Jeff Bezos began Amazon in 1994. By 1997, he was a millionaire and, by 1999, Bezos was a billionaire. At age 22, Mark Zuckerberg was a millionaire and just the next year, at age 23, he became the youngest billionaire in history at that point. In 1956, Warren Buffett had a dream, in pursuit of which he started three investment partnerships. At the time, he had only seven investors, including himself. By 1962, his investment partnerships officially made him a millionaire. By 1990, he was a billionaire. There is a reason I devote so much time writing about dreams. Building the business of your dreams is the No. 1 most powerful way to amass wealth. It is also one of the most difficult ways.

I spent five years studying the good and bad habits of 177 self-made millionaires and wrote four books, sharing that research. I’ve also traveled the globe speaking to thousands about my Rich Habits/Poor Habits research. One of the many things I learned from my Rich Habits research is that the pursuit of a dream, especially in the form of a business, is not for everyone. It requires an investment in both time and money and inherent in any investment is risk. Some people are just not cut out for that risk. Risk, when it comes to pursuing a dream, takes two main forms.

Time risk

You must devote time, often years, to making your business dream come true. There are no guarantees going in that you will derive any financial benefit from the pursuit of a dream, of course. This is the No. 1 time risk you take: that all of your time will be for naught. It doesn’t take very long before significant others or family members weigh in on the prudence of continuing to devote your time to the pursuit of your dream. There is a secondary time risk, too: During this dream-pursuit phase, it is unlikely that you will accrue any benefit in the form of income. Even if you are successful in realizing a dream, it still usually takes many years for a dream to make you money.

Money risk