CAREERS NOW 01-30-11

How Can You Get Rich?

DEAR JOYCE: My nephew, turning 21, asked me how he could get really rich. Lawfully. Do you want to take a crack at this answer? - H.W.

You should've directed this one to Oprah. But, alas, speaking purely from a research platform, here are possibilities on how an individual can move into a world of rare privilege.

When you can't inherit or invent, try one or a combination of three common approaches.

Owner. The first two basic pathways to the economic stratosphere require owning a business.

-- One approach is the steady-as-you-go model, operating a company that satisfies such traditional needs as food, clothing, shelter and education. You plug along, working long hours for many years, saving and investing prudently.

-- The second approach is acquiring a proprietary niche in which you have a secret product or process - or are one of the nation's few suppliers of an item consumers want in large or costly numbers. Colonel Sanders had a secret recipe for fried chicken. A Missouri man became wealthy as a rare source of police regulation batons and broom handles.

Employee. In the third approach, you work for a company you don't own. Two variations of this route are familiar to those who follow the news.

-- You become a key employee given stock in a shooting-star company as part of your compensation. This strategy is illustrated by the "Microsoft millionaires," the company's early hires who emerged with seven-figure bank accounts after they took a chance on a nascent technology. Counting on this approach is more likely to lead to gargantuan fortunes in embryonic and emerging industries.

-- Another variation of the third approach has surfaced in the last couple of decades: A person can become ultra-wealthy as a corporate titan; Google "highest paid CEOs."

-- In the financial field, business media report daily on Wall Street investment bankers, securities traders, corporate raiders, international money traders, oil speculators and others who make astonishing amounts of money in today's financial environment.

Money manager Charles Brandes is an example of someone who hit the jackpot in a high-finance career. His San Diego firm, Brandes Investment Partners, oversees asset portfolios for large institutions. Brandes is said to be worth $1.5 billion, and is ranked by Forbes as number 269 on its 2010 list of richest Americans.

Familiar dream. The desire for wealth is hardly new in America. During the 17th and 18th centuries, when our young nation was hungry for most products, the first majestic fortunes were earned by merchants and traders.

The merchant bonanza continued in the 19th century. For example, as settlers rushed through St. Louis heading west to make their fortunes, a young Henry Shaw opened a hardware store to outfit the settlers. By the time he was 40, Shaw was extremely rich, using some of his fortune to establish the world-famous Missouri Botanical Gardens (aka Shaw's Garden).

As years rolled on, fortunes derived from other sources. Also in the 19th century, steel, mining, oil, mass transit, machinery, retailing, tobacco and food processing created super wealth for some.

Moving to the 20th century during World War II, millionaires blossomed from heavy industry and defense contracting, and after the war, new financial giants were springing from aerospace, real estate, mortgage lending, transportation, chemicals, consumer products and broadcasting.

At the end of the 20th century, leading industries from which the super rich drew their fortunes were oil, real estate, construction, insurance, investment banking, stock brokerage and private investing.

Tomorrow's fat cats. How can you identify the wealth-creating fields and developments coming up that could make you a VWP (very wealthy person)?

Science and business media regularly report trends to watch. The World Future Society's magazine "Futurist" (wfs.org/futurist) is a premiere resource to use in making educated guesses about the decades ahead. In fact, the current issue features a report titled "70 Jobs for 2030."

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