Self-Made Billionaire Shares Secrets to Wealth: Hard Work, Frugality, and Determination
Bill Cummings, an eighty-six-year-old self-made billionaire, has revealed the secrets to his wealth: hard work, frugality, and determination. With a billion-dollar fortune constructed from commercial properties in the Boston area, Cummings emphasizes the importance of creating wealth on one’s own terms.
Cummings and his wife, Joyce, exhibit their frugality through various daily practices. They still clip coupons and fly coach, finding joy in saving money. Cummings explains, You build lifetime habits, and it doesn’t feel good to say, ‘I’m not going to do that anymore.’
Their frugality even led Joyce to strike up a conversation with her seatmate on a flight home from St. Louis, which happened to be the mother of Jayson Tatum, the All-Star player for the Boston Celtics. Now, Joyce is Tatum’s biggest fan, staying up to date with his performances every night.
In his book, Starting Small and Making It Big: Hands-on Lessons in Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy, Cummings shares his story and advice for success. He emphasizes that hard work, perseverance, and dedication are key to getting ahead in life. He encourages young people to develop the habit of saving money, as it is often overlooked in today’s society.
When evaluating potential hires, Cummings looks for determination, believing it to be the most critical quality for success. He highlights the importance of giving up idle pleasures to achieve desired goals, acknowledging that distractions can be tempting, especially for young people.
Additionally, Cummings stresses the significance of strong values and ethical conduct. He ensures that his contractors, suppliers, and staff are always paid on time, condemning the practice of not paying others as despicable.
To assess applicants’ capabilities, Cummings asks them to take an editing test. The test consists of a densely written one-page letter with 35 mistakes. Those who demonstrate good writing skills tend to excel in other areas as well. Cummings believes that curiosity about how things work is a significant indicator of creativity.
Cummings began his career when his father encouraged him to purchase a struggling fruit-juice company. He quickly turned it around, expanded sales, and sold the firm for $1 million in 1970, providing him with the seed capital to launch his development business. Throughout the growth of his company, Cummings encountered criticism from a local paper, prompting him to start his publication that provided a different perspective.
For Cummings, financial returns are not the sole motivation for his endeavors. He writes in his book that doing something one looks forward to every morning is the secret to entrepreneurship. If one does not genuinely enjoy their work, they are doomed from the start.
According to Cummings, luck is not purely chance but rather the result of being smart and prepared to seize good opportunities. His invaluable advice stems from decades of experience running a real estate business and a nonprofit foundation that has given away $500 million thus far.
Bill Cummings’ story serves as an inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs, highlighting the need for hard work, frugality, and determination on the path to success. With his insightful wisdom, he aims to guide the next generation towards achieving their goals and creating their wealth.
