With an estimated personal fortune of $400 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Kevin O’Leary is clearly a rich man. However, in a recent video posted on YouTube, the entrepreneur insists that the pursuit of money is not what drives him.

“Yeah, I woke up rich one day but I didn’t care and now I work harder than I ever did,” he said. “It’s about the personal freedom, not the money.”

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Besides the pursuit of freedom, O’Leary says his career has been fueled by one element that he believes is the key to creating wealth: a passion for problem solving.

Passionately solving problems

Entrepreneurs pursue risky ventures because they’re focused on curing pain points for specific customers, O’Leary argues. He believes a similar mindset could help most people accumulate wealth faster.

“You’ll wake up one day and be a multi-millionaire if you solve big problems for people,” he said in the video.

Other successful entrepreneurs have also echoed this approach. Virgin CEO Richard Branson encourages people to “fight tooth and nail to solve problems,” while Shark Tank co-host Mark Cuban called problem-solving “the foundation of being an entrepreneur.”

Here’s how you can apply this mindset to your investments.

Read more: Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead

Problem-solver stocks

As O’Leary suggests, some companies were created to solve specific problems. If the problem is big enough and the solution is potent, a business can be relatively lucrative.

Cybercrime, for instance, is a huge problem. In 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) saw a 10% surge in cybercrime complaints year-over-year. Americans collectively lost $12.5 billion to such crime, up 22% from the previous year.

Companies like Palo Alto Networks Inc (NASDAQ:PANW) and Crowdstrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) are problem solvers in this space. According to Palo Alto Networks, its enterprise firewalls have prevented over 13.46 billion attacks, while Crowdstrike has 17.7% market share in endpoint device security.

Another widesweeping problem is how painful, uncomfortable and risky medical surgeries can be. Surgeons across the world are increasingly adopting robotic assistants to make their procedures less invasive, more precise and more successful.

One of the leading problem solvers in this arena is Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG). The company claims that its da Vinci System has been involved in over 12 million surgeries and over 60,000 surgeons have been trained to use it — and the stock is up 200% over the past five years.

Climate change is another problem that innovative companies are trying to mitigate. In 2024, there were 27 major climate disasters across the U.S. that caused damages exceeding $1 billion, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP) is one of many companies investing billions into building out renewable energy infrastructure to mitigate the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Although its earnings are robust, the stock is down almost 20% over the past year. This price correction has pushed the dividend yield up to 6.8%.

Simply put, companies that solve problems can be an ideal target for investors looking to earn passive income.

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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.