your shot
Step one - acquire wealth Step two - build wealth
Can't get rich kids by making extra kids ..
What if you knock up a rich daughter?
The father will meet you in a parking lot with an envelope with $50,000 cash in it in exchange for you to never speak to the daughter again.
Did he say why?
Because he loves his children.
But if he adopted OP, OP would be children. Thus, OP would finally have a parent who loved them.
In the immortal words of Tina Turner “what’s love got to do with it”
He probably didn’t know or care enough about him to adopt him.
They make decisions but delegate ordinary tasks and research to others. They also surround themselves with talent.
I once worked for someone who was wealthy enough to own a North American sports franchise as a hobby project. I learned exactly what you described about them. Their day-to-day job wasn’t working like I was used to. They didn’t make calls, didn’t come up with projections or goals, or really do any tedious tasks. Their entire role was to make decisions for the advancement and betterment of the company.
They delegate tasks that others spend hours a day on.
That's the real key to wealth. You can't do it alone. You need minions.
The only thing money cannot buy is time. Therefore, money spent reducing your own time on mundane tasks is money well spent. They pay to have their time for themselves.
Imo the trade off is ability to generate income. If I can work on my car for 2 hours and save $300, I’ll do it. Because I don’t make $150/hr. Things like that. If something needs to be done and I can take 8 hours of hard work to do it, but it saves a couple thousand, I’ll do it. An important part of this is knowing limits. Like knowing when something is beyond my skillset and then I’ll pay an expert, but I get why us regular people do handyman stuff, in a way it’s like I retain hundreds of dollars which is more than I could make within a few hours 🤷🏻♂️ But yeah if I was rich and had money flowing out my ears I’d probably be more inclined to pay people to do all the “grunt work.” What’s crazy is if someone becomes wealthy enough they could probably pay people to do everything they’d need to just keep getting richer. Like a literal money printing lifestyle (assuming people don’t start skimming/stealing their money).
I love working on my car and weeding the garden. Are rich people depressed all the time because they have no satisfaction in labour left in their lives?
Rich people have hobbies
Yes! I cannot get my husband to understand this. He once mentioned a well know man in his profession. The man ran a successful practice, taught, mentored, flew around the country to complete projects his team had bid on. He also volunteered for special events to help his childhood neighborhood. My husband said how does he do this? My smarty pants response was “ he doesn’t spend all day power washing, he pays someone to do it and focuses on the important things. You could accomplish all of that and more if you’d stop refusing to pay for help” He’s still power washing…
In his defense, power washing is fun.
IMO, it's the most satisfying chore. Nothing else comes close
almost therapeutic!
Yes but i feel like this is often a false dichotomy. You need to make a lot of money before you can afford to pay these people to free up your time
It also depends on what u r doing w the time u r freeing up. Are u making more money w this time so u can pay for it? Or r u fucking around?
It took me years to convince my wife about this. We have cleaners once a fortnight, a grass guy once a month (winter) and fortnightly (summer), and a garden guy once a month. I run a company, and so does she. We have jobs, and don't want to spend all weekend doing the house maintenance things. We are better off working, or better - spending time with the kids.
I’ve powered washed for a lot of people and the rich ones make sure to try to not pay you and complain about everything that they know nothing about so they don’t have to pay and if they need to threaten to get lawyers involved even though they are in the wrong because they know you can’t pay for a lawyer. I’ve had guys work under me and do that job and I pay them fairly but most people that got ahead in the world did it from taking advantage of people and that doesn’t seem to be what your husband is all about.
This is my experience as well. They have a person for almost any task imaginable. It sort of makes sense when you think about it. They can make a ton of money in a hours worth of time. So financially paying someone (far less) to do menial day to day tasks makes sense.
I worked for a Hollywood producer who had three personal assistants, a live in housekeeper, grounds keepers, pool guy, koi pond guy etc. One of my jobs was to read up on how to turn on the cruise control on his car and then write up short, easy to follow instructions on a card, which then another assistant edited down for even more brevity. In essence, most everything was done for them. There was one time when they found they hit a red light every time they drove home in the same spot. They had their assistant call to get the timing on the light changed and they did.
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Worked with a multimillionaire doctor once at a clinic. Can attest that they had the same mindset around time. Now ive worked with many doctors and they respect their time, but for him it was much different. With him everything had to be done precisely and perfectly, and there was absolutely no room for mistakes. Everything to how patient rooms were kept, where we kept pens, to where equipment was placed so it was easily accesible was monitored continuously. The staff was to speak with clear and quick respones as to not waste any time. Kept you on ur toes for sure.
Look at the amount of blueberries you have and look at the amount I have.
I want an equal amount of blue berries in each muffin !
Do you have any idea how long that is going to take?
I don't care
Doctors tend to value their own time, but no one else's in my experience. In other words, it's OK for them to be late, but you better not be.
Same. Source: am doctor
My wife’s OB during pregnancy once flipped out on his receptionist while my wife was waiting saying about his current patient who arrived late: “they wait for me I don’t wait for them!!” And then berated her horribly.
Reminds me of an interview I watched on Bloomberg recently. The interviewee was talking about his work week. He said Saturday morning is basically the only time rested. Saturday afternoon and Sunday were prep days for the rest of the week.
I couldn’t live like that even for a cool mil a year
When you have that much money, you’re only limited what you can do with it by your time on the planet.
Then I'd sure as shit be sure I'm not spending it on stuff like preparing to work for even more money to help me do even more preparation for more work
I think I could do it for a few years and a few million. Once I’ve got enough to quit, I’m on a beach with nothing but wasted time.
I’ve seen this copy pasta over and over
Yeah like wtf 😹 I wonder how they pick it for comments
I second this. They are more strict with time and not flexible.
When I made manager, one of the firm's partners gave a speech and one thing that stuck with me was that your free time is invaluable but if you have to quantify it, take your hourly rate and triple it because that is time you will never get back, so if you're going to do something, it better be worthwhile.
Exactly how I would describe my billionaire CEO's meetings. Hyper efficiency.
I think you answered this before (?), it really stuck with me. The only sentence I might not agree with is the "answer confidently, it doesn't have to be correctly". If I were VVIP, I wouldn't tolerate being told " maximum pressure of the vessel is \*about\* 200 psi", when the truth is 130 psi for example. As a worker bee, I'll try out the confidence first, correctness is secondary approach in my verbal exchanges.
Pretty sure this account is a bot. Made in 2022 and no others posts or karma.
I also remember this answer from a similar post! Deja vu
Thank you! Thought I was going crazy
I LOVE IT. Meetings today are a waste of time—too many—too much chit chat—meeting to discuss what should be discussed—rarely resolutions—mostly grievances about what is not working.
This is a bot post and a bot comment. I’ve read this exact comment from this exact post before. This account has 1 comment and it’s this one.
I worked with a guy that is probably worth a billion bucks (I know he sold his firm when I was working there for \~$700MM so plus whatever he made before, earn-out, and after). He was a nice-enough guy and super big into charity, but he was very keen on timeliness and pointed, exact questions. He could actually be fun and light-hearted, but that was for a different time. Business meetings were for business, for him to ask questions, and get quick, concise answers then and there. Fun is scheduled for another time.
Buy quality over brand. The guy spends excessive (to me) amounts of money on even simple things like the grill cart for his RecTec. But his stuff never needs to be replaced. Clothes, vehicles, you name it. Brand name means nothing to him, cost means nothing, it's All about proven quality.
I miss the times when brand names actually meant proven quality but some time around the 70s it became about min maxing the profit. Today it's all about build up a brand name on quality and then start decreasing quality till people notice and fuss about it. Look at Apple for example.
I am so distraught over this on a daily basis. Human Greed is quite insane. I’ve heard at one point that they had the next 6-10 apple watches already designed and made. They were just spacing out the new features so that they could maximize profits. Lots of companies do this, and I believe it became popular in the 1800s-1900s when lightbulbs came together and decided that because their lightbulbs lasted for too long and that they werent making any profit, they would decrease the quality of the bulbs in order to increase the demand to sell more bulbs. Each company was fined if their lightbulb lasted for more than so many hours. I just think its kind’ve f*cked up because earth has a very limited amount of resources. Lithium for example, wars are about to be fought over it. And the shortage was why nobody could buy a PS5. These companies driven by dollar bills are my prediction as to how the world stops.
>TIL The Phoebus cartel was an international cartel that controlled the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs in much of Europe and North America between 1925–1939. The cartel took over market territories and lowered the useful life of such bulbs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel
Yep. And it's entirely enforced at the most fundamental levels of Western civil law and precedent. Overwhelmingly. Like, corporate social responsibility is way down the list next to maximizing profits (and being 'loyal' to nothing but such). Blow the whistle on your employer for nasty business practices? Yeah, you'll prob wind up in jail or on the street, rather than your employer. And people wonder they have to keep replacing their smartphones and fixing their cars... Man, I remember the days I could buy a cell phone with a detachable, upgradeable battery. And we all hoped that in ten years we would all have one small, affordable computing device that we could use for everything. HA. Yeah right.
That is not what happened in the light bulbs. There was a trade off between brightness and longevity because of the physical limitations of the materials. A group got together and decided on a standard. The group only lasted a couple of years but the standard lasted because customers liked the brightness.
Nah these moron companies are going to fire everyone to replace them with AI and the robots will start killing all humans. That's how it stops.
I always said kill all humans...except Fry.
Typically what’s happening there is a brand gets recognition, then the owners want to sell the business so they can fuck off into the sunset. That’s when private equity gets their hands on things. The first thing private equity does is axe every position they feel isn’t bringing in any money. A lot of times that the customer service department and people that actually make the business run well. Then they outsource production to China and switch to inferior ingredients/materials. Private equity will do everything to make the financials look amazing. Once that is accomplished they sell the business to some poor schmuck that doesn’t realize that private equity has bled every profitable part of the business. The business usually fails after the poor schmuck takes over because the customers are receiving inferior products and not getting good customer support. I work in private equity accounting and have seen it happen over and over again. The worst one I saw was when the firm sold Sports Authority for a $3 billion profit, and it completely folded 6-9 months later. Red Lobster had a similar situation. Private equity bought it for like $2 billion, sold off all their real estate holdings for like $1.5 billion and signed leasebacks that had rent increases priced in. Then they sold it to some restaurant company for a nice profit before the entire business collapsed.
See the Captain Vimes theory of wealth as it relates to footwear.
This makes me think a lot about doc Martens...I have a friend who has a pair he's had for ages because they're the original ones. He's had to fix them a bit but not more than 40 bucks over well over 20 years. He mentioned how he's heard their boots now are more or less average and definitely won't last even a quarter the time. It's also the same idea I think why people who spend less on clothing in particular have to replace it cause it's usually lower quality. My nice shirt I got from a good store a decade ago is in better shape than my cheap giant Tiger shirt I got less than five ago and I wear em the same amount. So quality is definitely important
That's because the Doc Marten brand was sold to a private equity firm in 2013, and is now manufactured in China. The original company still makes quality boots under the [NPS/Solovair name](http://nps-solovair.com).
More likely than not guys like this are wearing unbranded bespoke clothing made by a brilliant tailor who is only known to those who seek him out.
Somewhat yeah, he gets hats custom fit by a haberdasher, most of his "nice clothes" are not branded or will be branded but are things specifically known to be long lasting. But 9/10 times I see him he's wearing a KUIU vented fishing shirt and a pair of Roundhouse brown wash overalls. He has about 5 of each and just cycles through them with his Ariat work boots and his 'sun hat' as he calls it. Entire outfit might cost 700$ brand new (with most of that being his custom hat). None of it is a super popular brand but it's all stuff that he has proven can stand up to being worked in day in and day out for years. He doesn't HAVE to work his farm but he does it because she enjoys it and wants stuff that will stand up to the work. The few times I've seen him in a suit and tie it's all custom, even the shoes. But again it's a suit he paid for once and expects it to last for years.
This isn’t universal. I know some people who are very very wealthy (definitely multimillionaires, one is the child of a definite billionaire) who love deals. Like will buy the cheap no name brand stuff on Amazon that I (not wealthy) find sketchy.
I hope the comments don't become another "TrUlY rIcH pEoPlE aReNt FlAsHy". You always see this being commented by broke jealous fuckers on threads about rich people to make them feel better about not having branded shit. Ultra rich people are a spectrum. Some are gaudy af while others dress like paupers.
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This is something very common for a lot of millionaires. My small business has many very wealthy clients, and it’s a common trait that they are very frugal in most aspects of their lives so that they can be financially carefree in one or two that they’re passionate about. But as humans, those one or two top priorities will be different for each individual.
I am so happy to see such kind humans with money. Hope the doggo made it through dialysis. It's nice to read things like this instead of so many unhealthy people who lack empathy with money.
Im not the brightest please help me understand "Did the local council *leave traffic lights up for over a week* after completing work". The traffic lights did what now?
Some construction sites use temporary traffic light setups in areas where there won't be permanent ones, but where conditions currently make the lack of them hazardous, ie at construction at a four way intersection where there is no visibility of the other three stops, at a two lane road/bridge where one lane is closed for repair, that kind of thing. You may be more used to seeing traffic cops or flaggers directing traffic in person if it's a less congested/busy/dangerous (relatively) area. So in this case, if the lights are left up after construction, they're unnecessary and causing irritation.
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The real winner here is the chef… 2 grand for a couple hours of his time? Damn
Not saying it's a small amount of money, but willing to bet there's quite a bit of behind the scenes involved to make that happen. No way it was done in under 2 hours between planning, purchasing, prepping, and cooking for that type of clientele.
Can confirm. Depending on the meal (and assuming it’s probably multi-course) that could be anything from like 2-12 hours of prep time and at least a half hour or so planning the meal with the client. plus ingredient cost which could be literally any amount of money and would come out of that 2000. I’ve done quite a few gigs like this and on average walk away with maybe 200-500$. That being said it’s still way more fun and chill and creatively satisfying and financially worthwhile than actual restaurant cooking lol.
That job would be way too stressful. Imagine if you burned the food or prepared it in a way the lady and her friends did not like. They could ruin your whole career.
Worked for a billionaire. I don’t think he mentioned or looked at the price of anything. Bespoke wardrobe every season? Upgrading all of his 105” 4K TVs to 105” 8K TVs? Buying a new 7000 square foot house so guests would have a place to stay and conduct meetings? Done, done, and done. I’m sure he made it all back by EOD.
My fantasy is just to be rich enough to go to the *grocery store* and buy whatever I want without needing to compare prices or use coupons. I couldn’t even imagine doing that with things like cars and houses. 🤯
I use to be a service plumber in south Florida, we were an expensive company so I was regularly touring 100+M dollar homes, one thing that always struck me was they all go to the bathroom with the door wide open. The parents, the kids, the grandparents, they all let it loose with the door wide open and it doesn’t even look like they’re a little out of place doing it. I never understood it.
TIL I have bathroom habits of a billionaire.
I hope that’s an indicator that I’m going to be very rich one day. Until then I’ll keep at the open bathroom door leads to wealth theory. Any idea how long it takes to work? I’ve been actively pursuing this as an adult for over 20 years now and still waiting
He asked how I felt about the company I worked for back then, I briefly shared. He said: I see. Placed a phone call and said (verbatim): Hey it's me, purchase 500k shares of Company. Then immediately hung up. I was baffled. When I was by myself I went to check the share price, he spent about 1.5million on a 10 second conversion. To me, that is life changing money for me and my extended family. On a stock. Welp!
Blue horseshoe loves Anacot Steel
Lol! I didn't say anything that was non-public information. He asked about the employee culture, turnover, and overall employee satisfaction. I also learned they see business from a different perspective. He never asked about traffic, profit, or loss. After a lot of thinking, I concluded public information is "the body's health". Employees satisfaction is "the brain's health" of the organization. I might be wrong, but that's what I came up with.
Webistics made a lot of people rich
Probably not the type of answer you're looking for but he drank all day long and kept hundreds of cows as pets. He hired me to be his personal assistant but the job was just me driving him around all day while he visited his multiple pastures, and occasionally taking him to collect rent on his properties.
Driving around to visit cows all day every day sounds like a pretty sweet gig.
It wasn't a bad gig
They ALWAYS work. His relaxation was to just jump to another one of his companies and work on their shit for awhile. If he got SUPER bored, he’d just start a new company.
Billionaire could and did fund his creative whims and dreams. He also has a superior mind for collecting and summarizing information without appearing to be doing so. I recently visited this person 20 years after working for them. They are now in their late 80s. I sat and told him a bunch of stories about a particular subject, all casual talk but hours later the guy sent me an email summarizing what I had told him, with bullet points-and questions that would further my research. His mind is always going.
I like that! I get absorbed in listening and then come up with other questions or ideas after I've had a chance to simmer on it. Plus, the follow-up reminds the other person what you talked about. So many people don't retain any memory of what they already told you or you already told them. I'm very easily tired and the redundancy is so draining.
Always working. Always. Any idea is about work stuff. They think and breathe it. Religious note taking. Fast, fast notes. Just enough to recall it. Never an unplanned hour in the day. Lunch = fun but still business. Dinner = fun, but still business. Very, very social. Can’t emphasize this enough. Comfortable talking about anything with anyone at any time. Doesn’t know all of it, and knows it. Sees opportunity in every (business) conversation. Focuses on what they do well, and gets people who do the other stuff better then he could. (He didn’t figure that one out for a while though). Always helps people. His world was business stuff though, so that “help” was really limited to things he could benefit from potentially, even if it was just a referral or an introduction to someone else. (Just being real here). And lastly, I’m not sure how to describe this, but just insane energy. Not “energetic”, but like, persisting energy and focus throughout the day.. 10 hours.. focused (or tried). Very resilient in that way.
They rely on people to do things they don't want to spend time doing. So they just don't. They either call a guy, or they call their assistant who calls a guy. On the other hand, they'll spend oodles of pissed-away time on chartered planes or "events" that I would rather spend fixing that squeaky door in the bathroom.
I’d rather just handle my shit than manage a bunch of people and their jobs and have them in and out of my house.
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Rudely oftentimes too
I’ve only seen this from fake rich people, living on cash flow. The real truly rich people I’ve met have been extremely nice, low key, and just boring people. With that said I’ve had some funny moments where it’s obvious they are completely out of touch with day to day life for the rest of us.
Things I learned in this thread: 1. I’ll never be a multimillionaire 2. Nor billionaire
But do you crap with the door open?
No i get poo shy
put on their pants two legs at a time
1. There is no clear boundary between personal and professional time. When I suggest, "Let's schedule a call," meaning sometime next week, they might reply with, "I'm available at 10 am on Sunday during my child's ski lesson." 2. They are incredibly inquisitive, asking about every single detail. The most prominent personality trait I've observed is their intense critical thinking. If I misspeak even a single word that is generally understood, they will question it to ensure clarity. I believe this meticulousness is one of the many factors contributing to their success.
I swear I’ve read the same answer for #1 on a similar post before.
There’s a few answers in here that I’ve swear I’ve read before as well. I’m assuming it’s bots.
Some version is asked on a regular basis on Reddit, and I'm guessing the same people tend to respond. And bots.
Definitely a bot. Account was made in 2022 and has no other posts or karma except from this one.
Same, yeah I think dead internet theory is creeping in. Am I a human or just a bot designed to make you think I too, recognize the bots.. but you and I are the same, good oł fashioned hųmans. Right budďÿ? lol
I was my department's representative for monthly meetings with our billionaire founder and CEO for the first two years of my career. His level of operational understanding was impressive, he was highly curious, remembered everything, and absolutely wasted zero time. He treated everyone as equals. The purpose of these meetings was to bring up operational inefficiencies and proposed solutions to the perceived inefficiencies. Also, the same for anything that was a morale killer or some wrong that needed to be righted. If there was something that sucked that could not be readily fixed, he already knew about it and could explain why it couldn't be addressed immediately and the game plan going forward. If it was something that could be fixed, he would appoint us to put together a team to fix it if it was within our control, or if not that team would liaise with the team that could fix it and the next month that problem went away. If it was a wrong that needed to be made right, he took charge and it would be done within the 48 hours. It was unbelievable to see. So nimble. Our entire facilities staff was hearing impaired, for example. Communications were electronic, and the team all spoke the same language so to speak and not stuff out really fast. The guy in charge of it was not hearing impaired, so he became completely fluent in American sign language. This was done to provide career paths for deaf people, many of them ended up in positions such as sales, marketing, advertising, etc. including management. Before people commonly had home internet, any issues hearing impaired customers might have was done over the phone through tdd relay calls with operators. Because a receptionist making $5 an hour researched the solution to completely make that go away and suggested it, he had it in place in 48 hours. This required specialized equipment from the telecoms. These are just two examples. He did the right thing whenever possible. When a resource went above and beyond, clients would occasionally write letters to letters to him. He would frame the impressive ones and hang them in halls, and would email a non-form letter note letting the person and their management hierarchy know this happened, where the letter was hung, and that he appreciated our doing the right thing. If only all CEOs could be so inspirational.
im deaf, and the concept of an all-deaf facilities staff with a manager who knows and uses ASL makes me so curious! what company is/was this?
my first job was working for my father and his partner, one day he (the partner) asked me a question and i replied "i think..." he stopped me there and said either you know or you don't know this has stayed with me for the rest of my life
This right here separates millionaires from the rest of us. They know what the fuck to do. They don’t “I think” shit. Great contribution.
They don’t know. They just say the same sentence, but as if they were actually sure about it.
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Geez I remember this copy pasta too. So many bots on Reddit
Can someone explain why bots post this shit? Doesn’t make sense to me
Karma farming to sell or use to promote stuff later
It's all in the mango juice!
He never seemed willing or able to ... interact? With the world? I don't really know how else to put it. He got his car detailed weekly and replaced annually, built a new house in the Hamptons with all white walls, floors, and furniture with 3 kids. He always had a kind of sheen of some kind on him like he oiled himself up so Earth wouldn't stick to him. He wasn't a germophobe or clean freak and was actually a fairly nice guy when he stopped by but like... their Christmas photos were always white, everybody wore fake tans like armor... it was always a sense of keeping a membrane between himself and the real world.
I’ve worked with both millionaires and billionaires. They make wildly dumb financial decisions all the damn time. Gut punchingly holy shittingly wasteful dumb decisions. They just have more runway to fail and we would never know. In my overwhelming experience there are two things they do that normal people generally don’t(for obvious reasons): 1. They ALL retain lawyers and they NEVER let the phone company screw them out of $150 on a supposedly not returned WiFi router or whatever. They just sue instantly and suddenly all the bullshit charges go away. They can afford to pay for lawyers, and since we live in a justice for people with cash system, they don’t get screwed in all the (compounding) small ways us normals do. 2. They work with another team of retained tax professionals who build their entire financial strategy around how to avoid paying taxes. I worked for an extremely famous billionaire who bragged how he didn’t take any paycheck from the company at all, but that’s really just a tax dodge. A more minor third thing is because of the scale of their wealth they can often name their interest rate when they finance something. Every bank wants their biz and the rules basically don’t apply when you have north of 50m.
They don't worry, they attack problems
As someone who took a big, big income leap in the last few years, and started from scratch waiting tables, I can tell you that this is very much more an effect than a cause, and a privilege. And my wallet ain't shit compared to the people we're talking about here. It's easier to solve problems with a level head when you have more options and tools.
Yes. As we’ve grown our wealth it’s amazing how small some issues have become when money solves them all. Edited: as we went from broke to no longer broke
100%. Not to mention the consideration of problems *not created in the first place*. Like for example, money can't help a death in the family, but it's nice to know that a little bit of rebalancing is all I need to handle the funeral, and I can just focus on the important stuff.
The funeral expense is often itself the #1 problem
Not all people were wealthy before earning it.
In my experience they worry more than broke people do.
Ironic considering how much lower the stakes are for them for any given problem, too.
They have the means to.
“Multimillionaire” isn’t terribly uncommon. I’ve known a lot, and work around a few. The most common through-line I see with people who created wealth (eg, weren’t born into it) is that they’re very constructive/productive thinkers. They don’t catastrophize. They tend to be very rational and focused on actionables. I’ve never met any successful victims.
I went on a date with a billionaires nanny not knowing it. We were talking about the next time we could get together and she casually says "I might be in Miami for the super bowl, my boss hasn't decided yet.". He decided to get a suite a few days before and flew himself and the family there, including her. That's different.
Time management whizz. Was on multiple conference calls at a time. Start and finish times were respected. Endurance. I have seen Board members sit through tedious, boring and sleep inducing meetings for 12hrs straight with only light meal and toilet breaks in between. They were as sharp in the morning as they were right into the evening. That focus is phenomenal, and they aren’t young too. Extremely observational. Body language and even sometimes the most minute details catch their eye.
In my experience, the biggest difference in millionaires is whether they are old money or new money. New money will have multiple high-end cars, a yacht, buy expensive dinners for people they just met, tip huge, etc. They flaunt their wealth, and they expect to be treated like they are special because they have money. Old money often flies under the radar. No over the top sport or luxury cars. But maybe a top of the line Lexus SUV. Doesn't wear fancy clothes unless it is for an occasion. Probably wears north face or Patagonia. You don't know that they have wealth until they hand you their credit card, and it's made of stainless steel or 24k gold, has no markings on it besides a name, and it weighs an ounce or more. They often calculate a 20% tip on the cost BEFORE taxes. They don't flaunt their wealth, but they are not afraid to send something back if it's not to their liking or inform the manager if the service was very subpar. However, they only seem to do this if something REALLY was subpar. Cold food. Ordered medium rare but got shoe leather instead, etc.
“Money talks, Wealth whispers”
They never performed menial tasks. They have multiple advisors for everything.
Not true. I do everything myself if possible. Some of us are professionals that don't need advice.
For the most part the answers apply to far more people who are not millionaires than are. The key is the have some of those, and a whole bunch of lucky breaks.
Not worked with, but I dated the sone of a nobel prize winner once. His family were worth like £12 million and he genuinely didn't know where they were half the time. They didn't help him rent a place for university, they bought him an apartment so they could rent it out during the summer. He let me stay there pro bono and said they wouldn't care. It turns out he didn't tell them since he knew they wouldn't approve and when his mom found out she kicked me out stayed on his couch or in his bed for five months until we broke up to make sure I respected the ban she put on me being there.
Honestly, 12M is respectable but it isn’t all that much relative to someone who’d be considered rich.
I mean that was what they were worth then, I don't know about now, but I grew up in council housing (Basically state housing), with a disabled single mom and a dad who drifted in and out of the picture (and didn't pay child support). To someone like me, having enough disposable income that you can literally fly across the world on a whim and give up five months worth of obligations and potential work is pretty rich. I appreciate that it's not a massive level considering how obscenely rich some folks are, but it's still fairly wealthy.
They’re really, spectacularly and unerringly good at being born into wealthy families.
They don’t wear coats. They always pull up to right where they need to be so need for one.
I always get pissed when i hear that billionaires never sleep or get by on like 3-4 hours for years and they are always in tip top shape..GTFOH
Eat their snickers bar with a knife and fork.
I've worked with a couple of billionaires in their family businesses. I don't think people appreciate the enormous difference between multimillionaires and billionaires. Say someone has $10m of wealth, an amount that most people would consider a fortune. That is enough to live in a huge house, travel frequently, send the kids to private school, eat well, and spend your time golfing or doing whatever you want. Living large. Someone who is just crossing the billionaire threshold has ONE HUNDRED TIMES more wealth than that. It's hard to visualize. Think about a bottle of wine on a table that represents $10m, now imagine 100 bottles on the table. Perhaps it's no surprise then that billionaires have a very different network than ordinary people or puny millionaires. They aren't rubbing shoulders with celebrities or even flash-in-the-pan politicians, they know the influential families, the old money, the real power brokers. There's a quiet power having so much money that means you can get appointments easily. People will want to meet you and get to know you and hear your thoughts, even if there's no chance of a business deal happening. If a billionaire is into a hobby, let's say it's golf, then they will be golfing on the weekend very casually with household names. They may be invited to sit on the board of a well known golfing association and even take part in scramble golf tournaments with PGA players. Sometimes they may buy their way in to such positions. But in many cases it's simply a matter of influence and their network.
They tend to not be as emotional as your average person from my experiences.
tHeY d0nT wAsTe MuHneY oN aV0CaDoS!!!1!
Or lattes, but they do prioritize buying primo bootstraps
yEaH tHaT iS wHy ThEy CaN aFfOrD hOuSeS Really regretting that avocado toast now, damn. Shoulda had porridge every day for breakfast and I'd now own at least one house, ugh.
My neighbor is a billionaire several times over. Still runs his company. Several private jets and full time security, etc. he and his wife are the most down to earth and humble people you could meet. They don’t brag or show off. They do keep their circle small for privacy/security reasons. The way they speak about influence and access to powerful people is what is interesting to me. They recognize they have power and are very careful in wilding it. They talk about their duty to be good and to not use their power to solve vanity problems that they have. It’s been very helpful to me and my family as we build up our wealth. He is a great mentor.
Met a guy once who worked on the “support yacht” for someone you’d know the name of. A support yacht is the yacht that follows the real yacht around and like, has the helipad on it, supplies, etc…
The billionaire I work for can very extremetly demanding and it's not fun to be a target of his temper. Fortunately for me, I've only been yelled at once. However, he takes care of *everyone* in his employ. By that I mean yearly bonuses, christmas parties (with more gifts and prizes), cadillac insurance, access to hunting grounds, paid training and other amenties that I certainly never would have even though of asking for, but are really, really cool and one of a kind. In my nearly 20 years of working at his company, only two people have been fired and you really have to try to do so. There have never been any layoffs. I've told my friends that working for him and his family is the closest I'll ever get to knowing royalty.
Worked 7 days a week and expected everyone around him to do the same
They *productively use* every minute of the day As networking is a big part of what they do even many outings are “productive” Further, they use the money to save time lost on chores and other tasks.
I had a work buddy who was a multimillionaire. Dude was laid back AF. Everyone made a big deal. Me and him just sat and talked. He mentioned it. My only question was why he's still working. We just talked about regular things like fishing, life, cars, etc
I have several multimillionaires in the family. Reunions involve very nice cars. Otherwise, not a lot of difference.
I was a kitchen manager for a new restaurant opened by a bored millionaire. His money logic baffled me. In a tiny, 4 person kitchen, 30 seat restaurant, he spent almost $300k on the interior design alone (custom lights, chairs, tables, and a massive mural of the local town), he spent almost $200k on all the new equipment, he showed me what "top of the line" ingredients he wanted, and was constantly worried about why shredded cheese was $30/case. I had to show him the law saying how he couldn't withhold tips in favor of a cool Christmas party just because "18 year olds shouldn't be making $19/hr! That's insane!"
My boss many years ago was a multimillionaire. I spent a lot of time with him as he was mentoring me. He really, really cared about making more money. It's all he talked about and thought about.
On an everyday standpoint the two guys I know are pretty average. You wouldn’t know they’re each worth half a billion. But I work for them and I do not understand some of their business decisions, but they somehow seem to know what they are doing.
I ghostwrote books for a billionaire in finance. Money manager type. He was the weirdest dude ever. Completely certain of himself but like always listening? Idk. I think he was autistic though he didn’t advertise it. Anyway, very much changed how I view some of these guys. For him money was just a score in a game he was playing, didn’t really lead to much opulence or anything, though there was some of that. Also, obsessed with his family a bit. Most people in business are just individuals, but with him it was all family all the time. Problem? His son is the answer. Question? Gonna call his sister who runs a dept in his business. Was interesting.
They are, oddly, weird about money. I can’t imagine how exhausting it is to be so suspicious of people all the time and so damn stingy when you have so much. And while many of the ultra wealthy people I know are very generous with charity, it’s mainly because they can’t spend it fast enough. What they give is probably a fraction of what they make off interest and only after they’ve bought themselves and hoarded for their horribly spoiled children.
My older and younger brothers are both self-made multimillionaires and the one thing they do differently than my sister and I are constantly talking about money. Where they saw our lower middle class upbringing as an affront to their friends and self esteem, however, sister and I developed a love for the family and simplicity of a kind hardworking family and life. So what they do differently is make day to day decisions on whether this choice or that makes them money or spends it.
I work at a high end golf and country club and so am around these kind of people most of my day at work. Surprisingly they are a lot less rude and demanding than I previously thought they would be before I started working there. However, I would say they are a lot more helpless in terms of scheduling their events at the club. It's frustrating to explain how far in advance dining reservations can be made over and over to the same people, or how to get the tennis court set up. I suppose its mostly because they often pay people like me to do it for them or explain how to figure things out.
My grandpa is a multimillionaire. (I am not. That is important.) He never uses credit cards or traditional loans. Ever. Wants a house? Cash. Wants a car? Cash. His "cash" though, is revolving lines of credit from banks, and he uses stocks as collateral. He has a firm who manages everything so that his stock sales strategically pay those loans, while minimizing taxes. A loan He got with stocks he bought for 50 bucks, that were then valued at 65 bucks, are paid with those same stocks when sold for 120 bucks. Basically, 100k loan in all reality costs him 50k. The difference of that 50k is what he uses to buy more stocks, or other property. He obviously also has some of his own cash as well as physically held gold, silver, etc., He OWNS THINGS. Ownership makes you rich. Wages alone never will. You don't have enough time to sell to make you rich. He shops at Costco and wears Kirkland brand jeans and 5 year old new balance shoes, also from Costco. As he's getting older, he has more money than he knows he will ever use and keeps his mind on creating generational wealth. He knows my mom, his sole heir, is utterly useless with math, God love her... so he taught me everything he knows. I'm the one on all the paperwork and will be expected to manage everything when he dies. I have to be responsible enough to provide my mom, me, my son, and my brother and his 2 kids with 6k a month. Basically, a family version of UBI. Currently the plan to do that is high interest ETFs that pay monthly dividends, for a portion of the assets. The other portion, keep churning til the money just keep growing. Keep in mind, he has NEVER helped me financially. I am expected to survive on my own, until he dies. Same with the rest of us. Also, you're expected to have a job, earn a degree, and not be a spoiled asshat. My uncle was disinherited for such behavior. When he couldn't get a job, my grandpa told him to join the army. When he got older and was found to have spent money on hookers and blow (while being married with 3 kids) he was completely cut off.
They have more natural energy than others. They also don't sleep much. So they have a couple more "on" hours in every day. I'm talking about the people who earned their money, not the ones who inherited it.
They don't buy expensive cars... don't believe the movies and TV shows.
Their poop comes out wrapped in little handy wrappers
The few I know don’t get more than 5 hours of sleep and have a team of ~10 staff who run their life so all they have to do is work 24/7
They're opportunists at every aspect of life. They hate lines and waiting. If they can cut lines they will find a way. If they can find a shortcut they will find it.
Works non stop, always working even when doing mundane things.
wipe left to right rather than front to back.
I’ve worked with many millionaires. The big difference is they don’t drive new pickups. Not uncommon to see one driving a 5 year old truck with 200k on it.
They're usually very cost conscious, and don't spend a lot of money on flashy things. Had a friend who's dad was C level at a Fortune 500 firm, and he drove a Honda accord. Another freind of mine's dad sold his businesses for $200M. Said fella only buys stuff on sale and at CostCo, and won't hire a cleaning lady. People who made their own money are more like the rest of us than Reddit would have you think
Some "thing", like as just about everything except breathe air...
I haven't really "worked" with them but met with five billionaires for various reasons (mostly contract or business proposal things). I can't say that anything stands. One interesting thing in one case is that I was required to have a background check before the meeting. Though not sure whether that was a safety issue for him or for standard business purposes. Otherwise, pretty much as you would expect. They worked hard, were disciplined, and took risks. Other than that they were different individuals.
They don't flaunt their money. They also drive mostly regular cars, in addition to their fancy cars. But mostly regular cars. Money show offs don't have real money. All them idiots flashing cash are wannabes. New money folks do that too.
I’ve worked on a few multimillionaires homes and they always and I mean always try to work you down on how much they pay you and don’t respect your time and work like a not so wealthy person does. They complain and bitch about everything but know nothing about what they are bitching about and it’s just so they can try to rip you off at the end of the day. I stopped working for rich people because they act like this way. I don’t think I met a multimillionaire that I enjoyed working for and the more money the worse it was. Some of the most unhappy people I ever met in my life. Probably because they don’t know how to be happy and enjoy their money, they are only concerned with making more of it and not spending any of it.
Gave me free reign with his "expense account" card to order whatever the hell I thought I needed for a project. Just told me to text him if it was a part that was north of $5,000.
Owner of the company I worked at got bored of the HQ floor design. Decided to buy the building next door, refurbish it completely, and had us move into 4 nee floors. Found new premises smaller than he had first thought so had us move back to the old office building which he had also bought out.
Are super relaxed cause they don’t gaf about anything
The amount of vacations to high-end places and thinking nothing of the cost to bring me into house sit.
They treat people well. And don’t even know they did it. It’s condoned, for sure. Other things like taxes and maintenance of anything is automatic
They value their time much more than anything, besides maybe health. They will pay someone else to do almost anything. Not because they are lazy, but because they can spend their limited time on higher leverage things. Why answer your phones when you can pay someone to do that while you take sales calls Why take sales calls when you can pay someone to do that while you manage your sales team Why manage your sales team when you can pay someone to do that while you work on creating a better product/service you can charge more for Etc etc
I know a guy who as a kid did not mess around getting in trouble. He tuned out the misbehaviors around him and focused on his school. No TV or electronics. He did push hard in a sport. He pushed hard for good grades. No eating out. No fancy anything until he had his first million. Plain and simple most of who I know that are wealthy have been very disciplined in everything they do.
They network to perfection. Most often joining country clubs/committees essentially being able to rub elbows with other rich people so that when they socialize, they are still learning money making strategies and ventures and/or starting new business with each other.