In order to make it the billionaire status, these business people have to be relentless. Motivation isn’t just something nice to have. It’s a necessity. But under pressure, finding it can often be difficult. That’s why each billionaire has a unique way of staying motivated when the going gets tough.
From owners of basketball teams to what the likes of Oprah and Tim Cook do each day, here we go.
Today, we’re bringing you 7 ways billionaires find motivation to keep going strong in business. Let’s get started!
The Miracle Morning
by Hal Elrod
⏱ 16 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
Fear of Failure
Billionaires have a unique quality that makes them different from even millionaires– the often paralyzing fear of failure isn’t something they let stop them. It’s the complete opposite. It’s their fear of failure that pushes them, that drives them, and keeps them going strong in business, even in the face of challenges.
Why is that?
Well, they never would have made it to their position without being relentless. Their entire day revolves around working hard to avoid falling.
Billionaire Mark Cuban, the owner of the National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks, co-owner of 2929 Entertainment, chairman of AXS TV, and a main “shark” investor on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank wrote in a Bloomberg article that he uses the fear of failure for self-motivation.
He wrote,
“No matter what business you’re in, you’re always at risk — particularly in technology, where it changes so rapidly you’ve got to put in the effort to keep up.”
“There’s always the opportunity for some 18-year-old to come out of nowhere and crush you.”
That is one key thought that always motivates him.
“Every one of my companies, whether something I started or something I invested in, is a scoreboard. How am I doing? A lot of investors or advisers play it as a numbers game.”
“If they invest in 20 companies, as long as one success covers 19 losses, they did okay.”
The next time you’re faced with failure, you can use it as motivation. Ask yourself what you did wrong? Why did you trust that you shouldn’t have trusted? And most importantly, what can you learn from the situation so that you can avoid it next time?
Being Surrounded by the Right People
Humans are the products of their environment, and according to Mark Zuckerberg, billionaires especially need a team that supports them.
“No one does it alone.”
“When you look at most big things that get done in the world, they’re not done by one person, so you’re going to need to build a team.”
The Facebook CEO advises choosing people who complement you, who excel in areas where you’re not as skilled or have less experience. Zuckerberg emphasized that
“You’re going to need people that have complementary skills. No matter how talented you are, there are just going to be things that you don’t bring to the table.”
Being Driven by Freedom
Financial freedom, personal freedom, having control over your life– these are all types of freedoms billionaires seek to help them find motivation. Oftentimes, freedom is one of their main drives right from the get to go. Their first venture into business was so that they could have something they have influence and control over and to do what they wanted.
Take Frank Stronach, the founder of Magna International, one of the largest companies in Canada, recognized on the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, who says,
“if you’re not economically free, you’re not a free person. I wanted to be a free person. So I can say anything I want to say and can do the things I want to do.”
Others use freedom to find motivation because they’re not willing to go back to the time money constructed them. Naveen Jain, the co-founder of Moon Express, was born into poverty in rural India. When speaking about what he aspired to be when he was younger, he said,
“I just wanted to get out of poverty and do something useful with my life.”
It was actually his mother’s dedication to making sure that [they] escaped the cycle of poverty that motivates him the most, even to this day.
Wanting to Feel Good About the Future
This next way to find motivation comes directly from none other than Elon Musk. When speaking to the National Governors Association, he revealed,
“The thing that drives me is that I want to be able to think about the future and feel good about that.”
He also added,
“We are doing what we can to have the future be as good as possible, to be inspired by what is likely to happen and to look forward to the next day.”
This sort of motivation is what is directly behind what drove him to achieve such success with his two most well-known and influential companies, Tesla and SpaceX.
Elon Musk’s particular motivation is his goal of reaching Mars and colonizing it.
“The main reason I am personally accumulating assets is in order to fund this,”
he says.
“I really do not have any other motivation for personally accumulating assets except to be able to make the biggest contribution I can to making life multiplanetary.”
“That’s what really drives me — trying to figure out how to make sure that things are great and going to be so.”
They Become Internally Driven
When you think of motivation-driven billionaires, there are not a lot of business people as successful as Steve Jobs and his single-minded determination. According to him, what’s kept him going all those years was continually checking in with his reason for carrying on.
He says,
“I think most people that are able to make a sustained contribution over time — rather than just a peak — are very internally driven. You have to be. Because, in the ebb and tide of people’s opinions and of fads, there are going to be times when you are criticized, and criticism’s very difficult. And so when you’re criticized, you learn to pull back a little and listen to your own drummer. And to some extent, that isolates you from the praise, if you eventually get it, too. The praise becomes a little less important to you and the criticism becomes a little less important to you, in the same measure. And you become more internally driven.”
Remember WHY They’re Doing This
According to Jennifer Frye, the founder and president of Clevel Marketing & events, she stays “motivated by referring back to old goals” she set before launching her wildly profitable business. When she looks back on her old goals, this allows her to see how much she has accomplished. She adds that this also allows her to realize that everything she’s done and will continue to do for her business is not in vain.
It’s easy to stray off course of your goal, but billionaires are famously grounded in their goals. You’ll find that highly motivated people always have their “why” always on their minds. That’s how they find strength when the going gets tough.
Follow a Routine
And one thing that nearly all billionaires share? It’s that they’re sticklers for routines. From Steve Jobs to Oprah, you can guarantee that they get up in the morning at the same time and follow a routine.
This is easily one of the most powerful ways that help business people find motivation– kicking off their day right, and that can only happen by having a morning. Think about it. An easy morning makes it a lot easier to stay motivated for the entire day.
By having their own routines and rituals, they become inspired and keep moving forward with their goals. Of course, these routines greatly differ from person to person.
For example, Oprah wakes up at seven o’clock each day, brushes her teeth, and takes her dogs out for a walk before taking her morning espresso. She then mediates, goes for a run, and then it’s time for business.
Elon Musk also wakes up at seven o’clock, but his mornings are much more intense. He tackles his day from the moment he wakes up, replying to his most critical emails. He doesn’t indulge in breakfast. Instead, he drives straight to work where he spends hours deep in discussions.
Also sharing the same intensity in his motivating routine is Apple CEO Tim Cook, who wakes up every day before 4 a.m. in the morning. He spends the first hour of his day reading user comments about his products before heading into his gym to work out for an hour to keep his “stress at bay.”
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