One of the most common traits of financially successful people is an ever-present sense of urgency. There are many who take umbrage with this, because it gets in the way of their relaxing and gorging themselves on frivolous activities. People who want things done sooner rather than later annoy them no end.

Nevertheless, a sense of urgency is important because we all have to deal with an irreplaceable, finite commodity known as “time.” That’s why it’s not how much money you make, but how much money you make in a given period of time.

Say that two people each make a million dollars. One makes his million dollars in a year’s time, while the other makes his million over the course of a forty-year work career. The latter person would have an average annual income of $25,000 — well below the poverty line — while the individual who made his million dollars in a year would be in the top 1 percent of income earners.

Like it or not — and most people don’t — time really does matter when it comes to success.