Those with aspirations of unfettered wealth look for clues everywhere. From top schools to unique talents, they build profiles of what it takes to become absurdly wealthy ... as though the process can be blueprinted. Well, if you're looking for answers, the Forbes 400 list is a great place to start. If anyone has mastered the art of making money, it's this collection of billionaires. They have the answers, and you are ready to learn.

A look at the lives of the Forbes 400 implies that the most important attribute is the ability to sift through ambiguity. Contradictions abound, meaning that shades of gray hold the answer to your burning desire for riches. Should you go to a great school? Well, yes ... but only if you're going for an MBA and plan to work for a major financial firm. But, you can still go to an Ivy League school if you're not studying finance but join Skull and Bones. Of course, dropping out of Harvard can be a great way to launch a career in the technology field.

It's tricky. There are no easy answers. But, the road to billions is littered with the corpses of aspiring magnates who thought it wouldn't be difficult. So, don't just read the seven attributes after the jump. Understand them. Read them twice. Then, your future financial situation will be assured.

Or, you can just do one of those chain e-mails and wish for wealth.

[Thanks, Forbes and MSNBC]

This post is part of a feature in which he wonder whatever happened to some notorious financial felons. See all 17.

Mike Milken turned the market for bonds issued by less creditworthy companies into a gold mine for himself and his firm, Drexel Burnham. As I posted, this did not end well. But in the past several years, Milken has worked hard to rehabiliate his reputation -- putting money into prostate cancer research and talking about the economy.

Who is Milken and how did he get here? Mike Milken was an academic star. He used to take the bus back and forth to classes at Wharton and came in to school before dawn with a miner's hat on his head because the bright light helped him read annual reports. Milken and I studied with the same management professor at Wharton.

That professor predicted that Milken would either make a huge amount of money or go to jail. He did both -- eventually agreeing to pay $650 million in fines and plead nolo contendere to six felonies -- three counts of stock parking and three counts of stock manipulation. Milken went to jail from March 1991 until January 1993. But that's ancient history. Where is he now?

This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Drexel Burnham Lambert (1935 - 1990) spent its last decade accumulating money and power. The key was junk bond impresario Mike Milken, who used to take the bus back and forth to classes at Wharton and came in to school before dawn with a miner's hat on his head whose bright light helped him read annual reports.

Drexel's driving force, Milken, realized the potential of our shared management professor at Wharton. That professor predicted that Milken would either make a huge amount of money or go to jail. He did both. Milken made money by selling junk bonds to takeover artists who threatened companies by buying up their shares and proposing to throw out their managers. In many cases the companies bought out the takeover artist's shares at a premium to make them go away.

Milken was feared by the business establishment, and he had a contempt for the law. So he did himself in -- eventually agreeing to pay $650 million in fines and plead nolo contendere to six felonies -- three counts of stock parking and three counts of stock manipulation. Milken went to jail from March 1991 until January 1993. Drexel hemorrhaged capital; fired 5,000 people; and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 1990.

The lesson? If you can't achieve wealth within the law, you will pay the price.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Let us know in the comments what you remember about Drexel. And be sure to check out other Companies That Have Vanished.

A recent publication by Wharton analyzes the diversification strategies of Internet companies.

As a Wharton graduate I am biased toward agreeing with my former teachers. But it seems to me that they missed a fundamental truth about Internet companies -- they almost always get only one shot at greatness. After that one shot, they survive based largely on inertia and no amount of "adjacent" diversification will restore them to their initial state.

The key to achieving that initial greatness is coming up with a new idea that rapidly becomes very popular. During this phase of an Internet company's development, revenue -- and in some cases profit -- grows very quickly. The rapid growth creates a seemingly insatiable demand for the stock whose stunningly rapid upward rise acts as a magnet to attract Silicon Valley's top talent.

The inflow of talent demands to be expressed in the form of employee-driven innovations. But most, if not all of these innovations fail to generate sufficient new revenue to enable the company to keep growing at the same rate. (It's far harder for a $500 million company to triple its revenues every year than for a $10 million company to do so.)

A report from Reuters indicates that Viacom, Inc. (NYSE:VIA) Sumner Redstone is not bidding on Facebook, the highly popular social networking site.

True, Redstone admitted that it was a huge mistake to let MySpace go to News Corporation (NYSE:NWS). But, then again, this should not cloud good thinking on future deals.

Simply put, Redstone thinks the price tag on Facebook is at nose-bleed levels.

The rumor is that the price tag is about $1 billion – and that Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is expressing interest in the deal, as well as Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Actually, a recent piece from Wharton has a look at the valuation metrics for Facebook; with the realization that, at least for academics, it's pretty tough to come up with any sensible price tag for Facebook.

First, the company is in the early stages of a new market. Is it really a fad?

We received this completely unfounded rumor in our tip line. I hardly knew whether to laugh or weep at the elegance. [Update: as far as we know, it's not based on anything but speculations; it was posted on an AOL message board and also sent to us. It immediately charmed us with its perfect solutions to a raft of divergent problems.]

You see, seven years ago, Warren Buffett visited Wharton, where I was getting my MBA. Buffett attended, but didn't graduate from Wharton, and occasionally returns for a speech. This was a doozy and I (with my best finance geek buddies, hi Jaime!) stood in line for hours for the much-coveted seats.

When he opened the floor for questions, I jumped at the chance, and asked him about his succession plans; both he and his partner and buddy, Charlie Munger, were getting on in years. He joked about the fact that he was coming to Wharton to scope out candidates. I said, "I'd love to!" and the audience, and Buffett, laughed. I almost fainted from the brush with greatness. He said something about living forever, and that was that.

Then last week, I wrote a post wondering if Meg Whitman was about to move on, having accomplished so much as CEO of eBay. Had she outstayed her welcome? I mused. About the same time, Buffett announced in his annual meeting that he might be spending a large chunk of cash -- $13 billion -- on a long shot and everyone wondered what it might be.

Why not eBay?