He looked pretty dapper as he stepped out in style out of his chauffer driven Land cruiser SUV. He stepped on the red carpet, adjusted his suit and walked graciously up a couple of steps through the hallway into the auditorium on the red carpet well laid to welcome him as the guest speaker at this youth conference.

All the young people looked at him with admiration on their faces and the protocol team and ushers blushed as he nodded in acknowledgement of their courtesy and greetings as they led him to the special seat prepared for him at the front row.

Other speakers and the host welcomed him with respect and admiration as he took his seat ready to speak to motivate, inspire and encourage over a thousand young people at the conference. He walked up the podium with much confidence, perhaps a bit cocky when it was his turn to speak. His intimidating profile was read almost like a citation from a grass to grace bestseller, and his fame and net worth made him appealing to the youthful audience – eager to know the secret of becoming a billionaire.

It was a youth conference about financial success, and this famous and rich individual was the special guest and key speaker at the event. I sat in my corner observing events unfold and concluded we needed to organize more of these kind of conferences for our youth, it should not just be about entertainment shows. So this rich and well packaged gentleman began to share his principles and secret to becoming a billionaire with these young people and many of them eagerly scribbled down the points on their writing materials.

He had material proof and financial evidence hence, everything he said was an easy sale, the young people embraced the message without much thought and by the time he was done, I was very uneasy as I believe what he told them was not the complete truth, yet they believed because he looked successful and it all sounded like the truth.

He told them many things but emphasized what he believed the young people needed for them to become multi-billionaires.

He told them they needed a plan. Yes of course they do, but believe me a plan is not enough to make you a billionaire.

He said they needed a strategy, yes, it’s also important but a strategy, no matter how fantastic is not enough to you a billionaire.

He said they needed knowledge, of course knowledge is critical and important, yet, it is not enough to make anyone a billionaire.

He said they needed the right connections and people, yes, you need great minds around you, but all the great minds in this world is not enough to make you a billionaire.

He said they needed passion, yes, passion is key, but unfortunately, it’s not the key to becoming a billionaire.

He told them they needed to be hardworking and persistent, yes, they need these but I tell you, it is not sufficient to make them billionaires.

He told them prayer was also important, yes I agree you need to pray but believe me, prayers don’t make people billionaires.

This eloquent and good looking speaker spoke so well, gave many examples, told interesting stories and touching stories about endurance, sacrifice and passion and the crowd was so moved and impressed by his presentation.

Believe me, he is a fantastic speaker, his packaging, and delivery were on point and of course his profile was a sort of evidence he knew what he was talking about.

But I assure you ladies and gentlemen, any and the combination of all the qualities and attributes mentioned can never make anyone a billionaire.

You see, many of us think there is a mystery to becoming rich and I’ve seen many books make mysterious, the so called lifestyle of self-made billionaires. They’ll perhaps tell you about certain behaviors and habits of the rich and tell you if you do the same, you will have their kind of results. They tell you about when to sleep and wake up for example, they tell you to meditate for some hours every day, eat certain kinds of food, follow a certain routine and all that, let me tell you this morning, all those things don’t make up the complete truth about becoming a billionaire. That’s why many people practice these behaviors and habits and still remain broke because these habits outside the common sense of business principles will always fail.

Dear friend, all the habits the important speaker shared will never make anyone a billionaire either practiced individually or collectively if the number one rule for becoming a billionaire is violated.

The number one key to becoming a billionaire is not in habits or behavioral patterns, it’s in the market size. Simple. Becoming a billionaire is simply about the number of people willing and ready to exchange their hard earned cash for your product or service. That simple.

So the number one law of becoming a billionaire is to sell a product that will have a great number of buyers and users, frequent buyers and users or high margin products with few but regular buyers. This has to do with the type of product, availability and affordability. If a million people for example can pay 1000 naira for your product because they need it and can afford it, you’re already a billionaire. In Nigeria, a country of almost 180 million people, if just 1 million people buy your product in one year, your revenue is 1billion naira.

This has nothing to do with passion, knowledge, hard work, persistence, prayers, and all those habits. If you practice these habits religiously and don’t have a sizable market for what you want to sell, you will never become a billionaire. A plan, a strategy, passion, hard work, persistence, connection and prayers are all needed, but to conquer a huge and ready market size. If there are no gaps or opportunities for your product in the market, habits won’t deliver anything. If the market is also not ripe for what you have to sell, principles won’t deliver anything.

Being successful in business is all about market opportunities. If there are no opportunities in the market there is nothing you can do. If the opportunities are slim your revenue will be slim and you will also be frequently broke and for a long time, remain small.

My dear business man, stop suspending logical business principles on the account of well packaged sentimental thesis. Becoming successful in business is not about a product or service you’re passionate about, even if you’re excellent at it, it’s about the number of people that want what you want to sell. To become rich in business, don’t sell what you love, you’re not the customer, you’re not the one buying from yourself, sell what a lot of people want, make it excellent, affordable and available in a way competitors cant, that is the greatest secret to business success. Success habits and behavioral principles matter, but that’s when you’ve already identified a huge market in size. It’s not about what you want to sell, it’s always about what enough people want to buy. Even if it’s a luxury brand or a high value product, you still need enough buyers. That simple