Along the same lines, billionaires tend to be their own bosses. They're typically self-employed and determine the size of their own paycheck.
Mark Zuckerberg has been working for himself since age 19, when he first launched Facebook as a Harvard sophomore in 2004. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, who is the youngest billionaire in the world, had a similar path — he created the popular photo-sharing app with two of his former Stanford classmates and has been his own boss ever since.
"It's not that there aren't world-class performers who punch a time clock for a paycheck, but for most this is the slowest path to prosperity, promoted as the safest," says self-made millionaire Steve Siebold, who has also studied over 1,200 wealthy individuals. "The great ones know self-employment is the fastest road to wealth."