Ignoring conventional wisdom made him the multi-millionaire he is today, says legendary investor Jim Rogers.

"If everyone thinks one way, it is likely to be wrong," Rogers told the Financial Times.

"If you can figure out that it is wrong, you are likely to make a lot of money."

Rogers says he’s somewhat surprised at his own success.

“I certainly wanted to get somewhere and was willing to work hard,” Rogers says.

“As I was not smarter than most people, I was willing to work harder than most.”

Rogers says he tries to “find something that is very cheap, where a positive change is taking place,” then does enough homework to make sure the purchase is a sound one.

“It has got to be cheap so that, if I am wrong, I don’t lose much money,” he notes.

“Do not underestimate the value of due diligence,” Rogers counsels. “Every time I make a mistake, it is usually because I did not do enough homework.”

“In the 1960s, General Motors was the world’s most successful company. One day, a GM analyst went to the board of directors with the message: ‘The Japanese are coming.’”

“They ignored him. Investors who did their homework sold their GM stock — and bought Toyota instead.”

What goes around, comes around.

Now that a weak dollar and strong yen are hammering the Japanese car company’s profits, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda says the exchange rates and economic weakness could force Toyota's "capitulation to irrelevance or death."