By Gaj Ravichandra – Kompass Consultancy, UAE
Most people think the key to unlocking wealth, influence, and success is a billion-dollar idea, but the truth is, it’s the ‘Billionaire Mindset’ that makes the difference.
If the billion is the golden egg, the mindset feeds the goose that lays it.
The Billionaire Mindset is not about hitting a billion dollars as an end goal. It’s about hitting that first billion through creating an entity that is sustainable with the right team, mindset and leadership tactics.
As with all things in life, good things don’t come easily, and to stay successful, you’ll need to be prepared to make tough decisions and welcome critique.
Grit, determination, vulnerability, and an openness to feedback will help you thrive. As a result of this approach, you’ll gain wisdom through humbling experiences, build a support system with the right people around you, and learn to let go of the people who no longer serve your business.
Below are some of the key pillars of the billionaire mindset that have allowed me to support clients all over the world as they build and sustain healthy, successful businesses.
1. The Right Team is Critical
Creating a billion-dollar team requires what I call the ‘Triangle of Trust’ – a stable foundation to support strong business empires. This triangle consists of loyalty, competence, and stretch.
However, the key is understanding that you don’t need everyone on your team to individually display all these traits. You need to identify these qualities in different team members and strategically build your army or tribe. Success is limited without the right team.
One of the biggest themes in my interactions with my Ultra-High Net Worth (UHNW) clients is how they have a few ‘favourites,’ or people they trust and rely on more than the others on their team. These are the ones who rank higher on loyalty in the ‘Triangle of Trust’ and have typically made it to the inner circle in the early days of a young business. You trust them and their judgement, and as such, they play critical roles in operational excellence and management.
As the organisation grows, it is the loyal leader’s job to recruit competent experts with valuable experience and individuals with stretch potential who can learn, evolve with the times, and adapt to future demands. Loyal leaders should leverage this expertise to align the team’s skills with the founder’s vision, ensuring cohesive and strategic growth.
Ultimately, you need all three to win the battle. A Billionaire Mindset allows you to focus on those loyal commanders and lets them take care of the rest.
‘Pick your clique’ isn’t conventional leadership wisdom, but it works when loyalty has been proven.
2. Making Difficult Decisions
Knowing when to let someone go is just as important as knowing when not to. Some leaders struggle with this because empathy is their kryptonite, and letting people go can be difficult and stressful, particularly when they’ve played a critical role in the early years of the success.
When it comes down to finding a good fit for the role, team, and business, sometimes it’s prudent – and kinder – to let someone go.
It takes a unique kind of courage and maturity to honestly evaluate a team member on the three levels of the ‘Triangle of Trust’ and prioritise decision-making that is in the interest of a collective purpose, even when employees are dealing with personally challenging situations.
3. Humility is Intrinsic
‘Humble’ may not be the first word that comes to mind when you hear about ‘billionaires.’
But chances are, uber-successful people have taken pretty hard knocks in life and, as a result, have learnt valuable skills, making them more aware, curious, and confident in speaking their minds. Their life’s hard-earned experiences leave them with a unique brand of humility combined with confidence – one that can sometimes be confused as arrogance.
I once coached a first-generation owner of a multi-million-dollar family business (on the verge of becoming a billion-dollar entity) who refused to mentor his children who were taking over the business. Instead of sharing the lessons he learnt from his failures, he chose to let them fail and experience the same downs that he did.
It was where he stumbled that he learnt the most, and those lessons stay with you for a lifetime.
4. Billionaires Never Stop Searching for Blind Spots
When success comes, through the initial period of wins and prosperity, it’s easy to develop ‘blind spots.’
These are the (often unpleasant) parts of yourself that are obvious to everyone but you. The more competent you perceive yourself to be, the bigger your blind spots probably are.
There’s only one way to discover what makes you an ineffective leader, and that’s to make it safe for the people around you to feel confident being candid and honest, even giving them a space to do so.
It takes a thick skin, but if you want to grow, get ready to get uncomfortable. Ask people what you need to do better, deal with the pain and embarrassment, and use it to grow bigger and better.
Being able to cultivate the Billionaire Mindset is a valuable achievement. It shows that you’ve had the resilience and strength to absorb these lessons and traits despite the painful journey it demands.
When you examine the psychology of highly successful individuals, you’ll see that it isn’t easy to reach the top and even harder to stay there.
Learning to be a leader of such entities is not only about understanding how you can influence other people – it’s also an opportunity for oneself to undertake significant personal growth and transformation.
Ultimately, being a great leader isn’t a destination. Great leaders recognize the need to continuously re-assess and re-evaluate themselves and their team. Through years of working with successful billionaires across industries, it’s become clear to me that having someone hold them accountable to this high standard isn’t just essential, it’s the catalyst for sustainable growth.