How do so many accumulate so much money while others don’t? There’s no secret that the ranks of the rich and the super rich are exploding. A recent period of prosperity created some 500 billionaires compared to 13 back in 1985. Not to mention, there are now many thousands of households with a net worth of a hundred million or more.

I read about this in U.S. News while waiting at an airport this past week.

One thing’s for sure, anyone who has had an idea and turned it into big money, did so by adhering to some, if not all of the seven secrets I’m about to share with you.

I’ll talk about one each week.

It does not take a super-human intelligence to become rich. It’s not a game where the guy with a 160 IQ beats the guy with a 130 IQ. Nor does it always require advanced degrees. Otherwise… college drop-outs like Microsoft founders, Bill Gates and Paul Allan, or Larry Ellison of Oracle, Apple’s Steve Jobs, and Subway shop founder Fred DeLuca… would never have made it.

A recent published look at the Forbes 400 list reveals… an average 10% each year have no college… and sometimes, not even high school degrees. (I’m actually one of them, I never went to college.)

As a child, George Lucas was awkward, nerdy, with a D minus average. (Not an especially brilliant student.) Like me… except I was cool

But his aptitude for filmmaking was extraordinary… eventually earning him a $3.6 billion fortune… creating such films as the Star Wars trilogy, Indiana Jones, and others.

“[Smart] is an elusive concept. There’s a certain sharpness, an ability to absorb new facts. To ask an insightful question. To relate to domains that may not seem connected at first. A certain creativity that allows people to be effective.”

Bill Gates

More elusive factors like determination, drive and ambition play a higher role.

Sam Walton, Walmart’s founder likes to say…

“I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don’t know if you’re born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it.”

While passion and determination might drive a person toward action, it takes persistence, the kind of “stick-to-it” behavior that makes failure NOT an option — to cinch the deal.

Starbucks investor Howard Schultz is persistence personified. While working for a small Seattle coffee bean company, he hit an idea of creating Italian style Espresso bars. His boss didn’t buy the concept, so he left, and not before long… he bought out his former employer.

But to grow, he needed money. After pitching his idea to hundreds of potential financiers, he finally received the money he needed.

No amount of education can give you that kind of perseverance.