KACHARAGADLA

As the CEO of a rapidly growing  fintech company  and a frequent contributor to Forbes, I get asked to do a lot of media interviews. The same questions seem to pop up time and time again, but during a recent interview, I was asked a question I had never encountered before. The interviewer asked, “What was the most important thing you ever learned in school?” I’ve grown so used to delivering the same soundbites that I was caught unprepared. I thought for a moment, and then the obvious answer came to mind. “Ingratiate yourself with people of great wealth,” I replied without hesitation. The interviewer was a bit taken aback because it’s somewhat of a blunt answer. However, the seemingly cynical response was, in fact, the most important thing I ever learned in school. I’m a proud Arizona State University Sun Devil, a graduate of the  W.P. Carey School of Business  with a degree in finance. During my senior year at ASU, I took an upper-level finance course taught by a famous

If you Google “millionaire” and “secrets,” you get more than 10 million results. With so many articles on the subject, you might conclude there’s a big audience for that sort of thing, and you’d be right. And since you clicked on this headline, that probably includes you. Looks like I’ve reached the right audience and you’ve come to the right place. Perfect. Here’s the thing. With millions of writers and millions of readers, you might also conclude that none of that content is actually secret. Again, you’d be right. And get this. With rare exception, it’s all BS. This is not, and I’ll tell you why. I’m a veteran of the technology industry who spent decades working with countless executives and business leaders. We’re talking hundreds, if not thousands – all of whom did well for themselves. Very well. And since you won’t hear this advice from anyone but an insider like me, I guess we can legitimately call them “secrets.” Quit reading dumb articles like this one. Think I’m