The road to becoming a millionaire is becoming fairly well documented and traveled. After all, a million isn’t what it used to be and if you work hard, save and invest over a lifetime, your chances of crossing that millionaire threshold are actually pretty decent.

In 2010 Merrill Lynch and Cap Gemini reported (in the World Wealth Report) that there were 3.1 million

millionaires in the US alone. Asia had another 3.1 million and Europe had 3 million more of them! On top of that CNN Money is saying that by 2020 the number of US millionaires will double.

If everyone has a shot at becoming a millionaire, what is next? Billionaire status of course. According to Forbes Richest people on Earth list, there are only 1210 billionaires world wide. Alternately you could strive for multi-millionaire status – once you get to Category II wealth status (See What Category Wealth Are You for information on the categories) you pretty much have it made for several generations.

What are the differences between a millionaire and a billionaire? Here is what I found – based on

interviews with mega millionaires and billionaires by Forbes and The Business Insiders take on Robert Jorden’s book “How They Did It”.

They are not afraid of failure.

Millionaires tolerate risk. Billionaires actively seek it. They taunt failure by taking big risk

bites. The rest of us just try to avoid risk.

Although I don’t know if he was rich or not, Thomas Edison (who invented the light bulb) is quoted as saying

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

They learn from their mistakes.

Millionaires learn from small mistakes. Billionaires turn their mistakes into money. The rest of us drop

the matter and try something else.

They think differently.

Millionaires own their company. Billionaires create industries. They recognize value of simple ideas. They look between the cracks to discover what is there. The rest of us get caught up in conformity.

Billionaires see the world through the lens of finding solutions to problems that might not even yet exist. They have a great attitude – a passion for what they do and pursue it single mindedly for long periods of time. They are confident in their goals.

They are great problem solvers.

Millionaires solve problems for their customers. Billionaires solve problems for humanity. They have enormous curiosity and a desire to fix problems everyone else complains about, or cover holes no one else even sees. Billionaires power through impossible obstacles that would stop most people.

They create wealth instead of collecting it.

Millionaires collect wealth by earning, saving and investing. Billionaires take the world in new directions, start new industries and new companies. The rest of us live from paycheck to paycheck and can’t envision a different way of doing things.

They don’t go it alone.

Millionaires like to make their own decisions and be their own boss – sometimes forgoing help from others. Billionaires rely on a core group of people to help them through the endeavor. They know it takes years and a village to reach big success.

Billionaire Data Clusters.

Forbes studied (unscientifically) some of 657 of the billionaires on their list and found some assorted factoids that may or may not be significant in the making of a billionaire.

Here is the short list.

Parents of billionaires had a high aptitude for math.

Parents of billionaires clustered in professions related to engineer, accountant and small business owner.

More billionaires were born in the fall than in other seasons.

They believe that failure early on is a necessary component (but not a sufficient one) to later success.

Membership in the Yale Skull and Crossbones club was held by several of the billionaires.

Many billionaires from the financial sector worked at Goldman Sachs.

Could You Explain How to Become a Billionaire?

I like to think that I could explain to someone just starting out – how they could get to be a millionaire, but I don’t know the path to becoming a billionaire.

So what do you think? What differentiates a billionaire or multi-millionaire from the merely millionaires? Is there a path tofollow to billionairedom?

This post was written by Marie.