How To Be With Rich And Famous People Without Letting It Get To Your Head

How To Be With Rich And Famous People — Unsplash

I’m not rich, I’m not famous, but I do feel like one of the richest guys in the world because I’m blessed to work doing what I love, have a wonderful family, friends, good health, and I get to write for Medium!

Truth is, I’m a well-digging (hard-working, normal), small business guy who’s stuck it out for a few decades. I’ve learned a thing or two about working with rich and famous people without letting it get to your head. Hopefully, you will finish this article with at least one, great idea you can use to build your network IF working with rich and famous people would be helpful and enjoyable for you. Trust me, it’s not for everyone because working with people of fame and fortune requires a certain mindset to “get along” well, and be a great servant, without letting your role get to your head.

Managing Other People’s Money

The movie Wall Street with Michael Douglas did nothing for the image of people working in the financial services industry. But my first experience working with rich and famous people happened when I worked as a financial planner and investment adviser. I worked with folks from “Main Street,” even though quite a few of them were very wealthy meaning they had at least a $5,000,000 net worth. The financial planning and investment advisory world was a great business to learn many useful skills, the main one being how to work with rich and famous people, and keep a cool head.

My wealthiest client was a man I’ll call Steve. He didn’t have a college degree, and he created his wealth by building a small service business. It grew to generate more than $20 million a year in sales. Steve kept getting richer and richer. I had the job of managing part of his $30 million fortune. Steve built this wealth from scratch, and it was an honor to serve people like Steve, and many others for more than a decade.

Steve taught me many lessons. For example, I learned the value of not being in debt as a company or person. I learned the value of taking care of employees, loving them, keeping them loyal, and high-ROI productive. Steve was clearly a great business man, knew how to hire and manage people, was a master networker, and nobody in his business took better care of the customer. Steve always put his customer first.

Here’s the biggest lesson I learned from Steve. Steve believed he should “trust no one, question everything.” We joked about it, but he was very serious because he didn’t trust anyone in business, and he questioned everything. The good news is this may have had something to do with Steve getting rich. But I believe his mindset affected his health because Steve was bitter. It was as if his bitterness towards people made his blood turn acidic, as if to torch his body from the inside like a nasty acid. Steve’s health eventually failed, and I lost contact with him.

However, overwhelming, most of the rich and famous people I served were amazingly kind, hard working, talented, loving, caring, generous people. Steve was an exception. Being in that business toughened me in many ways because managing other people’s money is a tough job, especially when I had done my best to protect clients, and stock or bond markets would be hit by some, massive, new black swan event like 9/11. I learned the value of tenacity.

Moving On To Bigger and Better Things

I sold my book of wealth management clients to a major investment firm and bank in 2000. By 2003, I was ready to do something else because I had walked away from a five-year contract with my buyer, and I didn’t have any start up capital. This meant I had to get creative. I started a new business.

My creative burst turned into a sales training business, then morphed into a sales consulting practice, a business coaching practice, and finally, a digital marketing agency specializing in marketing automation systems like Infusionsoft, SharpSpring, and Hubspot. This business lasted over 12 years.

During this time I learned even more about working with successful, motivated, distractable, rich, and famous people through this decade, plus of working in the trenches as a small business journeyman. 100 % of my clients created their wealth created by building, running and often, selling their businesses. A few were very famous speakers, authors and consultants. A decent number of my clients were successful executives with huge stock incentives to manage. And many were normal families just like my family.

Meeting The Man Who Wrote The Book On Sharks

What happened next is best described as a quantum leap for me in terms of working with rich and famous people. In 2013 I was introduced to Harvey Mackay, one of the world’s most successful businessmen, speakers, and authors. Harvey’s name was practically a household name when his first book was published in 1998. Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive — Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition, along with Harvey’s other books, have sold more than 10 million copies. You can learn more about Harvey in detail here.

This is the future of my business with Harvey.

Today, I work as Harvey’s business partner managing his online university, which will soon transform into a subscription-based academy for accelerated online learning to help business leaders outsell, outmanage, outmotivate, and outnegotiate the competition. This is an entirely new level of the game when it comes to working with rich and famous people. It is still very new to me, and I am humbled to work with a great man like Harvey.

I am not big on capturing pictures of me with famous people, which is why you don’t see one here. When you see my list below, you’ll know why this is true. (Hint: I’m introverted, kind of shy, and don’t need fame.)

Get To The Point, Dude!

Okay, I already used up too many words. So let’s get to my list of ways to work with and famous people without letting it get to your head. Remember, this is just my opinion based on experience. Let me know if I left anything useful off the list.

1. Be yourself. I’ve never looked to work with rich and famous people. It just happened by being me. I wanted a financial planning business. I met some rich and famous people. I wanted a consulting business. I met some rich and famous people. I simply trudged along being me. I didn’t chase it. I am just me, and it took me decades to like myself, if you know what I mean.
2. Be a great servant. My father once said, “Clifford, your job is to make your boss look great, like a million bucks. Always do your best to help your boss look great. Never forget this.” The same is true for business partners, my wife, children, friends. Make other people look and feel great by being a great servant. Put them first.
3. Be real. Rich and famous people thrive on people being real with them. The more candid, real, and helpful you are, the better your relationship will be. Plus, how many posers have you ever liked? Exactly. Don’t be one.
4. Be humble. My work is about taking care of their needs; helping others get what they want. That’s how I get what I want, and it’s amazing! I have owned only service businesses. I have clients because my businesses are based on relationships. Humility is at the core of great relationships.
5. Be honest. There’s Karma. Need I say more?
6. Be flexible. In many cases, your schedule becomes the client’s schedule, especially if they are super-famous or uber-rich. This means when my phone rings now, it’s best to answer it. I learn to flow with my client, and in this, my business partner.
7. Be dependable. This means do the job right the first time. Rich and famous people expect you to be dependable, even if they are not. Most of the time you will find rich and famous people to very diligent, dependable, and hard-driving. These are common attributes among the rich and famous.
8. Be polite. Sometimes rich and famous people can be rude, mean, impatient, dishonest, abusive, and other ugly stuff. Welcome to humanity. However, dig deep to be polite, especially when others are not.
9. Be like water. When I asked one rich and famous client why they hired me back after he chose to part ways he said, “It’s because of how you handled yourself when things didn’t go your way last time. I respect you for this. That’s why I asked you to work with me again. I can count on you.” All I did was go with the flow, like water, when it didn’t go my way. I thought, “BFD, I’ll keep on truckin along.”
10. Be patient. It’s a powerful virtue, especially when you put others first.
11. Be a great listener. This includes learning to listen to what is not said. This keeps you one step ahead, anticipating the needs of your client or partner.
12. Be generous. Ever meet a rich or famous person who is rude, or dishonest, or worse? Look, you can’t control others. You can control how generous you are with your commitment, devotion, loyalty, honesty, etc. Be generous, and be willing to receive because you will receive much if you are all of these things.

There you have it. This is my list. I’ve learned to be a much better servant over the years, and I have much to learn as I go. Being empathetic, and willing to adapt are keys to being with rich and famous people.

Got a question or comment? Let’s have a conversation, share a little clap love, and make Medium an even better place to hang out and write.

P.S. My friends call me, “Cliff.”