Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck is perfectly content watching the rockets his company builds reach the heavens while his feet remain firmly planted on Earth.

“Some people have this burning desire to go into space. I just have a burning desire to create things to enable others to go to space,” says Beck, 47.

The native New Zealander launched Rocket Lab in 2006 with no college degree or space industry connections. His Long Beach, California-based company now has a market value of $11.9 billion, as of Wednesday afternoon, with dozens of successful rocket launches — making it one of the world’s fastest-growing aerospace companies.

Beck has a net worth of $1.3 billion, Forbes estimated in November. Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, two other billionaires with aerospace companies, have made the trek to outer space. But Beck insists he’s not interested, citing one of the very traits that helped him successfully build his company: “a healthy degree of paranoia.”

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The Rocket Lab CEO says he’s extremely hands-on while planning and preparing Rocket Lab’s missions, and his obsession with the granular details would prove too distracting for him to relax and enjoy the space travel. He has “so much respect” for astronauts, particularly those with engineering backgrounds, who understand the danger of space travel and do it anyway, he says.

“I would just be thinking of all the safety factors on the valves and the structures that are beneath me,” says Beck. “So I don’t think it would be very enjoyable at all … There’s a rare group of people that can do that, and I’m not one of them, unfortunately.”

Beck isn’t completely risk-averse. He’s fairly comfortable taking big risks, provided the stakes aren’t potentially life-threatening, he says.

Founding Rocket Lab at all was a risky longshot, considering Beck’s lack of experience. Years later, when the company launched its first Electron rocket, “we were [only], like, 92% sure that it was going to be fine and work,” says Beck. That attempt failed to reach orbit due to an equipment glitch, but fixing it paved the way for future successful launches.

“You have to take risks,” he says. “If you take no risk, there’s no reward … [and] you end up as a traditional, dinosaur kind of player if you want to remove every last percentage of risk.”

Beck’s advice for anyone in the workplace: Identify the risks you feel are worth taking, and then do as much as you can to mitigate their potential consequences before taking the leap. That means doing a lot of research and preparing for every potential outcome — good, bad or in between — before choosing to take action, he says.

Broadly speaking, Branson shares a similar outlook on risk-taking. While the billionaire has a well-known penchant for thrill-seeking — leaping 400-feet off a casino, crossing oceans in a hot-air balloon — he’s adamant that the key to his success is the calculation behind those risks.

“I’ve always believed in protecting the downside, thinking through what could go wrong and how to limit the damage,” Branson told Forbes last month. “That’s the smart way to approach risk. At the same time, trusting your instinct is key. If something feels right, even when the odds are tough, I’m a believer in going for it.”

But Beck maintains a more analytical stance when it comes to stepping foot on a rocket and propelling himself into outer space. “Never say never,” he says. “Look, I would do it if I had to. If my life depended on it … [But] if you do it for enjoyment, that seems counterproductive.”

This story has been updated to clarify that Rocket Lab is one of the world’s fastest-growing aerospace companies.

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Growing up in a single-parent household, we didn’t have much. We always lived frugally and well below our means. 

When I was in my twenties and single, I only cared about building my career. I didn’t think about my own financial future, in part because the idea of retirement felt so far away. I focused on short-term goals and thought moving up the corporate ladder was the surest way to financial success. 

“Just show up, do your work, and someone will reward you for it” was my original formula for success. 

In hindsight, this was short-sighted. My mindset about money changed completely when I had my two kids. I wanted to not only prepare them financially for the future, but build generational wealth that could change the trajectory of my family forever. 

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My wife and I became intentional about managing our money, doing everything we could to learn about personal finance. By the time I was 37, our net worth surpassed a million dollars. My wife and I also founded the website Parent Portfolio, where we share our experience and resources with other parents who want to achieve a similar goal. 

Here’s how I’m building generational wealth now:

One of the first steps to building generational wealth is owning an asset — something that has increasing monetary value, or that can generate income over time, like stocks or real estate — that you can pass on to your children. 

A few years ago, we began acquiring assets by investing more intentionally, particularly in the stock market and in rental properties. 

We’re big fans of low-cost index funds that track the S&P 500, because index funds are diversified, and that helps to mitigate risk. They can also be a simple way to generate passive income through dividends. 

In my 9-to-5, I make sure I use every tax-saving opportunity that is available to me. 

I always take advantage of my employer’s 401(k) match option, for example, and contribute pre-tax dollars to a Health Savings Account.

Additionally, I invest the HSA dollars, which allows for tax-free growth and withdrawal.

I’ve found that building generational wealth has required me to have a more clear-eyed relationship with my own mortality.

That means that we have spoken with an estate planner and have a life insurance policy in place, as well as a family trust. The last thing we want is for our kids or their caregiver to have to deal with an additional burden of financial stress during a time of grief. 

Setting up an estate plan allows you some control over your assets even after you are gone. A family trust can give instructions as to what the money is used for, such as paying for college, making a down payment or starting a small business. 

It can be set up to distribute money gradually, over time, instead of in one lump sum. And the trust can stipulate that the money used to fund these opportunities should be paid back to the trust for future generations, too.

It’s so important to us that our kids have a core foundation in basic financial and wealth-building literacy. We make sure that our children don’t see money as a lottery ticket or blank check, but as a tool that gives them access to opportunities for success. 

Now that our kids are older, we’ve begun giving them an allowance. We teach them to divide up their allowance into five parts: giving, needs, wants, saving, and investing. 

Ultimately, it’s up to them on how much they want to contribute to each category. Most importantly, we always remind ourselves how blessed we are, and never take what we have for granted. 

Jonathan Sanchez is the co-founder of Parent Portfolio, where he helps readers take control of their financial future and build wealth for the next generation. He was raised with frugal habits and by practicing wise money decisions, became a millionaire in his 30s. Follow him on Instagram and join his newsletter at Parent Portfolio.

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As a kid, Jack Cowin shoveled snow, delivered newspapers and sold Christmas cards for cash. By the time he reached his 20s, it was burgers instead of cards. Fast forward to today: The 82-year-old is a billionaire, thanks to his fast food empire.

Cowin is the founder and chairman of Competitive Foods Australia, the company that operates Burger King as “Hungry Jack’s” in Australia. He is also the largest shareholder of Domino’s Pizza in Australia, and backs a plant-based meat substitute company called v2food.

Before founding Hungry Jack’s, Cowin opened a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Australia in 1969 — his first of many. Then in 2013, he sold off his KFC franchise of 55 stores in a deal worth about $71 million, according to a representative at Competitive Foods Australia.

Today, his business is worth over $3 billion and brings in over $300 million a year, Cowin told CNBC Make It.

Growing up in Canada, Cowin realized early on that he wanted freedom in life. His father was an employee at the Ford Motor Company and was required to travel frequently for work.

“He had a phone call one day, you’re going to Brazil, or you’re going to Mexico, or things like this … When you work for a big corporation, the corporation decides where you’re going to be, [and] what you’re going to do,” Cowin said.

“And as a kid, I wanted to have the freedom to do what I wanted to do. I think I saw that relatively early, because [I saw that] dad’s on the treadmill of here, there and everywhere,” he said. He didn’t want to be at the “whims and beckon call of a corporation.”

So as a child, Cowin spent his time outside of school mowing lawns and delivering newspapers. “I never had to ask for money as a kid,” he said. “I was a sales guy from very early, like 8 or 10 years old.”

By the time college rolled around, Cowin was going from farm to farm selling “trees, shrubs and nursing stock,” he said. He was so successful at it that he was making $8,000 a year while his university professors were making only $5,000 a year, he said.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1964, and went on to get a job selling life insurance he said he was very good at.

“I had a reputation of being someone that could sell,” he said.

By the late 1960s, Cowin had begun to settle down in Canada with his wife and his first child when he one day received a phone call from a couple of high school friends.

His friends had landed a job with the American Kentucky Fried Chicken company and were sent to Australia to do some market research about whether they should expand into the country.

“Since my father had been there [for work], and I was the only guy … that knew where Australia was on a map … they phoned me up and said: ‘You should be down here. You should come and see this.’ So without a moment’s notice, I’m on a plane and I fly to Australia,” Cowin said.

Cowin landed in Australia in February 1969, and spent three weeks there helping his friends conduct research — ultimately finding that there was indeed a market for fast food in Australia.

“At that stage of the game, the restaurant business in Australia was fish and chip shops, Chinese restaurants and fancy white tablecloth restaurants,” he said. Meanwhile, McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and other fast food restaurants were all rising in popularity in North America.

“So at the end of the three weeks, I pay $1,000 as a deposit on a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise [and] if the American company is going to open a store, then I was going to have a 10 store franchise,” he said.

Six months later, he received a phone call saying that the American KFC company agreed to expand into Australia and Cowin had the opportunity to own his first franchise location. But he didn’t have the funds, so he started raising money.

Imagine this “kid comes into your office and says he wants to borrow $10,000, which is probably about $100,000 today or more … he’s got no experience in the business, no interest on your money … how long before you throw him out of your office for wasting your time?”

“The biggest break I’ve had in my life was … I got on my bike and I got 30 Canadians to lend me $10,000 each, so got $300,000,” he said. “Otherwise I’d still be shoveling snow in Canada. I hadn’t had the finances back then.”

By December 1969, Cowin moved his family to Perth, Australia, where he opened his first KFC franchise. “It was like drilling oil and hitting oil on your first wildcat well, because it was a booming success,” he said.

“Then, you open two more, you get into the hamburger business, you get into the pizza business, you get into the food manufacturing business, and today, that business is a $3 billion business and makes $300 million a year.”

Today, Cowin owns 98% of his company while the other 2% is held by some of his original investors and shareholders, he said. “That original $10,000 is $40 million at book value [today]. So everybody’s got their money back, and those that stayed in have done increasingly well,” he said.

When asked what his secret to sales is, he said, “I think the secret is, whatever you do, do it well … The people that lent me the money really backed me as the investment. I was the investment.”

″And an expression [I have is] when you can’t tell the difference between work and play, you’re in the right place … I’ve never really worked a day in my life because I’ve enjoyed it.”

Correction: This story was updated to make it clear that Jack Cowin opened a KFC store in Australia in 1969.

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Do you smile every time you hear a specific song, or light up when you see a certain old friend? Those are both what I like to call happiness sparks. 

We need them now more than ever to thrive despite challenges, distractions, and overwhelming current events. Unfortunately, as I wrote in my recent book, “The Mentally Strong Leader,” there are some days when these moments are hard to come by. 

The key is to bring more happiness sparks into your life — not by chance, but by choice. 

It takes mental strength and discipline to adopt perspectives and make choices that can help bring you joy, especially when negative emotions and thoughts are hijacking you. 

The most mentally strong people lean on these five mantras, which can provide little bursts of resilience and create sparks of happiness. 

In times of adversity, it’s easy to focus on what’s gone. Maybe you lost time, money, or resources when something went wrong with that work project. Or you lost your identity when you got laid off. Or you lost a hangout buddy when your friend moved across the country. 

Remembering to focus on what you still have makes a profound difference. Consciously practicing gratitude improves well-being, research shows. 

In the situations above, for instance, you might be grateful for valuable insights, the loved ones you can spend more quality time with, and a new travel destination, as well as a friendship you can continue cultivating long-distance. 

When you second guess a path you’ve chosen or lament that not everything is working out as you’d hoped, you can get stuck in a negative loop. 

The truth is that there will always be unexpected twists and turns. It’s easier to find joy when you accept the imperfect path and overcome obstacles along the way. 

Think of an accomplishment or outcome that made you happy. Odds are you dealt with some adversity to get there.

When you’re frustrated and someone tells you to “just let it go,” that can make you more upset. It’s also bad advice, since you’ll likely be unable to ignore what happened and how it made you feel.

You can, on the other hand, tell yourself, “Let it be.” That means using a form of cognitive acceptance, which is a surer path to pulling out of a downward spiral.

Don’t try to banish an adverse event from your psyche or change what you feel about it. Let it sit there. Acknowledge and accept that your emotions are legitimate reactions and focus on how you’ll move forward in a productive way. 

When we struggle in the face of setbacks, we can lose perspective. Small challenges may suddenly seem outsized.  

Saying “Big picture, small step” to yourself does two things: 

• It reminds you of the ultimate goal or of the vision of the life you want to live and who you want to be. When you consider a setback in the context of the big picture, it shrinks. 
• It can help you identify one small thing you can do to get back on the path of progress and positivity. That first action can lead to another small step of hopefulness, which leads to another, and so on. 

Think of this as your ABC phrase, inspired by the ABC model in cognitive behavioral therapy. The idea is to remind yourself that adversity doesn’t automatically mean negative outcomes.

The end result of adversity is determined by how you respond to it, and the beliefs you form because of it. 

For example, will you believe that a job interview that didn’t go well was a non-recoverable disaster that clearly demonstrates you’re a failure? Or will you believe that it’s a learning opportunity and an obstacle you’ll overcome, like you have in other situations in the past? 

It’s easy to get caught up thinking that happiness is a destination, that if you can only make a little more money, or achieve some specific thing, then you’ll be happy.

You might tell yourself, “I’ll be happy when I finally get that promotion,” for example, or “If I could just fit into those old jeans, I’d be so much happier.” In the meantime, you let joy slip by unnoticed as you keep your head down, grinding.

Mentally strong people engage in what I call “grindfulness,” a practice at the intersection of gratitude and mindfulness. It allows you to notice and recognize your gratitude for the small positives, even in tough moments.  

It encourages you to draw happiness from finding and experiencing joy in the world around you, right now, every day. 

Scott Mautz is a popular speaker, trainer, and LinkedIn Learning instructor. He’s a former senior executive of Procter & Gamble, where he ran several of the company’s largest multi-billion-dollar businesses. He is the author of ”The Mentally Strong Leader: Build the Habits to Productively Regulate Your Emotions, Thoughts, and Behaviors.” Follow him on LinkedIn.

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For nearly seven years, as the founder, CEO and editor of SideHusl, I’ve devoted my time to researching and reviewing platforms that aim to help people make some extra money. A common question I’m asked is, “How can I turn what I already own into a side hustle?”

If you find that you are house rich but cash poor, for example, there are actually a number of ways that you can use your home to make some passive income — and you don’t need a roommate to do it. 

Having sifted through over 500 online platforms, I’ve found that several allow you to monetize the space you live in by renting out pieces of it for a specific purpose, like storage. 

Best of all, these housing hustles are low-maintenance side gigs that don’t require a ton of time or effort on your part. Here is my best advice if you want to turn your home into a potentially lucrative side hustle. 

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Some sites, including Neighbor and Stache, allow people with empty space to rent it out for storage. This can be part of an attic or basement, an empty bay in your garage, a room, a closet — even the space under your bed.

All you need to do is measure the dimensions of your empty space, snap a few photos and come up with a fair price for renting it. Most peer-to-peer storage rental sites will provide guidance on average rates in your neighborhood. The price you charge is ultimately up to you.

You can set restrictions. Most storage companies, including these platforms, bar weapons or anything hazardous, as well as any items of great worth such as artwork, cash, securities and jewelry, for example. And you can limit how often customers can access their goods and require that they call ahead.

A site called Sniffspot connects people with fenced-off yards with pet owners who want a quiet place to play.

Homeowners set their own rates, which typically range between $10 and $25 per hour, per animal. They determine whether to offer amenities, such as tennis balls and benches for pet-owners to sit down.

All you have to do is post a profile, set your rates, and leave the gate unlocked. The site offers $1 million in liability protection for hosts, as well as limited damage coverage.

Got a swimming pool? It, too, can be rented by the hour through a site called Swimply.

You simply need to publish a profile, set rates, snap photos and tell potential visitors what they get access to besides the pool and deck. For instance, is there a restroom or changing area they can use? Does the pool area have a barbecue that’s available for guests?

Although these additional amenities are not a requirement for listing your pool, you’re likely to get more bookings with that type of extra amenity. 

Notably, Swimply also automatically provides liability and some damage coverage to protect hosts.

Several sites — including Giggster, Avvay and Peerspace — that specialize in finding unique venues for filming, photo shoots and events encourage you to list your house for rent by the hour. A house that might rent for $100 a night on Airbnb can rent for $100 an hour here.

Renters are expected to leave the property in the same condition as they found it, so there generally isn’t a need to add a cleaning fee. However, you are allowed to add additional fees (like for a site representative or a cleaning fee), if you want to.

You get to decide what kinds of events you’re willing to host, whether renters get access to the entire house or just parts of it, and the maximum number of people allowed. 

You also set your own rates and determine terms, like whether the renter needs to buy event insurance to host a party at your place, which I would highly recommend.

You can also set minimum rental times of, say, four hours. That way you’ll know that whenever you get a booking, you’ll earn enough to make it worth your while.

Kathy Kristof is founder of SideHusl.com, the web’s most comprehensive directory of side hustle platforms.

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