The secret to success and real wealth lies in our own heads and heart, but we have to open the doors for it. Reaching extraordinary success rests not only on hard and smart work, but having the appetite for risk, the fortitude for taking rejections, and persistence to overcome obstacles. And finally, after all due diligence has been done on a given opportunity, to think and bet big. During your apprenticeship period, where you are still learning the particular industry you wish to get into - whether it be a private business or the stock market - you will bet well within your means. You will also lose significant amounts of money at this stage, which is your payment for the lessons learned. But once your odds start improving, the secret to success and real wealth lies in thinking and betting big.

Betting big, letting your winners run and cutting your losses quickly lie at the heart of every single wealthy entrepreneur, irrespective of which business or industry they made their money in. Charlie Munger, co-leader of Berkshire Hathaway, says: "The shrewd investors are those that bet big when they have the odds. And the rest of the time, they don't bet at all!". If you run a coffee shop for instance, and figure out that your best business hours are in the morning and late evening, and find ways to suitably up-sell other items to these customers - you may have found one winning strategy in your business. Other winning strategies might include mailing out coupons to students to bring them into your shop and hope that they will spend more money on other items in the store. Yet others might include targeting young adults who want a non-office atmosphere to brainstorm. In the end, after experiments, you will end up with two or three winning strategies. It is then important for you to

1. Follow through on the winning strategies by supplying it enough resources - money, time and attention - so that it may enrich you with profits many times over.
2. To stick to the strategy and keep milking it for a long period of time. Winning strategies often have a long life, and it is important not to abandon the strategy midstream. Unless some underlying facts change (say a competitive coffee shop is taking customers away, or the demographics of the location changes), stick with your winners.

In stock markets, the strategy is obvious - where winning stocks tend to have much longer legs and room to run than initially imagined. Look for stocks that at the very minimum double or triple, and thus have a higher chance of becoming ten-baggers.

In real-estate, develop a portfolio of properties, mixing up high-end neighborhoods with some low-income development areas, as well as adding some commercial properties into the mix. As you gain expertise in one type of real-estate, build it up and expand onto other forms of real-estate. Riches will follow those who trust what they know and apply it to maximum effectiveness.

Diligently expand the number of winning strategies that you have, this will add more arrows to your quiver and help you bet big in multiple areas of wealth building. A rich mind first has many known strategies to success, and then richness follows in the consistent execution of these strategies in a meaningful way.

Bet well, and bet big!