Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

I absolutely loved this book. In fact as soon as I was done listening to the audiobook, I immediately went back to the begging and listened to it a second time.

I’m a huge believer in the fact that the most stubborn obstacles to our success are in our own heads. If you want to achieve something significant like becoming a millionaire, the best place to start is with your own mindset.

Not only does this book agree with that premise it helpfully lays out 17 different ways that rich people think that are different from the way that poor people think.

This book was densely packed with quality information. I took four solid pages of notes, which is a lot for a book this short (the audiobook was only three and a half hours, about half the length of the typical book I listen to).

It was also a very high-energy audiobook. It was read by the author and you can tell that he is passionate about the content that he is sharing.

If you follow me on Instagram, this book is going to be the source of the quotes that I share for the next couple of weeks.

It was a very good book, and I highly recommend getting a copy.

Here are the notes that I took, with his 17 “wealth files” pulled out and put first:

1. Rich people believe “I create my life.” Poor people believe “Life happens to me.”
2. Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play the money game to not lose.
3. Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
4. Rich people think big. Poor people think small.
5. Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.
6. Rich people admire other rich and successful people. Poor people resent rich and successful people.
7. Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.
8. Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promotion.
9. Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.
10. Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are poor receivers.
11. Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.
12. Rich people think “both”. Poor people think “either/or”.
13. Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people focus on their working income.
14. Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.
15. Rich people have their money work hard for them. Poor people work hard for their money.
16. Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.
17. Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.

• Your subconscious financial blueprint needs to be set for success.
• Having a successful mindset is just as much about unlearning an unhelpful mindset as it is developing a helpful one.
• “It’s not enough to be in the right place at the right time, you need to be the right person in the right place at the right time.”
• “Your wealth can only grow to the extent that you do.”
• Lotto winners usually end up back at their pre-lotto levels of wealth. Self-made millionaires on the other hand can lose everything, but bounce back because they can’t lose the thing that made them succeed in the first place, their millionaire mind. It’s like people have a financial thermostat, the temperature in the room can fluctuate for a variety of reasons such as leaving a window open, but the temperature tends to revert back to where the thermostat is set.
• He uses a metaphor of a tree, saying that our results are our fruit. Normally when something is wrong, we try to change the fruit when we need to change the root, our mindset which determines our actions.
• In general, what you can’t see is more powerful than what you can see: e.g. the electricity in your house. In the sane way it’s your invisible thought that carry tremendous power.
• Your thoughts determine your feelings, which determine your actions which determine your results.
• We’ve all been subject to various programming in our life that has shaped our outlook on money, including verbal programming (what you’ve heard about money), modeling (how you saw people, esp. your parents, handle money), and experience (what experiences you yourself have had that concern money).
• When the subconscious mind must choose between deeply rooted emotions and logic, emotions almost always win.
• He lays out developing a new mindset as a four step process: awareness, understanding, disassociation, and reconditioning.
• Awareness: write down what you believe about money.
• Understanding: write down what caused you to believe those things.
• Disassociation: Remind yourself that what you heard isn’t necessarily true.
• Reconditioning: Use a declaration to reinforce a true principle.
• Poor people are the primary lottery players. They honestly believe that they will become rich by someone pulling their name out of a hat.
• “What you focus on expands” -e.g. when you complain you focus on the negative and you get stuck in a rut of negativity.
• Many people “play the victim” by complaining, blaming others, justifying yourself, etc. But he points out that there’s no such thing as a really rich victim. You can be a victim, or you can be rich, but not both.
• If your goal is to be comfortable, you probably won’t get rich. If your goal is to be rich, you’ll probably be comfortable.
• “The only way to get paid what you are really worth is to get paid based on results.”
• There are three levels of wanting to become rich:

   

  1. “I want to be rich” – i.e. “I’ll take it if it falls in my lap.” Wanting rarely equates to having.

  2. “I choose to become rich” – you recognize you are responsible.

  3. “I commit to being rich” you’re going to hold nothing back and will be in it for the long term with no excuses.

• He says to write a paragraph stating exactly why you want to be rich (sounds like something that would fit well into your 10 Year Plan for a Remarkable Life)
• “Your life is not just about you, it’s also about contributing to others.”
• Hid definition of an entrepreneur: someone who solves problems for profit.
• He says you should write down your talents and brainstorm how they can help people. Gather some friends and have them help you brainstorm how you can help 10x more people than you do at your current job
• No luck will come your way unless you take some sort of action.
• If you want to be rich, the things you need to be focusing on are making, saving, and investing.
• “Action always beats inaction” – you need a “ready, fire, aim” attitude because you can’t know everything in advance
• Most people earn within 20% of the average income of their closest friends.
• He says that mindless television is a big no-no. T.V. can be okay, but it shouldn’t be your main form of entertainment. He says that he likes to watch sports to see masters at work and to hear how champions react after a game.
• He recommends having 5 separate bank accounts:

   

  1. 10% of your income in an account reserved for education. Books, courses, etc.

  2. 10% to giving (charitable contributions and things of that sort)

  3. 10% “Play.” He recommends just blowing this money on things you enjoy. As in, spend all of it every single month.

  4. 10% Long-term savings. This is money that you put into creating passive income for yourself, such as investing in the stock market or real estate or your business. When you retire, you can spend the interest but not the principle.

  5. 50% of your income goes into a bank account that takes care of your necessities, like food and housing (I know this all adds up to only 90%, it could be that I missed a category or maybe it was supposed to be 60% to the necessities)

• Rich people collect assets that go up in value, poor people collect expenses that are sure to go down in value.
• “Don’t wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait.”
• “Comfort” kills dreams, ideas, happiness, growth, etc.
• “Success is a learnable skill.”
• “Every master was once a disaster.”
• Rich people take advice from people who are richer than they are. Poor people take advice from their friends, who are just as poor as they are.
• “The number one reason why people don’t get what they want is because they don’t know what they want.”
• How much of your value do you deliver to the marketplace? How many people do you help?
• “Living based in security is living based in fear.”

Probably the only weird part for me was the audible affirmations. He wants you to repeat various affirmations out loud as you read the book, which I’m fine with. What is weird is his explanation that when you say something out loud it resonates through every cell in your body making it more powerful. Again, I think it helps reinforce things to say them out loud, but I doubt it has much to do with the resonance in your cells. At least he admits that it’s a little hokey.

Overall, this book greatly exceeded my expectations. It is short and to the point, with almost no fluff and tons of good insights and actionable takeaways.

I’ve heard Seth Godin say that there are books that are so important that you should listen to them on repeat. If you ever want to become wealthy, this book is definitely one of the ones that you need to listen to on repeat. If you haven’t tried audible, you can get a free copy of the audiobook by signing up for a free trial below: