I know a few people who share my zeal for money. Some, however, don't have the patience to play the long game. They know they're destined for wealth and think of themselves as entrepreneurs (or may have started on the path), but may not have concrete ideas on what to do exactly. So they hatch up quick business ideas without really thinking them through.
For me, starting a business is not the way to go. I don't have the risk tolerance or patience to get it off the ground and make it succeed. I'd much rather just move money around: making investments in stocks, start ups, or personal loans. I don't even want to do rental real estate because it means I'd have to be hands on; looking at the properties, screening tenants, repairing the houses, etc. That's just not for me. I'm ok with taking the slow route. Working in whatever, saving as much as I can, and investing it, mostly in stocks.
A good friend of mine, who's getting a Master's degree in Entrepreneurship, came up with an idea for a business. He'd open up a window tinting business for homes, offices, and cars, and was reasonably certain it would succeed, since his uncle had one. He wanted to go to the bank for a $50k loan to get it started, and asked me if I could loan him a few thousand to pay off his credit cards to make him a more attractive borrower. He, like me, is very motivated towards wealth, and he doesn't really care how he makes it.
A few things that I came up with in that conversation, which I hope he would take to heart, were:
1) When starting a business, you almost always want to start small. See if you can actually do it, and if there's a demand. In his case, he was willing to borrow $50k to open up a shop without actually having tinted anything before. My advice was that he should start very small. Buy the bare minimum amount of materials and offer to tint the cars of friends for cheaper than established businesses would.
2) Never, ever, overextend yourself. This also ties into starting small. Businesses, especially ones that you don't have any experience in, can easily fail. In his case, if he had borrowed the money, he'd be out 50k. This applies to all kinds of stuff. Don't take loans on if you don't have a reasonable amount of certainty that it will help you make more money. This goes for opening a business as well as investing (with leverage), or taking out student loans.
3) Don't view credit card debt as any different from a car loan. Debt is debt, and while the interest on credit cards tends to be a lot higher, it's not impossible to escape from. All you need is a plan. Most people tend to fall into the trap of despair, and think they'll never get out of credit card debt. However, those same people don't worry about their mortgage or car loan, even though the loan might be a lot more than they owe on their cards. Why is that? It's because you know exactly when you'll be done paying off you car or house. There's a fixed payment every month, and people rarely stress out of it. Credit cards never end because they allow you to pay a very tiny minimum payment, ensuring you'll be on the hook for years or decades to come. The moral of the story is: treat your credit card debt as you would your car loan. Figure out when you want it to end, pay a fixed amount every month, and don't worry about it.
4) Making money for the sake of itself isn't a worthy goal. The most successful entrepreneurs got to where they are by solving a problem, some even solving a problem people didn't know was a problem. I read an article today where Mark Zuckerberg talks about entrepreneurs, and this part jumped out at me: "If you want to build something great, you should focus on what the change is that you want to make in the world," Zuckerberg said. "I see too many entrepreneurs who decide that they want to start a company before they actually know what it is that they want to build. To me, that seems backwards."
