We find that people who have reached the highest levels of success and built truly significant wealth, including, but not limited to, billionaires, tend to share several key traits that are responsible for their impressive results.

So says Russ Alan Prince, one of the leading authorities and consultants in the area of private wealth. He’s collected insights and intelligence he’s identified among the many multimillionaires and billionaires he’s worked with over decades and has distilled them into what he calls the Billionaire Money Rules and he recently shared with us his perspectives on these important mindsets and action steps.

One of the most important traits that we see is a strong sense of purpose that drives what they do to become highly successful. There is typically a clear connection between having a strong sense of purpose and achieving excellence, in our experience. 

Another potential benefit of having a deep sense of purpose in your life: better health. One study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who felt they have a higher sense of purpose in life, defined as having meaning, a sense of direction and goals, were more likely to stay healthy and strong as they aged.^[1] 

With that in mind, here's a look at identifying, refining and strengthening your own sense of purpose to better pursue great success, however you define it for yourself. 

Your Long-Term Goals: In general, you can think of purpose as your overall life aim, the big-picture driver behind why you do what you do. A strong sense of purpose alone isn't adequate, however. It must be accompanied by specific long-term goals that you are profoundly committed to achieving. In our experience, the self-made Super Rich (those with a net worth of $500 million or more) have an intense desire to accomplish the long-term goals they've set out as part of their overall strong sense of purpose.
^[1] Source: Eric S. Kim, PhD, et al, “Association Between Purpose in Life and Objective Measures of Physical Function in Older Adults,” JAMA Psychiatry, October 2017.

Your goals and purpose can address many things, of course, from being the greatest spouse imaginable to creating beautiful works of art. That said, there may be little in the way of economic rewards from those two goals. If you desire monetary gain, as the self-made Super Rich do, your strong sense of purpose should reflect that desire. If your purpose is to become extraordinarily wealthy, your long-term goals must align with the right activities, for example, building a very successful business. 

Your long-term goals, whatever they may be, should provide you with clarity and resolve. Together, they make up the lens that should filter and direct all your significant decisions and activities. In deciding on different courses of action at various stages of their journey, the self-made Super Rich will regularly consider whether each choice gets them closer to their long-term goals.  

For long-term goals to truly support your strong sense of purpose, they must be ambitious. We generally find that the Super Rich's long-term goals are not easily attainable, not even with a significant amount of effort. On the contrary, they are grand and enormously impressive, requiring tremendous commitment to achieve. To that end, remember the term coined by business expert Jim Collins: BHAGs, or big, hairy, audacious goals.  

Warning: Simply having long-term goals is not enough to actually reach them. Without solid intermediate-term goals, ambitious long-term goals are akin to fantasies. You must take intermediate steps along the way to reach your ambitious long-term goals. Think of those intermediate goals as rungs on a ladder of ascending goals, bringing you incrementally closer to achieving your purpose. As you reach each intermediate goal, you will experience satisfaction and be further energized, your strong sense of purpose will be reinforced, making it easier to keep moving higher.

Perseverance and Focus: A strong sense of purpose can also be instrumental in helping you persevere and focus.

Let's Face It: It is very likely that you will stumble and fall somewhere along your route toward your long-term goals (especially if they're big and audacious and tough to attain). No matter how talented you are or how much energy you put into something, the odds of everything working in your favor at every step of the way are probably near zero. By having a strong sense of purpose that is ingrained within you, you may be much more able to move forward when confronted with the inevitable obstacles and failures along the way.

We find that for a great many of the self-made Super Rich, their sense of purpose feels like a calling. It not only helps them surmount problems and setbacks but also keeps them tightly focused on what is important, and, importantly, what is not. Too often, "shiny objects", such as unrelated business ventures or interesting ideas that are not closely connected to what they really want, distract people. With a strong sense of purpose, you can likely better concentrate your time, efforts and resources on reaching your solid intermediate goals that lay the path to your ambitious long-term goals.

The Upshot: Never lose sight of your strong sense of purpose. Let it act like a magnet, pulling you ever forward to your intermediate and long-term goals.

Important: While focus and perseverance are crucial, don't overlook the need for some flexibility along the way. As circumstances change, your intermediate-term goals may need to be reexamined and modified or refined, while always remaining in service of your larger purpose and longer-term objectives.

The Dark Side: There is no question that a strong sense of purpose and the goals associated with it are commonly essential to reach great heights in any endeavor, be it trying to build an outstanding business and generate substantial personal wealth, rising to the top of your organization or scaling one of the Seven Summits.  

However, a strong sense of purpose can be accompanied by a dark, disturbing side. 

When your strong sense of purpose becomes an obsession, the results can be bad or even destructive. This can happen if you become fixated on your purpose and goals to the exclusion of virtually everything else. In such instances, we have seen otherwise decent people do whatever it takes, no matter how dishonest or even horrendous, to achieve their long-term goals, and then justify their actions. For some, wealth or other key goals are like seawater, the more they drink, the thirstier they get. And that thirst can become all-consuming.

It's true that excelling at the highest levels requires making sacrifices. Indeed, most people make compromises between wants and self-set obligations all the time. The issue is: How much are you willing to give up, and how much are you willing to push to achieve your ambitious long-term goals?

Ask Yourself:

• How ruthless are you willing to be?
• To what degree is concealing your true motives and feelings a persistent necessity as you pursue your goals?
• How much are you willing to sacrifice significant time with your loved ones in pursuit of your goals?

You should be very clear about where you draw your lines, what you are willing and not willing to do. Nothing "just happens." You make choices. The good news is that morally questionable and/or illegal actions are not required to successfully pursue your purpose.

Conclusion: Can you achieve great success in life without a strong sense of purpose and the various goals that go along with it? In some cases, yes, it's possible. But in those instances, we find that success usually occurs with lots of unnecessary stumbling and wasted time and effort. Rather than achieving success "on purpose" the success occurs by accident.

The better approach, in our opinion, is to get crystal clear on what you really want, build out the goals to support that vision and take informed, deliberate actions at each and every step. That's the way of the self-made Super Rich, and it's hard to argue with their success.

With that in mind, take a minute to ask yourself:

• What makes you excited about getting up in the morning?
• What are you extremely enthusiastic about?
• What really motivates you?
• What do you want to do every day if you possibly can?
• If you want to become extremely wealthy, are you concentrating on things that create personal wealth?

DISCLOSURE: The information offered is provided to you for informational purposes only. Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated is not a legal or tax services provider and you are strongly encouraged to seek the advice of the appropriate professional advisors before taking any action. ACKNOWLEGEMENT: VFO Inner Circle Special Report, By John J. Bowen Jr., © Copyright 2025 by AES Nation, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or retransmitted in any form or by any means, including but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any information storage retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Unauthorized copying may subject violators to criminal penalties as well as liabilities for substantial monetary damages up to $100,000 per infringement, costs and attorneys’ fees. This publication should not be utilized as a substitute for professional advice in specific situations. If legal, medical, accounting, financial, consulting, coaching or other professional advice is required, the services of the appropriate professional should be sought. Neither the author nor the publisher may be held liable in any way for any interpretation or use of the information in this publication. The author will make recommendations for solutions for you to explore that are not his own. Any recommendation is always based on the author’s research and experience. The information contained herein is accurate to the best of the publisher’s and author’s knowledge; however, the publisher and author can accept no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such information or for loss or damage caused by any use thereof.