It seems like billionaires must have superpowers to accumulate all that money. As it turns out, they are just as fallible as the rest of us.
Despite their skill at amassing prodigious amounts of wealth, several famous billionaires are guilty of some pretty bad habits.
So while you might want to emulate their cash-making moves, here are some billionaire habits to avoid.
Warren Buffett
Estimated net worth: Roughly $140 billion
Warren Buffett is known for his folksy charm and his status as perhaps the greatest investor of all time. But for those in the know, the Oracle of Omaha is also infamous for his awful diet.
Buffett reportedly eats breakfast at McDonald’s nearly every day. He also consumes five cans of Coke daily and has a weakness for ice cream and cookies.
As he sheepishly admits, “I follow a very simple rule when it comes to food. If a 3-year-old doesn’t eat it, I don’t eat it.”
Bill Gates
Estimated net worth: Roughly $110 billion
Bill Gates is known for his strong work ethic. But the Microsoft co-founder also admits to being a natural procrastinator.
Gates says that during his college years, he was legendary for putting things off until the last minute. As he took this laissez-faire attitude into the business world, what had previously seemed charming quickly became counterproductive.
“Nobody praised me because I would do things at the last minute,” he has recalled.
He may be among the richest people in the world, but Gates admits to that he still has to fight his tendency to procrastinate.
Elon Musk
Estimated net worth: Roughly $270 billion
Elon Musk is famous for his incredible ability to conjure enough energy to run several businesses, including Tesla, SpaceX and X, which was formerly known as Twitter. In the past, he leaned heavily on caffeine to fuel his fire.
“There were probably times when I had like eight [Diet Cokes] a day or something ridiculous,” he said in an interview.
Musk also drank too much coffee, which often left him “really wired. I’d get over-caffeinated, and it wouldn’t be good.”
Today, Musk has cut back and drinks only one or two cans of Diet Coke each day.
Mark Cuban
Estimated net worth: Roughly $6 billion
Billionaires don’t get to that status without being driven. But sometimes, their hard-charging nature can spill over into something approaching abuse.
Mark Cuban admits that when he was in his 20s, he had a tendency to yell to get his point across.
Eventually, Cuban learned that yelling simply increases stress levels. As he said in a podcast interview, “When you increase stress — the people around you, productivity, profitability [and] competitiveness decline.”
Richard Branson
Estimated net worth: Roughly $3 billion
It takes a lot of candor to admit that you lied to colleagues for many years simply to cover your ignorance. But Richard Branson has confessed to doing just that.
For years, Branson pretended that he understood the difference between two basic business concepts — net profits (a company’s earnings minus its expenses) and gross profit (a company’s total earnings).
Although he thought he was bluffing his way successfully through meetings, an executive eventually pulled him aside and revealed that Branson wasn’t fooling anybody. The executive then helped Branson — who was already in his 50s by this time — to better grasp the meaning behind the terms.
In a blog post, Branson recalled what the incident taught him: “There’s no shame in admitting the places where you may fall short, and engaging with people who can help.”
Mark Zuckerberg
Estimated net worth: Roughly $199 billion
When Mark Zuckerberg wakes up, the first thing he does is look at his phone. He checks social media and his messages. Sometimes, he spends just a few minutes doing so. But if he sees big news, the time on his phone can stretch out.
Zuckerberg has referred to his habit as a “pretty sad situation” that is “probably not my best moment.”
Musk also feels a strong pull toward his phone first thing in the morning. And like Zuckerberg, he believes the habit is counterproductive.
To cure his bad habit, Musk committed to working out first thing in the morning before checking his phone.
