Lots of good stuff here. I'd add two things to the benefits of real estate - (1) depreciation tax deduction and (2) leveraged results.

Regarding risks, the thing to realize is that once you're wealthy you can afford to take greater risks. If you're just starting out, make sure not to risk so much that a bad outcome will knock you out of the game.

As to making and having time, a major part of that is to have a keen appreciation of what tasks are best delegated or contracted out. For example, I don't do my taxes even though I could. That's because, given how complex our taxes are, it would take me far more time than it's worth to do it myself rather than hire accountants who do it for a living and can do it more efficiently.

I'm not sure I agree about choosing their friends. That's far more cold and calculating than I do or seen my wealthy friends do. If I find that certain friends can't enjoy their time with us, or we stop enjoying our time with them, naturally we grow further apart and spend less time together. But it isn't a calculation - we don't say anything like "X isn't and will never be wealthy, and has no interest in starting a business. Let's cut him out of our circle."

Finally, to end with a smile, here's a riff on your quote, "Always shoot for the moon, even when you miss you'll land among the stars!"...

If you visit https://despair.com/products/shoot-for-the-moon you'll see they've added to it, "Of course, then your eyeballs will boil and your lungs explode from decompression. But that's what you get for being a damn showoff." :)