How to Become a Billionaire

By Yiro Abari High

Billionaires, their businesses and private lives often make interesting topics of conversations. They are powerful and influence lives in many ways. But above all, they stir others, creating in them a hunger for success. This way, a lot of people want to become billionaires.    

If you have been around for some time and have, at one time or the other, tried business, it should probably have given you an idea on how successful businesses are built. Billionaires become profoundly rich because they build successful businesses. So, you don’t just set out wanting to become a billionaire. I think that it is saner to set out wanting to become a successful businessman or woman. If your business becomes successful and you sustain the growth, then you are on your way to becoming a billionaire. 

The paths to becoming a billionaire are many and complex, but most billionaires achieved that status by searching to find a service or goods that are needed but which no one offers. If you find yourself offering services or commodities, then you are on your way…

There are certain services that couldn’t be provided because it required a technology that no one was able to invent. If you are able to invent such a technology to provide that service, then you are on your way to becoming a billionaire, especially if the technology solves a problem to millions of people. This is the case with Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation. In the case of Jeff Bezos of Amazon, he did not invent the internet. He hatched the idea of selling things via the internet and was able to make it work. Currently, there is a search for Corona Virus cure or a vaccine. If you can find it, then you are on your way.

The Igbos in the south-east of Nigeria have the highest number of entrepreneurs in black Africa. They have a tradition of travelling to remote corners of the earth, where a lot of people wouldn’t want to live. It makes them the only suppliers of goods in that locality, helping them to build their businesses easily. There is an element of sacrifice here. So, you must not necessarily invent something like Bill Gates or hatch a unique idea like Jeff Bezos to get extraordinarily rich. You can simply buy a product to sell in a place where no one else sells it. 

But, if you find yourself in a place where a commodity or service is provided by many, you still can become rich buy studying the business landscape to see gaps that you can take advantage of and be ahead of the others. By doing this, you end up suffocating the other businesses, becoming a sole supplier. Aliko Dangote’s businesses supply what has been supplied by others. He, however, delivers the goods to depots across the country, cutting out middlemen and bringing down prices that ensure he stays ahead in the competition. 

Talent is part of it. Bill Gates has talent. When he was asked how he became so wealthy, he said, “I was lucky to be born with a certain amount of talent.” As said before, you don’t set out wanting to become a billionaire. You should set out wanting to build a successful business. Most times, the success of the business puts a lot of capital into your hand with which you can venture into any area where you see an opportunity that simply requires capital. You could have a talent for music, use it to generate capital and then put the capital to other businesses that generate even more money than music. Sean Puffy Combs, aka, P Diddy, is an example. He is truly the wealthiest Hip Hop artist, but not all the wealth comes from music. Music was just a stepping-stone. There is also Jay-Z who is venturing into other businesses after raising millions through music.  

You could also get rich by luck. If, for instance, your ancestors own land that turned out to be underlain by gold in a nation where the law favours the landowner in a way, you could get astonishingly rich. You could marry a wealthy woman that gives you a start.

But there is destiny. Destiny could say that you will never become a billionaire. In that case, you will do all these things and still see yourself getting even poorer, especially if you lack connection or some powers stand against you. There could be a war coming to disrupt your effort. There could be weak laws that leave your business unprotected. It is why businesses are like flying birds looking for the right place to land.

But like they say, winners never quit and quitters never win. Even when there is frustration while you are doing the right thing, it would be only wise to keep doing what is right. Those creating stumbling blocks aren’t God. The challenges could just be part of your story but not the whole of it.