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The Wealth Elite: A groundbreaking study of the psychology of the super rich
What makes the super rich tick? Is there a specific mindset that sets ultra-high net worth individuals apart from the rest of us? Are they meticulous planners - or is their wealth an unintended by-product of their entrepreneurial activities? Is it nature or nurture that sets them on the path to great financial success? This book represents one of the most comprehensive modern-day studies of the super rich. Based on interviews with members of the financial elite, and rigorous academic analysis, this empirical study investigates the link between personality traits and the creation of enormous wealth. In short, the book provides a fascinating insight into the world of the super rich - and how they think, behave and make their fortunes.
640 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 3, 2018
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474 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 14, 2020
Die Superreichen wurden befragt und es kam heraus das Optimismus, Verkaufstalent und Risikobereitschaft zum Erfolg führen. Dazu kommt noch etwas aus: Fehler lernen und Verantwortung übernehmen. Alles hilfreiche und gute Eigenschaften.
July 11, 2019
Some notes I took:
Der mit Abstand größte Erfolgsfaktor scheint jedoch das implizite Wissen zu sein.
Kindheitserfahrungen spielen eine wichtige Rolle für den Erwerb dieses impliziten Wissens: Wer früher als Klassensprecher zwischen Mitschülern und Lehrern vermittelte, lernte schon zeitig, Verantwortung zu übernehmen. Und wer mit selbstständigen Eltern aufwuchs, bekam oft schon früh ein Gefühl für die Vorteile und Chancen des Unternehmertums.
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In einer Sache waren sich fast alle Superreichen einig: Sie hätten ihren Erfolg im Wesentlichen ihrem Verkaufstalent zu verdanken.
-> andere von sich überzeugen.
Erfolgreiche Unternehmer als angenehme Herausforderung zu empfinden, ein Nein in ein Ja zu verwandeln.
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Umgang mit Rückschlägen und Fehlern
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Fazit:
Wichtig: Gesunder Optimismus, Verkaufstalent und eine gewisse Risikobereitschaft zu den wichtigsten Faktoren gehören. Superreiche sind außerdem bereit, Verantwortung zu übernehmen und aus ihren Fehlern zu lernen.
Der mit Abstand größte Erfolgsfaktor scheint jedoch das implizite Wissen zu sein.
Kindheitserfahrungen spielen eine wichtige Rolle für den Erwerb dieses impliziten Wissens: Wer früher als Klassensprecher zwischen Mitschülern und Lehrern vermittelte, lernte schon zeitig, Verantwortung zu übernehmen. Und wer mit selbstständigen Eltern aufwuchs, bekam oft schon früh ein Gefühl für die Vorteile und Chancen des Unternehmertums.
---
In einer Sache waren sich fast alle Superreichen einig: Sie hätten ihren Erfolg im Wesentlichen ihrem Verkaufstalent zu verdanken.
-> andere von sich überzeugen.
Erfolgreiche Unternehmer als angenehme Herausforderung zu empfinden, ein Nein in ein Ja zu verwandeln.
---
Umgang mit Rückschlägen und Fehlern
---
Fazit:
Wichtig: Gesunder Optimismus, Verkaufstalent und eine gewisse Risikobereitschaft zu den wichtigsten Faktoren gehören. Superreiche sind außerdem bereit, Verantwortung zu übernehmen und aus ihren Fehlern zu lernen.
October 11, 2020
Mich hat das Buch begeistert.
Man sollte vorab wissen, dass es sich um eine Dissertation handelt und damit um eine wissenschaftliche Arbeit.
Besonders gefallen hat mir der Aufbau und die Unterteilung in 2 Teile - Theorie & Praxisteil (durch Experteninterviews).
Insbesondere die Interviews waren sehr inspirierend und haben das Thema sehr gut veranschaulicht.
Man sollte vorab wissen, dass es sich um eine Dissertation handelt und damit um eine wissenschaftliche Arbeit.
Besonders gefallen hat mir der Aufbau und die Unterteilung in 2 Teile - Theorie & Praxisteil (durch Experteninterviews).
Insbesondere die Interviews waren sehr inspirierend und haben das Thema sehr gut veranschaulicht.
January 10, 2020
I thought this would be more like The Millionaire Next Door. It's not. It's the author's PhD, which as a PhD is quite good. However it's not a great read. Way too much detail. It's an interesting topic and fascinating conclusions were reached though.
March 17, 2023
Erste wissenschaftliche Doktorarbeit in Deutschland, die sich mit den Hochvermögenden beschäftigt (Werdegaenge, Psychologie der Superreichen, Denken/Handeln, Persönlichkeit der Babos, Umgang mit Rückschlägen, Unternehmertum, Behavioral Economics, Lerntheorien etc)
March 11, 2023
This book is probably somehow better than the others "How to get rich" popular books, as the author brags about the fact that it has been written with academic methodology and precision in order to cover an "underinvestigated field of social research", but it in the end it all boils down to the idea (which I mostly agree with) that there are some traits that are common to highly successful and wealthy people such as ability to cope with losses, hard work, tendency to be self employed or entrepreneurs instead of employed by someone else, etc. Not an amazing book but I suspect that it isn't easy to write good literature on such a cliche topic.
Read
July 20, 2021Zumal dieses Werk einen wissenschaftlichen Anspruch erhebt, bin ich mir ziemlich sicher, dass das Abstützen nur auf die Interviews mit 45 Hochvermögenden ohne "Kontrollgruppe" keine besonders interessante Einsichten bringt.
Bzw. ich würde viel Geld darauf wetten, dass 45 Kontrollinterviews mit selbständigen Unternehmern die schon mindestens zwei Mal Konkurs gemacht haben und 45 Kontrollinterviews mit Angestellten im 'höheren Kadern' ziemlich genau deckungsgleiche anekdotische Angaben generieren würden.
Bzw. ich würde viel Geld darauf wetten, dass 45 Kontrollinterviews mit selbständigen Unternehmern die schon mindestens zwei Mal Konkurs gemacht haben und 45 Kontrollinterviews mit Angestellten im 'höheren Kadern' ziemlich genau deckungsgleiche anekdotische Angaben generieren würden.
September 26, 2023
This book is a solid academic work and also very informative and interesting.
During their youth period: from average-income families but more than those whose parents were self-employed. The impacts from rich neighbors, and rich friends' parents are also vital. They do not participate in conventional part-time jobs but most of them were creative in their early business when they were students. They also participated in competitive and individual sports and achieved relative success until they realized that they didn't have the genetic advantages to become pros. They really participated in team sports.
Motivation to become entrepreneurs: the strongest is to be independent in their decisions and lifestyles; the second most important motivation is to feel financially safe and have more money to purchase better things; some of them are successful employers in large corporations but found that the promotional path is too long and not for them; some of them found that the entrepreneurial path is the only option for them.
Theory of setting objectives: is confirmed in this research. The challenged/ambitious and detailed-setting objectives (written objectives) are essential for most of the UHNWI in this survey to be successful. They set detailed financial objectives and also the timeline to achieve them. However, some of them found setting objectives is not vital for their success.
The Selling skills: Most of them agree that selling skill is an essential for their success. However, it's not only about selling products/services, UHNWIs also sell business ideas to government agencies, persuade the best candidates to join their team, and persuade banks to accept loan terms, etc. When people say "NO", this is not the end. It's actually very satisfying to turn a "NO" into a "YES" for UHNWIs. To do that, they need to have the skill to read people's minds and behaviors. To understand their pain, and their obstacle to say "YES" and solve them beforehand. They also need to have a good professional knowledge base and the ability to "teach" and convey their understanding to other people.
The role of optimism and self-belief: very optimistic because they think that they can manage to overcome difficulties in any situation (very strong self-belief).
Risk-taking: very high at the beginning of business establishment and reduced over time. They realize the risks they have taken are very high. Some of them don't acknowledge that or cannot realize the risks they have been dealing with.
Intuitive and analyzed thinking: More than half rate intuitive thinking as much more essential than analyzed thinking. The intuitive decision is referred to as the result of the unconscious learning process or learning from experience. Especially, when judging people, intuitive thinking is the best tool to use.
The Big-Five personalities: The strongest is conscientiousness, the second strongest is extraversion, and the third strongest is openness. The controversial one is agreeableness.
Ready to fight: More than half are not conflict avoidance, they want to confront to solve the problem right away. Some of them are even hot-tempered.
Indifferences: There are two groups: group one - going against the majority's ideas/actions is fun and a reliable indicator that they will be successful. Group two - they don't take going against the majority's ideas/actions as a 'must' or serious thing, they simply don't care.
Dealing with failures: They are action-oriented meaning that they focus on actions they could take to make things better. They acknowledge that crises are one of the best things happening to them because they could turn things around with opportunities to create new products/services and explore new markets and options they will never try. They also feel calm and able to sleep well under the pressure of the crisis. They take full responsibility for their failures, they don't play victim roles. This empowered them to act not mourn their loss.
During their youth period: from average-income families but more than those whose parents were self-employed. The impacts from rich neighbors, and rich friends' parents are also vital. They do not participate in conventional part-time jobs but most of them were creative in their early business when they were students. They also participated in competitive and individual sports and achieved relative success until they realized that they didn't have the genetic advantages to become pros. They really participated in team sports.
Motivation to become entrepreneurs: the strongest is to be independent in their decisions and lifestyles; the second most important motivation is to feel financially safe and have more money to purchase better things; some of them are successful employers in large corporations but found that the promotional path is too long and not for them; some of them found that the entrepreneurial path is the only option for them.
Theory of setting objectives: is confirmed in this research. The challenged/ambitious and detailed-setting objectives (written objectives) are essential for most of the UHNWI in this survey to be successful. They set detailed financial objectives and also the timeline to achieve them. However, some of them found setting objectives is not vital for their success.
The Selling skills: Most of them agree that selling skill is an essential for their success. However, it's not only about selling products/services, UHNWIs also sell business ideas to government agencies, persuade the best candidates to join their team, and persuade banks to accept loan terms, etc. When people say "NO", this is not the end. It's actually very satisfying to turn a "NO" into a "YES" for UHNWIs. To do that, they need to have the skill to read people's minds and behaviors. To understand their pain, and their obstacle to say "YES" and solve them beforehand. They also need to have a good professional knowledge base and the ability to "teach" and convey their understanding to other people.
The role of optimism and self-belief: very optimistic because they think that they can manage to overcome difficulties in any situation (very strong self-belief).
Risk-taking: very high at the beginning of business establishment and reduced over time. They realize the risks they have taken are very high. Some of them don't acknowledge that or cannot realize the risks they have been dealing with.
Intuitive and analyzed thinking: More than half rate intuitive thinking as much more essential than analyzed thinking. The intuitive decision is referred to as the result of the unconscious learning process or learning from experience. Especially, when judging people, intuitive thinking is the best tool to use.
The Big-Five personalities: The strongest is conscientiousness, the second strongest is extraversion, and the third strongest is openness. The controversial one is agreeableness.
Ready to fight: More than half are not conflict avoidance, they want to confront to solve the problem right away. Some of them are even hot-tempered.
Indifferences: There are two groups: group one - going against the majority's ideas/actions is fun and a reliable indicator that they will be successful. Group two - they don't take going against the majority's ideas/actions as a 'must' or serious thing, they simply don't care.
Dealing with failures: They are action-oriented meaning that they focus on actions they could take to make things better. They acknowledge that crises are one of the best things happening to them because they could turn things around with opportunities to create new products/services and explore new markets and options they will never try. They also feel calm and able to sleep well under the pressure of the crisis. They take full responsibility for their failures, they don't play victim roles. This empowered them to act not mourn their loss.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 24, 2023
A good supplement book for the (next) millionaire next door, tackling the actual high income (multimillionaire and above) from a research point of view.
I highly appreciate the author’s careful considerations of the psychology of the interviewees. I have examined all the reasonings for his research in the first half of the book, which I consider very sound. But for casual readers, probably not easy to read.
For the second half which presents the results, I found them to be hard to follow with all the actual quotes from the interviews. I would suggest reading only the summary, which he had done well summarizing with enough details.
If you’re looking for actual facts and figures on the keys of multimillionaires, you should look into this book.
I highly appreciate the author’s careful considerations of the psychology of the interviewees. I have examined all the reasonings for his research in the first half of the book, which I consider very sound. But for casual readers, probably not easy to read.
For the second half which presents the results, I found them to be hard to follow with all the actual quotes from the interviews. I would suggest reading only the summary, which he had done well summarizing with enough details.
If you’re looking for actual facts and figures on the keys of multimillionaires, you should look into this book.
March 2, 2021
Im wesentlichen handelt es sich bei dem Buch um neoliberale Propaganda. Obwohl einiges hübsch zusammen getragen wird ist das Buch arm an Erkenntnissen. Wenn man ein reicher weißer christlicher Mann ist und schon immer mehr über seine tollen Charaktereigenschaften wissen wollte... Meinetwegen. Gefährliche Menschen müssen beschäftigt werden. Aber bitte schenkt mir nicht noch so ein Buch ihr rücksichtslosen Männer. Meinungen von Frauen oder Linken finden sie in diesem Buch eher nicht.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 17, 2022
笔记：
- 如果把目标写下来，今后就可以核对
- 销售能力
- 乐观
- 不随波逐流
- 表面上很忙，但内心轻松自在
- 如果把目标写下来，今后就可以核对
- 销售能力
- 乐观
- 不随波逐流
- 表面上很忙，但内心轻松自在
January 4, 2024
The book by Rainer zittelmann examines the similarities and differences between the super-rich and attempts to derive theories that can be helpful in building wealth. Overall, it is an interesting and entertaining book to read. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, the book only analyzes and examines male personalities from the real estate industry. This is a very one-sided view and ignores large groups of people. I also kept getting the impression that the author was very much injecting his personal opinion into the questions posed to the participants and was always putting an answer in their mouths if they were unsure or didn't have a clear answer to a question. Apart from that, there were some interesting insights. If you are interested in this topic, you can read the book. However, it is by no means a must-read.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews