4 Habits That Have Turned Traders Into Millionaires
by Andrew McGuinness Aug 16, 2019
If you’ve seen a Hollywood movie based on the life of stock traders, Wall Street investment bankers, or even a TV show about successful entrepreneurs, you will notice that many of them seemingly achieve millionaire status in a short span of time. This is, of course, not true as it’s extremely rare for someone to become a millionaire overnight or even within a single year. A lot of people research Trading 101 in hopes of finding ways to become a millionaire quicker, but the truth of the matter is – how someone approaches their work is more important in becoming a millionaire.
What they don’t teach you in Trading 101 is the difference between a millionaire’s work ethic compared to someone who makes $100,000 a year. Let’s break down the 4 most common habits we see in successful millionaires below.
1) Working hard all day, every day
Laziness is a trait you can see in any profession – even in investing and trading. Millionaires that do not work hard either inherited their money, won the lottery, or got extremely lucky somehow. Millionaires know that they need to work hard daily to maintain their financial status. A millionaire mindset is centered around achieving small wins and stringing them together to build towards a bigger win – a mindset traders can also adapt.
There are no secrets to becoming massively successful in a short period of time. It all boils down to working hard and eventually seeing the fruits of your labor.
2) Setting clearly defined goals
If your aim is to just “get rich”, then you’re more likely to have a hard time succeeding. Millionaires tend to be good at visualizing what they want to achieve. They visualize, set clear goals, and take concrete steps to get what they want to achieve.
Let’s say you want to buy a Lamborghini in the future. Instead of telling yourself that you’ll buy a nice luxury car when you’re rich, pick a specific model that you want. Make it your phone wallpaper, your desktop background – know exactly the model and how much it’ll cost.
Having that clearly defined goal is going to be crucial in motivating you down the road. It’s going to be the difference between pushing through adversity and overcoming challenges or giving up after the first loss. It doesn’t matter if your goals are shallow – what matters is that they motivate you and push you to succeed.
3) Fail fast, fail early, fail often
Failure is something many people tend to be afraid of. Being afraid of failure makes people too cautious and as a result, miss good opportunities. Millionaires see failures as an opportunity to learn from. It’s important to understand that you should never do anything with the intention to fail, especially if you’re a stock trader. But every now and then, there might be an untested opportunity that presents itself to you – which could be the difference between a massive success or a small failure. This fear of failure and taking risks is how people passed up the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of Bitcoin.
Millionaires take smart risks.
4) Get a good mentor
Mentors can make a big difference to your path to becoming a millionaire. Having someone to guide you through the rights and wrongs of either your industry or your decision making can be critical to success.
A great mentor can reduce your failure rate and learning curve by substantial amounts, which might even save you a great deal of money down the road. There’s nothing wrong with admitting you need a mentor – in fact, it’s great character to be self-aware enough to look for help.