Over the years I have had the privilege and pleasure of meeting and making friends with people who have had some degree of success, a moderate degree of success and those who have been wildly successful.  I am not talking about people who inherited their wealth and stopped there, I am referring to people who made something out of nothing and those who were given something to start with and found a way to make it grow exponentially.

I also find it very sad to see people who were given something to start with and ended up just living off on what they got or stole from their parents, grandparents, other relatives, their spouse, or whoever they can leech from. The psyche of these people is totally different from those who are successful and make their own fortunes.  These unsuccessful people are typically unable to make sacrifices, not grounded to reality, unreliable, have no vision and foresight, and have no problem cheating, stealing and lying. 

Even at a young age, there are people who already have the psyche of success.  You can see they have a long-term outlook, financial priorities in life, a strong work ethic, positive mindset, self-discipline, great interpersonal skills, motivation, determination and a firm understanding of the consequences of one’s action or inaction. They also have a tendency to have friends with similar ambitions and choose their spouses well. 

This psyche is not something you are immediately aware of but the intensity increases as you go through life longing for something. Unlike the not so successful individuals, who long for or just wants the good stuff but are unwilling to work for it, successful people plan and work hard on achieving their goals even if it means making many sacrifices over a long period of time.  This generational psyche gives successful people an investment horizon extending beyond their own lifetimes and maximizes the potential capital gains. 

Many people have made investments over a 30-year period and see their investment appreciate over 100 times. You can only imagine the dramatic growth of generational wealth of families that have been able to keep the psyche of success alive for 100 or even 200 years!  You can visualize this if your grandparents had bought a house in Forbes Park back in the 1960’s, something that would have cost no more than a few hundred thousand pesos then, would now be worth more than a billion pesos!

If you can earn much more than you can spend, like to acquire properties, identify undervalued opportunities, can forego pleasure for profit, don’t steal or lie, a man of your word, trustworthy and love being this person, then perhaps there is hope for you because you have the psyche for success!  How you live your life may be something that does not attract unsuccessful people but your accumulated wealth and assets is certainly something they like and would love to have!  To make sure things work out for the best, you would also need to learn succession planning!  But that is another story for some future column of mine, in the meantime, be cognizant of what you want in life.

(The views and comments of the author are his own and not of the newspaper or FINEX.  Dr. George S. Chua was 2016 FINEX President, 2010 to 2020 FPI President, an active entrepreneur, a regular member of the National Press Club, Chairman of Alabang Country Club, a Professorial Lecturer 2 at UP Diliman and BGC, and loves playing golf.   Comments may be sent to [email protected])