We all want to know the same thing on Aridni… how can we go beyond fulfilling the American Dream without getting broke in the end? The most effective business leaders anticipate change in the stock market and variations in consumer trends before they happen. Sucessful businesspeople hold the ability to think unconventionally.

Take the infamous Joseph P. Kennedy for example. Why is it that despite his crude business dealings, Kennedy was so successful in the liquor business and remained a billionaire during the Great Depression while the rest of America starved? As a third generation Irish American, Kennedy’s mother raised him to believe that he was destined to be a success and that anything less than fame and fortune would bring shame to his family name.

With that mentality, Kennedy grew up to be ambassador to Great Britain and the father of the thirty fifth president of the United States. In fact, it was mostly his father’s money that brought John F. Kennedy to the Oval Office. The elder Kennedy made his money through bootlegging, not a means most of us would consider particularly moral. Yet, somehow he managed to get away with it when many people worked hard for much less. By the time his son’s name was on the ballet in 1960, Joseph P. Kennedy was the fourth richest man in America. What was his secret? Part of it lay in the fact that Kennedy was foresighted enough to pull out of the stock market before Black Tuesday in 1929.

Freedom of wealth was not an option in Kennedy’s mind. It was a destiny. He was willing to do whatever it took to achieve wealth. Kennedy arranged the family trust so that each generation was guaranteed to be wealthier than the one preceding it. His paradigm was “success with absolution regardless of the means.”

I’m not saying to go out there and make money any way you can. Yet Kennedy presents an impressive challenge to his family that we could adapt:

Know you ARE destined for success.