The Secrets of The Rich - Part 5 of 7 Focus Obsessively and Work, Work, Work…

Copyright (c) 2010 Dario Lorenzo

Having a great business plan, vision or idea is a great slant, but executing it can require an almost neurotic attention to detail, a self-assured devotion to serving the customer and being willing to follow a grueling work schedule. It’s not an effortless road. The rich don’t base their actions on what is easy and what is convenient.

Many of the wealthy relentlessly sweat the small stuff. Ray Kroc was famously obsessed with cleanliness in his McDonald’s restaurants. He was fastidious to the point of using a toothpick to clean out the holes of the mop wringer.

Roger Penske, race car driver turned trucking magnet and race-team owner, demanded that workers clean the underside of his race cars daily. And, as Donald Trump likes to say, “If you don’t know every aspect of what you’re doing down to the paper clip, you’re setting yourself up for some unwelcome surprises.”

The customer is truly king in the eyes of those who made fortunes in the service industry. This based on the reality that disaffected customers can always take their business elsewhere. “There is only one boss–the customer,” Sam Walton used to say. “And he can fire everyone in the company simply by spending his money somewhere else.” Ray Kroc agreed: “If we focus on satisfying our customers and take care of the top line of our business, the bottom line will always follow.”

Coddling customers and catering to often fickle tastes calls for an unreserved commitment to work. While some may follow the Dale Carnegie model–pick good managers and head home at noon–they are probably in the minority. In fact, says Robert Frank, author of the Richistan replacing the idle rich is a new breed of, "workaholic wealthy who can't stop building empires even after becoming billionaires."

Centi-millionaire Martha Stuart is in a perpetually manic state. Most recently she designed 2,000 household items for Macy's department store while peddling a line of wines and food along with her other publishing and TV ventures.

Communications mogul Ted Rogers, now 74 is still a notorious micromanager and workaholic. "He doesn’t golf: he doesn’t have hobbies. His company is his life,” said a former executive of Rogers’.

For many, inhuman working hours are de rigueur in the early days of a start-up. In his first six years at Microsoft, Bill Gates averaged just two vacation days a year. eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll who underwent several back surgeries blamed his physical troubles on years of 100 hour work weeks at the company.

Grinding work schedules can sometimes go hand in hand with a penchant of frugality. Mexican industrialist, Carlos Slim Helu, among the world’s richest man works out of an unadorned poorly lit headquarters and admonished employees to, "maintain austerity."

Costco co-founder and chief executive Jim Sinegal answers his own phone and wears $12.99 house-brand shirts.

Warren Buffett's partner, Charles Munger, worth $2 billion is a Costco board member often found shopping at the big-box store picking up golf balls, wine, and even his clothes.

IKEA founder Ingvar Kampred recycles tea bags and drives a rusty Volvo.

And Donald Trump's centi-millionaire father was known to collect spare nails at his construction site in case he might need them for later use.

Nest week #6–Timing is Everything.

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