For those that have a desire to become financially very successful the task may seem very complicated or nearly impossible. You may see rich people all over television, or read about them in the newspaper, but trying to become one seems like a fairy tale. Well, it’s not a fairy tale and the formula to become rich is very simple. In fact there are really only 4 primary paths to becoming rich in America.

1. Own a business.

Having a job and working for someone is a basic component of survival. Having a high paying job will lead you to a good life. If you want to be rich be the one writing the checks and paying those good salaries. The business owner who can afford to pay 10 employees $100,000 a year is rich while you as the employee is just well off. Next year he can hire 20 employees, then 50 and so on. A senior executive at a company is well off, the owner of his company is rich AND has unlimited earning potential.

2. Own property.

Paying rent may be necessary for survival but is the kryptonite to becoming rich. Paying rent will get you no properties, paying a mortgage will get you 1 property (eventually), but owning multiple properties with multiple tenants paying you rent will make you rich. The more properties you own, the more money you will make – it’s that simple.

3. Own investments.

Paying credit card bills and having a savings account may keep you functioning and safe but will never make you rich. Owning stocks in banks and financial institutions will make you rich. The former has you giving your money to banks so they can invest it and get rich. The latter has you keeping your money and investing it to create wealth. Paying a bank makes the bank rich, investing in bank stocks makes you rich. When you pay bills you are working for money and when you invest in stocks, bonds and commodities your money is working for you.

4. Become a celebrity.

Lebron James, Actors, athletes and rappers and musicians are some of the richest people in America, but they are not rich because they are good at what they do; they are rich because they are celebrities. Beyonce is rich because you know her. There are thousands of women who can sing like her who are broke. Lebron is rich because you know him. There are millions of highly skilled basketball players who are playground legends but are broke. Lil’ Wayne is rich, but how many rappers are on the street with "mad skills" and not a dime in their pocket.

Actors, athletes and rappers become rich because they do something that people want to see AND many people are paying money to see them do it. The many eyes watching them make them celebrities, which translates into successful advertising and high ticket sales for advertisers, team owners, and corporate media companies. The celebrity is a tool of the advertiser, team owner or Media Corporation, but he is a rich tool. If the celebrity wants to stay rich he/she needs to successfully employ 1 of the other 3 get rich strategies or he/she will eventually spend/lose all of his riches (think Scottie Pippen or MC Hammer).

SnookieIt used to be true that you had to have talent to become a celebrity. Nowadays, you can become a celebrity without having any talent (think William Hung of American Idol fame or Snookie of JerseyShores). These people have gotten rich because of celebrity and are for the most part devoid of talent. Conversely, a highly skilled musician who is not a celebrity may play dive bars forever and never get rich. It seems blatantly unfair but it is the nature of our celebrity-oriented society.

There are certainly other ways to get rich in America. Games of luck or chance (gambling, winning the lottery, etc) or participating in illegal activities (drug dealing, fraud and financial scams) all will make you tons of money. The problem with these strategies however is that to maintain your wealth and to function in society you will eventually have to employ 1 of the 4 strategies above or you will lose your wealth (and possibly your freedom if you are locked away in jail).

If you are a lottery winner buy some property, invest in stocks, or buy a successful business. If you were not skilled in these areas before you will not magically become savvy just because you have new riches so make sure you hire some people to help you gain success in one of the 4 areas.

If you are a drug dealer who has made a lot of cash, get out now and use your money to buy some property or hire a financial advisor so they can invest your money to generate an income stream for life. For better or worse, you have learned many of the tools of running a successful business through your criminal activities so use those skills to start a legitimate enterprise that doesn’t kill kids, destroy families and devastate communities.

If you are a white collar criminal who has gotten rich by scamming and stealing from others through white collar crime, political deception or other shady behavior you probably aren’t reading this anyway, but if you are you probably will never change. You are smart enough to know how to make money illegally, your moral compass has been destroyed, and making legal and legitimate riches has never been on your agenda. Unfortunately in America too many people in this group are those that run major corporations and/or are elected officials who are protected politically and legally by the corruptible elements of capitalism and the American system of government and law.