How to Be a Billionaire:

In Five Easy Steps

November 1, 2009

Master this first step and it's a done deal.

Step 1:

Drop out of school

...any school.

Not only will dropping out of school give you the right to tell your teachers why you were doodling in class, it will allow you to skip Yearbook Club and homework. Unlike your parents, who can't turn back the clock, if you drop out of school and have a few other things going for you (see below), you won't need the Get Rich Quick books or the Amway schemes or the Spiritual Abundance retreats to solidify your fortune. You won't need them if you take action. You know exactly what's been holding you back. It begins with the letter "s" and all you need to do, right now, is get out of it. This is the single most important move you can make in order to increase your odds at breaking into the Billionaires Club.

Billionaire Drop-outs: Bill Gates (ex-Harvard), Steve Jobs (ex-Reed), Michael Dell (ex-University of Texas Austin), Paul Allen (ex-Washington State)

The rest is easy.

Step 2:

Invent something

...and sell it.

Silicon Valley is filled with the brilliant billionaire minds of inventors, many of whom became inventors before they had facial hair.

Billionaire Inventors: Larry Page (Google), Jeffrey Bezos (Amazon), Ray Dolby (Dolby)

Step 3:

Skip Spelling Bees

...and excel in math.

It may be redundant to note that personal wealth and a mastery of numbers go hand in hand but it's true.

Billionaire Math Buffs (not to mention all the MBAs): Irwin Jacobs (electrical engineering), Warren Buffet (economics), Steven Baller (math and economics)

Step 4:

Get an MBA from Harvard or Wharton

...and join the club.

Dropping out of school may not be an option for you if you've always envisioned yourself in photos wearing a satin cap and gown.

Billionaires with MBAs from Harvard and Wharton: Michael Bloomberg (Harvard), Ronald Perelman (Wharton), George Kaiser (Harvard)

Hollywood Squares Billionaires

Steven Spielberg • George Lucas • Barry Diller

Mark Cuban • Rupert Murdoch • David Geffen

Sumner Redstone • Steve Jobs • Haim Saban

Step 5:

Leave Your Homeland

...and become an immigrant.

These billionaires have their parents to thank for weaning them in the States. Perhaps all of them would have struck gold in their respective homelands as well, but we'll never know because their riches were Made in America.

Billionaires who were born abroad: Sergey Brin (Russia, co-founder of Google); Pierre Omidyar (France, co-founder of Ebay); George Soros (Hungary, currency speculator)

If you're a Billionaire Contender, then you've already deduced that these five easy steps are really a mere four. You're ahead of the curve! So do what's right for you: get out and go for it. NewsSip

Photo Credit: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates by Joi Ito

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