Odds of becoming a millionaire

If you own a small business, you're already more likely to reach millionaire status than most, according to USA Today analyst Danny Sheridan. He calculated these odds on ways to become a millionaire:

• Inheriting it: 12 million to 1
• Winning the lottery: 12 million to 1
• Playing the slots at the casino: 6 million to 1
• Winning in a game show on TV: 4 million to 1
• Saving $800 per month for 30 years: 1.2 million to 1
• Owning a dotcom that goes public: 10,000 to 1 (well, these odds were calculated in August 2000)
• Owning a small business: 1,000 to 1

What I like is the fact that when you own a business, you can actually increase the odds (if you are trained in business and work hard at fine-tuning your operations).

Source: Rich Kid Smart Kid, by Robert Kiyosaki

Want to earn infinite income?

A surprising insight came to me today about a person's income.

If you make $60,000 a year, then you are paid $30 per hour of work. If you make $80K a year, then you are paid $40 per hour of work.

Here's my little insight (warning: this is not 100% scientific, so please take it with a grain of salt):

What if you found a job that really tapped your talent, and that you really enjoyed doing? Then no matter how much you make per hour ($20 or $30 or $50), it is basically INFINITE INCOME.

How? Well, if you enjoy your job so much, then it is NO LONGER WORK! That is, the denominator is ZERO hours of work. Which means ANY number divided by zero equals INFINITY!

That is:

$30/0 hour of work = $50/0 hour of work = infinity!

For those who are less mathematically inclined, think about Celine Dion and Pablo Picasso. You can't really compare how much they respectively earn. They probably feel so good to be able to make ANY amount of money doing what they love!

Surprisingly and paradoxically, because they chose their profession based on their talent and NOT the average salary for singers or painters, they end up with a lot of money to boot!

Dad's advice

When I was a kid, my father always told me: "Aide-toi et le Ciel t'aidera." (That's French for "Rely on yourself and God will help you.")

I took his advice seriously not just because he's my dad but specifically because he became wealthy BEFORE the age of 30.

It's a piece of advice that I rarely forget, and it has helped me over the years to summon the courage to do many new and exciting things, as well as get all the resources and people I need for my various projects.

How to serve the world with your gift

There are millions of blogs on the Web. I subscribe to only one: Dave Pollard's How to Save the World. He's really good.

His latest posting is powerful and inspiring, on what to do with one's life: http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/

The secret about capitalism

I studied business at McGill University and graduated in 1999 with distinction. Yet, I only truly learned about the nature of business and capitalism when I worked for a company after I graduated.

What happened was that I was hired as project coordinator, but after a few weeks, I saw an opportunity to distinguish myself as a rising manager. A corporate account was not being taken care of, so I took it upon myself to develop that account.

In a few months, I grew it to a six-figure account, and earned the respect of everyone around me, including my boss.

Then, one day, I was looking at my paycheque, and compared it to the continually growing revenue that I was bringing into the company, and the ultimate insight came to me!

This is what capitalism is all about! Company revenues keep growing, yet workers' salary remain the same! The difference is what they call the "profit rate." This is how the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

Of course, I was lucky in that I was able to see clearly the amount of marginal revenue that I brought into the company. Most workers do not have access to such data (especially if you're a staff employee, and not a line employee serving an actual client).

Why is this story included in this success blogzine?

Because there are many kinds of success, and the specific type of success you are looking for, you will usually get. If you want success as an employee, that's fairly easy: any business owner can help you become a successful employee, for the simple reason that they DO NOT want you to quit (it distrupts their business, you see).

But if you define success as financial independence, then you cannot achieve it as an employee (at least, not until you retire, by which time the best and most energetic and vigorous years of your life have passed).

Multimillionaire success formula

Andrew Carnegie's success formula HERE.

E-book on wealth creation

Secret book on wealth creation HERE.

I say "secret" because until the advent of the Internet, it would have been hard to find a physical copy of the book. But more importantly, "secret" here refers to the fact that most people will not easily find the meaning behind the words contained in the book. Indeed, it is a very hard read, and readers who are not serious about creating true wealth are unlikely to read the entire 64 pages.

None of my family or friends have read the book, apparently, or they would have shared it with me. I actually found it by accident, so here I am, sharing it with you. Perhaps you would like to share it with your friends, family and coworkers.

Enjoy!

Secret e-book on wealth creation

I have a secret, powerful e-book on wealth creation. It's easily one of the five BEST books I've ever read in my life. Only subscribers of this blogzine will receive it in two days by email, so please subscribe ASAP by entering your email in the box at the upper righthand corner. It will change your thinking and your life.

Note: if you have friends, relatives or coworkers you care about, please ask them to subscribe to this blogzine. They will appreciate your kindness.

People = Power

The adage used to be "information is power" when good information was scarce. Now that information is abundant, it seems that information is no longer power.

Maybe a better source of power is people. This is why we often hear the saying "it's WHO you know." Who you know, can open doors for you. (Of course, it does happen that sometimes, someone opens the door for you, but you don't have the courage to walk in and seize the opportunity!)

So we agree that people in the right places have more power than any information you can find on Google. Indeed, only people can make decisions or influence decisions that affect you.

So what is the single most important decision that affects you, and might even affect your family?

Well, it's a decision that affects your yearly income and even what you will be doing for a certain period of time, during the better part of every day and five days a week. Yup, it's the hiring decision.

In the old non-networked economy, there was usually one single person who made that decision: the HR director.

Today, it seems that many people are getting involved in shaping, influencing or facilitating that decision.

For example, with websites like www.h3.com and www.jobster.com (and I found these without even doing any extensive research), it seems that you will have to try to seduce not only the HR director, but a certain number of people who have a say in the hiring process.

Peter Drucker has written a while ago about the Network Society. Well, it's finally arrived! People will begin to realize that networking is fast becoming a critical skill for career advancement (or even career survival if you're desperately looking for a job pronto!).

Bottom line: If you're not in the loop, you're missing the scoop! The scoop might be that a company you like is considering the creation of a new job which, somehow, perfectly fits your skills, experience and career aspirations. If you are not connected (via LinkedIn, for example), then you might never learn about that incredible opportunity.

Even people going into business for themselves, rapidly realize that "every cashflow starts with a conversation." And usually, you begin the conversation with a stranger.

But strangers don't have to be "strange", and you don't have to feel strange if you speak to strangers. (Unless you're a kid, in which case I recommend NEVER to speak to strangers -- unless they wear a police badge and carry a big gun!).

In fact, all my friends were once strangers. If I hadn't spoken to them (or, in a few cases, tried unsuccessfully to flirt with them), we would never have become friends!

Conclusion: In today's society and economy, people is power!

Will headhunters share profits with you?

Prior to the advent of companies like H3 (www.h3.com), headhunters made a LOT of money by finding a suitable candidate for a (usually high-salary) job.

Now, it seems headhunters have no choice but to share their profits with a new breed of semi-professional headhunters called "talent scouts." (H3 has a free white paper on their site if you're interested).

It seems, therefore, that the highly connected people on LinkedIn can finally begin to make some money.

The best part, I think, is that because social ties are now monetized, it will motivate people to network more seriously. Networking is generally good to expand one's horizons and learn new things from new friends. Now, you can make money from it as well IF you are well connected.

Job search secret

SUMMARY - To find a job of $50,000, imagine that you are selling a product worth $50,000 to someone. This mindset will truly drive you to act as thoroughly and professionally as a salesperson selling such a high-price item.

DETAILS - If you were in the market for a car costing $50,000, you would do lots and lots of research, and would even test drive the car and kick the tires.

And most likely, the car salesman would mention all the awards that the car you're looking at has won last year and how it is the "best-selling car right now." And he has the documentation to prove it, too!

HR people are in that situation when they screen candidates applying for a job. They have to make a big, hugely important decision of "buying a product costing between $40,000 to $100,000."

The product, of course, is the human capital of the ideal candidate: education, experience, skills, energy, interpersonal abilities, etc.

Yet, most job searchers are simply not serious about selling themselves. They are obsessed about details like the resume and job interview. They think that a great-looking resume and a highly rehearsed interview will land them a job.

This is like the car salesman hoping that a glossy brochure, and a sit-down chat with a customer, will enable him to sell a $50,000 car!

What the car buyer really wants (and what HR managers really want) is objective documentation, a live demonstration of the capabilities of the car (or job candidate), and clear, objective answers to ALL his questions, fears and doubts (even the ones that are not raised in an interview because it would be impolite -- for example, most people make claims in their resume without being able to PROVE those claims. No job interviewer would say: "What you wrote is not credible, why don't you prove it to me?" Yet, it is the candidate's job to prove every important claim. After all, everybody knows that a resume is just a piece of clever fiction!).

If a job seeker adopts this mindset (that he must sell himself like as if he were selling a $50,000 product), I guarantee that he will be much sharper and more thorough in his presentation.

I've always had that attitude and I've always landed the jobs I wanted (at IBM, American Express, CDI Corporate Education Services, etc.). This has been my secret weapon for a long time and, well, it's no longer a secret!

How society deceives us

"Oh, man, oh, man! This is REALLY evil!"

That was my thought as I flipped through the book The Psychology of Influence, by Robert Cialdini. The book describes the 6 methods used by mass institutions, corporate advertisers and various news/culture media to deceive, trick and influence the minds of millions of people.

I picked up the book after it was recommended (highly) by billionaire Charlie Munger.

Later, it dawned on me that those methods of mass deception are precisely the reason why so few people actually succeed in life (whether you define success in financial, self-development or other terms).

Indeed, personal development gurus such as Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Stephen Covey, and financial success authors such as Robert Allen, Robert Kiyosaki, etc. have provided people for so long with clear, simple and powerful tools to succeed. Yet, the majority of people do not succeed.

In fact, only one person out of 20 ever achieve financial independence.

My insight, therefore, was that people are CONTINUALLY deceived by mass institutions and corporations, and this continuous deception was what prevented people from succeeding.

For example, you can read a great book on how to succeed as an entrepreneur. Yet, the minute you put down the book, you are bombarded by messages from society, and those messages lead your mind to think in erroneous ways.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how society deceives them, so they can perhaps develop what Noam Chomsky calls "intellectual self-defense."

I recommend the book to parents especially, because as your children grow, it is likely that society will become even more deceptive since there is the proliferation of media through which advertisers can reach your child's mind and heart (TV over wireless devices, cell phones, iPod, vPod, podcasting, etc.).

The key to getting smarter

SUMMARY - Billionaire Charlie Munger says that to get smarter, you have to constantly ask "Why? Why? Why?"

DETAILS - Why do the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer? Because the rich know secrets about wealth creation that the poor don't know. Why do the rich know? Because those secrets are passed on from generation to generation, within a family or a private club. These secrets are not even shared among friends (who often covertly compete against one another, to gain a social or romantic advantage).

If the poor don't know those secrets, why don't they look for them? Because, as Erich Fromm wrote in 1976, "the socioeconomic structure of society shapes people's social character so that they WANT to do what they HAVE to do." That is, people HAVE to show up for work every day so the company (and capitalism!) can survive, so society shapes people's psychology so that they WANT to get a job. Why does society or the government want people to have stable jobs? Because a stable job pays regular taxes (the government always gets paid BEFORE you get paid)!

Why is getting a job bad? Because, as multimillionaire Robert Kiyosaki wrote in Rich Dad Poor Dad, you never own a job. The company can take away your job anytime.

Why does the company want the ability to take away your job anytime? So they can exert power over you, through inducing in you the fear of losing your job. Why would people be afraid of losing their job? Because if they have a mortgage, then losing one's job is catastrophic: you lose your house.

Note: It's amazing to me that just spending 10 minutes to answer Why? Why? Why? questions clarifies a lot of things in my mind. Munger is totally right. It's the only way to truly get smarter.

Good news and bad news

In today's global economy, there's good news and bad news.

The good news is, you are in charge of your career. The bad news is, you are in charge of your career (!).

I don't (entirely) mean to be cute. That's the plain reality of today's economy: everybody is in charge of their own job, performance and career. Even if you have a good boss, he's probably very busy managing his own career (and his upward ascent to the corporate throne), so it would be unwise to rely on him too much.

So whether the fact that you're now in charge of your own career is GOOD news or BAD news all depends on how prepared you are.

It helps to think of your career in terms of two different aspects: the "business" aspect and the "management" aspect.

The business aspect is WHAT you do; the management aspect is HOW you do it.

Business aspect: What do you produce? For whom? Who is the customer? Who's paying for your work? Whose satisfaction must you closely monitor?

Management aspect: How do you do it? With whom? Using what tools or techniques? Who monitors your performance, you or someone else? What are the management metrics?

Microsoft clearly separates the two aspects: they leave it up to programmers to do the job as they wish, AS LONG AS the code is handed in every day, by 5 PM. Sharp.

Secrets from Charlie Munger

If you totally ignored everything I've posted on this blog, but just visited this link HERE, you'd learn a success secret more powerful than I can ever offer! Indeed, Charlie Munger has succinctly summarized the 24 systemic errors of judgment that most people make (and I confess I'm guilty of quite a bunch of those!). Enjoy.