The dictionary defines an entrepreneur as one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. That is certainly a valid definition, but may not be specific enough, particularly if you’re thinking about becoming one. The distinction is that there is a wide range of entrepreneurial effort, and anyone considering going out on their own should understand the difference.

Based on the dictionary, anyone who is self employed is by definition an entrepreneur. The guy who owns the corner bakery, the woman who owns the clothing store and the friendly couple who run the small grocery down the block could all be considered entrepreneurs. Likewise for any professional who sets up a practice and starts serving clients. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, and professional engineers, among others, would fall into this category of entrepreneur. All of these entrepreneurs could also be called small business people, because that’s what they are—anything with less than 500 employees or under $50 million in sales is considered a small business.

But there’s another kind of entrepreneur as well. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Donald Trump are also entrepreneurs, but with a huge difference—they are among the wealthiest people on the planet. Even though they have created massive wealth for themselves, they started out just like the small business people we talked about earlier. So how does one go from owning a small business that grosses a couple of million dollars a year—or less—to becoming a multi-billionaire?

The answers are relatively simple—desire, and leverage. To become wealthy to the level of Gates, Buffet, or Trump, you first have to want it—badly. Massive success requires massive commitment. And this is commitment well beyond simply saying that you’d like to be rich. It requires a passion that burns in your soul to be the best you can be. These 3 very successful men no doubt enjoy their wealth, but that’s not what drove them. The taste of success was their magical elixir.

So desire is the fuel, and leverage is the engine. Without leverage, you’ll spend your life trading time for dollars. If you have to be in the store everyday yourself to sell merchandise, it’ll be hard to grow your business. If there’s no money coming in unless you’re seeing clients or patients, your practice will sooner or later max out.

If you’re already passionately committed to success, figure out how to leverage your efforts and make more money while spending less time. And if you’re not passionately committed to succeeding, to quote John Irving, “get obsessed, and stay obsessed.”

In real estate, before you can build anything, you need a detailed plan. A builder needs a design that lays out exactly what the project is, how it will get done, and what it will look like in the end. Your future needs exactly the same thing. If you don’t take the time to design your future today, you will have absolutely no control over what happens to it tomorrow.

Many people today are horribly unhappy with their lives and their careers. And that was before the recession hit. Jobs are at risk, and so are retirement accounts. During 2008, wealth vaporized almost as fast as jobs did. Maybe it has affected you already. Maybe it will affect you this coming year.

But the bottom line is that you can change this. If you are unhappy with where you are in your life and career, what you do for a living, how much you earn—about your existence in general—it’s time to change it. Change is necessary. But the good news is that change is also possible. Jim Rohn, the author’s mentor, always states that “if you don’t like what you’ve been getting, then you have to change what you have been doing.”

In fact, change is inevitable—everything in the universe changes constantly. The challenge is in controlling change—controlling the process. By guiding change in the direction you want it to go, you regain control over your life. In short, you need to design how you will change in order to ensure that you get where you’re going.

So the question is not whether you want to change or not. You will change and that’s a given. The question is do you want control over your life and your future, or are you willing to let the chips fall where they may?

Believe it or not, taking back control—designing your future—is easy. You simply need to decide to do it. You need to decide to take action—and then to follow through. Control change by taking positive, proactive action, and you will achieve abundant success and enable all of your dreams to come true.

Start by evaluating where you are today. Is your financial future secure? Are your investments performing the way you want them to? Or were you hit hard by the recession—just like the rest of the herd.

If you are at all dissatisfied with your present state, start by educating yourself. Learn about money, and how to invest it wisely—by yourself. Find a solid team of like-minded people who have designed their own futures the way you want to design yours. And finally, take action. Don’t sit on the sidelines any longer. Act today so you can enjoy a better tomorrow.