The Millionaire Mind

The foundation stones of financial success are:

• Integrity—being honest with all people
• Discipline—applying self control
• Social skills—getting along with people
• A supportive spouse
• Hard work—more than most people

There is a strong correlation between one’s willingness to take financial risk and one’s level of wealth. It is less about investing in the stock market and much more about investing in ourselves, our careers, our professional practices, our private businesses, and so forth.

Most of us have been told by some authority figure or by the results of standardized test scores that we were not:

• Intellectually gifted
• Of law-school caliber
• Medical-school material
• Qualified to pursue an MBA degree
• Smart enough to succeed

A disproportionately high percentage of millionaires, multimillionaires, and decamillionaires are self-employed business owners and entrepreneurs or self-employed professionals.

Often, those who are told they are gifted feel economically invincible. Too often they assume that superior intellect will translate into superior income and levels of wealth. But those who believe this are in for a rude wake-up call. Too many select vocations are filled with competitors, all of whom also have high analytical intellect. They may be one of hundreds of thousands of MBAs who graduated in the past twenty years. They were hired by major corporations because they did A-grade work at fine business schools. Perhaps they went directly from those schools into the dogfight.

Where you will fight is much more important in winning than what you do once the dogfight begins.

Not only do we save money and avoid impulse buying, but we also find that our in-store shopping time is greatly reduced if we have a list for minimizing in-store minutes.

The millionaire mind tells us to work hard at our main vocation and enjoy the rest of our free time doing what is enjoyable.

Throughout life most successful people go out of their way to attract, motivate, appreciate, and nurture key advisers, suppliers, and employees.

The successful population, regardless of intellect, is more heavily criticized than the unsuccessful. In fact, I believe that criticism is a necessary form of hazing, the tempering of steel, the boot camp for candidates wanting to succeed.

Physical conditioning is one of the main sources of the extraordinary energy that most multimillionaires possess. I’ve found very few self-made millionaires who are lethargic or even noticeably overweight.

It’s much easier to work hard if you love what you are doing, and the ability to work hard is, in turn, related to one’s physical conditioning.

“Being honest with all people” was rated as a very important or important success factor by the large majority of millionaires.

If you lack integrity, most millionaires will tell you that you will not and should not graduate to economic success.

Millionaires who have high creative intelligence often make one very important career decision correctly: They select a vocation that provides them with enormous profits, and very often this same vocation is one they love. Remember, if you love what you are doing, your productivity will be high and your specific form of creative genius will emerge.

There is a highly significant correlation between level of net worth and the importance rating of “finding a profitable niche.”

Grades received in college do not explain a statistically significant portion of the variation in wealth or income, nor do SAT results. The only noticeable exception were those respondents who attended medical school or law school. They were required to have superior grades in college and high scores on aptitude tests to be admitted to these professional schools. However, most are not in the decamillionaire category today.

My data clearly show a strong negative correlation between job satisfaction and those “strong” mandates about career choice that come from parents and counselors because of test scores.

If you have a high level of intelligence as predicted by IQ test scores, you have great capacity or potential. But if it’s not used in ways that fulfill you psychologically, it’s not likely that you will become a total success.

On average, decamillionaires have more of their wealth invested in private or closely held stocks than they do in stocks that are traded publicly.

Hard work is a better predictor of success than grade school experiences.

The large majority report that at some point or points in their lives they were labeled inferior, average, or mediocre, but they did not allow critics to forecast their future achievements, and they overcame their label of so-called inferiority.

Some might consider such socializing to be unproductive in an academic setting, but it seems to be a key factor that separates those who become skilled at judging other people and those who can not.

Self-made millionaires report that degrading evaluations and comments by certain authority figures played a role in their ultimate success in life.

Hard work is more important than genetic high intellect in achieving success.

Most millionaires never allowed poor grades to destroy their goal to succeed.

Most learn early to fight and compete for important goals.

Some adversity is essential in bringing out the best in people.

There is a direct positive correlation between the love of one’s vocation and level of net worth.

For other parents, it’s very important to be able to tell their friends, relatives, and neighbors that Becky is going to Tufts, Earl to Vassar, and Joel to Columbia. I call this academic status. Parents feel that their own status is enhanced by taking credit for producing a son or daughter bound for “Prestige U.”

The earlier a youngster starts developing interest and experience with his or her vocation, the more likely he or she is to become a productive adult.

There are often significant economies of scale when a married couple works together as a team to produce income.

It’s hard for a person to recognize opportunities if he stays in one place and remains in one job—most self-made millionaires have had a rather wide experience with various part-time and temporary jobs.

Courage is taking positive moral actions that conjure up fear.

At the highest levels of wealth, these people believe that luck is an important correlate of becoming very wealthy in America. Luck and risk taking go hand in hand.

There is a strong positive correlation between finding good advisers and wealth accumulation, because having good advice reduces the risk involved in financial, career, and even personal decisions.

In the long run, it is very beneficial to have a trusted CPA and attorney work with you throughout your adult life.

Never be too proud to seek advice from skilled investment advisers, especially CPAs and tax attorneys. Be more sensitive to the long-term benefits of having high-grade CPAs and attorneys as your advisers than to the short-term benefits of doing it yourself. If you’re not good at judging talent, hire advisers who are.

Most millionaires gained their economic status in part from investing in things other than stocks and bonds, but many of these unconventional categories have their own set of risks and opportunities. It often takes intelligent, well-seasoned CPAs and attorneys to sort these things out for the millionaire.

Financial risk takers are nearly twice as likely to attribute their financial success to “love of their career or business” than are risk avoiders.

Some say that certain people are just born with confidence. I have a different view. Confidence is and can be instilled in people by their family upbringing, or nurtured and developed on their own. Most millionaires have this ability to enhance their self-confidence, their belief in themselves.

Some luck is involved, but in order to find the ideal career, you first have to understand yourself. What are your strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes? If you can’t answer these questions, it will be nearly impossible to hook up with a vocation that you will love and that will enhance your self-esteem.

Many millionaires have told me that their financial success is a direct function of owning a specialized business in a geo-area that contains little or no competition.

Consider the fact that 80 percent of the associate professors at Harvard—among the most intellectually gifted people in this country—are denied tenure. These professors accept positions at other universities, and many eventually became tenured. So it is not only choice of vocation, it’s also the level of competition within a chosen geographic or other environment that influences whether a career choice succeeds.

Those who serve are typically the winners in the economic race.

Look for ways to fill market needs that others have ignored, those with little or no competition. Start thinking about and conceptualizing it today. The very best vocations that I find in my research on millionaires are genuinely unique. Even areas that seem traditional can have some degree of uniqueness. I was trained to be a plain old marketing professor, but I selected a specific, unique topic of research that has enabled my success.

Pick a long shot and your college degree may not be enough to save you; pick a winner, and the law of economics may not punish you for never spending a day in college, never fully mastering the English language,

It isn’t how much you study and how long—it’s also what you study and how well it can be leveraged in the business world. Knowing the odds of success can make all the difference. Pick a long shot and your college degree may not be enough to save you; pick a winner, and the law of economics may not punish you for never spending a day in college, never fully mastering the English language, and being born outside the United States.

The big issue is what is said, not how it is said. The market I selected defines what I do. I know from thousands of contact hours with the public what it is they want. I know the questions they want answered. With this knowledge in hand, I always felt confident about the demand for my work. You don’t need to be Shakespeare if you have excellent market research. The basic premise of my vocation is giving the market what it wants and is not currently receiving from other authors.

Marry the wrong spouse and every day will feel like an eternity. Marry the right spouse and life will be a joyful and perhaps even a rich experience.