The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley’s runaway bestseller, revealed to the world a surprising picture of America’s millionaires. Instead of the flashy stereotype of big houses and yachts, they were like you and me but just had more money.

Stanley’s follow up, The Millionaire Mind, is a more nuanced look into the psychology of millionaires, the ‘soft’ factors in terms of attitudes and beliefs that have made these people so successful.

This time, Stanley researched an even wealthier set of millionaires (including many ‘decamillionaires’) - 733 in all. This is what he found.

Vocation, vocation, vocation. Most millionaires did a variety of jobs and had a good spread of life experiences before they found their vocation. Looking at the data, Stanley concludes, “It’s hard for a person to recognize opportunities if he stays in one place and remains in one job.”

Millionaires are happy to make a working life out of truck spare parts or car wash operations if they see opportunities – no matter what others think. They look for things that others have overlooked, creating profitable niches within generic industries.

The more you love your work, the more likely you will excel in it, and the more rewards accrue to you. You are more likely to create a profitable niche through the process of deepening your skills, knowledge and contacts in your chosen area.

Risk and reward. While most people would see starting a business as a great risk, the financially successful think it’s risky to work 9 to 5 for someone else. You are dependent upon your employer for your livelihood, and your income is related to how much time you spend working.

Millionaires tend to choose a career in which there is no ceiling on how much money they can make if they are successful at it.

Of course, many doctors, lawyers, accountants and other employees do become well off, but they tend not to be among the decamillionaires (worth $10 million plus).

Even if you’re at the top of your profession, you’re still required to personally give a service in return for a fee, one client at a time. In contrast, business owners can always get other people to put in the time, but over time they reap more and more of the fruits.