Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Habit 1
They Think Big
Secret 1 for Creating Your Own Success: Create a Millionaire Mindset
Becoming a self-made millionaire does not just happen. If it did, you would be one by now.
Individuals who have accomplished this wealth status begin with a different approach than most. They do what I call "reversal thinking." They begin with the end in mind.
Step One: Conceive!
These individuals who create a millionaire mindset begin by defining exactly what they want in very specific terms. In other words, they conceive it.
Sounds easy, doesn't it? It is!
Let's do a dry run: Conceive what you want by putting "reversal thinking" into practice. Let's say you have conceived that you want to be a self-made millionaire. One step down, two to go!
Step Two: Believe!
Believe it! Hmmmm. Do you really believe that you can become a self-made millionaire? Seriously, do you? Hopefully, these two questions made your convictions for wanting to be one even stronger.
If your mind flooded with all the reasons that you cannot become a millionaire, write down every single one of them now. ("I can hardly make ends meet. I have a car payment, I have a house payment....") Now, take your written words of doubt and shred them. Yes, tear them up with all your might. By doing so, you will be dispelling these doubts from your mind. Anytime a doubt creeps into your mind, repeat the process of writing it down and tearing it up!
Rather than allowing yourself to be plagued with naysayers who tell you that your self-made millionaire goal is just "pie in the sky" thinking, keep your conceive and believe convictions to yourself. As you keep reading this book, you will learn how to replace these negative people with individuals who will root you on to achieving what you want. In fact, Secret 27 (Surround Yourself With People You Want to Be Like) and Secret 28 (Find a Brain Trust Advisor) will be instrumental in maintaining your self-made millionaire mindset.
Step Three: Achieve!
Now write this down three times: I will achieve self-made millionaire status. I will achieve self-made millionaire status. I will achieve self-made millionaire status. Remember: Keep believing it with all your heart! Put one of your "I will achieve self-made millionaire status" notes under your mattress, another in your wallet, and the third one in the glove compartment of your car — virtually anywhere that no else is likely to look except you. Also, keep this in the notes section of your phone.
You may now be asking: Fine, so I have conceived that I will become a self-made millionaire. I am revved up and I do believe that I can achieve this wealth status. I have no clue, however, how I should go about doing it.
Please realize that it is not the answer that you are looking for. Simply ask the question first: How will I accomplish becoming a self-made millionaire? I promise that it will come to you. It may take a few weeks, a month, a year, or even five years. Be patient and listen to yourself. The answer will come to you.
Guess what? You are on your way! I have successfully used this CBA (conceive, believe, achieve) strategy numerous times in my life for the past forty years, and I promise you that it does work.
Your self-made millionaire mindset will be based on what you keep between your ears: your thoughts. The thirty self-made millionaires in this book will show you through their first-hand experiences how they achieved this status.
As Andy Hidalgo, one of the self-made millionaires in this book, says, "You can do it. You just have to want it."
ACTION STEP: PUT YOUR MILLIONAIRE MINDSET INTO PRACTICE BY CONCEIVING, BELIEVING, AND ACHIEVING WHAT YOU WANT.
Secret 2 for Creating Your Own Success: Define What Success Means to You
How do you define success? Many people see it as having a goal and accomplishing it. Every day, you experience success on both a personal and a professional level. You make a list of what you want to accomplish before leaving for work and you successfully complete each item. You want to complete a project by the end of the day and you indeed do it.
All of these little achievements give you the confidence to prepare for greater successes. Recognize that the principle for accomplishing both big and small successes takes the same system: having a goal, setting a time line, and accomplishing it.
I found it rather surprising that some people are actually afraid of "success." Perhaps it is because they experienced a failure and, rather than learning from it and moving forward, they allowed the negative situation to paralyze them into believing that success is not within their reach.
Their mindset is much different from those individuals who have a positive connotation of success. Based on their past accomplishments, these individuals define this seven-letter word positively. In their minds, their experiences gave them the confidence and know-how for future "successes."
The goal of this book is for you to see that success is within your reach. It is up to you to define what you want and put the 52 Secrets for Creating Your Own Success into practice.
I asked the self-made millionaires interviewed for this book how they define success. Here's what a few of them said:
"Success is whatever makes you happy." — Connie L.
"Providing for my children, making a positive impact in my profession, achieving stretch goals that have positive benefits personally and professionally." — John Pierce
"Being happy with yourself and the man that you see in the mirror; not just when others are happy with you." — Mickey Redwine
"Being happy. Having balance in life, feeling fulfilled, loved, appreciated, and having the ability to take care of yourself, your family, and still have enough to help others." — Steve Humble
"Having people appreciate what you do, being happy, being able to relax, and having enough money to be secure enough that you don't have to get up or go to work every day to survive and still having people respect you." — James Timothy White
"Making money while doing something I love." — Mike Vetter
"Taking care of my family and being able to help others in need." — Bunny Lightsey
"Winning in your chosen craft." — Nick Kovacevich "Making enough money in doing what I love. Creating a legacy that will live on." — Tom Corley
"The ability to do things that make me happy without fear of monetary or other professional stress." — Bill Dunn
"Doing what you love and enjoying it." — Allan S.
"Achieving your personal wealth goals while never compromising your integrity or family values." — Andy Hidalgo
"Having an ongoing connection with your inner being." — Dr. Zach Berk
"If you can learn from your failures without losing enthusiasm and are liked and respected by others, you have found success." — Rodger DeRose
"Being successful is something that is accomplished when a passion of mine is pursued and its end result is received well by individuals who I also admire." — John M.
Three Ways to Define Your Own Success
1. Write down the last project that you started and successfully completed.
2. Document the process that it took to complete the above project.
3. Explain the benefits you experienced as a result of accomplishing it.
ACTION STEP: DOCUMENT YOUR DEFINITION OF SUCCESS.
CHAPTER 2
Habit 2
They Know They Have to Believe "It" to See "It"
Secret 3 for Creating Your Own Success: Find Your Passion
Do you spend your working day doing what you love or dreading it? If you love what you do and are good at it, then you have found your passion. If you are trying to figure it out, this is an important secret for you!
Let me give you my passion: I love telling people what to do. I don't mean bossing them around. I mean guiding them to be successful. That's why I began my thirty-one-year-old corporate training business — to train young professionals how to climb that slippery ladder of success.
Your turn. Let's find your passion. What do you like to do or read about in your spare time? Do you like to exercise, travel, or write? Or perhaps you enjoy watching those real estate fixer-upper shows, or love antique hunting or traveling? The first step to finding your passion is to figure out what you enjoy doing so much that hours pass without you even realizing it. Once you have figured that out, you will have found your passion!
Many people are bogged down with doing what they don't like. Besides being miserable, they make everyone else's life around them unpleasant. Does that describe you?
Let me tell you about Allan S., the first self-made millionaire who you will meet in this book. Although he may not have known it immediately, Allan found his passion on his ninth birthday when his parents bought him a violin.
At first, Allan practiced like most kids who take lessons: thirty minutes a day. After a few years, he did not have to be told to practice. In fact, he enjoyed playing the violin so much that he chose to practice an hour a day and eventually four hours a day! Now if that is not finding your passion, what is?
When it was time to choose a course of study, Allan's mom urged him to study medicine or law. Not on Allan's list. He went against his mother's wishes and applied to the Juilliard School of Music.
During his time at Juilliard, Allan met a master violinist who asked to hear him play. The professional violinist told Allan that he played well however he should choose another profession, because being a musician was a difficult career path.
Luckily, Allan's gut and passion for playing the violin reigned supreme. He continued to practice four hours a day. He even auditioned for a position with a world-renowned symphony orchestra and was not selected.
Rejection did not discourage Allan from following his passion. He continued to practice and two years later auditioned once again for the open violin position with the New York Philharmonic. That time he was offered the position by Leonard Bernstein!
Allan spent his thirty-five-year career with the New York Philharmonic. This is what happens when you follow your passion!
After you find your passion, you have to stick with it. In Allan's case, it did not just happen. It took 1,600 hours of practice over a sixteen-year period. It took going against others' wishes by continuing to follow his passion rather than to take a career path that others believed would be better for him.
Now it's your turn to find your passion by following this three-step approach:
Step One: Find your passion. Take your time to figure it out. It may be right before your eyes. You will recognize your passion when it comes to you.
Step Two: Monetize it. Once you find your passion, talk to people who have the mutual interest in what you love doing. Find out how they turned it into a revenue stream. This will help you to figure out what it is going to take to build an enterprise around your identified passion.
Step Three: Stay on course. Avoid getting discouraged when naysayers tell you that you are wasting your time. Instead, follow your burning passion and overcome obstacles along the way.
ACTION STEP: FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU LOVE DOING THAT YOU CAN MONETIZE.
Secret 4 for Creating Your Own Success: Believe in Yourself
If a high IQ made people successful, only those who excelled in school would lead. If money alone made people successful, only the wealthy would have created today's inventions. Although a high intellectual quotient and money are good to have, neither is one of the fifty-two secrets for creating your own success. What is one of the essential secrets is believing in yourself.
Dropping out of college is certainly not a condoned action, though many successful people did it. That includes Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, Brad Pitt, Ted Turner, Steve Jobs, and the list goes on. What these moguls had in common was believing in themselves.
Think about the very smart people you know. They may have great ideas, yet do not have enough self-confidence to take their concepts to that next level. Also, give thought to those individuals who were far from rocket scientists but believed in themselves enough to create a million-dollar company out of a simple concept.
The difference between these two types of individuals is that those who were less confident convinced themselves that their idea would not be successful while the more confident people did not think twice about their ideas not working. In fact, what sold their concepts to others was first their belief in themselves and what they had conceived.
Which one are you? The person without confidence who talks yourself out of things? Or the one whose confidence is so contagious that you convince others about your idea through your belief?
Let me introduce you to Laura FitzGerald, the second self-made millionaire in this book. Laura believed in herself enough to achieve her millionaire status at the age of fifty-one. She is a terrific example of what the magic of believing can do. Laura believed in herself enough to become both the president of Ilios Resources and a Professional Certified Landsman. She founded her Shreveport, Louisiana–based company, which is an active buyer of minerals in North Louisiana, East Texas, and South Arkansas.
Laura is often quoted as saying, "I've made others millions of dollars. I can make you millions, too." When asked how the magic of believing in herself and her business guided her to be the success that she is today, Laura explained that it was with tireless and relentless study and learning, and continuing to try again, that she learned to believe in herself and never give up. Many times, the only way Laura has been able to explain or describe that "magic of believing" was through God working in her life.
Note: Laura plays a "man's game" for a living as a "land and mineral rights person." She finds, buys, sells, brokers, and leases land for mineral rights (oil and gas). Since 2004, Laura has accumulated more than 40,000 acres of mineral rights, which has made her millions. If that is not believing in yourself, what is?
John M., the third self-made millionaire interviewed for this book, made his first million at the age of seventeen. He says, "You must believe in yourself more than anyone else. No matter what age you are or what background you come from, no one will champion your pursuits more than you."
Three Ways to Muster Up Belief in Yourself
1. Be a "can do" rather than a "can't do" person. When a negative thought enters your mind, reverse it with a positive phrase. Example: Change "I am too tired to go to the gym" to "I will muster up the energy to work out for thirty minutes."
2. When you come up with what you consider to be a great idea, read about others who have turned their ideas into realities. This will build your confidence to develop your idea and, in time, make it real.
3. Read, listen to, and surround yourself with positive words and people. Recognize that you are the sum of the four people with whom you spend the most time.
ACTION STEP: CONVERT AN IDEA THAT YOU HAVE BEEN PONDERING INTO A REALITY.
Secret 5 for Creating Your Own Success: Visualize
Athletes use it. Homeopathic practitioners recommend it. Self-made millionaires do it.
You do it several times a day. You visualize an action within reach and then make it a reality.
Visualization is simple. Simply form mental pictures in your mind and then go through the process of making what you want a reality. The stronger your character, the sooner (weeks, months, years) what you visualize will come to fruition.
You may be asking, "If it is within everyone's reach, why is it that so few people practice it?" If you are one of those individuals who have not yet integrated this magical process into your life, then let me give you three casein-point examples about how the visualization process works.
Tom Corley's Visualization Practice
Tom Corley, the fourth self-made millionaire interviewed for this book, explained to me that he uses a three-step process for making his dreams a reality. First, he defines his dream. Second, he defines the goals behind his dream. Third, he actualizes what he wants by pursuing his goals every day.
Step One: Define your dream. Tom set the dream of being on national TV.
Step Two: Define the goals behind your dream. Tom's goals were to share his Rich Habits research and to help promote his books.
Step Three: Pursue your goals every day. For three and a half years, Tom tweet-pitched the media close to 25,000 times in an effort to make that dream a reality.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "What Self-Made Millionaires Do That Most People Don't"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Ann Marie Sabath.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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