Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Wealth File #1 Rich People Believe "I Create My Life." Poor People Believe "Life Happens to Me" (Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by T. Harv Eker’s Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

Wealth File #1:

Rich People believe “I Create My Life.”

Poor People believe “Life Happens to Me.”

If you want to create wealth, says Eker, it is imperative that you believe that you are at the steering wheel of your life, especially your financial life. You have to believe that you are the one who creates your success, that you are the one who creates your mediocrity, and that you are the one creating your struggle around money and success. Consciously or unconsciously, it’s still you. Instead of taking responsibility for what’s going on in their lives, poor people* choose to play the role of victim.

This is important. If you feel like ‘Life just happens to me, I can’t do anything about it,’ then how are you going to change? What kind of life do you live? “I can tell you,” said Eker, “you live the life of absolutely no purpose. Completely unconsciously and meaningless…” That’s definitely NOT how you want to live. This is the first Wealth File for a good reason. If you don’t think “I create my life” then you can’t change anything. Eker points out: “You must realize that you are the creator! You must sit at the steering wheel of your life. You make the choices. And you take responsibility for your life. Basically, you are the BOSS of your life. Yes, you are!” (This is where my faith conflict with Eker’s teaching about we are the creators. But based on the context, what he really means is that we can change or not our belief system. We can create or uncreate our own beliefs).

The author states that poor people* play the role of victim. They often BLAME other people. It’s never their fault, it’s always the fault of others. Poor people also often COMPLAIN. When you are complaining, you become a living, breathing “crap magnet.” That’s the worst thing you can do. So, never whine, bitch or complain. Poor people also JUSTIFY their situation. They say things like, “Money is not that important.” If you don’t think money is important, you simply won’t have any. Put this in perspective: “Money is extremely important in the areas in which it works, and extremely unimportant in the areas in which it doesn’t.” But the poor people will argue (and this is a brilliant but funny quote by Eker): “’Well, money isn’t as important as love.’ Now, is that comparison dumb or what? What’s more important, your arm or your leg? Maybe they’re both important.” It’s funny and it makes sense. So, don’t play the role of the victim and start take responsibility and steer your life to success!

[*I need to note that the Harv Eker makes it clear in this book that he does not mean to degrade poor people. He does not think that rich people are better than poor or middle-class people. They’re just richer.]

I Have a Millionaire Mind!

With Winning In Mind: Negative Reinforcement (Chapter 4)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Lanny Bassham's With Winning in Mind (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Be careful not to complain. I often hear people, in business as well as sport, complaining about their circumstances. Complaining is negative reinforcement. I teach my students not to reinforce a bad shot by getting angry. Do not reinforce a bad day at the office by complaining to your spouse. Remember something that you did well each day instead. Fill your thoughts only with your best performances and you cannot help but be successful!”

(Lanny Bassham)

Ugh… negative reinforcement, it’s terrible! Yet, funny enough, it’s what most of us are absolute pros at. Do something right and nobody gives a sh*t (= no positive reinforcement). Do something wrong and people are all over you telling you what a loser you are and bla bla bla (=negative reinforcement). Ourselves, we are often the worst offenders or critics. Somehow we were just never taught to reinforce our good behaviors, but instead, we were taught to get down on us when we did something wrong. Anyway, it’s obvious that we want to reinforce our good behaviors, not our bad ones.

So what are some ways we negatively reinforce our bad behaviors?

• We talk about our bad performances
• Someone else talks about our bad performances
• We complain
• Someone else complains
• We get angry at the bad behavior
• We tell ourselves that we’re idiots for a certain bad behavior

Remember (previous articles): Every time you think, talk or write about a bad performance/ behavior/whatever, you improve the probability of having another bad performance/ behavior/whatever just like it in the future.  

“One thing I especially remember about training with them,” says Lanny Bassham about his toughest competitors in shooting, “was that they never talked about their failures in front of me.” If Lone Wigger (World and Olympic Champion) had a problem, he kept it to himself. Jack Writer (World and Olympic Champion) on the other hand was a talker. It was not that Jack bragged on himself (“Although I can understand how those who didn’t know him would think that,” write Bassham), he just liked to talk. His favorite subject was shooting and he was his favorite shooter. No matter how many low scores he shot, Jack would only talk about the high ones. The important lesson here is that Jack never reinforced a bad performance and rarely shot a low score in a big match. On the opposite, Margaret Murdoch (World and Olympic Silver Medallist) rarely talked at all. If she did, it was to compliment others on their performance. “I wonder if she knew that every time she praised another shooter, she also improved her own chances of winning?” reminisced Bassham.

The point is: The top athletes do NOT negatively reinforce their bad performances.
And neither should you.

Have A Winning Mindset!

With Winning In Mind: How Mental Picture Is Formed (Chapter 2)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Lanny Bassham's With Winning in Mind (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

Let’s keep this short and simple, Lanny Bassham writes: “Our conscious picture is formed from what we think about, talk about, and write about” (as mentioned in the previous post, or by what someone else talks to you about). So controlling your mental pictures happens by controlling what you think, talk, and write about. Simple enough.

Be careful what you wish for a picture. “The more we think about, talk about, and write about something happening, we improve the probability of that thing happening!” Now it gets really interesting. Every time you think about, talk about or write about something happening (or you picture something in your mind), you increase the odds of that thing happening.

Are you constantly telling yourself that you’ll fail a certain exam? Well, congrats! Every time you do that, you improve the probability of failing the exam. Are you telling yourself that you’ll miss the crucial penalty kick? Too bad! Every time you do that, you improve the probability of missing that penalty kick.

Lanny calls this reinforcement. Every time you create a picture in your mind, you reinforce that picture and increase the likelihood of making it a reality. You can either use positive reinforcement (great idea!) or negative reinforcement (a terrible idea!).

Think that you gonna win!

Talk about winning!

Write about winning!

Have a Winning Mindset!