Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Wealth File #2 Rich People Play the Money Game to Win, Poor People Play to Not Lose (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 #2:

Rich People play the Money Game to Win.

Poor People play the Money Game to Not Lose.

Poor people’s* primary concerns are “survival and security” instead of creating wealth and abundance said Eker. The goal of truly rich people is to have massive wealth and abundance. Not just some money, but lots of money. “If your goal is to be comfortable, chances are you’ll never get rich,” Eker reasoned, “But if your goal is to be rich, chances are you’ll end up mighty comfortable.” He reminds us of the power of intention. When your intention is to have enough to pay the bills, that’s exactly how much you’ll get – just enough to pay the bills and not a dime more.

Think about this: If your goal is to have just enough money to pay the bills, how much money do you think you’ll get? Exactly! Just enough to pay the bills… You get what you truly intend to get. And that’s what so many people strive for: “I just want enough to pay the bills.” “I just want to live a moderate life and go on vacation once a year” (maybe this is my dream: to live moderately but slightly rich, and go on vacation at least twice a year) “I just want my steady income and make ends.” Well, if that’s what you want, that’s what you get. You may have enough to pay for the bills, but guess what? “You won’t have a dime more,” says Eker. That’s how it works, he said. You get what you truly intend to get.

Harv Eker advises us that our goal should be to become a millionaire and more: “If you shoot for the stars, you’ll at least hit the moon… If you want to get rich, your goal has to be rich. Not to have enough to pay the bills, and not just to have enough to be comfortable. Rich means rich!” So, say to yourself, “My goal is to become a millionaire and more!” and do what rich people do – play the money game to win. Win! Win! Win! Decide now that you commit to being rich.

[*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!

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People #2 Begin With the End In Mind

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by late Stephen R. Covey, writer of the most-effective personal development book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (first published 1989). One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Grow!

There are people that struggle to try to achieve something only to end up realizing that what they were doing so long didn’t really have an important meaning in their life. As Covey states: “To Begin with End in Mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”

Imagine that you will live your whole remaining life based on the choices and actions you took this far and you attend your own funeral. Would you feel happy or sad about your life? Were your choices, actions or priorities compatible with what you were trying to accomplish in your life? “It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busyness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover that it’s leaning against the wrong wall.”

It is very important to visualize the “End” in your mind to guide you through your life. For example, if your dream is to become a good doctor and be remembered that you saved as many lives as possible, what’s the point in struggling to become the director of the hospital just for bigger salary, preventing you at the same time from performing more surgeries?

This habit is based on imagination –
the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes.

Write Your Own Personal Mission Statement, Envision the End in Your Mind!

Start With Why: The Golden Circle (Chapter 3 Summary)

This book summary series is taken from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2011). Your curiosity and knowledge is infinite, but your time is not. Read this summary – and you’ll be inspired!

The Golden Circle finds order and predictability in human behaviour. Put simply, it helps us understand why we do what we do.

WHAT: What do you do? [“Every organization on the planet knows WHAT they do. These are products they sell or services they offer.”]

HOW: How do you do what you do? [“Some organization know HOW they do It. these are the things that make them special or set them apart from their competitors.”]

WHY: Why do you do what you do? What’s the purpose? [“Very few organization know WHY they do it. WHY is not about making money. That’s a result. WHY is a purpose, cause or belief. It’s the very reason your organization exists.”]

Simon Sinek explains that most companies communicate on WHAT they do; from the outside to the inside of the golden circle. They know exactly what product or service they offer and what features it has. Some organizations might even know HOW they do it. This might be the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). But very few know WHY they do what they do. “The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”

By starting with why and communicating from the inside out, organizations can inspire people to take action. For example, Apple Inc. company:

Apple if they were like everyone else:

We make great computers.
They are beautiful designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
Want to buy one?

How Apple actually communicate:

Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. And we happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?

Apple simply doesn’t reverse the order of information, their message starts with WHY, a purpose, cause or belief that has nothing to do with WHAT they do. What they do – the products that they make, from computers to small electronics – no longer serves as the reason to buy, they serve as the tangible proof of their cause. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Most organizations, however, use the tangible features and benefits to build a rational argument for why their company, product or idea is better than another. Companies try to sell us WHAT they do, but we buy WHY they do it. When communicating from the inside and out, the WHY is offered as the reason to buy and the WHAT serve as the tangible proof of that belief. Consumers and investors are completely at ease with Apple offering so many different products in so many categories. It’s not WHAT Apple does that distinguishes them. It is WHY they do it. Their products give life to their cause and everything they do works to demonstrate their WHY.

Apples competitors lost their cause, they turned from companies with a cause into a company that sold products. And when that happens, price, quality, service and features become the primary currency to motivate a purchase decision. At that point a company and its products have become commodities. Simon assured that a company doesn’t have to have to best product, they just need to be good or very good. Better or best is a relative comparison. Sinek argued, “Without first understanding of WHY, the comparison itself is of no value on the decision maker.”

If a customer feels inspired rather than manipulated to buy a product, they will be able to verbalize the reasons why they think what they bought is better. It is the cause that is represented by the company, brand, product or person that inspires loyalty (see previous article). So, instead of asking “WHAT should we do to compete?” the question must be asked is, “WHY did we start doing WHAT we’re doing in the first place, and WHAT can we do to bring our cause to life considering all the technologies and market opportunities available today?”

From Inside Out: Ask WHY, then How, then WHAT. Always Start with WHY.

Change Your Life: Make a Difference

Pay It Forward is a 2000 American drama film based on the novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,

Committed people can changed the world.

Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”

(Margaret Mead)

Don’t resign yourself to the status quo – make a difference. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of serious problems that our world is facing. The falling standards in education, the rise in corporate scandals, the economic crisis in Malaysia and the world – not to mention wars, pollutions, and terrorism. How can I, one person among so many, make a difference? How can I, with my shortcomings and insecurities, possibly bring about meaningful change? While it is true that much of what happens in the world is beyond our control as individuals, our capacity to bring about change is greater than we imagine.

I can make a world of difference – if I choose to put my mind and heart to a cause, and take action.

Tal Ben-Shahar writes: In the movie Pay It Forward, a schoolteacher assigns his class the task of finding a way to bring about positive change in the world. Trevor, one of the students, decides to do three good deed for others – three acts of random kindness – and in return ask them to do three good deeds for three other people, who will be asked in return to do the same for others, and so on. If every person who has just been helped pays this help forward to three others, then within twenty-one rounds, everyone on earth would have been helped. The movie follows Trevor and shows how his acts create a positive ripple effect that touches numerous people whom he never meets in profound and meaningful ways. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can changed the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Make a positive difference in the world. Pay forward what has been given to you, and encourage others to do the same. You can make a difference!

Don’t resign yourself to the status quo,

Make a difference.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012)

2. Change the World: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Extraordinary Results by R.E. Quinn (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000)

Change Your Life: Think and Act Purposefully

“Rumination inevitably backfires. It merely compounds our misery.

It’s a heroic attempt to solve a problem that it is just not capable of solving”

(Mark Williams)

We often ruminate about a problem we face, obsessively playing and replaying the scenario in our mind. We tend to believe that rumination will help us overcome discomfort or unhappiness, but in fact replaying the scenario over and over in our mind usually makes things worse. In the words of psychologist Mark Williams and his colleagues, “Rumination is part of the problem, not part of the solution.” On the other hand, purposeful thinking – whether through writing in a journal or verbalizing our thoughts – is a much better way of dealing with psychological and emotional challenges. Purposeful action – actually doing something that could make us feel better – is a lot more helpful than allowing chaotic and usually very negative thinking to wreak havoc on our emotions.

Do this: Instead of focusing on the helplessness of your situation, which gets you nowhere, you could choose to engage in an activity that will help you feel better as well as perform better. Begin by creating a personal blog or/and writing your thoughts and feelings about the situation. Writing will help you feel better, and the clarity you reach will help you commit to taking concrete steps toward meeting the challenges you face today.

Don’t obsessively replay a scenario,

Think and act purposefully.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012)

2. The Mindful Way Through Depression: Feeling Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness by J.M.G. Williams (New York: The Guilford Press, 2007).

Nurture Creativity: Purpose Stimulate Breakthrough Idea

“A noble purpose inspires sacrifice, stimulates innovation and encourages perseverance”

(Gary Hamel)

I’m fascinated by the life of Thomas Edison. Anybody who can give the world the electric light, the microphone, the storage battery, the phonograph and a thousand other inventions, is worth studying. Historians say he was driven by one word: PURPOSE. Not pleasure, not popularity, not even personal gain, but – PURPOSE. Purpose stimulates breakthrough idea.

Here are some of the recorded principles by which he lived:

1)    Work to obtain all the knowledge you can about what you want to achieve,

2)    Fix your mind on your purpose. Persist! Seek! Use all knowledge you can accumulate or learn from others,

3)    Keep on searching no matter how many times you meet with disappointment,

4)    Refuse to be influenced by the fact that someone else tried the same thing and failed,

5)    Keep yourself sold on the idea that a solution to the problem exists somewhere, and that you’ll find it.

Then he added: “The trouble with most people is, they quit before they ever start.” Anyone can come out with idea, brilliant idea, but without purpose the motivation even to start will not make idea into a reality. Quitting is idea-destructor. Purpose, “fix your mind on your purpose” is a great idea-stimulator. Because of the vision and purpose that God puts in Nehemiah’s heart, he can rebuild the city wall. Nehemiah (of the Bible) didn’t conquer through brilliance (remember, most creative people in the history are school dropouts), he conquered through persistence, perseverance – and yes, prayer. He never quit. He have a purpose. In spite of the criticism, in spite of the pressure, he refuse to give up – that’s why he rebuilt Jerusalem. Purpose stimulate breakthrough idea.

What inspires you? What could you do to make this world a better place? Could you improve your local community in some way that contributes to the greater wellbeing and safety of its residents? Could you invent something or come out with ideas that will improve people lives and create awareness in your campus, church or community? Can you come up with a creative breakthrough that will challenge your potential and develop your personal skills? Will you use your God given mind and knowledge to come up with a way to raise funds for your favourite charities and causes?

What is your purpose?

Purpose stimulate breakthrough idea

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Barriers to Creativity #6: "That's Not My Area"

Creativity, like common sense, is supposed to be common. Creativity is natural and spontaneous. Yet it is not exhibited as frequently as it should. Experts believe that there are several reasons for this. These reasons are called ‘Barriers to Creativity’. ‘Barriers’ are the thing that stop us from thinking creatively and the reason that make us not as creative as we should be.

Barrier #6: “That’s Not My Area”

            Today’s world is one of specialization. Specialists are held in high regard. As a strategy for creative thinking, however, specialization spells “danger” because it leads to the attitude that says “It’s not my area.” When this happens the person not only limits himself or herself to a small area, he or she may also stop looking for ideas in other fields. In creativity, cross-references and diversities are essential. We borrow from any field that can contribute to serves the purpose. We often hear people say, “That is an admin problem” or “I’m sorry, I can’t help you because that is not my area of specialization.”

            Ideas from one field can be used to make discoveries in another. In a brainstorming session, for example, the ideas generated would be much better and wider if the group compromises people from a variety of backgrounds rather than one in which all members are specialists in one particular are. Imagine the kind of ideas we can get if we put engineer, mechanical, business and psychology students together – Wow!

   

As far as creativity concern, be a generalist.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)