I sometimes compare financial luck to a “bowl of wealth”. Everyone is born with his or her own bowl. After studying the lives of 100,000 people, I’ve never encountered a single one who didn’t have financial luck. What’s different is the size, shape, and material of each person’s bowl. For example, the billionaire Bill Gates has a different size bowl than an ordinary office worker.
Let me explain how I classify bowls of wealth. The people I’ve analyzed include conglomerate leaders, successful professionals, real estate moguls, and stock investors. I’ve analyzed the nature of their good fortune and the formation and characteristics of their assets based on their individual property.
First, I divided rich people with the same assets based on whether their wealth is self-made or inherited. Next, I considered whether they have more stocks, cash, or real estate and calculated the percentage of each. I added variables gained from human relationships such as those with partners, spouses, and subordinates. Finally, I compared data from rich people with people in the middle and working classes to deduce differences.
Statistical analysis of these results showed that rich people’s bowls differ depending on the size of their assets. I divided millionaires’ bowls according to whether the person had 1, 3, 5, 8, or 10 million dollars. Moving upward, the size differed for those with 10, 20, 40, 70, or 100 million. I classified everyone from 100 million to 1 billion dollars at level 3.
A sequential analysis over time revealed changes in external factors as well. Investment techniques and products differed, while the financial effect on a person’s financial luck grew. There’s a tendency for human relationships that influence financial luck to expand internationally. Before the year 2000, variables that increased financial luck changed by the decade, but after 2000 this cycle was shortened to 5 years.
