What it takes to be rich

Ian Ybarra

Money Magazine just released a piece in which writer Ryan D'Agostino shares lessons learned from folks who became some of America's wealthiest people. No surprise that one of the handful of lessons is "Make others lucky, too." Here's a story that speaks volumes to Wealth being the second key to loyalty and our belief that, besides just being the right thing to do, it really pays to put the best interests of others before cheap, short-term gains at their expense.

Grosnoff, 66, who is trim and calm and speaks in neat paragraphs, became a stockbroker near Philadelphia in 1969, not a good time in the stock market. He saw that potential big-money clients - mostly people who had recently sold businesses - were buying certificates of deposit, a sign that they wanted to play it safe.

But Grosnoff began selling a better-paying (and nearly as safe) alternative: short-term municipal debt that yielded 7.5 percent tax-free.

Like selling stocks, this entailed hours of cold calling, but the commissions were much lower than for stock sales.

"One of the earliest transactions I did was a $5 million order. It took hours and only had a $250 commission, and I only got 28 percent of that," he said. "The other guys would tease me and ask me why I was spending so long on an order that paid me so little."

But Grosnoff was hoping that when the market eventually picked up, his new clients would remember that he had served up safe tax-free notes when they needed them and would invest in stocks with him when they were ready to do that.

His gambit worked.

"One day in 1974, a guy who owned a coal mine called me from his plane," Grosnoff recalled. "He said, 'Bob, get out your pencil. I want to buy some stocks.' He started with the As, then the Bs, and he just kept going."

After that the guys in the office didn't make fun of Grosnoff anymore.

Money Magazine: "What it takes to be rich"

(Thanks to Leo Vasquez for the tip.)