---
title: Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Billionaire?
description: Magnates like Bill Gates, Andrew Carnegie, and Carlos Slim share these traits.
authors:
  - name: Kate Santichen
    url: https://money.com/author/kate-santichen/
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published: '2015-09-29T16:24:24.000Z'
modified: '2015-09-29T16:24:24.000Z'
section: Personal Finance
tags:
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  - sam wilkin
  - Savings
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  - Wealth
word_count: 125
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![Screen Shot 2015-09-29 at 10.38.26 AM](https://img.money.com/2015/09/screen-shot-2015-09-29-at-10-38-26-am.png)

What do billionaires have in common? If you want to get really, really rich, you often have to operate in a market where there can only be one winner, says Sam Wilkin, economist and author of [*Wealth Secrets of the One Percent: A Modern Manual to Getting Marvelously, Obscenely Rich*](http://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Secrets-One-Percent-Marvelously/dp/0316378933).

**Do whatever it takes to win.** You can't be troubled by the prospect of wiping out your competitors.

**Be good at math,** but not the kind of advanced math you think of. Numbers should speak to you, particularly the numbers of a balance sheet. "If you've looked at a corporate balance sheet and you thought you saw a little bit of poetry there," says Wilkin, "you may have what it takes to become a billionaire."

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