The most successful people I’ve met are the ones that inherited a boatload of money directly or indirectly and don’t need to worry about getting to point A because they are already at point C.
For everyone else who is risk adverse, especially in this environment, no leverage/risk means there’s a high probability you’ll not be much further along than what your salary/income produces (after tax of course)…..That means if you want to build wealth, these days, you’re confined to being a doctor, lawyer, Wall Street banker (maybe not so these days), and an Eniginerd that luckily picks a coming with worthwhile stock options. Afterall, you don’t see many mechanics these days living in LJ, Encinita, CarmelV, do you???
You can also eliminate starting a business, because that more than often incurs taking on debt, sometimes far riskier than other types of investments.
Of course, if you happen to be lucky and have a silver spoon given to you already, you don’t need to be concerned about taking risk, because depending on the size of the pot, you can very well live off of it. So no risk taking is necessary in that case.