When Jesus warns us not to store up treasures on earth, it’s not just because wealth might be lost; it’s because wealth will always be lost. Either it leaves us while we live, or we leave it when we die. No exceptions….Realizing its value is temporary should radically affect our investment strategy…. According to Jesus, storing up earthly treasures isn’t simply wrong. It’s just plain stupid. – Randy Alcorn in The Treasure Principle

The best way to learn a skill, is to spend time learning from someone who has that skill.  So if I wanted to learn to cook, it makes sense that I spend time watching someone who cooks well, and that I learn to do what they do, and I practice this again and again.

So with that thought in mind, I have taken the lessons shared by five billionaires with Barbara Walters and reprinted in the November 28, 2011 Wall Street Journal as they shared their secrets to success.

1. Figure out what you’re so passionate about that you’d be happy doing it for 10 years, even if you never made any money from it.  Begin doing that, even if it is part-time after your regular job or on weekends.
2. Figure out what your values are and live by them, in business and in life.
3. Rather than focus on work-life separation, focus on work-life integration.  Successful people enjoy what they do, and therefore do not see themselves “on the clock” and “off the clock”.  Their life’s work is their career.
4. Don’t network.  Focus on building real relationships and friendships where the relationship itself is its own reward, instead of trying to get something out of the relationship to benefit your business or yourself.
5. Get ready for rejection.  Successful people experience rejection like the rest of us, they learn from it and keep moving forward.
6. Successful people do all the things unsuccessful people don’t want to do.
7. Having goals is incredibly important.  See Goals
8. Memories are better than material objects.  Anyone who has owned a $10,000 Rolex will tell you that a $39 Casio keeps better time.  So what are their priorities?  Memories and accomplishments.  This was especially true when it came to family.  Toys matter less than good times.
9. Avoid becoming “cash rich” and “time poor.  Work is merely the process of exchanging your time for money.  Remember… What you do with your time is far more meaningful than the goods you accumulate with your money.  If you are working so much to become rich but you ignore your spouse and miss seeing your kids grow up, you are actually poorer than you realize.
10. Success unshared is failure.  Give back — share your wealth.  Ask yourself “why” do I want to be successful?  How do I define success in my life?  What will it look like?  Who will I share it with?

Dave