Reminder

"People who are very successful have an incredible sense of optimism," says Joan Kane, a Manhattan psychologist who treats many a high-powered executive. "They don't have the sense of limitations that most people have. There's no limit to their capacity to achieve and keep going. Age and family commitments don't deter them."

Unbounded optimism. Insatiable need to win. These are but two characteristics of the stratospherically wealthy. There are many more.

It takes serious guts to abandon the comforts of an office, a two-week paycheck and a decent health care package to start a small business, let alone build an empire. Billionaires have a confidence bordering on arrogance that checks their fear and doubt--even as the bets grow larger and more complicated. Put another way, they have an uncanny ability to shrug off failure.

"Highly successful entrepreneurs view failure as a way to gather data," says psychologist David Ballard, head of the American Psychological Association Health Workplace Program. "That's how they learn. It's part of the process instead of being the end of road."

Do you have billionaire DNA and just don't know it yet? Before you set off on a course for prodigious wealth (and risk ruining your life in the process), ask yourself 13 hard questions, inspired by Ballard, Kane and executive psychologist Debra Condren, who has worked with the likes of 3M, Chevron and Hewlett-Packard. Here are just a few (for the complete list, see our slideshow:

Why Go Big At All?

Mapping out your long-term goals for the business is critical before you decide to kick growth into high gear. Aiming to sell out in a few years? Fine. Suffused with competitive desire? Okay. Just want to be left alone to trick out your product, with little care for the bottom line? Stay small.