How Do Billionaires Succeed In Their Marriages?
By James Mills, Associate Partner, Lighthouse International
The wealthiest people in the world have have built immense wealth, have an incredible network and more spending power than many can muster…So how then do they find time in their hectic schedules to build close relationships with friends and family? How do the world’s billionaires fare when it comes to their marriages? You may think they all end in divorce right? Well the answer may well surprise you and they can teach us all a thing or two about love, as well as business…
[emaillocker]The Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway wrote an article last year – following an investigation into this very subject. It started with her looking at the example of Elon Musk and a post from his ex-wife on Quora. The article seemed to suggest, that pretty much every billionaire will be prone to unsuccessful marriages due to the obsessive nature of their personality. There are definitely examples to prove this point. However when Ms Kellaway went through the list of the world billionaires produced by Forbes, she actually found the reverse to be true – billionaires are more likely to enjoy long-term marriages as well!
Examples like Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos (Founder of Amazon), Michael Dell (Founder of Dell Computers), Ray Dalio (Founder of Bridgwater Associates) and Phil Knight (founder of Nike) are ones who have all maintained marriages for more than 20 years! In fact what Ms Kellaway found is that the divorce rate amongst billionaires was actually lower than the 40% rate found in the global population!
So bearing this in mind, here are some words of wisdom from four billionaires who have had successful marriages and careers.
Love Starts With Being The Best Person You Can Be
“Love should be supportive; it should lift us and inspire us to be the best possible person we can be. Because if you can be the best version of yourself, your partner will benefit too. That’s the cornerstone of a great relationship – wanting the best for and bringing out the best in each other.”
– Sir Richard Branson (Founder of Virgin Group – Married 26 years), Virgin Blog
Continual Learning Facilitates Mutual Understanding
“We read a lot of the same books together and talk about that. You’ve got to put energy into making sure you know what the other person’s thinking. You can read books that talk about relationships and see how each of you are thinking about things.”
– Bill Gates (Co-Founder of Microsoft – Married 22 years), Interview with Today News
Know Who You Are Looking For
“I wanted a woman who could get me out of a Third World prison. Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.”
– Jeff Bezos (Founder of Amazon – Married 23 years), Quoted by Business Insider
Working With The Right Partner Means You Can Both Succeed
“Having a true partner like Dave is still far too rare. While we expect women to be nurturing, we don’t have the same expectations of men… Even though Dave and I are extraordinarily fortunate and can afford exceptional child care, there are still difficult and painful decisions about how much time our jobs require us to be away from our family and who will pick up the slack… We are never at fifty-fifty at any given moment — perfect equality is hard to define or sustain — but we allow the pendulum to swing back and forth between us.”
– Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook – Married 11 years until her husband’s tragic death in April 2015), Interview with ABC News
As you can see, billionaires are able to make their marriages work when they invest in them, and apply the principles of building sustainable and loving relationships. Quite simply they require work from both people involved, regardless of how much money either partner has.
Here’s a link to Lucy Kellaway’s article in the Financial Times.
Leave A Comment