Review: How Ordinary People Became Millionaires

A Japanese study on how to become a millionaire

I found an interesting book titled “How Ordinary People Became Millionaires” written by Ken Honda (in Japanese – I’m bilingual and have access to the whole lot of resources non-Japanese speaking people have not. . .)

What’s really interesting is that the author surveyed not only the millionaires in Japan but also asked the same questions to non-millionaires. The result was startling. Millionaires do think and act differently from the rest of the population.
(Photo by Leefotos)

The millionaire mind is the entrepreneurs’ mind.

The book says four out of five millionaires surveyed made their fortune themselves. Even in old country like Japan, entrepreneurship is the main way to build wealth (51%, including independent specialists such as lawyers and accountants), followed by corporate senior management (24%) and heirs of inheritance (18%). So the millionaire mindset is also the successful entrepreneurs’ mindset.

Here is what I’ve learned about the millionaire mindset vs wannabes mindset. Which do you identify with more? (While the book often makes contrast between the Wannabes and real Millionaires, I did add my own 2c in Wannabes descriptions to supplement. I think I know what it is like to be a Wannabe. . .)

1. Possibilities

Wannabes: Unless I win the lottery, there is no way I can become a millionaire.
Millionaires: It’s very possible to be rich and I work hard every day toward this goal.

2. Work

Wannabes: I chose my job for the pay and working conditions (such as location).
Millionaires: I chose my business because I love doing this, I am good at doing this, and I can make people happy doing this.

Wannabes: I hate what I do. When I get a better job, I’d work harder. (But I have little idea what that is.)
Millionaires: I do my best in whatever I am doing, and this is how I’ve found what I love to do.

Wannabes: I work to get paid. What else?
Millionaires: I work to grow as a person and to contribute to the society.

3. Money

Wannabes: Show me the money.
Millionaires: The money follows me when I deliver value.

Wannabes: Millionaires use money lavishly.
Millionaires: It is critical to use money mindfully. Also, it’s important to get the best life out of things. (One proudly reports he has been driving the same car for 19 years.)

Wannabes: I’m not interested in money. Money doesn’t buy me happiness. (Actually, I think million dollars will make me happy, but I’m not going to admit it.)
Millionaires: Money is energy, and so it’s critical to grow big and strong as a person so that you can manage money, rather than being managed by money. No, money doesn’t automatically buy you happiness.

4. Luck

Wannabes: Luck is everything to get rich. And I have no control over luck.
Millionaires: Luck comes to those who do the honest hard work, and I can find and catch it.

5. Failure

Wannabes: I hate failures. I’m afraid of failures.
Millionaires: We learn through overcoming failures. My success came through learning from failures.

Wannabes: Gosh, I messed up! What am I gonna do? This is the end of the world.
OR, Well, maybe something will work out. . .
Millionaires: This is what happened, and these are the things I can do. Let’s prioritize them. I need to be honest and ask for help . . .

6. People

Wannabes: I have some friends, but I’m pretty much on my own.
Millionaires: I’m grateful for all the people who have guided me and supported me. I have the trust of many people (50+) because I always do my honest best.

Wannabes: What do you have for me? Right now? (Isn’t this how rich people use others?)
Millionaires: I treat everyone with respect. Relationships are for long-term, and it’s important to cultivate deep meaningful relationships. Luck often comes through people, but that is not the purpose of meeting people.

7. Mentor

Wannabes: Mentor? You mean someone who can teach me job skills?
Millionaires: I have mentors. I learn more about life from my mentors.

8. Relationship

Wannabes: I don’t like talking about work at home.
Millionaires: My spouse is my best supporter. We talk about everything. My spouse is the source of my courage and insights. (It doesn’t necessarily mean the spouse is involved in their businesses.)

9. Education

Wannabes: Go to school, get good grades, get a good job.
Millionaires: The best education is the rich life experiences that prepares a person to changing times and to help the person to meet many people. It’s also important to find what you like doing through these experiences.

Wannabes: Education adds credentials to get a good job.
Millionaires: Education is not only about formal education. Any experience that you can learn the desired skills, such as apprenticeship, is good education. (Some reports taking low-paying jobs as a way to learn the trade and to build network.)

10. Vision and Decision-Making

Wannabes: Another hard day. Let’s just watch TV to unwind . . .
Millionaires: I think about what I’ll be doing 10 years from now, and prepare for it today.

Wannabes: I’ll think about it tomorrow.
Millionaires: Practice making many decisions. You need to shoot many times to get good at it. And do it fast. (The author reports the wealthiest group returned the survey answers the quickest.)

Wannabes: I’ll do it if I feel like it.
Millionaires: I have a clear vision for my life and business and make decisions based on the vision.

Wannabes: . . . (analysis paralysis) . . .
Millionaires: I make decisions intuitively.

What is surprising is there is nothing surprising about millionaires’ way of thinking.

Each statement is so common sense. Yet when you read carefully, you notice there is something extraordinary about them. For instance, do you have 50 or more people supporting you? Do you feel you can attract good luck?

Overall, do you see how millionaires take ownership of their lives, think long-term and positive while the wannabes are opportunistic, short-sighted and sound bitter?

Is this really the secret of their success?

Now some of you may be thinking “This is just BS. These millionaires are hiding the secret of their success.” Well, I don’t know any of them, so I have no reason to defend them, but I do think they mean what they say. Why? Because it makes sense.

Go back and read what they say, this time just the millionaires’ parts. Do you see how each aspect of their life work together with other aspects, making the whole a streamlined system of thoughts and actions?

They do the honest hard work and deliver value to their customers, which delights the customers, leading to attract more customers and business opportunities (=luck). When there is a problem, the people around them support them because they know they are trustworthy. They learn from their failures and grow stronger. When they go home, they are the same trustworthy person who love what they do, still talking and thinking about their businesses with passion. They learn from everyone and everything, and this feedback to their business growth . . .

There is no contradiction, no isolated aspect, no waste of energy. The whole system of their thoughts and beliefs is perfectly aligned with the universal truth of love and abundance.

I think this is yet another example of the Law of Attraction at work

It’s hard work, but it’s not just hard work. It’s a lot more than that. I think it’s the whole system of thoughts and action in alignment.

What do you think about these millionaires / entrepreneurs? Do you want to follow their way?

Gratitude And 10 Things That Make Me Happy – Online Gratitude Journal #6

(Photo by Mr. Greenjeans)

10 Things That Make Me Happy And Grateful

Jennifer Mannion at Heal Pain Naturally tagged me to write about 10 Things That Make Me Happy. And grateful. I tend to think too abstract, so today I’m going to ground myself and write about specific 10 things in my life (in no particular order):

1. Trees. The area I live have so many trees. Tall cedars. Round maples. Smaller ones in blossoms. I feel like I can talk with them if I just practice a bit more. They are beautiful.

2. Hibiscus tea. Mine is from The Republic of Tea, Organic Glowering Fruit Tea. It’s supposed to be good for the lower chakra, but I also think it’s heavenly.

3. Comments. I love reading comments on this blog. It’s very encouraging. Writing can feel like a lonely work sometimes, and the comments help me remember there are people all over the world who are reading this. And Yes to Me gets quite many comments – thank you.

4. When I wake up feeling refreshed, get most of my Akashic Record Reading work done in the morning so that I can spend the afternoon writing and doing the phone sessions, that is a great feeling. It doesn’t always work that way – I’m just a human and not always in my best condition, and some readings take longer than usual (which I feel compassionate for), but when it does, I feel peace.

5. Referrals. The best part of my business is it delights my clients. I guess I can make money in so many ways, but this feeling of bringing positive change to people’s lives is priceless. I am so happy when my clients say “This is great. Can you do this for my (spouse, child, friend, etc.)” Such an honor.

6. People who understand there are seasons for produce and fish. For the total of 13 years, I lived in the inland states where everyone thinks fillet of fish is the same taste year round. Like something that comes from a factory. Now I’m in Oregon, I see ads that celebrates the salmon season has arrived! God bless.

7. Bath. I like the hot bath in winter, and I still like it in summer. I’m Japanese.

8. Air conditioner. I’m a houseplant – I must be in the right temperature. The portable air I bought this year is a bit noisy (it’s not any noisier than any air, but when it is sitting only a few feet away from my desk, it can be distracting.), but it sure beats the afternoon heat.

9. Locally grown berries. It’s now raspberry season. Did I already write about berries a few weeks ago? Am I too much of a foodie? I love going to grocery stores since I moved to Oregon.

10. My health. I’ve in good health all my life basically. Never broke a leg, either – all original parts. My knees are a bit weak and I need to be careful about what exercise I do and how much, but all in all, I feel good about my physical body.

Wow, this simple exercise does make me feel good! I realize how abundant the world is!

Now I’m tagging my fellow psychics to share this goodie:
Mags of Woo-Woo Wisdom — Read her list here.
Irene of Light Beckons — Read her list here.
(What, you didn’t know I was a professional psychic? Please check this page ^_^ Don’t be scared . . . I don’t read you off your face.)

Link love

Monica Flores published her eBook “Fifty-One Ways to Build your Community of Clients Online” Good job, Monica!

My article “What We Can Learn From Successful Entrepreneurs” just appeared on Pick The Brain. It’s about the Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs I’ve been doing on this blog. Even if you missed any post in the series, don’t miss this article – it’s a crunch course of great entrepreneurship.

I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the interview guests of the series. And this is an ongoing series – if you know someone who has built a profitable business that resonate with who he or she is, please let me know. Or do you know any online entrepreneur you are interested? Let me know in the comment. (The interview is not limited to online entrepreneurs, but because I’m online, I’m assuming majority of the interview guests have online presence.)

My Law of Attraction Dream Money Project, Week 5, $1600

I’m starting to realize how challenging it is to expand my wealth consciousness. $1600! I’m looking around my house (I mean, currently my apartment.) Do I have anything that cost me more than $1000? My leather sofa was just under $1000 several years ago, I think. Oh, I have the sleep number bed (I don’t quite like it because it sags in the middle, but it is comfy). I think that’s about it. . . Gee, I didn’t know how cheap I was . . .

So what do I want to do if I had this dream money? Something I really enjoy, something I would actually get given the chance . . .

I’d like to go to antique shops. I love antique furniture and potteries. I hope to find an old tansu chest. I need a chest of drawers in my bedroom, but I’ve been putting off the purchase because I hate getting a junk. If I’m buying a large piece of furniture, I want to get something of quality. Now an antique chest may be beyond “quality” but it will be so nice . . . And living in the Pacific coast side, I may get lucky to find a tansu chest, made of solid wood and beautiful iron brackets.

By the way, I’m reading an interesting book called “How Ordinary People Became Millionaires” which has a lot to do with entrepreneurs. (Majority of millionaires are entrepreneurs.) I will write the review next week.

How will you use $1600 of dream money?

Bonus link: Andrea just launched her second blog. Read Money and Purpose.

Power of Two: James Chartrand and Harrison McLeod

(Photo by leefotos)

Welcome to the Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series! This is where we learn the startup secrets from those who actually took the leap. Before becoming entrepreneurs, they were professionals and managers, or college students, just like you. From there, they made the changes. . .

Milestone in this Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series

This is the 10th post of the series! I’m so grateful for all the interview guests who so gracefully took the time to do this with me.

Today’s guests are the gorgeous duo from Men With Pens. What is remarkable is they each have special roles in the team that make the pair far more than the sum of the two. Thinking back, I have already interviewed two pairs of entrepreneurs, Kim & Jason, who are married couple, and Skip & Yasmine, who started off as a solo entrepreneur and college intern. Further, Monica, Naomi, and Laura each have their partners in business. Is two better than one to succeed as entrepreneurs? Read on.

1. Tell us a bit about your business and why you started it.

James: Our business offers full-service web presence to individuals, the self-employed and businesses that want to get online. We provide website creation, design services, content writing services, WordPress installation and setup services… If it’s written or needs to look good, we’re the guys for the job. In short, we help people earn a living through the web. Feels good to do that.

Harry: We started our business years ago out of strict need. James had left his job and faced a long, hard winter with no income and two children to feed. I suggested poking around online for work. He found it, and within three months, I left my full-time job to step into working in our own business.

James: That’s the boring answer. We find that many people are much more interested in how we became the daring duo taking the blogosphere by storm.

Harry: It all started with creative writing and role-playing games (RPG). We met on an RPG forum and became close friends very quickly. Our skill sets were completely different and yet those skills meshed so well together that they created a strong foundation for massive potential.

We saw the opportunity for a rocking partnership, and we seized it. We haven’t looked back since.

2. What were the three biggest challenges when you were starting as new entrepreneurs?

Harry: Learning the ropes had to be number one. We had the skills and the business knowledge we needed, but we knew very little of bringing this to the virtual world. We learned many lessons the hard way, invested a ton of time to understand web working and we spent a great deal of money on self-education. It was a long, rough ride and it took a lot of dedication to make it work.

James: The problem was that most of what we found was garbage information. We were taken for a ride many times because of poor advice. That’s why we made it our vision to offer better to people so that they didn’t have to make the same mistakes we did (hence, our blog offering solid, reputable advice).

Harry: Another challenge was creating a solid system that allows us to fully share and collaborate from a distance of 3,000 miles. It isn’t easy to work together in an office that doesn’t really exist. We tapped into every resource possible to create a virtual office that lets us work side by side, no matter how far apart we are.

James: I have to say that a definite challenge I believe many people overlook is adapting to cultural differences and international business. When you look at the virtual world only from your country’s perspective, you find out quickly that there’s much more than you out there – and you need to change your ways and methods to welcome all people with their differences.

I’ll toss in a bonus challenge, too: Realizing that your life has completely changed is a huge wake-up call. Being an entrepreneur is more than just working on your own for a living. You suddenly wear many hats and you suddenly have to be an expert at everything, from salesperson to customer service representative to accountant to business CEO.

Harry: Yeah, that was a huge wake-up call for me. It’s hard to run a business and I think many people feel it’s so easy. It isn’t. Your business hours rise and your personal free time dwindles – and I think these reasons cause many new businesses to fail. People are unprepared to overcome these obstacles and aren’t ready to step into such big shoes.

3. And how did you work through these challenges?

James: I think that it’s a combination of too many factors to list here. I do know that you have to know your strengths and use them while recognizing your weaknesses and finding ways to work around them.

We’re lucky to be two people that work together, because we complement and enhance each other’s ability.

Harry: I think we’re also lucky in that we’re very different people and our personalities, strengths and weaknesses balance each other nicely. That’s important – if you don’t have balance, the whole venture becomes that much harder and you burn out quickly.

4. What is the best part of being an entrepreneur for you?

Harry: I don’t consider myself an entrepreneur at all. James is the front man with the visions. He’s out there chasing the dreams. I’m working behind the scenes to support him and help make those dreams a reality. That isn’t entrepreneur in my definition of the word. But what I do is a very important part of the business.

James: That’s true. I need him, he needs me, and when we make it work, it’s fantastic. Knowing that we are able to reach any goal we want and having the confidence to do so is the best feeling in the world.

Also, it’s extremely fulfilling to know that we can help others reach their goals. Having our business lets us reach that vision every day.

5. Any advice for people who dream to have their own business and yet find it hard to make the leap?

James: Establish a Plan B. And C. And D and all the way to Z. Never leap without a safety net, and at the same time, always be ready to seize the opportunities you have and take the plunge. There’s no such thing as failure – there is only learning experiences.

My Takeaway
Wow, partnership is attractive. I guess it can make the business a lot stronger if I can find the right partner.
I also find James’ comment on cross-cultural understanding interesting. He is English – French bilingual, and I’m English – Japanese bilingual. It makes me think maybe there are more ways I can utilize my special background that typical Americans don’t, or help people who only speak English. Not necessarily translation . . . something bigger . . .

Are you a solo entrepreneur or do you have a partner? If you are looking to start a business, do you intend to go by yourself or do you want to find a partner?

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