BOOKS BY BRIAN TRACY
Advanced Selling Strategies
THE 21 SUCCESS SECRETS OF $ELF-MADE MILLIONAIRE$
HOW TO ACHIEVE FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE FASTER
AND EASIER THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE BRIAN TRACY
The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Copyright © 2001 by Brian Tracy All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 235 Montgomery Street, Suite 650 San Francisco, California 94104-2916 Tel: (415) 288-0260, Fax: (415) 362-2512 www.bkconnection.com Ordering information for print editions Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the Berrett-Koehler address above. Individual sales. Berrett-Koehler publications are available through most bookstores. They can also be ordered directly from Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626; www.bkconnection.com Orders for college textbook/course adoption use. Please contact BerrettKoehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626. Orders by U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers. Please contact Ingram Publisher Services, Tel: (800) 509-4887; Fax: (800) 838-1149; E-mail: customer.service@ingrampublisherservices.com; or visit www.ingram publisherservices.com/Ordering for details about electronic ordering. Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. First Edition Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-58376-205-9 PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-57675-918-9 2008-1 Copyediting and proofreading by Peoplespeak. Book design and composition by Beverly Butterfield, Girl of the West Productions.
Contents
Preface vii Introduction:
The Law of Cause and Effect 1 Success Secrets
1 Dream Big Dreams 5
2 Develop a Clear Sense of Direction 9
3 See Yourself as Self-Employed 13
4 Do What You Love to Do 16
5 Commit to Excellence 19
6 Work Longer and Harder 22
7 Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning 25
8 Pay Yourself First 29
9 Learn Every Detail of Your Business 33
10 Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others 36
11 Be Absolutely Honest with Yourself and Others 39
12 Determine Your Highest Priorities and Concentrate on Them Single-Mindedly 42
13 Develop a Reputation for Speed and Dependability 45
14 Be Prepared to Climb from Peak to Peak 48
15 Practice Self-Discipline in All Things 50
16 Unlock Your Inborn Creativity 54
17 Get around the Right People 57
18 Take Excellent Care of Your Physical Health 61
19 Be Decisive and Action Oriented 64
20 Never Allow Failure to Be an Option 66
21 Pass the “Persistence Test” 69 Conclusion: Success Is Predictable 73
About the Author 75
Index 79
The Millionaire-Maker Seminar 81
Brian Tracy, Speaker, Trainer, Seminar Leader 82
Brian Tracy Audio Learning Programs 83
Preface
This book is the culmination of 15 years of research, teaching, and personal experience on the subject of self-made millionaires. These pages contain the key ideas and strategies I have discovered in reading hundreds of books and thousands of articles on the subject of wealth accumulation. The ideas and strategies are presented in a simple, tested, proven, easy-touse format so that you can learn and apply them immediately. When I was a teenager growing up in Pomona, California, in a home where we never had very much money, my dream, my fantasy, was to be a millionaire by the time I was 30. Lots of people have the same dream, I’m sure. However, when I reached the age of 30, I was still just as broke as when I was 20. Then I did something that changed my life. I began asking, Why are some people more successful than others? I especially wanted to know, How is it that some people start off with nothing and eventually become millionaires?
This question set me off on a search for the answers, which has led to this book. I chose self-made millionaires as my focal point because these people had demonstrated special qualities and behaviors that were both observable and measurable. They had started with nothing and passed the magic million-dollar mark as the result of doing certain things in a certain way, over and over. What I learned was that in order to achieve great success in life, you must become a special kind of person. To rise above the majority, you must develop qualities and disciplines that the average person lacks. The most important factor in achieving great financial success is not the money. It is the kind of person you have to become to earn that money and then hold on to it. These 21 “success secrets” are the keys to great success in every area of life, whether or not you make a lot of money. The good news is that these principles are so powerful that you can apply them to accomplish almost anything you really want. Many of these methods and techniques will seem familiar to you. This is because they have been discovered and rediscovered for hundreds of years. I see myself more as a student of success—a reader, a researcher, a synthesizer, and a teacher of great ideas—than as an originator or creator of brand new concepts. I believe, as it says in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
Since you are reading this book, I know that one of your great goals in life is to become an extraordinary person, to realize more and more of your true potential. Each of these success secrets will help you to move ahead more rapidly toward the wonderful life that is possible for you. Enjoy the journey!
BRIAN TRACY August 2000
What you are about to learn can change your life. These ideas, insights, and strategies have been the springboards to financial success for millions of men and women, young and old, rich and poor. These principles are simple, effective, and fairly easy to apply. They have been tested and proven over and over again, and they will work for you if you will take them and apply them in your own life.
We are living at the greatest time in all of human history. More people are becoming wealthy today, starting from nothing, than ever before imagined. There are more than seven million millionaires in America, most of them self-made, and the number is growing by 15 to 20 percent each year. We even have self-made ten millionaires, hundred millionaires, and more than two hundred billionaires. We have never seen this type of rapid wealth creation in all of human history.
Here’s the best news of all. Virtually everyone
starts with nothing. More than 90 percent of all financially successful people today started off broke or nearly broke. The average self-made millionaire has been bankrupt or nearly bankrupt 3.2 times. Most wealthy people failed many times before they finally found the right opportunity that they were able to leverage into financial success. And what hundreds of thousands and millions of other people have done, you can do as well.
The iron law of human destiny is the Law of Cause and Effect. This law is simple yet very powerful. It says that there is a specific effect for every cause. For every action, there is a reaction. This law says that success is not an accident. Financial success is the result of doing certain, specific things over and over again until you achieve the financial independence that you desire
Nature is neutral. The natural world, the marketplace, or our society does not care who you are or what you are. The Law of Cause and Effect says that if you do what other successful people do, you will eventually get the results that other successful people get
And if you don’t, you won’t. This law says that when you learn the success secrets of self-made millionaires and apply them in your own life, you will experience results and rewards far beyond anything you have accomplished up until now.
Here is an important point for you to remember. Nobody is better than you and nobody is smarter than you. Let me repeat that. Nobody is better than you and nobody is smarter than you. Get those thoughts out of your mind. One of the primary reasons for selling yourself short, for underachievement and lack of financial success, is the conviction that people who are doing better than you are better than you. This is simply not the case
The fact is that most self-made millionaires are ordinary people with average educations working at average jobs and living in average neighborhoods in average houses driving average cars. But they have found out what other financially successful people do and they have done those same things over and over again until they achieved the same results. It is no miracle and it is no accident. And when you think the same thoughts and do the same things that self-made millionaires do, you will begin to get the same results and benefits they do. It is simply a matter of cause and effect.
There are 21 success secrets of self-made millionaires. Each of these is indispensable to your becoming financially independent. The failure to apply any one of these principles can, by itself, undermine and even destroy your chances for health, happiness, and great prosperity.
The good news is that you can learn every one of these principles by practice and repetition, over and over again, until they become as natural to you as breathing in and breathing out. Just as you learned to Introduction: The Law of Cause and Effect 3 ride a bicycle or drive a car, you can learn the success secrets of self-made millionaires and apply them in your life. And there are no limits except the limits you place on yourself by your own thinking. Now, let us begin.
Dream Big Dreams Dream big dreams;
only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls.
—MARCUS AURELIUS
1st...
THE FIRST SECRET of self-made millionaires is simple: Dream Big Dreams! Allow yourself to dream. Allow yourself to imagine and fantasize about the kind of life you would like to live. Think about the amount of money you would like to earn and have in your bank account. All great men and women begin with a dream of something wonderful and different from what they have today. You know the song that says “You have to have a dream if you want to make a dream come true.” It’s true for you and for everyone else, as well. Imagine that you have no limitations on what you can be, have, or do in life. Just for the moment,imagine that you have all the time, all the money, all the education, all the experience, all the friends, all the contacts, all the resources, and everything else you need to achieve anything you want in life. If your potential were completely unlimited, what kind of a life would you want to create for yourself and your family? Practice “back from the future” thinking. This is a powerful technique practiced continually by highperforming men and women. This way of thinking has an amazing effect on your mind and on your behavior. Here is how it works: Project yourself forward five years. Imagine that five years have passed and that your life is now perfect in every respect. What does it look like? What are you doing? Where are you working? How much money are you earning? How much do you have in the bank? What kind of a lifestyle do you have? Create a vision for yourself for the long-term future. The more clear your vision of health, happiness, and prosperity, the faster you move toward it and the faster it moves toward you. When you create a clear mental picture of where you are going in life, you become more positive, more motivated, and more determined to make it a reality. You trigger your natural creativity and come up with idea after idea to help make your vision come true. You always tend to move in the direction of your dominant dreams, images, and visions. The very act ofallowing yourself to dream big dreams actually raises your self-esteem and causes you to like and respect yourself more. It improves your self-concept and increases your level of self-confidence. It increases your personal level of self-respect and happiness. There is something about dreams and visions that is exciting and that stimulates you to do and be better than you ever have before. Here is a great question for you to ask and answer, over and over again: What one thing would I dare to dream if I knew I could not fail? If you were absolutely guaranteed of success in any one goal in life, large or small, short-term or longterm, what would it be? What one great goal would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail? Whatever it is, write it down and begin imagining that you have achieved this one great goal already. Then, look back to where you are today. What would you have done to get where you want to go? What steps would you have taken? What would you have changed in your life? What would you have started up or abandoned? Who would you be with? Who would you no longer be with? If your life were perfect in every respect, what would it look like? Whatever it is that you would do differently, take the first step today. Dreaming big dreams is the starting point of achieving your goal of financial independence. The number one reason that people never succeed financially is because it never occurs to them that they can do it. As a result, they never try. They never get started. They continue to go around in financial circles, spending everything they earn and a little bit more besides. But when you begin to dream big dreams about financial success, you begin to change the way you see yourself and your life. You begin to do different things, bit by bit, gradually, until the whole direction of your life changes for the better. Dreaming big dreams is the starting point of financial success and of becoming a self-made millionaire.
2nd
Develop a Clear Sense of Direction
A person with a clear purpose will make progress on even the roughest road. A person with no purpose will make no progress on even the smoothest road. —THOMAS CARLYLE
TAKE YOUR DREAMS out of the air and crystallize them into clear, specific written goals. Perhaps the greatest discovery in human history is that “You become what you think about most of the time.” The two factors that, more than anything else, determine what happens to you in life are what you think about and how you think about it most of the time.
Successful people think about their goals most of the time. As a result, they are continually moving toward their goals, and their goals are continually moving toward them. Whatever you think about most of the time grows and increases in your life. If you are thinking about, talking about, and visualizing your goals, you tend to accomplish far, far more than the average person, who is usually thinking and talking about his or her worries and problems most of the time. Here is a simple seven-step formula for setting and achieving goals that you can use to become a millionaire: First, decide exactly what you want in each area of your life, especially in your financial life. Most people never do this. Second, write down your goals clearly and specifically. Something amazing happens between your head and your hand when you put your goals in writing. Third, set a deadline for each goal. Set subdeadlines if a goal is big enough. Give yourself a target to aim at. Fourth, make a list of everything you can think of that you will have to do to achieve each goal. As you think of new ideas, add them to your list until it is complete. Fifth, organize your list into a plan of action. Determine what you are going to do first and what you will do later. Decide what is more important and what is less important. Sixth, take action on your plan immediately. It is amazing how many splendid goals and plans are never realized because of procrastination and delay. Seventh, and perhaps most important, do something every day that moves you at least one step closer to your most important goal. This commitment to daily action will make you a big success in anything you decide to accomplish. Here is an exercise for you. Take a sheet of paper and write the word “Goals” at the top of the page with today’s date. Then, make a list of 10 goals that you would like to achieve over the next 12 months. Write your goals in the present tense, as though a year has passed and you have already achieved them. Begin each goal with the word “I” to make it personal to you. By making out a list of 10 goals for yourself for the next year, you will move yourself into an exclusive group consisting of only 3 percent of adults in our society. The sad fact is that 97 percent of adults have never made a list of goals in their entire lives. Once you have your list of 10 goals, go over the list and ask this key question: Which one goal on this list, if I were to achieve it, would have the greatest positive impact on my life? Whatever your answer to that question, circle that goal and make that your number one, most important goal for the future. Set a deadline, make a plan, take action on your plan, and do something every day that moves you toward that goal. From now on, think and talk about that goal all the time. Think and talk about how you can achieve that goal. Think and talk about all the different steps that you can take to make that goal a reality. This exercise will stimulate your creativity, increase your energy, and unlock more and more of your potential.
3rd
See Yourself as Self-Employed
I am the captain of my soul; I am the master of my fate. —WILLIAM HENLEY
FROM NOW ON, accept complete, 100 percent responsibility for everything you are and everything you will ever be. Refuse to make excuses or to blame other people for your problems or shortcomings. Stop complaining about things in your life that you are not happy about. Refuse to criticize other people for anything. You are responsible. If there is something in your life that you don’t like, it is up to you to change it. You are in charge. The top 3 percent of Americans see themselves as self-employed, no matter who signs their paychecks. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to think that you work for anyone other than yourself. You are always self-employed. You are always the president of your own personal service corporation, no matter where you might be working at the moment. When you see yourself as self-employed, you develop an entrepreneur mentality, the mentality of highly independent, self-responsible, self-starting individuals. Instead of waiting for things to happen, you make things happen. You see yourself as the boss of your own life. You see yourself as completely in charge of your physical health, your financial wellbeing, your career, your relationships, your lifestyle, your home, your car, and every other element of your existence. This is the mind-set of the self-made millionaire. Self-responsible people are intensely result oriented. They always take high levels of initiative. They volunteer for assignments and are always asking for more responsibility. As a result, they become the most valuable and respected people in their organizations. They continually prepare themselves for positions of higher authority and responsibility in the future. You should do the same. Here’s a question: If you were president of your company for a day or were completely responsible for results where you work, what one change would you enact immediately? Whatever it is, write it down, make a plan, and begin implementing it today. This action alone could change your life.
4rth
Do What You Love to Do
When you start doing what you really love to do, you’ll never work another day in your life. —BRIAN TRACY
DOING WHAT YOU love to do is one of the great secrets of financial success. One of your primary responsibilities in life is to find out what you really enjoy doing, what you have a natural talent for, and then to throw your whole heart into doing that particular work very, very well. Self-made millionaires are those who have found a field where their natural strengths and abilities are exactly what is required to do the job and achieve the results desired. Most self-made millionaires say that they “never worked a day in their life.” You must find a field in which you can be totally absorbed—a job or area of endeavor that completely fascinates you, that holds your attention, that is a natural expression of your special talents and abilities. When you are doing what you love to do, you seem to have a continuous flow of excitement, energy, and ideas to do what you do even better. Here is a question for you: If you won a million dollars, tax free, tomorrow, would you continue to do what you are currently doing? This is a great question. It simply asks you what you would do if you had all the time and money you needed and you were free to choose your occupation. Self-made millionaires, if they won a million dollars cash, would continue doing what they are doing. They would only do it differently or better or at a higher level. But they love their work so much that they wouldn’t even think of leaving it or retiring. Perhaps the greatest responsibility of adult life, when you are surrounded by so many different choices of occupation and career, is for you to find out what you really love doing and then dedicate yourself to that field. And no one else can do this for you.
5th
Commit to Excellence
The quality of your life will be determined by the depth of your commitment to excellence, no matter what your chosen field. —VINCE LOMBARDI
RESOLVE TODAY TO be the very best at what you do. Set a goal for yourself to join the top 10 percent of your field, whatever it is. This decision, to become very, very good at what you do, can be the turning point in your life. Virtually all successful people are recognized as being extremely competent in their chosen fields. Remember that no one is better than you, and no one is smarter than you. And everyone who is in the top 10 percent today started off in the bottom 10 percent. Everyone who is doing well was once doing poorly. Everyone who is at the top of his or her field was at one time in another field altogether. And what countless others have done, you can do as well. Here is a great rule for success: Your life only gets better when you get better. And since there is no limit to how much better you can become, there is no limit to how much better you can make your life. Your decision to become excellent at what you do, to join the top 10 percent in your field, is the turning point in your life. It is the key to great success. It is also the foundation of high levels of self-esteem, selfrespect, and personal pride. When you are really good at what you do, you feel wonderful about yourself. Being excellent affects your whole personality and all your relationships with other people. You feel happy and proud when you know you are at the top of your field. Here is one of the most important questions you will ever ask and answer, for the rest of your career: What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my life? You cannot become good at everything right away, but you can identify the one skill that can help you the most and then throw your whole heart into developing that skill. Set it as a goal. Write it down. Set a deadline. Make a plan. And work on becoming better in that area every single day. You will be absolutely amazed at the difference this commitment to excellence will make in your life. This commitment alone can make you a self-made millionaire in the course of your career.
6th
Work Longer and Harder
The harder I work, the luckier I get. —JAMES THURBER
ALL SELF-MADE millionaires work hard, hard, hard. They start earlier, they work harder, and they stay later. They develop a reputation for being amongst the hardest working people in their fields. And everybody knows it. Practice the “40 Plus” formula. This formula says that you work 40 hours per week for survival; everything over 40 hours is for success. If you work only 40 hours (and the average workweek today is closer to 35 hours), all you will ever do is survive. You will never get ahead. You will never be a big financial success. You will never be highly respected and esteemed by your colleagues. You will always be mediocre working the basic 40-hour week.
But every hour over 40 hours is an investment in your future. In fact, you can tell with tremendous accuracy where you are going to be in five years by looking at how many hours over 40 you put in every week. There is just no substitute for long days and hard work. Self-made millionaires in America work an average of 59 hours per week. Many of them work 70 or 80 hours, especially at the start of their careers. They work an average of six days per week, rather than five, and work longer days as well. If you want to call a self-made millionaire, phone the office before normal working hours and after normal working hours. The self-made millionaire is there when the staff, the “nine-to-fivers,” arrive and is still there when they leave. And here’s the key: Work all the time you work. When you work, don’t waste time. When you get in early, put your head down and get started immediately. When people want to talk to you, excuse yourself and say, “I have to get back to work!” Do not drop off your dry cleaning, phone your friends, socialize with your coworkers, or read the newspaper. Work all the time you work. Resolve today to develop the reputation for being the hardest working person in your company. This will bring you to the attention of people who can help you faster than almost anything else you can do.
7nth
Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning
Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field. —DENIS WAITLEY YOU HAVE
A virtually unlimited capacity to learn and improve in your chosen field. You have more brains, ability, and intelligence than you could ever use if you were to work on developing yourself for the rest of your life. You are smarter than you can even imagine. There is no obstacle that you cannot overcome, no problem you cannot solve, and no goal you cannot achieve by applying the power of your mind to your situation. But your mind is like a muscle. It develops only with use. Just as you have to strain your physical muscles to build them, you have to work your mental muscles to build your mind as well. The good news is that the more you learn, the more you can learn. Just like the more you play a sport, the better you get at the sport. The more you dedicate yourself to lifelong learning, the easier it is for you to learn even more. Leaders are learners. Continuous learning is the key to the 21st century. Lifelong learning is the minimum requirement for success in your field or in any field. Make a decision today that you are going to become a student of your craft and that you are going to continue learning and becoming better for the rest of your life. There are three keys to lifelong learning. The first key is to read in your field for at least 30 to 60 minutes each day. Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body. Reading for an hour each day will translate into about one book per week. One book per week will translate into 50 books per year. Fifty books per year will translate into 500 books over the next 10 years. Since the average adult reads less than one book per year, when you begin reading one hour per day, one book per week, this alone will give you an incredible edge in your field. You will become one of the smartest, most competent, and highest paid people in your profession by simply reading one hour each day. The second key to lifelong learning is to listen to audio programs in your car as you drive from place to place. The average person sits behind the wheel in his 26 The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning 27 or her car 500 to 1,000 hours per year. This is the equivalent of 12 to 24 forty-hour weeks, or as much as three to six months of working time that you spend in your car. This is the equivalent of one to two full-time semesters at a university. Turn your car into a learning machine, into a university on wheels. Never let your car motor be running without an educational audio program playing. Many people have become millionaires through the miracle of audio learning. This is why audio learning is often called the greatest breakthrough in education since the invention of the printing press. A third key to lifelong learning is to attend every course and seminar you can possibly find that can help you to be better in your field.* The combination of books, audio programs, and seminars will enable you to save hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, and many years of hard work, in achieving the level of financial success that you desire. Make a decision today to become a lifelong learner. You will be amazed at the effect that it has in your career. Lifelong learning can be a major factor in your becoming a self-made millionaire. *To attend Brian Tracy’s exciting two-day seminar on becoming a millionaire, see p. 81.
8th
Pay Yourself First
A part of all you earn is yours to keep, and if you cannot save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you. —W. CLEMENT STONE RESOLVE TODAY THAT you are going to save and invest at least 10 percent of your income throughout your working life. Take 10 percent of your income off the top of your paycheck each time you receive one and put it into a special account for financial accumulation. The fact is that if you save just $100 per month throughout your working lifetime and you invest that money in an average mutual fund that grows at 10 percent per annum, you will be worth more than one million dollars by the time you retire. This means that anyone, even a person earning minimum wage, if he or she starts early enough and saves long enough, can become a millionaire over the course of his or her working lifetime. ◆ SUCCESS SECRET 8 30 The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Developing the lifelong habit of saving and investing your money is not easy. It requires tremendous determination and willpower. You have to set it as a goal, write it down, make a plan, and work on it all the time. But once this practice locks in and becomes automatic, your financial success is virtually assured. Practice frugality, frugality, frugality in all things. Be very careful with every penny. Question every expenditure. Delay or defer every important buying decision for at least a week, if not a month. The longer you put off making a buying decision, the better your decision will be and the better price you will get at that time. A major reason that people retire poor is because of impulse buying. They see something they like and they buy it with very little thought. They become victims of what is called “Parkinson’s Law,” which says that “expenses rise to meet income.” This means that no matter how much you earn, you tend to spend that much and a little bit more besides. You never get ahead and you never get out of debt. But you don’t have to be a victim of Parkinson’s Law. If you cannot save 10 percent of your income, start today by saving 1 percent of your income in a special savings and investment account. Put it away at the beginning of each month, even before you begin paying down your debts. Live on the other 99 percent of your income. As you become comfortable living on 99 percent, raise your savings level to 2 percent of your income, then 3 percent and 4 percent, and so on. Within one year, you will be saving 10 percent and maybe even 15 percent or 20 percent of your income and living comfortably on the balance. At the same time, your savings and investment account will start to grow. You will become more careful about your expenditures, and your debts will begin to be paid off. Within a year or two, your entire financial life will be under your control and you will be on your way to becoming a self-made millionaire. This process has worked for everyone who has ever tried it. Try it and see for yourself.
9th
Learn Every Detail of Your Business
If you become very good at what you do, there is nothing that can stop you from getting paid more and promoted faster. —DAN KENNEDY
THE MARKET PAYS excellent rewards for excellent performance. It pays average rewards for average performance and below-average rewards, failure, and frustration for below-average performance. Your goal should be to become an expert in your chosen field by learning every single detail about how to do your work better and better. Read all the magazines in your field. Read and study the latest books. Attend courses and seminars ◆ SUCCESS SECRET 9 34 The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires given by experts in your field. Join your industry or trade association, attend every meeting, and get involved with the other top people in your field. The Law of Integrative Complexity says that the individual who can integrate and use the greatest amount of information in any field soon rises to the top of that field. If you are in sales, become an aggressive, lifelong student of the selling process. The top 20 percent of salespeople earn, on average, 16 times the amount earned by the bottom 80 percent of salespeople. The top 10 percent of salespeople earn even more. If you are in management, resolve to become an outstanding professional manager. If you are starting and building your own business, study entrepreneurial strategies and tactics and try out new ideas every single day. Set a goal for yourself to become the very best in your business or profession. One small detail, insight, or idea can be the turning point in your career. Never stop looking for it.
10th
Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others
You can get everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want. —ZIG ZIGLAR
YOUR REWARDS IN life will always be in direct proportion to your service to other people. All self-made millionaires have an obsession with customer service. They think about their customers all the time. They are continually looking for new and better ways to serve their customers better than anyone else. Keep asking yourself these questions, What do my customers really want? What do my customers really need? What do my customers consider value? What ◆ SUCCESS SECRET 10 Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others 37 can I give my customers better than anyone else? Why are my customers buying from others today, and what would I have to offer them to get them to buy from me? Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do. Always look for opportunities to do more than you are paid for. Always seek ways to go the extra mile for your customers. Remember, there are never any traffic jams on the extra mile. Your customers are those people who you depend on for your success in your work. This means that your boss and coworkers are customers as well as the people who buy your products or services. Your customers are also those people who depend on you for their success or satisfaction. Here is the question that you need to ask and answer, every single day: What can I do to increase the value of my service to my customers today? Look for ways to add value to what you do and to the people who depend on you every single day. One small improvement in the way you serve your customers can be a major reason for your financial success. Never stop looking for those little ways to serve your customers better. Today, customers value speed more than they’ve ever valued it before. Whenever a customer asks for anything, you should say, “Sure, right away!” These are the sweetest words your customers can hear.
11th
Be Absolutely Honest with Yourself and Others
Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and all achievement. —CLAUDE M. BRISTOL PERHAPS
THE MOST valued and respected quality you can develop is a reputation for absolute integrity. Be perfectly honest in everything you do and in every transaction and activity. Never compromise 40 The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires your integrity. Remember that your word is your bond and your honor is everything when it comes to business. All successful business is based on trust. Your success in becoming a self-made millionaire will be determined solely by the number of people who trust you and who are willing to work for you, give you credit, lend you money, buy your products and services, and help you during difficult times. Your character is the most important asset that you develop in your entire life, and your character is based on the amount of integrity that you practice. The first key to integrity is to be true to yourself, in all things. Be true to the very best that is in you. Being true to yourself means doing what you do in an excellent fashion. Integrity is demonstrated internally by personal honesty and externally by quality work. The second key to integrity is to be true to the other people in your life. Live in truth with everyone. Never do or say anything that you do not believe to be right and good and honest. Refuse to compromise your integrity for anything. Always live up to the very highest standard that you know. Here is a question for you to ask and answer on a regular basis: What kind of a world would my world be if everyone in it was just like me? This question forces you to set high standards for yourself and keep raising the bar. Act as though your every word and action were to become a universal law. Carry yourself as though everyone were watching you and patterning his or her behavior after yours. And when in doubt, always do the right thing, whatever it is and whatever it costs.
Advanced Selling Strategies
THE 21 SUCCESS SECRETS OF $ELF-MADE MILLIONAIRE$
HOW TO ACHIEVE FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE FASTER
AND EASIER THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE BRIAN TRACY
The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Copyright © 2001 by Brian Tracy All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 235 Montgomery Street, Suite 650 San Francisco, California 94104-2916 Tel: (415) 288-0260, Fax: (415) 362-2512 www.bkconnection.com Ordering information for print editions Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the Berrett-Koehler address above. Individual sales. Berrett-Koehler publications are available through most bookstores. They can also be ordered directly from Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626; www.bkconnection.com Orders for college textbook/course adoption use. Please contact BerrettKoehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626. Orders by U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers. Please contact Ingram Publisher Services, Tel: (800) 509-4887; Fax: (800) 838-1149; E-mail: customer.service@ingrampublisherservices.com; or visit www.ingram publisherservices.com/Ordering for details about electronic ordering. Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. First Edition Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-58376-205-9 PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-57675-918-9 2008-1 Copyediting and proofreading by Peoplespeak. Book design and composition by Beverly Butterfield, Girl of the West Productions.
Contents
Preface vii Introduction:
The Law of Cause and Effect 1 Success Secrets
1 Dream Big Dreams 5
2 Develop a Clear Sense of Direction 9
3 See Yourself as Self-Employed 13
4 Do What You Love to Do 16
5 Commit to Excellence 19
6 Work Longer and Harder 22
7 Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning 25
8 Pay Yourself First 29
9 Learn Every Detail of Your Business 33
10 Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others 36
11 Be Absolutely Honest with Yourself and Others 39
12 Determine Your Highest Priorities and Concentrate on Them Single-Mindedly 42
13 Develop a Reputation for Speed and Dependability 45
14 Be Prepared to Climb from Peak to Peak 48
15 Practice Self-Discipline in All Things 50
16 Unlock Your Inborn Creativity 54
17 Get around the Right People 57
18 Take Excellent Care of Your Physical Health 61
19 Be Decisive and Action Oriented 64
20 Never Allow Failure to Be an Option 66
21 Pass the “Persistence Test” 69 Conclusion: Success Is Predictable 73
About the Author 75
Index 79
The Millionaire-Maker Seminar 81
Brian Tracy, Speaker, Trainer, Seminar Leader 82
Brian Tracy Audio Learning Programs 83
Preface
This book is the culmination of 15 years of research, teaching, and personal experience on the subject of self-made millionaires. These pages contain the key ideas and strategies I have discovered in reading hundreds of books and thousands of articles on the subject of wealth accumulation. The ideas and strategies are presented in a simple, tested, proven, easy-touse format so that you can learn and apply them immediately. When I was a teenager growing up in Pomona, California, in a home where we never had very much money, my dream, my fantasy, was to be a millionaire by the time I was 30. Lots of people have the same dream, I’m sure. However, when I reached the age of 30, I was still just as broke as when I was 20. Then I did something that changed my life. I began asking, Why are some people more successful than others? I especially wanted to know, How is it that some people start off with nothing and eventually become millionaires?
This question set me off on a search for the answers, which has led to this book. I chose self-made millionaires as my focal point because these people had demonstrated special qualities and behaviors that were both observable and measurable. They had started with nothing and passed the magic million-dollar mark as the result of doing certain things in a certain way, over and over. What I learned was that in order to achieve great success in life, you must become a special kind of person. To rise above the majority, you must develop qualities and disciplines that the average person lacks. The most important factor in achieving great financial success is not the money. It is the kind of person you have to become to earn that money and then hold on to it. These 21 “success secrets” are the keys to great success in every area of life, whether or not you make a lot of money. The good news is that these principles are so powerful that you can apply them to accomplish almost anything you really want. Many of these methods and techniques will seem familiar to you. This is because they have been discovered and rediscovered for hundreds of years. I see myself more as a student of success—a reader, a researcher, a synthesizer, and a teacher of great ideas—than as an originator or creator of brand new concepts. I believe, as it says in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
Since you are reading this book, I know that one of your great goals in life is to become an extraordinary person, to realize more and more of your true potential. Each of these success secrets will help you to move ahead more rapidly toward the wonderful life that is possible for you. Enjoy the journey!
BRIAN TRACY August 2000
What you are about to learn can change your life. These ideas, insights, and strategies have been the springboards to financial success for millions of men and women, young and old, rich and poor. These principles are simple, effective, and fairly easy to apply. They have been tested and proven over and over again, and they will work for you if you will take them and apply them in your own life.
We are living at the greatest time in all of human history. More people are becoming wealthy today, starting from nothing, than ever before imagined. There are more than seven million millionaires in America, most of them self-made, and the number is growing by 15 to 20 percent each year. We even have self-made ten millionaires, hundred millionaires, and more than two hundred billionaires. We have never seen this type of rapid wealth creation in all of human history.
Here’s the best news of all. Virtually everyone
starts with nothing. More than 90 percent of all financially successful people today started off broke or nearly broke. The average self-made millionaire has been bankrupt or nearly bankrupt 3.2 times. Most wealthy people failed many times before they finally found the right opportunity that they were able to leverage into financial success. And what hundreds of thousands and millions of other people have done, you can do as well.
The iron law of human destiny is the Law of Cause and Effect. This law is simple yet very powerful. It says that there is a specific effect for every cause. For every action, there is a reaction. This law says that success is not an accident. Financial success is the result of doing certain, specific things over and over again until you achieve the financial independence that you desire
Nature is neutral. The natural world, the marketplace, or our society does not care who you are or what you are. The Law of Cause and Effect says that if you do what other successful people do, you will eventually get the results that other successful people get
And if you don’t, you won’t. This law says that when you learn the success secrets of self-made millionaires and apply them in your own life, you will experience results and rewards far beyond anything you have accomplished up until now.
Here is an important point for you to remember. Nobody is better than you and nobody is smarter than you. Let me repeat that. Nobody is better than you and nobody is smarter than you. Get those thoughts out of your mind. One of the primary reasons for selling yourself short, for underachievement and lack of financial success, is the conviction that people who are doing better than you are better than you. This is simply not the case
The fact is that most self-made millionaires are ordinary people with average educations working at average jobs and living in average neighborhoods in average houses driving average cars. But they have found out what other financially successful people do and they have done those same things over and over again until they achieved the same results. It is no miracle and it is no accident. And when you think the same thoughts and do the same things that self-made millionaires do, you will begin to get the same results and benefits they do. It is simply a matter of cause and effect.
There are 21 success secrets of self-made millionaires. Each of these is indispensable to your becoming financially independent. The failure to apply any one of these principles can, by itself, undermine and even destroy your chances for health, happiness, and great prosperity.
The good news is that you can learn every one of these principles by practice and repetition, over and over again, until they become as natural to you as breathing in and breathing out. Just as you learned to Introduction: The Law of Cause and Effect 3 ride a bicycle or drive a car, you can learn the success secrets of self-made millionaires and apply them in your life. And there are no limits except the limits you place on yourself by your own thinking. Now, let us begin.
Dream Big Dreams Dream big dreams;
only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls.
—MARCUS AURELIUS
1st...
THE FIRST SECRET of self-made millionaires is simple: Dream Big Dreams! Allow yourself to dream. Allow yourself to imagine and fantasize about the kind of life you would like to live. Think about the amount of money you would like to earn and have in your bank account. All great men and women begin with a dream of something wonderful and different from what they have today. You know the song that says “You have to have a dream if you want to make a dream come true.” It’s true for you and for everyone else, as well. Imagine that you have no limitations on what you can be, have, or do in life. Just for the moment,imagine that you have all the time, all the money, all the education, all the experience, all the friends, all the contacts, all the resources, and everything else you need to achieve anything you want in life. If your potential were completely unlimited, what kind of a life would you want to create for yourself and your family? Practice “back from the future” thinking. This is a powerful technique practiced continually by highperforming men and women. This way of thinking has an amazing effect on your mind and on your behavior. Here is how it works: Project yourself forward five years. Imagine that five years have passed and that your life is now perfect in every respect. What does it look like? What are you doing? Where are you working? How much money are you earning? How much do you have in the bank? What kind of a lifestyle do you have? Create a vision for yourself for the long-term future. The more clear your vision of health, happiness, and prosperity, the faster you move toward it and the faster it moves toward you. When you create a clear mental picture of where you are going in life, you become more positive, more motivated, and more determined to make it a reality. You trigger your natural creativity and come up with idea after idea to help make your vision come true. You always tend to move in the direction of your dominant dreams, images, and visions. The very act ofallowing yourself to dream big dreams actually raises your self-esteem and causes you to like and respect yourself more. It improves your self-concept and increases your level of self-confidence. It increases your personal level of self-respect and happiness. There is something about dreams and visions that is exciting and that stimulates you to do and be better than you ever have before. Here is a great question for you to ask and answer, over and over again: What one thing would I dare to dream if I knew I could not fail? If you were absolutely guaranteed of success in any one goal in life, large or small, short-term or longterm, what would it be? What one great goal would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail? Whatever it is, write it down and begin imagining that you have achieved this one great goal already. Then, look back to where you are today. What would you have done to get where you want to go? What steps would you have taken? What would you have changed in your life? What would you have started up or abandoned? Who would you be with? Who would you no longer be with? If your life were perfect in every respect, what would it look like? Whatever it is that you would do differently, take the first step today. Dreaming big dreams is the starting point of achieving your goal of financial independence. The number one reason that people never succeed financially is because it never occurs to them that they can do it. As a result, they never try. They never get started. They continue to go around in financial circles, spending everything they earn and a little bit more besides. But when you begin to dream big dreams about financial success, you begin to change the way you see yourself and your life. You begin to do different things, bit by bit, gradually, until the whole direction of your life changes for the better. Dreaming big dreams is the starting point of financial success and of becoming a self-made millionaire.
2nd
Develop a Clear Sense of Direction
A person with a clear purpose will make progress on even the roughest road. A person with no purpose will make no progress on even the smoothest road. —THOMAS CARLYLE
TAKE YOUR DREAMS out of the air and crystallize them into clear, specific written goals. Perhaps the greatest discovery in human history is that “You become what you think about most of the time.” The two factors that, more than anything else, determine what happens to you in life are what you think about and how you think about it most of the time.
Successful people think about their goals most of the time. As a result, they are continually moving toward their goals, and their goals are continually moving toward them. Whatever you think about most of the time grows and increases in your life. If you are thinking about, talking about, and visualizing your goals, you tend to accomplish far, far more than the average person, who is usually thinking and talking about his or her worries and problems most of the time. Here is a simple seven-step formula for setting and achieving goals that you can use to become a millionaire: First, decide exactly what you want in each area of your life, especially in your financial life. Most people never do this. Second, write down your goals clearly and specifically. Something amazing happens between your head and your hand when you put your goals in writing. Third, set a deadline for each goal. Set subdeadlines if a goal is big enough. Give yourself a target to aim at. Fourth, make a list of everything you can think of that you will have to do to achieve each goal. As you think of new ideas, add them to your list until it is complete. Fifth, organize your list into a plan of action. Determine what you are going to do first and what you will do later. Decide what is more important and what is less important. Sixth, take action on your plan immediately. It is amazing how many splendid goals and plans are never realized because of procrastination and delay. Seventh, and perhaps most important, do something every day that moves you at least one step closer to your most important goal. This commitment to daily action will make you a big success in anything you decide to accomplish. Here is an exercise for you. Take a sheet of paper and write the word “Goals” at the top of the page with today’s date. Then, make a list of 10 goals that you would like to achieve over the next 12 months. Write your goals in the present tense, as though a year has passed and you have already achieved them. Begin each goal with the word “I” to make it personal to you. By making out a list of 10 goals for yourself for the next year, you will move yourself into an exclusive group consisting of only 3 percent of adults in our society. The sad fact is that 97 percent of adults have never made a list of goals in their entire lives. Once you have your list of 10 goals, go over the list and ask this key question: Which one goal on this list, if I were to achieve it, would have the greatest positive impact on my life? Whatever your answer to that question, circle that goal and make that your number one, most important goal for the future. Set a deadline, make a plan, take action on your plan, and do something every day that moves you toward that goal. From now on, think and talk about that goal all the time. Think and talk about how you can achieve that goal. Think and talk about all the different steps that you can take to make that goal a reality. This exercise will stimulate your creativity, increase your energy, and unlock more and more of your potential.
3rd
See Yourself as Self-Employed
I am the captain of my soul; I am the master of my fate. —WILLIAM HENLEY
FROM NOW ON, accept complete, 100 percent responsibility for everything you are and everything you will ever be. Refuse to make excuses or to blame other people for your problems or shortcomings. Stop complaining about things in your life that you are not happy about. Refuse to criticize other people for anything. You are responsible. If there is something in your life that you don’t like, it is up to you to change it. You are in charge. The top 3 percent of Americans see themselves as self-employed, no matter who signs their paychecks. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to think that you work for anyone other than yourself. You are always self-employed. You are always the president of your own personal service corporation, no matter where you might be working at the moment. When you see yourself as self-employed, you develop an entrepreneur mentality, the mentality of highly independent, self-responsible, self-starting individuals. Instead of waiting for things to happen, you make things happen. You see yourself as the boss of your own life. You see yourself as completely in charge of your physical health, your financial wellbeing, your career, your relationships, your lifestyle, your home, your car, and every other element of your existence. This is the mind-set of the self-made millionaire. Self-responsible people are intensely result oriented. They always take high levels of initiative. They volunteer for assignments and are always asking for more responsibility. As a result, they become the most valuable and respected people in their organizations. They continually prepare themselves for positions of higher authority and responsibility in the future. You should do the same. Here’s a question: If you were president of your company for a day or were completely responsible for results where you work, what one change would you enact immediately? Whatever it is, write it down, make a plan, and begin implementing it today. This action alone could change your life.
4rth
Do What You Love to Do
When you start doing what you really love to do, you’ll never work another day in your life. —BRIAN TRACY
DOING WHAT YOU love to do is one of the great secrets of financial success. One of your primary responsibilities in life is to find out what you really enjoy doing, what you have a natural talent for, and then to throw your whole heart into doing that particular work very, very well. Self-made millionaires are those who have found a field where their natural strengths and abilities are exactly what is required to do the job and achieve the results desired. Most self-made millionaires say that they “never worked a day in their life.” You must find a field in which you can be totally absorbed—a job or area of endeavor that completely fascinates you, that holds your attention, that is a natural expression of your special talents and abilities. When you are doing what you love to do, you seem to have a continuous flow of excitement, energy, and ideas to do what you do even better. Here is a question for you: If you won a million dollars, tax free, tomorrow, would you continue to do what you are currently doing? This is a great question. It simply asks you what you would do if you had all the time and money you needed and you were free to choose your occupation. Self-made millionaires, if they won a million dollars cash, would continue doing what they are doing. They would only do it differently or better or at a higher level. But they love their work so much that they wouldn’t even think of leaving it or retiring. Perhaps the greatest responsibility of adult life, when you are surrounded by so many different choices of occupation and career, is for you to find out what you really love doing and then dedicate yourself to that field. And no one else can do this for you.
5th
Commit to Excellence
The quality of your life will be determined by the depth of your commitment to excellence, no matter what your chosen field. —VINCE LOMBARDI
RESOLVE TODAY TO be the very best at what you do. Set a goal for yourself to join the top 10 percent of your field, whatever it is. This decision, to become very, very good at what you do, can be the turning point in your life. Virtually all successful people are recognized as being extremely competent in their chosen fields. Remember that no one is better than you, and no one is smarter than you. And everyone who is in the top 10 percent today started off in the bottom 10 percent. Everyone who is doing well was once doing poorly. Everyone who is at the top of his or her field was at one time in another field altogether. And what countless others have done, you can do as well. Here is a great rule for success: Your life only gets better when you get better. And since there is no limit to how much better you can become, there is no limit to how much better you can make your life. Your decision to become excellent at what you do, to join the top 10 percent in your field, is the turning point in your life. It is the key to great success. It is also the foundation of high levels of self-esteem, selfrespect, and personal pride. When you are really good at what you do, you feel wonderful about yourself. Being excellent affects your whole personality and all your relationships with other people. You feel happy and proud when you know you are at the top of your field. Here is one of the most important questions you will ever ask and answer, for the rest of your career: What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my life? You cannot become good at everything right away, but you can identify the one skill that can help you the most and then throw your whole heart into developing that skill. Set it as a goal. Write it down. Set a deadline. Make a plan. And work on becoming better in that area every single day. You will be absolutely amazed at the difference this commitment to excellence will make in your life. This commitment alone can make you a self-made millionaire in the course of your career.
6th
Work Longer and Harder
The harder I work, the luckier I get. —JAMES THURBER
ALL SELF-MADE millionaires work hard, hard, hard. They start earlier, they work harder, and they stay later. They develop a reputation for being amongst the hardest working people in their fields. And everybody knows it. Practice the “40 Plus” formula. This formula says that you work 40 hours per week for survival; everything over 40 hours is for success. If you work only 40 hours (and the average workweek today is closer to 35 hours), all you will ever do is survive. You will never get ahead. You will never be a big financial success. You will never be highly respected and esteemed by your colleagues. You will always be mediocre working the basic 40-hour week.
But every hour over 40 hours is an investment in your future. In fact, you can tell with tremendous accuracy where you are going to be in five years by looking at how many hours over 40 you put in every week. There is just no substitute for long days and hard work. Self-made millionaires in America work an average of 59 hours per week. Many of them work 70 or 80 hours, especially at the start of their careers. They work an average of six days per week, rather than five, and work longer days as well. If you want to call a self-made millionaire, phone the office before normal working hours and after normal working hours. The self-made millionaire is there when the staff, the “nine-to-fivers,” arrive and is still there when they leave. And here’s the key: Work all the time you work. When you work, don’t waste time. When you get in early, put your head down and get started immediately. When people want to talk to you, excuse yourself and say, “I have to get back to work!” Do not drop off your dry cleaning, phone your friends, socialize with your coworkers, or read the newspaper. Work all the time you work. Resolve today to develop the reputation for being the hardest working person in your company. This will bring you to the attention of people who can help you faster than almost anything else you can do.
7nth
Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning
Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field. —DENIS WAITLEY YOU HAVE
A virtually unlimited capacity to learn and improve in your chosen field. You have more brains, ability, and intelligence than you could ever use if you were to work on developing yourself for the rest of your life. You are smarter than you can even imagine. There is no obstacle that you cannot overcome, no problem you cannot solve, and no goal you cannot achieve by applying the power of your mind to your situation. But your mind is like a muscle. It develops only with use. Just as you have to strain your physical muscles to build them, you have to work your mental muscles to build your mind as well. The good news is that the more you learn, the more you can learn. Just like the more you play a sport, the better you get at the sport. The more you dedicate yourself to lifelong learning, the easier it is for you to learn even more. Leaders are learners. Continuous learning is the key to the 21st century. Lifelong learning is the minimum requirement for success in your field or in any field. Make a decision today that you are going to become a student of your craft and that you are going to continue learning and becoming better for the rest of your life. There are three keys to lifelong learning. The first key is to read in your field for at least 30 to 60 minutes each day. Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body. Reading for an hour each day will translate into about one book per week. One book per week will translate into 50 books per year. Fifty books per year will translate into 500 books over the next 10 years. Since the average adult reads less than one book per year, when you begin reading one hour per day, one book per week, this alone will give you an incredible edge in your field. You will become one of the smartest, most competent, and highest paid people in your profession by simply reading one hour each day. The second key to lifelong learning is to listen to audio programs in your car as you drive from place to place. The average person sits behind the wheel in his 26 The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning 27 or her car 500 to 1,000 hours per year. This is the equivalent of 12 to 24 forty-hour weeks, or as much as three to six months of working time that you spend in your car. This is the equivalent of one to two full-time semesters at a university. Turn your car into a learning machine, into a university on wheels. Never let your car motor be running without an educational audio program playing. Many people have become millionaires through the miracle of audio learning. This is why audio learning is often called the greatest breakthrough in education since the invention of the printing press. A third key to lifelong learning is to attend every course and seminar you can possibly find that can help you to be better in your field.* The combination of books, audio programs, and seminars will enable you to save hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, and many years of hard work, in achieving the level of financial success that you desire. Make a decision today to become a lifelong learner. You will be amazed at the effect that it has in your career. Lifelong learning can be a major factor in your becoming a self-made millionaire. *To attend Brian Tracy’s exciting two-day seminar on becoming a millionaire, see p. 81.
8th
Pay Yourself First
A part of all you earn is yours to keep, and if you cannot save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you. —W. CLEMENT STONE RESOLVE TODAY THAT you are going to save and invest at least 10 percent of your income throughout your working life. Take 10 percent of your income off the top of your paycheck each time you receive one and put it into a special account for financial accumulation. The fact is that if you save just $100 per month throughout your working lifetime and you invest that money in an average mutual fund that grows at 10 percent per annum, you will be worth more than one million dollars by the time you retire. This means that anyone, even a person earning minimum wage, if he or she starts early enough and saves long enough, can become a millionaire over the course of his or her working lifetime. ◆ SUCCESS SECRET 8 30 The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Developing the lifelong habit of saving and investing your money is not easy. It requires tremendous determination and willpower. You have to set it as a goal, write it down, make a plan, and work on it all the time. But once this practice locks in and becomes automatic, your financial success is virtually assured. Practice frugality, frugality, frugality in all things. Be very careful with every penny. Question every expenditure. Delay or defer every important buying decision for at least a week, if not a month. The longer you put off making a buying decision, the better your decision will be and the better price you will get at that time. A major reason that people retire poor is because of impulse buying. They see something they like and they buy it with very little thought. They become victims of what is called “Parkinson’s Law,” which says that “expenses rise to meet income.” This means that no matter how much you earn, you tend to spend that much and a little bit more besides. You never get ahead and you never get out of debt. But you don’t have to be a victim of Parkinson’s Law. If you cannot save 10 percent of your income, start today by saving 1 percent of your income in a special savings and investment account. Put it away at the beginning of each month, even before you begin paying down your debts. Live on the other 99 percent of your income. As you become comfortable living on 99 percent, raise your savings level to 2 percent of your income, then 3 percent and 4 percent, and so on. Within one year, you will be saving 10 percent and maybe even 15 percent or 20 percent of your income and living comfortably on the balance. At the same time, your savings and investment account will start to grow. You will become more careful about your expenditures, and your debts will begin to be paid off. Within a year or two, your entire financial life will be under your control and you will be on your way to becoming a self-made millionaire. This process has worked for everyone who has ever tried it. Try it and see for yourself.
9th
Learn Every Detail of Your Business
If you become very good at what you do, there is nothing that can stop you from getting paid more and promoted faster. —DAN KENNEDY
THE MARKET PAYS excellent rewards for excellent performance. It pays average rewards for average performance and below-average rewards, failure, and frustration for below-average performance. Your goal should be to become an expert in your chosen field by learning every single detail about how to do your work better and better. Read all the magazines in your field. Read and study the latest books. Attend courses and seminars ◆ SUCCESS SECRET 9 34 The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires given by experts in your field. Join your industry or trade association, attend every meeting, and get involved with the other top people in your field. The Law of Integrative Complexity says that the individual who can integrate and use the greatest amount of information in any field soon rises to the top of that field. If you are in sales, become an aggressive, lifelong student of the selling process. The top 20 percent of salespeople earn, on average, 16 times the amount earned by the bottom 80 percent of salespeople. The top 10 percent of salespeople earn even more. If you are in management, resolve to become an outstanding professional manager. If you are starting and building your own business, study entrepreneurial strategies and tactics and try out new ideas every single day. Set a goal for yourself to become the very best in your business or profession. One small detail, insight, or idea can be the turning point in your career. Never stop looking for it.
10th
Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others
You can get everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want. —ZIG ZIGLAR
YOUR REWARDS IN life will always be in direct proportion to your service to other people. All self-made millionaires have an obsession with customer service. They think about their customers all the time. They are continually looking for new and better ways to serve their customers better than anyone else. Keep asking yourself these questions, What do my customers really want? What do my customers really need? What do my customers consider value? What ◆ SUCCESS SECRET 10 Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others 37 can I give my customers better than anyone else? Why are my customers buying from others today, and what would I have to offer them to get them to buy from me? Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do. Always look for opportunities to do more than you are paid for. Always seek ways to go the extra mile for your customers. Remember, there are never any traffic jams on the extra mile. Your customers are those people who you depend on for your success in your work. This means that your boss and coworkers are customers as well as the people who buy your products or services. Your customers are also those people who depend on you for their success or satisfaction. Here is the question that you need to ask and answer, every single day: What can I do to increase the value of my service to my customers today? Look for ways to add value to what you do and to the people who depend on you every single day. One small improvement in the way you serve your customers can be a major reason for your financial success. Never stop looking for those little ways to serve your customers better. Today, customers value speed more than they’ve ever valued it before. Whenever a customer asks for anything, you should say, “Sure, right away!” These are the sweetest words your customers can hear.
11th
Be Absolutely Honest with Yourself and Others
Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and all achievement. —CLAUDE M. BRISTOL PERHAPS
THE MOST valued and respected quality you can develop is a reputation for absolute integrity. Be perfectly honest in everything you do and in every transaction and activity. Never compromise 40 The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires your integrity. Remember that your word is your bond and your honor is everything when it comes to business. All successful business is based on trust. Your success in becoming a self-made millionaire will be determined solely by the number of people who trust you and who are willing to work for you, give you credit, lend you money, buy your products and services, and help you during difficult times. Your character is the most important asset that you develop in your entire life, and your character is based on the amount of integrity that you practice. The first key to integrity is to be true to yourself, in all things. Be true to the very best that is in you. Being true to yourself means doing what you do in an excellent fashion. Integrity is demonstrated internally by personal honesty and externally by quality work. The second key to integrity is to be true to the other people in your life. Live in truth with everyone. Never do or say anything that you do not believe to be right and good and honest. Refuse to compromise your integrity for anything. Always live up to the very highest standard that you know. Here is a question for you to ask and answer on a regular basis: What kind of a world would my world be if everyone in it was just like me? This question forces you to set high standards for yourself and keep raising the bar. Act as though your every word and action were to become a universal law. Carry yourself as though everyone were watching you and patterning his or her behavior after yours. And when in doubt, always do the right thing, whatever it is and whatever it costs.
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