Summary of “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” : If your subconscious “money blueprint” is not “set on” on success, nothing you learn, nothing you know and nothing that you accomplish will truly make a difference.
By T. HarvEker, 2006, 222 pages
This guest review was written by Sophie, author of the blog, Spirit of Success, in which she shares her passion for the personal and professional development of entrepreneurs, that is to say, all those who roll up their sleeves to build the life of their dreams.
Chronicle and summary of “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”
Introduction
The rich think in a certain way while the poor think in a very different way. The ways of thinking of each other determine their actions and thereby their results. To become rich, it’s necessary to start thinking how the rich think.
- HarvEker aims to gives us the missing link between wishing for success and achieving success. For there is effectively a world of differences between the two.
Part One
In the first part, T. HarvEker explains how each of us is conditioned to think and act in terms of money. He then presents four key strategies for revising our “money blueprint”.
What to understand: Roots create fruits
The laws of nature determine that what is in the ground creates what comes out of the ground, what is invisible creates what is visible.
Imagine a tree with fruits. If the fruits displease you for one reason or another, and you want to change them, you will have to change the tree, and more particularly, its roots. What you do to the fruits will not affect their nature. You can’t change the fruits that are already hanging on the tree. You can, however, change tomorrow’s fruits. And for that, we will have to dig into the soil and strengthen the roots.
We live in a world of causality
Our existence happens in at least four realms: the physical world, the mental world, the emotional world and the spiritual world. What is imperative to understand is that the physical world, the one we see, is only the consequence of the other three.
Money is a result, wealth is a result, health is a result, illness is a result, weight is a result. Our external world is only the result of our inner world. If things are not going well in our outer life, it’s because things are not going well in our inner life. And the only way to change them will be to change our inner world first.
Olivier’s note: I think that the reality is a little more complex than that: we may be the best in all areas of life, including in our inner world, it will not prevent some events, which are completely external to ourselves, to influence or intrude on us. If a tsunami hits us, we will die in seconds, despite all we have and all that we are. The physical universe has its own reality over which we have an influence, but of which the complexity often exceeds us.
The point of the approach described here is to decide to become responsible for our life, to take responsibility for our destiny. We cannot know what could fall on our head at the corner of a street, but we choose to take charge of our lives, despite all the obstacles that may come up against us. We change ourselves and change our environment to achieve our goals, and that ability is the strength and beauty of human nature.
As human beings, we are part of nature. This is how we have an internal money blueprint that determines our visible financial results.
We are determined by an internal money blueprint
What T. HarvEker calls the “mental or internal money blueprint” is a sort of financial thermostat that will continuously keep us in a certain financial zone. Thus, if we suddenly find ourselves with a large sum of money without being internally prepared, there is a big risk that this money will disappear very quickly. Everyone has already heard of these lotto winners who, no matter how large the prize money is, quickly return to their original financial state. That is, the amount they are used to handling.
In the same way, the millionaires who owe their fortune to their own efforts, will manage to recover their financial level quickly enough if they are led to lose their fortune. Donald Trump is a good example; he lost everything and then regained everything, and even more, a few years later. What happens is that, even if they lose their fortune, millionaires never lose the essential ingredient to their success: their millionaire mind.
We create our reality in a certain way
A very important formula summarizes how we create our reality and our financial situation:
T => F => A = R
Thoughts lead to feelings. Feelings lead to actions. Actions lead to results.
Everything comes from our thoughts.
And where do our thoughts come from?
Primarily information and programming that we have received in the past. In a way, to be complete, the formula we have just seen should be written:
P => T => F => A = R
The first P referring to your programming.
It will be by changing our programming that we will be able to take the first step to change our results. But before that, let’s see how this programming came about.
Three factors intervene in our programming
In every realm of our lives, including the financial realm, we are conditioned in three main ways.
The 1st influence: Verbal Programming
Everything we hear about money when we are young stays in our subconscious and directs our financial life.
Phrases like “money is the root of all evil, the rich are greedy, the rich are criminals, you have to work hard to make money, it’s not for people like us, we can’t afford it…”continue to have an impact on us as adults and guide all our decisions about money. If we are conditioned verbally to see wealth as something bad, or inaccessible to us, loyalty to our friends and family can very much prevent us from reaching a higher standard of living than those we love.
The 2nd influence: Modeling
We learn a lot by example. In terms of money as well, we tend to act as we saw our parents act. Therefore, it’s interesting to find out how our parents behaved. Were they spenders or thrifty? Did they invest wisely or not at all? Did they take risks or were they conservative? And did they always have money in the bank or was it sporadic? Did money come easily or was it difficult? Was money a source of joy at home or a cause of arguments?
In financial terms, most of us tend to be like one of our parents, or both. Unless you want to adopt a totally opposite attitude, out of anger or rebellion. Whatever we do, it’s not unrelated to what we experienced in childhood.
The 3rd influence: Specific Incidents
The experiences we make in relation to rich people, money, or wealth when we are children shape the beliefs that lead us into adulthood. Depending on whether we associate money with pleasure, freedom, security or otherwise, we will behave differently in financial matters.
If you have associated money with negative experiences, chances are that you will have trouble earning money or keeping it. On the other hand, if money evokes pleasant memories, it will certainly be easier for you to lure it to you.
In the same vein, it is important to find the reason for making money or succeeding. If the desire is rooted in fear, anger or the need to prove yourself, it is almost certain that money will not bring you happiness. Why? Because you can’t solve any of these problems with money. Money only accentuates what is already there.
If it’s fear, more money will only change the kind of fear that will have to be faced. Instead of being afraid of not having enough, you will be afraid of being attacked, stolen from, losing everything you have. Unless you tackle the fear at its roots, no amount of money can help you.
In the case of people who are driven to prove that they are good enough, no amount of money can really alleviate the pain of not feeling worthwhile. Since the outer world reflects the inner world, the belief of not being enough creates the reality of not having enough. The “not enough” becomes the dominant mode in which one operates.
As for anger as motivation to succeed, it will lead to an association of ideas between money and anger. Therefore, by having more money, you will have more anger. And if you want to get rid of anger, you unintentionally run the risk of also getting rid of your money.
4 strategies to revise your “money blueprint”
In relation to each of the influences determining our money blueprint, T. HarvEker proposes 4 key steps to change our programming:
1 – Awareness.
Before all things, to be able to change an attitude, a behavior, you must realize how you function. Therefore, it’s necessary to observe yourself and examine yourself under a magnifying glass to identify your thoughts, your fears, your beliefs, your habits, your actions and even your in actions.
2 – Understanding.
Then, we will try to find where our thinking comes from. We will recognize that it does not come directly from us and that it is not an integral part of ourselves. It’s only a file that was classified in our mind a long time ago.
3 – Dissociation.
From the moment we realized that our way of thinking was external to us, we can decide to keep it or let it go, depending on what we have become today and the goals we have for tomorrow.
4 – Declaration.
Finally, we will formally express our intention to do or be something, and to take all the necessary actions to turn that intention into a reality. A declaration is a positive affirmation that is expressed loudly with conviction, that sends a powerful message to our subconscious and releases a strong energy into all the cells of our body.
To conclude this first part, T. Harv Eker challenges the readers by asking them what their money blueprint is. To answer this question, he suggests that they examine the results.
“Check your bank account. Check your income and your net worth. And check your investment success. Check your business success. Check if you are spending or saving money. And check if you manage your money well. Check if you are consistent or inconsistent. Check how hard you work to earn your money. And check your relationships in light of the money. “
And if you’re not happy with your results, know that “the only way to change your financial success ‘permanently’ is to reset your financial thermostat, your internal money blueprint.”
Part two
In this part, T. Harv Eker presents the differences between the way the rich think and the way poor people or middle-class people view things. He develops seventeen attitudes and actions to adapt to permanently change one’s financial life.
As we saw in the first part, thoughts lead to feelings, which lead to actions, which lead to results. So, we can choose to think in ways that promote success rather than the opposite.
We can learn to think like rich people to achieve the same results as rich people. For rich people think very differently from poor people and the middle class. They think differently about money, wealth, themselves, others, and almost every dimension of life.
To think like rich people, we must, therefore, know how rich people think. This is what T. Harv Eker presents to us here, after having taken the precaution of stating that he does not want to denigrate the poor or seem to lack compassion for them. The author prefaces his remarks by apologizing for the “egregious” generalizations that he will make so that we can grasp and put into practice each principle laid out.
Here are his observations:
1- The rich believe: “I create my life”. The poor believe, “Life happens to me”.
The first secret of the millionaire mind is that, to make a fortune, it is imperative that you believe you are in control of your life, especially your financial life. You must believe that it is you who creates your success as well as your mediocrity or your difficulties in terms of money and success.
Instead of taking responsibility for what is happening in their lives, poor people play the victim. But a victim who is truly rich does not exist.
2- The rich play the money game to win. The poor play the money game to not lose.
The poor play the money game defensively. They are primarily concerned with their survival and security, whereas the rich seek wealth and abundance. If the intention is to just have enough to pay the bills, that’s what happens: just enough to pay the bills and not a penny more.
A secret of the millionaire mind is that if you aim to be financially comfortable, you may never become rich. However, if you want to be rich, you have the chance to become financially comfortable.
3- The rich are committed to being rich. The poor want to be rich.
Everyone has in their minds a wealth file that contains their personal beliefs about wealth. This file includes how wonderful it would be to be rich, but for many people, it also includes reasons why being rich might not be so great. Therefore, their minds are confronted with conflicting messages about wealth. They don’t know what they really want.
The poor usually have a lot of good reasons to believe that getting rich can be a problem, while the rich know perfectly well that they want wealth.
4- The rich think big. The poor think small.
Most people choose to think small. On the one hand, because they are afraid. Afraid of failure, and even more of success. But also, because they feel small. They feel unworthy and don’t feel good enough and important enough to make a real difference in people’s lives.
That said, the world doesn’t need more people who think small. The world needs natural talents and gifts from everyone. We have to share our value with as many people as possible, which means being willing to think big.
Thinking small and acting small leads to being broke and dissatisfied. Thinking big and acting big leads to being rich mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and most definitely financially.
5- The rich focus on opportunities. The poor focus on obstacles.
Another secret of the millionaire mind is that the rich see opportunities. The poor see obstacles. The rich focus on rewards. The poor focus on risks.
The poor make choices based on fear. They continually look at situations from the angle of what is wrong or might be wrong with them. Their first instinct is to say, “What if it doesn’t work?”, or, more often: “It won’t work”.
The rich react by instinctively saying, “It will work, because I’m going to make it work”. They expect to succeed. They trust their abilities, their creativity and believe that if it should go wrong, they would find another way to succeed.
6- The rich admire other rich and successful people. The poor resent rich and successful people.
Poor people often feel resentment, jealousy, and envy for the success of others. They behave as if they believed that the rich made them poor.
However, if you perceive the rich as bad in a certain way and you yourself want to be a good person, then you will never be rich. Indeed, how could you be what you despise?
Instead of resenting rich people, T. Harv Eker suggests trying to admire, bless, and like rich people. In this way, your mind subconsciously remembers that when you are rich, others will admire you, bless you, and like you, rather than resent you forever, as may be the case for you right now.
7- The rich associate with positive and successful people. The poor associate with negative and unsuccessful people.
Successful people observe other successful people with the goal of modeling after them and learning from them. They say to themselves that the quickest and easiest way to make a fortune is to find out exactly how the rich, who are masters of the money game, play it. Their goal is to imitate their strategies.
Unlike the rich, when the poor hear about the success of others, they often judge them, criticize them, make fun of them and try to belittle them. How can they learn and draw inspiration from those they despise?
Instead of making fun of the rich, imitate them. Instead of distancing yourself from the rich because they intimidate you, get to know them. Tell yourself, “If they can do it, I can do it too!”.
8- The rich are willing to promote themselves and their value. The poor think negatively about selling and promotion.
Being frustrated with sales and promotion is one of the biggest obstacles to success. People who complain about sales and promotions are often broke or about to become broke. It’s true that the market is full of products and services; it’s not enough to be the best; people still need to know.
Let’s say you know a very effective medicine for a particular problem. If you meet someone who is suffering from this problem, would you hide from them the means to cure themselves? Would you expect the other person to read your mind and guess that you have the remedy to his problem?
If you believe in your value, in the value of what you offer, why hide that from the people who need it? If what you have to offer can really help others, it is your duty to let as many people know as possible. In this way, you will help others, but that’s also how you can become rich.
9- The rich are bigger than their problems. The poor are smaller than their problems.
The road to riches is full of obstacles, traps and detours. That’s why most people don’t take this road. They don’t want any problems. At the sight of a challenge, they run for their life.
However, by trying to avoid problems at all costs, they find themselves faced with the biggest problem of all: they find themselves broke and miserable.
The secret to avoiding this is therefore not to try to avoid, eliminate or run away from problems, but to grow so as to become bigger than them. It is up to you to decide to be a bigger person and to not allow any problem, any obstacle to deprive you of your happiness or your success.
10- The rich are excellent receivers. The poor are poor receivers.
Most people don’t know how to receive. And since they don’t know how to receive, they simply don’t receive!
So, what can you do?
First, start by treating yourself. Give yourself some spending money to do things that you enjoy. In this way, you increase your self-esteem and you practice receiving.
Then, practice feeling crazily excited and grateful every time you receive or find money of any amount. When you have expanded your ability to receive, you will receive. Even better, when you are truly open to receiving, the rest of your life will open up. Not only will you receive more money, but you will also receive more love, more peace, more happiness, more satisfaction. In fact, how we do anything is how we do everything.
11- The rich choose to be paid based on results. The poor choose to be paid based on time.
The poor prefer to be paid a steady salary or hourly wage. They need the “security” they get from knowing that they will receive exactly the same amount of money at the same time throughout the year. What escapes them is that this security has a price. It costs them wealth. In fact, exchanging time for money means accepting to limit your income since the time itself is limited.
Living based in security is living based in fear. It is like saying to yourself: “I am afraid of not being able to gain enough based on my performance”.
The rich prefer to be paid according to the results they get, if not entirely, at least in part. They get their income from their profits. They believe in themselves, in their value, and in their ability to achieve results.
12- The rich think “both”. The poor think “either/or”.
The poor focus on limitations. They think that there is not enough, that they can’t have everything, that they must choose. They believe that you can’t have money and other dimensions of life, that you can’t have money and happiness, having your cake and eating it too. And they think in terms of “or”.
The rich focus on abundance. They think in terms of “and”. They are convinced that there is a way to have money and happiness, in the same way, that one can have arms and legs.
13- The rich focus on their net worth. The poor focus on their earned income.
The poor focus exclusively on the income they earn. The rich, for their part, have realized that wealth is really measured by net worth and not earned income.
To determine your net worth, calculate the value of everything you own (your cash, your investments, the value of your home if you have one, the value of your business if you have one), and then subtract from them all your debts.
To increase your net worth, focus on the four factors that make it up: income, savings, return on your investments, simplification of your lifestyle to reduce your expenses.
14- The rich manage their money well. The poor manage their money poorly.
The poor, either poorly manage their money, or completely avoid managing it under the pretext of not having enough.
The rich are not any more intelligent than the poor. Simply, they adopt different and more beneficial financial habits.
1. Harv Eker suggests a surprisingly simple and effective financial management method. Open separate bank accounts where you will pay:
- 10% of your after-tax income to increase your financial freedom with investments. This is the goose that lays the golden eggs, which you will never touch. There will come a day when you can take the eggs and use them, but you will never touch the capital itself.
- 10% for a play account that will serve to balance the “goose”, by treating yourself. It is reserved for very special things like going to the restaurant and ordering a bottle of the best wine or champagne. Or staying in a luxury hotel or getting massages or beauty treatments, etc. The rule of the play account is to spend the balance every month.
- 50% for necessities and common expenses
- 10% for long-term savings, irregular expenses
- 10% for your education, your learning, your personal development
- and 10% to donations
15- The rich have their money work hard for them. The poor work hard for their money.
While there is no doubt that working hard is important, working hard alone won’t make you rich. Millions and even billions of people work like slaves for a long time without being rich. Quite the opposite. While we see the rich spend their afternoons playing golf, shopping or lounging in a luxury hotel, etc.
For the rich, working hard to make money is only temporary. They work hard until their money works for them and takes over. For the poor, working hard is a permanent situation. This is an important principle of the well-known book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, by the American author, Robert Kiyosaki.
16- The rich act in spite of fear. The poor let fear stop them.
Rich and successful people have fears, doubts, worries but they do not allow these feelings to paralyze them. Poor and unsuccessful people have fears, doubts, worries and they let these feelings paralyze them.
If you want to make a fortune or succeed, you must be willing to do what is necessary, you must not let anything or anyone stop you.
“If you are only willing to do what is easy, life will be difficult. But if you are willing to do what is difficult, life will be easy.”.
17-The rich constantly learn and grow. The poor think they already know.
The poor often try to prove that they are right. They give the impression that they already know everything and that it is only because of bad luck or a temporary hitch if they are broke or have difficulties.
That said, if you are not actually rich and happy, there is a good chance that you still need to learn about money, success, and life.
The poor claim they can’t afford to educate themselves because of a lack of time or money. The rich, on the other hand, identify with Benjamin Franklin’s quote: “If you find that education is expensive, then try ignorance.”.
Book critique of “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”
Not only can Secrets of the Millionaire Mind lead you to become rich financially, but it is also a guide for bringing wealth to all areas of your life. It demonstrates how personal development is at the root of financial development.
I thoroughly enjoyed the ‘internal money blueprint’ concept. I found it clear and straightforward. Furthermore, what I liked was learning that I had the power to change things. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind was not the first book on money I have read, but it was the one that provided me concrete solutions that I could immediately apply.
Then, the suggestion to model the rich by explaining to us how they thought and worked was a moment of pure happiness for the NLP programmer that I am. Is doing the same as successful people the best way to achieve the same results?
When I reread the respective money blueprints of the rich and the poor, it seems so obvious! For some, I say “OK, you’re getting there!”, but for others, I see that there is still some way to go. And that’s what’s great: the road to the destination is as appealing as the destination itself!
As the author puts it, “Becoming rich doesn’t have so much to do with becoming financially rich as it does with the person one must become, in character and mind, to become rich. I want to tell you a secret that few people know: The fastest way to get rich and stay rich is to work on and improve yourself!”.
He elaborates on some principles that are important to me and that I myself elaborated on in my blog, especially the one of responsibility, or the one of commitment.
This very in-depth review may give you the impression of knowing enough on the subject and not having to read the book. However, it would be a mistake not to go through it because it’s full of practical exercises. And as you know, it’s not knowledge that creates change, it’s action!
Strong points
- A real personal development approach to increase your income, especially in the context of business.
- A direct style that is simple and easy to understand
- Humorous.
- Concrete examples, personal testimonies, striking metaphors to illustrate the point.
- At each stage, there are specific exercises to immediately apply what has been said.
- Interesting concepts to apply in your financial life but also valid for all areas of life.
- Very content rich.
Weak points:
- A somewhat muddled structure, especially in the first part.
- Difficult to summarize because almost everything is important.
My rating : 
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