Be smart with your money before you have it

You may already know who are the richest people in the world. You may already know how much they’re worth. You may even know various other things about these people. Does it shock you that the three richest people in the world are not your average “celebrities”? Are you aware that some of these people are people who simply took something they were good at and used it to their advantage? My hope is that after reading this, you’ll feel a little more optimistic about the endless possibilities you can reach in your future.

Starting out our countdown at NO. 3 we have Amancio Ortega. Ortega is worth a whopping $72.1 billion. The source of his money is his fairly successful clothing store, Zara. Zara not only sells clothes but also accessories. It’s safe to say it’s one of the most successful retailers to date. If you haven’t heard of Mr. Ortega, it’s probably because he resides in Europe. Therefore, we can assume the majority of his popularity accumulates on that continent. Although he’s the third richest person in the world, he’s the richest in Europe. Not too shabby.

The second richest person in the world is a name that’s familiar to most people: Warren Buffet. The envy of almost everyone except the richest man alive, Buffet sits on a net worth of $73.6 billion. However, sometimes he switches places with our NO. 1 contender. The source of Buffet’s wealth is his company, Berkshire Hathaway. That’s right-- one of the wealthiest people on the planet is a real estate tycoon! Buffet has also been known to dabble in the stock market, which only adds to his assets. On top of running a successful business, part of the reason for Buffet’s hoard of wealth is his smart spending mentality.

You may be interested to know that one of the wealthiest people alive lives in a house that is by no means a mansion in the middle of the country. He has recently stated that he’s thinking of upsizing his garage which is currently big enough for two whole cars! Careful there, Warren. If that wasn’t interesting enough, he also has stated he’s not leaving any money to his kids in the form of inheritance. However, all of his kids are pretty successful business people (shocker). On top of that, he donates a significant percentage of his money to charity.

The richest person in the world is Bill Gates. Currently, Bill gates is worth about $85 billion (yes--billion). Although it may be hard to believe, Gates switches consistently between spot NO. 1 and the NO. 2 spot. As you’re probably aware, Bill gates’ money-maker is Microsoft. Microsoft was put into the world through none other than IBM, so if you didn’t know earlier, you can probably gather that Microsoft is a computer software company. This software is still widely used and hasn’t found a serious competitor since its debut.

Everyone knows the story of how Bill Gates become the richest man alive. But does everyone know the story of how Bill Gates had the opportunity to become the richest man alive? Long story short: IBM was collecting bids from different people/ companies to get their hands on some software that could make their computers more user-friendly. None other than Bill Gates’ mother was on IBM’s committee to pick the winning bid. So naturally, with the advantage of knowing exactly what IBM was looking for, Bill Gates was able to design a very useful software for the company. You can act like it’s unfair, but you’d be an idiot to not take that opportunity. Somehow I feel like $85 billion later, Gates regrets nothing.

After hearing these success stories, you should feel motivated. Notice how none of these people are rocket scientists; however, they all are smart. They are people who took advantage of opportunities and were able to recognize their strengths. In fact, these people not only recognized their strengths, but they used those strengths to take them to better places. Without a doubt, these individuals have weaknesses, but we don’t hear about the things that they can sort of do. We hear about the things they excelled at. No matter what it is, we all have something we are good at. We can either choose to hone in on those skills and use them to better ourselves, or focus on our weaknesses that hold us back. You are your biggest critic, and the way you see yourself is the difference between success and failure.