This Steve Jobs quote perfectly sums up the difference between billionaires and the rest of us
In a Quora thread answering the question "Do billionaires know something that normal people don't?" Patrick Methieson noted a Jobs quote that encapsulates the "billionaire mentality":
"Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use."
It's something that all wealthy people tend to internalize, explained Methieson, a venture investor who has worked with billionaires: "Billionaires realize that the world is pliable. With enough pressure applied to an endeavor, sufficiently resourceful people really can change the world. Contrast that with the rest of us who are more likely to assume the state of the world as static, or given."
Self-made millionaire Steve Siebold, who interviewed over 1,200 of the world's wealthiest people before writing "How Rich People Think," echoes this belief.
Rich people have an action mentality and are problem solvers. "While the masses are waiting to pick the right numbers and praying for prosperity, the great ones are solving problems," he writes.
This doesn't mean they're smarter than the average person, as Jobs noted. "They are just more strategic," Siebold explains. "When the rich need money, they don't wonder if it's possible, they simply begin creating new ideas that solve problems."
And "the bigger the problem you solve, the more money you make," he says.
At the end of the day, getting rich is an inside job. "Let's set the record straight once and for all: Anyone can become wealthy," Siebold writes. "It has nothing to do with your education or where you come from. It's not what you do that guarantees wealth, it's what you are."