
118
The Ten Roads to Riches
OPM
is the commonest road for the ultra-wealthy.
It
isn't how
you
get
to be the very richest,
but
it's how most
of
the mega-rich
get there. Eighty-six
of
2007's
Forbe
s 400 members
got
there on this
road
-the
most
of
any category. And
more
modest piles of $2 mil-
lion to $50 million are commonly made, often over just a few years.
BASIC
OPM
CAREER
RULES
Folks often
think
they
must
first know technical aspects
of
finance
or they can't succeed here. No! It's just as good to learn
to
sell first
and learn finance
later-maybe
better.
One
counterintuitive rule I
learn ed from watching others navigate this road is:
Young
people
learn to selland communicate better than
older
people,
and somewhat
older
folks learn finan
ce
betterthan younger
ones.
Start by learning to sell.
There's
time later to learn finance and
investments. Learning selling is like
skiing-the
younger you start,
the faster and
better
you learn. But learning to analyze investments
is like learning to hire people
well-years
of real-world experience
make discernment easier.
Time
helps .
Learn
to
Sell.
The
Rest
Follows.
Often
young people want to start as
hot
shot
research and invest-
ment
analysts or portfolio
managers-certain
they'll be the next
Warren
Buffett or
Peter
Lynch-often
naively disdaining any-
thing sales-related.
They
almost never
get
their desired outcome.
My
advice to the young: Start by learning telephone sales
-even
if
not
investment-related.
Here
your
youthful appearance won't
hurt ...