As I complete writing of my new book, 'Is Your Thinking Keeping You Poor?', I'd like to share some of the mindsets typical to self-made millionaires, and billionaires.

Here's what research shows was typical of the mindsets of the wealthiest people in history:

They were hard-driving personalities who didn’t believe that obstacles represented full-stops

They found ways to alter or change scenarios that didn’t suit them. If infrastructure was lacking, they built it. If laws were prohibitive, they had the laws changed. They were willing to alter the rules of the game to work in their own favour

A surprising number of them played Poker, and loved games of strategy

They were capable of keeping their own master-plans to themselves, even as they carried out deals and strategies in the public arena, deals which helped them to achieve those master-plans

They viewed life as a sort of game. Numbers were a scorecard, which merely reflected how they were doing. They were fascinating by increasing their own numbers, be it amount of wealth, number of sales, number of businesses bought, etc. Many did not love money itself, but derived great satisfaction from increasing their numbers

They benefited from a combination of luck and industriousness. The luck came from being involved in the right industries at the right time. But the luck wasn’t sufficient on its own. They also had to spot the opportunities and work extraordinarily hard to do something about them. In other words, they didn’t become lucky while sitting on their couches eating Pringles. They became lucky whilst deeply immersed in their work

They were risk-takers, who were willing to bet on themselves, and on the success of their own ventures

They were deal-makers, who saw a bigger picture, and negotiated their way to success, always fighting for their own interests

They were not sentimental about the past, but rather, optimistic about the future. In other words, they didn’t yearn for ‘the way things used to be.’ Instead, they genuinely believed that their own stories were on the way up. They were, in other words, creators of their own fate.

By contrast, the mindsets of the poor, with degrees of variance, tend to reflect diametrically opposed philosophies:

“They are responsible for my situation” (with ‘they’ being anyone from government to employers to parents to teachers to spouses)

“The government should improve my situation”

“I need a better job so that my boss will take care of me”

“One day the lottery will make me rich”

“It’s too dangerous to be your own boss”

“The harder I work at my job, the better my chances of getting rich”

“Being careful with my money is the key to wealth.”

“Going broke is the worst thing that can possibly happen to me.”

“You have to start off rich to make real money.”

“I long for the good old days, when everything was wonderful. Everything is much worse today.” 

There's certainly a great deal more to the picture, but these mindsets are a very good starting point. To become the greatest in your game, you may need to ditch some of the outlooks of the perpetually poor, and adopt some of the mindsets of the people who ultimately became the greatest in their game.