By Frank Tagarira – 1 Know that any type of work or business can make you rich if it has a market. Any line of work can potentially make you a millionaire if you are successful at it, and especially if you are really good at it. Your skills, if they answer a strong demand, could be your ticket to big things. Many of the wealthy are people who excel at what they do whether it be in sports, entertainment, sales, real estate, business, art, engineering, writing. Look at Tiger Woods, the Rolling Stones, Michael Schumacher, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey. – 2 Make some money by doing something you like to do. If you enjoy what you do, the chances of you becoming great at your chosen area of work will increase. It bears repeating that if you are in a marketable line of work or calling; you have the opportunity to rise to the top and conceivably make very good money. – 3 Enter the field you want to be in and find out what’s marketable about it. Strategically work towards the goal of breaking into a marketable career. For example, you can start out in food preparation. But then build your experience and learn the business as best as you can so that one day you may start something on your own. – 4 Help yourself succeed with the following traits: positive mindset, can-do attitude, willingness to learn, knowledgeability, persistence, determination, passion and being action-oriented. – 5 Be willing to make sacrifices and to reset priorities. Stop spending, watch your budget and set aside some money. Try to find some inspiration to help you through the financial challenges. Look into other people’s success stories and take encouragement from their own experiences. – 6 Don’t buy into the belief that you can get rich overnight. The only way you can do so is by being lucky. You can have a windfall on your lap tomorrow, but that would be lady fortune smiling upon you a chance event. Lotteries and casinos are obvious crap shoots. If someone offers you the formula to get rich tomorrow with very little work all for a “small” fee, run away. It’s a scam. – 7 Start saving and investing early. The younger you are, the greater your chance of making a million if you start saving and investing early. – 8 Learn all you can about finance. Don’t invest blindly. Read up on it, learn how other successful people have made it and do the research via books, the web, workshops, classes or seminars. – 9 Learn all you can about business, if you want to become an entrepreneur. Don’t get into business blindly. Learn how to run, operate and manage a business before you take on that risk. There are many people with specific talents who entered into business and failed. That’s because it’s not enough to be able to cultivate an idea or a skill, you’ll also need to know something about business before starting one. Either you have the head for business, or get a partner who does. – 10 Know the rest of the wealth formula, realizing that making money is just the first step to success. Make money: this is obvious. You have to start somewhere, after all. Grow your money: Your money has to work for you as well. So learn how to make it grow. Preserve it, keep it, protect it: this is one element often overlooked in conventional financial advice because it’s not as exciting as the “making” and “growing” steps. But this is a whole realm of finance you’ll want to keep abreast of to be able to grasp the big picture. Some topics on this cover trusts, estate planning, asset protection, insurance and other wealth preservation strategies. – 11 Other People’s Time: You don’t have to do everything yourself. You can always hire others and reputable experts (!) to implement your plan. But I would advise that you don’t hire a professional without knowing about these subjects yourself. You don’t want someone else, no matter how much you trust them, to be in control of your finances. In the end, you are the one who cares the most about your money and who wants to be that millionaire; hence, you’ll need to be your own financial boss. – Frank Tagarira is a Business Development Consultant and Business Coach.