STARTING AND MANAGING A BUSINESS FOR PROFITS AND WEALTH
Part 26: The 10-Fold Path to Becoming Rich and Wealthy

By K.C. See

My business partner Patrick Liew came up with an interesting study, which I find intriguing. There are many reasons why I would pay attention to him and his ideas: being an accomplished entrepreneur, having listed three companies and building numerous successful businesses. Aside from that he was the Chairman of HSR Global, a listed property agency in Singapore as well as the co-founder of Success Resources, a global seminar company. He gave me the go-ahead to share this.

Patrick believes that every rich and wealthy person has developed his own unique path to success. He discovered that there are generally ten major pathways, called the 10-Fold Path to becoming rich and wealthy. These pathways can be correlated to psychological models such as the Five Factor Model (FFM). The FFM covers the big five personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN).

If one studies Greek mythology one will realise that the ten different pathways have been depicted in the lives of the mythological gods and goddesses. It goes to prove that discoveries of the modern age have been in existence since the beginning of time. We have merely affirmed truths of age-old wisdom. This is Patrick’s 10-Fold Path to becoming rich and wealthy.

1. OPENNESS
1.1 Game-changer (“Aphrodite”) The Game-changer becomes rich by identifying problems, finding gaps, and developing disruptive solutions. Eg. Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos
1.2 Inventor (“Hephaestus”) The Inventor becomes rich by creating and innovating new models, products and services. Eg. Steve Jobs, Richard Branson

2. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
2.1 Governor (“Athena”) The Governor becomes rich through leading people and managing limited resources. He develops structures, systems and processes to make things work. Eg. Steve Ballmer, Jack Welch
2.2 Guardian (“Demeter”) The Guardian becomes rich through acquiring, value-adding, leveraging on, and growing assets. Eg. Warren Buffet, Amancio Ortega, Sheldon Adelson, Lakshmi Mittal, Paul Allen

3. EXTRAVERSION
3.1 Power Broker (“Hermes”) The Power Broker becomes rich by selling, trading and brokering deals. Eg. Carl Icahn, George Soros, Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump
3.2 Ruler (“Zeus”) The Ruler becomes rich by targeting a market segment or niche and developing dominance over it. Eg. Harry Triguboff, Eike Fuhrken Batista, Li Ka-shing, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Walton, Aliko Dangote

4. AGREEABLENESS
4.1 Hero (“Apollo”) The Hero becomes rich through making people like, trust and respect him. Eg. Oprah Winfey, Michael Jackson, David Beckham
4.2 Master (“Hades/Poseidon”) The Master becomes rich by being the leading expert in a significant domain. Eg. George Lucas, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, J. K. Rowling,

5. NEUROTICISM
5.1 Problem-Solver (“Artemis”) The Problem-solver becomes rich by resolving problems that can cause major gains or losses to the customers. Eg. Charles Schwab, Michael Dell
5.2 Politician (“Ares”) The Politician becomes rich by developing schemes and maneuvers to influence organisations, communities, and society. This could be for his personal or partisan advantage. Eg. Silvia Berlusconi, Prince Al Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud, Thaksin Shinawatra, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

It would therefore be interesting to determine which path may be yours and thus set you on a more guided journey. Patrick suggested that you can do three things to make this happen.

1. LEVERAGE ON YOUR STRENGTHS
There is no absolute path to being rich and wealthy. As a start, you need to choose the path that is most appropriate to you, one that will optimise your edge, advantage and growth. The choice of the path depends on the following 5 “P”s:
1.1 Purpose. It serves your purpose in starting a business.
1.2 Personality. It leverages on the strengths of your personality.
1.3 Passion. It should invoke meaning, fun and excitement.
1.4 Performance. It should be a path that can help you perform well and better than your targeted competitors.
1.5 Priority. It should be a path that is relevant and significant at this time and in your current situation.

2. COVER YOUR WEAKNESSES
You need to retain different talents to cover your weaknesses. In addition, you need to build organisations, systems and processes to support you and enhance your business model and operation.

3. WORK TOWARDS A HOLISTIC MODEL OF GROWTH
As you work on your path, learn to develop a targeted, holistic and balanced set of competences so that you can choose different paths and have more options to grow your business. In that way, you can survive any turbulence and exploit the silver lining in every storm.