A Forbes.com report says “The ability to crunch numbers is typically a key to becoming a billionaire.”
Yeah, I guess so, or how would you count your billions?
The Forbes study (“unscientific”, it claims) almost stumbled on this conclusion. It was examining the question of how people get uber-wealthy. How some people seem to be cash magnets. Come on, no one is born with the capacity “to make more dollars”. He/She has a combo of capabilities that takes them to that currently rarefied spot: the hyper-wealth zone.

We know some of those qualities: hard work, smart decisions, perseverance, ambition, luck. The study wanted to look beyond that. Researchers took a list of celebrated billionaires and looked at their life from all angles. And this is what they found.

First, the hereditary part: The parents of most ABs were either engineer, accountant or small-business owner. They indeed had high aptitude for Math. And the billionaire guys themselves, presumably have that streak in their genes. Conclusion: inherit math ability to increase bank balance.

Now look at it this way. If your parents weren’t born with mathematical genius, you can’t be a billionaire? Hard to swallow.
More relevant is this: Mathematical prowess is the recipe for riches, give or take the other qualities listed.

Math works, if you’re a banker, stock broker, architect, web designer, software coder, textbook writer or a caterer. Don’t sport stars need math? Don’t film stars invest what they earn?

A more appropriate question would be: do you need formal education in math?
Yes, at least upto high school level. This helps to develop that nascent mathematical genius, or learn to use math productively. Which is needed for all businesses.

Learn math. It helps to earn those millions and retain them.