Luck favours the persistent

“Luck favors the persistent.” — Jim Collins.

Thirty-three percent of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits study had accumulated $4 million or more during their lifetime.

Ten percent had accumulated more than $5 million.

What I found interesting, however, was that 93% of the self-made millionaires in my study did not accumulate that wealth until after age 50.

And 79% did not ring the bell until after age 55.

That’s a long time pursuing a dream.

In describing these millionaires, I often like to say — They survived until they thrived.

Literally every month these future millionaires battled just to stay in the game.

In fact, some were tossed out of the game — 34% of the self-made millionaires in my study failed at least once in business.

But they were in my study because they got up off the ground and went at it again.

Failure teaches a lot of lessons. 

Hard lessons.

Lessons that are like scar tissue on the brain.

Those lessons are only learned, however, if you keep trying.

You figure out what to do only after you figure out what not to do.

For those who did pick themselves up after failing, there’s another very interesting little factoid I discovered in my research — the persistent eventually get lucky.

Eighty-seven percent of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits study said they would never have become rich if not for luck.

At some point during their very long march towards success, luck found them.

And boy did it transform their lives.

They went from struggling to pay their bills and fighting to make payroll, to a financial windfall that seemed to come out of the blue.

But that windfall did not come out of the blue.

It was something each self-made millionaire in my study was building up to year after year.

Success is a process.

A big part of that process is persistence.

You never get lucky if you quit.

You get lucky when you persist.

Luck is the reward for persistence.

Never quit on your dream.

Luck does not visit quitters.

About Tom Corley Tom is a CPA, CFP and heads one of the top financial firms in New Jersey. For 5 years, Tom observed and documented the daily activities of wealthy people and people living in poverty and his research he identified over 200 daily activities that separated the “haves” from the “have nots” which culminated in his #1 bestselling book, Rich Habits – The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals. Visit the website: www.richhabits.net