Many people believe that growing wealthy requires being born with an uncanny genius that mere mortals cannot possess. According to Jamie Tardy, a small business coach in the United States, nothing could be further from the truth.

In actuality, many of the wealthiest people around us started off as very humble people. They knew the importance of being frugal as they sought to build their wealth. Tardy interviewed a number of wealthy men and women to get perspective on how they built their wealth and what lessons they can share with the rest of us.

A common theme among these gurus is that they understood the importance of frugality as they sought to build their way to the top. One of the millionaire entrepreneurs Tardy interviewed sold his company for over $20 million a few years ago. Clearly, he is a man of exceptional means today. However, he didn’t always feel that way. Before that, he worked in a carnival. His job was to make people laugh and was likely not taken very seriously. Even earlier, he was completely unemployed.

This man is a clear example of the importance of building wealth. Although you may feel that you are going to be making a substantial amount of money in the future, you shouldn’t pretend that money is already in the bank. The increase in consumer spending among Americans in response to some decent economic data is an indication that this type of behavior is all too prevalent in our world.

While you are determined to build wealth and improve your own position financially, you must be realistic about where you are and what you can currently afford. The aspiration to work your way up to new positions of power is admirable. Pretending that you can afford things you cannot is a sign of hubris and foolishness.

That being said, you should recognize that some investments will need to be made. For example, Sonny Bono and his ex-wife Cher created their empire by pretending they were successful before they actually hit their big break. Whether this was intentional or just bad judgment that turned out for the best is difficult to say. However, they clearly bought their way into the right circles, which allowed them to reach their goals.

You may not be trying to reach the level of stardom that Bono and Cher aspired towards, but you may need to spend more money on fancy dress clothes to get yourself noticed as you build your connections. This may be the wise thing to do, so long as you know that you are approaching it as an investment. Just be sure that you don’t spend money before you have it. Doing so is the one-way route to financial destruction and your dreams will likely collapse before they can ever come to fruition.