Not everyone can be as rich as Mr Murdoch or Mr Packer but many of us are learning how to be successful investors.

Becoming a millionaire isn't as hard as it used to be but most successful investors will tell you it takes dedication, perseverance and a good understanding of whatever it is that you're investing in.

There are many ways to build your fortune - the sharemarket and property immediately come to mind, but you can also build wealth through a business.

We convinced three ordinary investors who have achieved out-of the-ordinary success to let us in on some of their secrets.

Steven Chang, at the age of 24, is just starting out but he has already built a solid equity portfolio. Catherine Lezer is making her millions in property. Jason Hedges likes property too but is also focusing on his business.

> Steven Chang

Age: 24.

Occupation: Options trader.

Net wealth: $100,000.

Preferred investment: Shares.

At just 24, Steven Chang has already been trading for four years and has learnt some valuable investing lessons.

Chang studied commerce at university but always wanted to work in the investment world in some form.

"It was just one of those careers I wanted to get into when I was younger," he says.

Although he had dabbled in the markets before, he became serious about investing when he was at university.

Over those four years, his portfolio had an annual return of 30percent.

When he first started, Chang often invested on the basis of tips or suggestions from colleagues and friends but he soon found out that he had to do his homework too.

His investment strategy now is about finding companies with good growth potential. He holds a portfolio of three to eight stocks.

"My personal strategy includes a focus on value and an outlook on growth, combined with a basic understanding of the particular sector to help decide on my investments," he says.

After working for a couple of investment banks, Chang now works as a trader for an international options trading company.

He says being close to the market can help. "It doesn't hurt to have exposure to the market, you see how the market works," he says.

But the time horizons of his job - often daily - are very different to his personal portfolio where he holds stocks from three months up to a year. His age enables Chang to have a substantially higher risk profile than older investors, and he is not afraid of leverage - currently his portfolio is leveraged at 50percent.

Of his $100,000 portfolio, $50,000 is his own capital and $50,000 is borrowed.

Chang is circumspect about recent market volatility after managing to sell some of his holdings prior to the falls.

He subsequently bought back in, but didn't quite manage to pick the bottom.

Although he's a young investor who wasn't even investing when the markets previously hiccupped in September 2001, Chang recognises that the bull market will not last forever.

"The bull market has [made it easier to make money] however, I think discipline and a sound system of stock picking can allow you to outperform the market and help your money work harder for you, especially if you are in it for the long haul," he says.

One of his best picks was a stake in Independence Group at $4, which he sold for a premium of 50percent of his purchase price.

There are downs, as well as ups, but like all successful investors, Chang has managed to learn from his mistakes.

When an investment in Macquarie Infrastructure Group dropped 10percent last year and professional investors lost faith in the company model, Chang sold his shares.

"I dropped about 10percent on my holding and got out, thinking I was disciplined in cutting my losses, only to see the restructuring of the company bring the security back to life, pushing it 30percent above the level [at which] I sold," he says.

> Jason Hedges

Age: 36.

Occupation: Entrepreneur.

Net wealth: $4million.

Preferred investment: Property and business.

If shares or property aren't your thing, perhaps you might like to look at investing in an invention or a business.

Jason Hedges is growing his fortune by doing just that. He is an avid property investor but the majority of his business profits are reinvested into the business which he has grown from a sole trading company to one that employs 30 people in less than 10 years.

His net wealth is over $4million, split between his property portfolio, superannuation and his business. Hedges says he always wanted to work for himself. "I didn't like working for a boss. I wanted to be responsible for my own income," he says.

So when he saw a niche in the "cutthroat" kitchen renovation and building industry, he jumped at it.

Hedges developed DecoGlaze - a coloured-glass splashback designed for kitchen renovations.

That business, which started out of a van, now has franchises in New Zealand, the US and Britain, as well as the Hunter Valley, ACT and South Australia.

DecoGlaze is the largest producer and supplier of glass splashbacks in the world. "I have invested my money back into my business [in] high-tech machinery, to become entirely self- sufficient," he says.

After completing a four-year apprenticeship as a shopfitter/detailed joiner, Hedges worked for three years as a sole trader before throwing everything behind DecoGlaze.

Hedges advises anyone starting their own business to be persistent.

When he came up with the idea for DecoGlaze he didn't just sit on it and wait for potential buyers to come to him.

He made samples and over a three-month period, he reckons he managed to visit almost every Sydney kitchen company.

"The beauty of our product is that it sold itself," Hedges says.

The key to successful entrepreneurship is finding a product that adds value and helps people spend more time doing the things they love.

Hedges says his best investment was his business and a "glass-toughening machine" because it knocked a week off DecoGlaze's product installation time for customers.

One of the most common problems with kitchen renovations is the time they take, so anything that hastens the process is likely to give a company a competitive advantage.

His second-best investment is his own home on nearly a hectare, where he lives with wife, Allison, and daughters Laura, 11, and Ashlee, 18 months.

Hedges often works 12-hour days at his headquarters and says it's nice to relax and walk around the property after a hard day's work.

"While bricks and mortar are generally great, it's better to have a bit of land with it as it is a limited supply," he says.

The property's value has increased threefold since he bought it in the late 1990s.

He owns one other investment property and has established his own self-managed superannuation fund.

He says his worst investment was having a number of small superannuation funds and not rolling them together until recently.

Recognising the importance of growing his investments to ensure a comfortable retirement, Hedges employed a business adviser in 1998.

He plans to buy more investment properties, preferring large family houses over investment units. "It's always going to be there. It's a solid investment," he says.

> Catherine Lezer

Age: 37.

Occupation: Mortgage broker.

Net wealth: $2million.

Preferred investment: Property.

Reading Robert Kiyosaki's' Rich Dad, Poor Dad, was the kick starter for Catherine Lezer's foray into the property market.

Lezer, who hails from Western Australia, bought her first property in a not-so-good part of Perth over a decade ago for $59,000. "With rent at $110 I could afford to hold it forever. It didn't go up in value for about 10 years," she says.

But when it did, she sold it and made a tidy profit.

Lezer is now 37 and a millionaire twice over.

She started as a proof operator at the Commonwealth Bank twenty years ago.

"For the uninitiated, proof machines were around before computers - they were like big adding machines," she said.

Lezer completed her undergraduate business degree while working at the bank and in late 1999, after taking a redundancy package from her then-employer Westpac, she bought a franchise of Smartline Home Loans and hasn't looked back.

Lezer says living and breathing property as part of her work helps her in her investments as well.

After marrying in 2003, she and husband Kevin Mcisaac decided they would look to the property market to build their wealth.

Although the couple wanted to live in the trendy inner-city, it was out of their bracket and they revised their expectations to a warehouse conversion in an up-and-coming suburb in Sydney.

"We bought that for $310,000 in 1999 and sold it two years later for $440, 000," she says.

"It then dawned on us how easy it is to make money in property."

There was no stopping the couple then and they have since bought, renovated and sold four apartments.

Lezer's net wealth is now over $2million and she estimates the size of her property portfolio to be over $4million.

"I am trying to buy as much Sydney property right now as I can," she said.

"In the next six months or so, Sydney will get back into a growth phase so I want to have as many properties going up in value, plus I know Sydney well, so am using my local knowledge to identify bargains."

Her most recent purchase was a mortgagee sale in the west which was bought for $606,000, has rent of $650 a week and was revalued three months after purchase for $760,000.

Lezer's advice to new property investors is to not expect too much too soon.

"The biggest mistake I see people making is they think they can have it all," she said.

Sacrifices are necessary if you want to afford a home, particularly in your preferred area.

People may need to cut back on their day-to-day spending and they may even have to buy in a cheaper area.

"My advice would be to get into property as soon as you can even if it's not where you want to live," Lezer says.

Her worst decision was attempting options trading.

After buying an options trading package, she very quickly lost the $8000 initial investment plus a $10,000 bank balance.

"I never felt I had enough information to make a buy decision or sell decision.

"But it was a good lesson - stick to what I am good at which is property," she says.