Straight From Quora
August 3, 2014 Leave a comment
What do billionaires do in their spare time?
I know a few multi-millionaires, but only one billionaire, so I will answer in relation to the latter, though there is plenty of overlap with the former:
(1) they read. I do mean, they read. A lot. Mostly, non-fiction. Titles could range from anything on history (seems to be a favourite subject), to finance, to technical literature. I don’t see much of an interest in psychology, though people do seem to read on the various aspects of deal-making, such as negotiations and cultural differences, which is, in a way, related to psychology. I think they stay on top by simply being better informed (just because you have experts working for you does not mean that you yourself do not want to be well-informed) and avoid mistakes made by other in the past. Ordinary people learn from their own mistakes; intelligent people learn from others’ mistakes.
(2) they work. The billionaire, for example, has tonnes of paperwork to go through, be it reports, draft contracts, meetings agendas or other kinds of memos. He has taught himself to speed-read, so he can go over it relatively quickly, but it still often is boxes of stuff. His secretary prints hundreds of pages of emails regularly, just to give you an idea. The millionaires don’t seem to be as much of workaholics, but this is not to say that they relax after they leave the office. Generally, there will be after-hours meetings with various people to hold discussions on potential deal-making, even if it is over a whisky at their club. I think, after a certain level of financial security, people learn that time is the most precious, non-renewable resource and they try to use as efficiently as possible. Read more of this post




