This is a great example of cherry-picking statistics to boost profits. Dave Ramsey conducted a study of millionaires and published the results. He has a vested interest in trumpeting those results because people interested in becoming millionaires are his bread and butter.

Where do you suppose he found those millionaires to study? You can bet he used his personal mailing list. He surveyed people who read his books, listen to his broadcasts, and buy his wealth-building courses. He didn’t survey from the general population, so his results were skewed from the outset.

Most of his millionaires are self-made because those are the kind of people he has on his mailing list. The Walmart clan or other heirs to great fortunes don’t take advice from him, so it’s unlikely any of those people were surveyed. These results are only useful to Dave Ramsey as a way to entice more people to buy what he’s selling.