The One Minute Millionaire (Book Review)

I meant to share this review with you earlier (it was one of the books I read in March), but better late than never! This book, The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth, was a pretty good one I must say. The authors are two people you may be very familiar with: Mark Victor Hansen (remember his Chicken Soup for the Soul series from the 1990′s that he created with Jack Canfield) and Robert G. Allen (author of the popular Nothing Down real estate investing books and Multiple Streams of Income). This isn’t a new book (it was originally written in 2002), but if you missed it, its a solid one to pick up.

What’s really unique about this book is that it’s two books in one — one half is personal development and wealth building tips/advice (on the left hand side pages) and the other half (on the right hand side pages) is a rags to riches type novel that illustrates the points made on the left side. The authors wanted to engage both sides of the readers’ brain, so this was an interesting way of doing that. I read the left side first and then went back and read the right side. I must admit that the novel really pulled me in!

Before I go into some of the nuggets of wisdom I highlighted from the book, I should tell you upfront that this is not a book full of specific actionable content, so those expecting that will likely be disappointed. However, this book is full of inspiration and ideas (just not detailed ideas) that may lead to an eye opening breakthrough, either with your mindset for success or with your wealth building (by gaining at least one solid money-making idea that you implement now or in the future).

Now with all that said…enjoy!

Principles of the Enlightened Millionaire
The Enlightened Millionaire pursues a principled approach to wealth:
1) First, do no harm. Create only abundance, never scarcity.
2) Second, do much good. The goal is to enrich oneself while enriching others.
3) Third, operate out of stewardship. Enlightened Millionaires are stewards over their financial blessings — enjoying the privileges of financial success while creating an ongoing legacy to bless others. The first proof of your commitment to make money to bless others is to give at least the first 10% away.

You create your own economy
No matter what is happening in the macroeconomy, the opportunity to create enlightened wealth is every present. No matter what is happening in your own microeconomy, there are dozens of ways to generate profits and prosperity.

Choosing your millionaire mountain
In the whole wide world of money there are only four major ways of becoming a millionaire.
1. Investments: accumulating shares of stocks, bonds, CDs
2. Real Estate: owning properties
3. Business: marketing products, services, or ideas
4. Internet: expanding possibilities

You should make an initial gut decision and choose one mountain to be your “major” and one to be your “minor”, understanding that inevitably you may end up doing all 4 in your journey to become a millionaire.

Everyone manifests: Thoughts are things. Every thought has a consequence. No thought lives in your brain rent-free.

Abundance: There is an ocean of abundance and one can tap into it with a teaspoon, a bucket, or a tractor trailer. The ocean doesn’t care.

Negotiating from abundance: The goal of negotiation is not to win at someone else’s expense. Rather, it is to expand what is possible. Success is defined by how much bigger the pie is after the negotiation than before. Negotiation thus becomes a blessing for all involved.

Words transform: “If it doesn’t serve, don’t say it.”

Wealth is freedom: You want to have enough money so that all your future days are prepaid. {I LOVE that! All your future days are prepaid…awesome}

Questions predetermine the answer. The size of your question determines the size of your answer. Few people ever ask million-dollar earning, inventing, generating, and creating questions. They are yours to ask.

Millionaires are masters at using the awesome power of leverage

OPM – Other people’s money
OPE – Other people’s experience
OPI – Other people’s ideas
OPT – Other people’s time
OPW – Other people’s work

Power of mentoring: In business, you are either leading edge, cutting edge, dull edge, or trailing edge. You need to be at the leading edge. To be there you must master a discipline. The quickest, safest, and easiest way to do this is to apprentice with someone who leads in that field.

Success is not a competition. There’s plenty of it to go around.

Create a list of the 200 people you want to meet, study, grow with, talk to, spend time with, and imitate until you can emulate, match, and surpass. You will be astounded how fast you synchronize in time and space with these folks.

Spiritual math: You’re either with God – multiplied by infinity. Or without God – multiplied by zero.

Intuition: Intuition is a tender flame. It can be influenced by a lot of things, but there are two factors you have to watch out for. One is greed, and one is fear. They’re like two bullies. The bully of fear can cause you to not do something that ought to do. But the bully of greed can influence you to do something that you ought not to do.

Write a book: We firmly believe that all people – including you – have at least one good book in them.

Anyone can do it: The only diploma that counts is a million-dollar idea. The only qualification needed is a burning desire. The only credential required is fearless action. Everything else can be borrowed or bought.

And finally….

Self-doubt drowns your dreams.
Hesitation holds you hostage.
Skepticism scares away your success.