What I found in my research is that

there's a series of qualities that

self-made millionaires have if you
have these qualities your success is
virtually guaranteed the first is to
develop a clear sense of direction
you can't hit a Target that you can't
see you've got to know what you
want in every area of your life
some years ago I worked with a
HUD Oil Company in Texas the
hot oil company was founded by
H.L hunt who became the
wealthiest self-made multi-
jillionaire billionaire in the world
at his Peak he owned 200
companies and had a royalty
income of three million dollars a
day and he was interviewed by a
friend of mine on television before
he died in the early 70s and he was
 asked what are the secrets to
success he said the keys to success
have only been to through all my
life and I will tell you what they
are he said number one he said
decide exactly what it is you want
and write it down and number two
is determine the price you're going
to have to pay to get it and then
resolve to pay that price now let
me give you a quick exercise
which is my only take home or
homework exercise for our time
together I want you to take a piece
of paper like this and write down
10 goals that you'd like to
accomplish in the next 12 months
write the word goals in today's date
at the top of the page write down
10 goals you'd like to accomplish
and then ask yourself this great
 question if you could only
accomplish one goal on this list
which one goal would have the
greatest positive impact on your
life now this is a great question
because it'll usually jump out at
you you'll say that's the one if I had
this that would have more of an
impact on my life than anything
else put a circle around that goal
and then turn the page over and
write it at the top of the page set a
deadline on the goal make a list of
everything that you could think of
to do to achieve the goal and then
begin working on your list and
here's the kicker do something
every day do something every day
that moves you one step forward
towards your major goal my
promise to you that this exercise
selecting your most important goal
making a plan and working on it
every day will change your life in
ways that you cannot imagine it is
the secret to becoming a self-made
millionaire my promise to you is a
week a month a year from now you
look back and you'll be absolutely
staggered at the difference it makes
I was giving a seminar not long
ago and a Gentleman came up to
me said you know that goal setting
exercise it changed my life he said
I was broke I was divorced he says
I would as an alcoholic and
somebody dragged me to one of
your seminars he said and I did that
exercise and I picked my major
goal he said it changed my life I
said in what way he said today he
said I'm worth 40 million dollars I
 said wow he said yes and I owe it
to that lesson number two is trust
your ideas and that's the only
difference between very wealthy
successful people and the average
person is that they simply follow
their intuition they're not smarter
they're not different they're not
more educated they're not more
talented they just follow that inner
guide according to the research all
you need is an idea that's 10 new to
start a Fortune interesting point the
single greatest source of self-made
millionaires in America do you
know what industry it is can you
guess you wouldn't believe it dry
cleaning dry cleaning shops is the
greatest single Source One industry
that's contributed more self-made
millionaires than any other
 industry and I'm going to tell you
something most people become
millionaires by offering a good or
service that people use all the time
and they offer it just a little bit
better if they do it just a little bit
faster they put a little bit more
grace or finesse into what they're
doing they handle it they wrap it
they are more polite the the
restaurant that has people coming
back to it may have food that's
only five percent different but it's
the way the people handle it that's
so different you can you can do
anything you want in life all you
have to do is find an idea that's 10
new and you'll find it if you flood
your mind read magazines read
books ask questions ask why
people are doing things the way
 they're doing look for ideas keep
your mind open and flexible
remember one new idea is all you
need to start a fortune and within
every single person here you have
four ideas an average of four ideas
per year driving to and from work
any one of which will make you a
fortune any one of which will
make you wealthy how many times
I can prove it to you want me to
prove it to you how many times
have you been going about your
daily business and you you see the
need for a product or service and
you said I wonder why somebody
doesn't produce that and then two
or three years later a company
comes out with that idea or some
company and makes a million
dollars that you say I thought of
 that idea two or three years ago
every single person here has had
that experience what you have to
do is trust your ideas number three
is practice what top people practice
which is what is called idealization
you project forward several years
and you imagine that your life is
perfect in every way now what we
have found is this is the starting
point of great riches and it's the
starting point of great success in
life is for you to have a dream or a
vision of a wonderful future here's
an exercise that we give people in
our audiences is take a sheet of
paper and make up what is called a
dream list it just allows you to just
run wild and just write down
everything that you could think of
that you could possibly want I had
a friend who I taught this to and he
got so excited about he bought a
spiral notebook and he began
writing and he go through the
newspaper and every single thing
he saw in the newspaper that was
nice he wrote it down the school he
ended up first time through with
330 goals with the end of the
month he had 500 things that he
wanted the interesting thing was
that his life exploded he he
activated the Law of Attraction and
he began to attract into his life
people circumstances ideas
resources insights this began to
move him toward the
accomplishment of the goals and
began to move the goals toward
him the next key to becoming a
self-made millionaire is to get
 around the right people this is a
key for becoming a self-made
millionaire why Dr David mccone
at Harvard did studies for 25 years
looking into why it is that some
people succeeded greatly in life
what he found was this as much
says 99 of your success in life is
going to be determined by what he
called your reference group your
reference group are the people with
whom you habitually associate
why is because we are like
chameleons and we absorb through
the skin the attitudes the opinions
the behaviors the style of dress the
style of speech of the people with
whom we associate most of the
time if you start to associate with
winners most of the time you find
that they have a totally different
 worldview they're positive they're
upbeat they're focused they're
learning they're growing they're
positive of what they're doing and
you start to become like that there
is what you've heard about the law
of attraction and the Law of
Attraction says that if you change
the way you think you start to
attract new people into your life if
you become aggressive about
personal development and personal
growth you start to meet other
people who think the same way
and the old groups of people that
you associated with fall away and
the new group of people appears so
people say well where do I find
positive people who are thinking
about success all the time first you
become one and then you will
naturally Attract it next is refuse to
consider the possibility of failure
the rule is this is there's no such
thing as failure there's only
feedback to become a self-made
millionaire you're going to fail
over and over again year after year
after year but your brain has a
cybernetic mechanism which
means that everything sometimes
you try something you get
feedback which makes you smarter
and when you try something else
you get feedback which makes you
smarter and eventually you reach
the point where you're too smart
and you stop making mistakes you
start to do more and more things
right and fewer and fewer things
wrong but you can't get there
unless you experience the failures
 now let me pass on one Great rule
to you which has been discovered
in interviewing self-made
millionaires self-made millionaires
look into every failure for
something good they say there's
got to be something good in this
that I can benefit from and surprise
surprise they always find it second
is self-made millionaires always
seek the valuable lesson in every
setback or obstacle or temporary
failure and they always find the
lesson now what do failures do
think about what they've lost and
blame their problems on someone
else successful people say what can
I learn from this that will make me
smarter next time and my promise
to you those who seek find is that
if you go looking for a valuable
 lesson in the biggest problem that
you're facing today you'll always
find the lesson here's another
possibility your biggest problem
today could be the biggest gift that
you have ever received because it
may contain within it the lesson
that will make you successful if
you stop thinking about what
happened and who's to blame and
you start looking for the gift within
your problem sometimes it can
transform your life and I love the
line from Socrates that says the
unexamined life is not worth living
which means that the life where
you do not take the time to reflect
on your experiences Aristotle said
that wisdom is an equal measure of
experience plus reflection and the
reason so few people have wisdom
 is what they have as experience
experience experience but they
never take the time to sit back and
reflect on what's Happening to
them reflect on what they're
learning how many people here
have seen people get out of bad
relationships and get immediately
back into bad relationships or get
out of a lousy job and immediately
join a company and get into
another lousy job what is the
natural thing that people do they
they get fired or laid off from a job
they quit they go down the street
and they look for what and another
job exactly just like and I exactly
like it well the next is to develop a
workaholic mentality the average
self-made millionaire in America
Works 12 to 13 hours a day works
about 60 to 65 hours a week i'll tell
you this with regard to hard work
that you in our society you only
work eight hours a day for survival
everything over eight hours is for
success and if you're only working
eight hours a day you're in trouble
if you're only working eight hours
a day you better have a rich uncle
or you better have somebody else
who's going to take care of you
because eight hours a day only gets
you survival in our society because
it's so competitive that somebody
else is working nine they've got an
edge on you somebody else is
working 10. They've got a bigger
Edge on you every hour over eight
that you invest is an investment in
your future is an investment in
your success and if you put in the
 hours over eight whether it's
studying or reading or working if
you put in the hours it will pay off
and it will pay off in Spades it's
like throwing seed in the ground
when you throw a seed in the
ground the plant that comes up is
not just one seed it's hundreds of
seeds there's a crop that you put in
but you must put the seed in the
ground first the next key is to
dedicate yourself to lifelong
learning now what takes you from
Rags to Riches is personal
development if you're not
constantly learning you're actually
falling behind so here are the three
keys to continuous learning
number one is read in your field 30
to 60 minutes each day in other
words turn off the television turn
 off the radio put aside the
newspaper and just read in your
field the very best places to read by
the way are books because books
contain a wealth of riches that can
enable you to function at a far
higher level i've had people tell me
countless people over the years that
reading an hour a day has doubled
and tripled their income within a
year the second thing you do is
take every course that you possibly
can when you take a course you
can learn enough information in
one or two days more than you
could learn in two or three years or
maybe even a lifetime some years
ago I had a dentist and just before
he retired he sold his practice for
about two million dollars just
before he retired he told me why he
 said about that eight years before
he had attended a dental Congress
in Hong Kong he's front this is
from California it flown all the
way to Hong Kong to attend this
International Dental Congress
because there were Specialists
giving private lectures sort of
plenary sessions on the side and he
attended this session and it was on
a particular technique of cosmetic
surgery that this dentist had
developed that no one else knew
where you could basically
straighten out a person's entire
front jaw so they looked beautiful
at a very low cost at a very high
level of Effectiveness he came
back and he began implementing
this in his practice people began
flying from 500 a thousand miles
 away every dentist sent their
families members and themselves
to this dentist he was able to charge
whatever he wanted to charge from
what he learned from one session
at one convention at one course
now that's that is a true story and
maybe it's an exception but you
can never tell where the
information is going to come from
the third way that you can upgrade
your skills is listen to audio
program in your car the average
driver drives to our 500 to 1000
hours a year 25 to 50 000 miles if
you listen to audio programs in
your car according to the
University of Southern California
you will get the equivalent of
almost full-time University
attendance just listening to learning
material as you drive around here's
an interesting point the more you
commit yourself to becoming the
best person you can be the more
you like yourself and respect
yourself the more energy you have
the bigger goals you set for
yourself the more you persist when
you invest in yourself and you read
and learn and upgrade your skills
you're telling yourself wow I am a
person with a great future and it's
up to me to maximize my potential
and your self-esteem goes up your
self-respect goes up your sense of
personal Pride goes up and you
started to get promoted more and
and paid more on in every part of
your life next is be prepared to
climb from Peak to peak one of the
keys to becoming a self-made
 millionaire is to realize that life is
never one continuous train it's
always up and down so it goes up
like if you climb a mountain peak
you have to go down into the
valley before you climb the next
Peak so all of life is cycles and
Trends we say this is that life is
two steps forward and one step
back successful people focus on
the two steps forward and then
they protect themselves on the
downside they build up cash
reserves they put in stop-loss
orders on their stock market they
very carefully watch what they're
doing so they try to maintain that
two steps up and then make sure
that the one step back is not so far
and then they want to make sure
that this curve is generally upward
 so that each time there's a step
back they're still further ahead than
they were before the next one
which is to develop resilience and
bounce back you're going to you're
going to be knocked down over
and over again and what we know
is my friend Charlie Jones says is
you have to bounce don't break
well here's the rule is all of life is a
continuous series of problems they
never end the problems just keep
on coming like the waves of the
ocean the only break in this
unbroken series of problems will
be the occasional crisis so life will
be problem problem problem crisis
it's like the waves of the ocean six
problems in a crisis six problems in
a crisis which means that
everybody here is either in a crisis
 right now has just gotten out of a
crisis or is just about to have a
crisis so what we have found is this
the Hallmark of superior people 30
years of research is how you
respond to a crisis and what we
have found is this is superior
people look for the solution to
every problem they don't allow
themselves to become upset and
angry when something goes wrong
they say okay what's the solution
and they become intensely solution
oriented when you have a very
intense problem that stimulates
creativity to solve the problem so
what you do is you write and
Define the problem Clarity if you
have a problem you say wait a
minute what is my problem what is
it that I'm worried about and write
 it down and the Very Act of
defining a problem clearly often
triggers the solution to the problem
one last technique that I want to
give you with regard to your major
definite purpose and if you only do
these two things as a result of our
time together they will transform
your life you've already identified
the one goal that can have the
greatest positive impact on your
life now what you do is you take
that goal and you write it at the top
of a page in the form of a question
and you say let us say you your
goal is to double your income that
could have a major impact on your
life you say what are all the things
that I could do to double my
income in the next 12 months write
it as a clear question even better if
 you're earning fifty thousand
dollars a year today right what
could I do to earn one hundred
thousand dollars over the next 12
months the more specific the
question the better then you devote
yourself to writing 20 answers to
this question you must write a
minimum of 20 answers work
harder work smarter start earlier
stay later change occupations
upgrade my skills whatever it is
keep forcing yourself to write to
you've written 20 answers we call
this mindstorming the first three to
five answers will be easy the next
three to five answers will be
difficult the last 10 answers will be
incredibly difficult but I have given
this exercise to people who've gone
on to become millionaires so many
 times i've lost track because they
often find that the 20th answer
changes their whole life and if
you've ever done this once it's
absolutely staggering more people
have become millionaires with this
simple idea of mindstorming what
I call the 20 idea method than any
other single method of creative
thinking ever discovered once
you've got your 20 answers pick
one answer and take action on it
immediately next key to becoming
a self-made millionaire is to
become an unshakable optimist
and shakeable Optimist means that
you think and talk about what you
want most of the time what I have
found is that optimists have three
wonderful qualities number one is
they learn more things as a result
 they dramatically increase the
likelihood that they will learn the
right thing at the right time number
two is they try more things which
dramatically increases the
likelihood that they'll try the right
thing at the right time and number
three is they persist they never give
up Optimus make a decision that
once they've decided they're going
to become wealthy they just never
stop until they achieve that goal
now will they have many setbacks
and obstacles and difficulties do
you know that almost everybody
succeeds in a different direction
from what they originally intended
or from what they originally
thought but they just keep going
almost like a football player
running down the field running
 blocking changing moving back
forward continually but never loses
sight of the goal I want to leave
you with the last two qualities of
self-made millionaires second of
the last quality is that they
developed the qualities of courage
and persistence courage means that
you have the ability you have the
willingness to confront your fears
because what I found over the
years is that brave people
courageous people are not people
who are not afraid they're simply
people who Master their fears
they're simply people who face
their fears confront their fears and
Mark Twain said it many years ago
he said with regard to fear he said
do the thing you fear and the death
of fear is certain now fear and
 courage tend to be habits that if
you are afraid and you give into the
fear and you back away it becomes
a habit to back away whenever
you're afraid or unsure if you're
afraid and you force yourself to
confront the fear it becomes a habit
to confront the fear whenever you
find something that you're afraid of
and you'll find that most fears
disappear when you confront them
dare to go forward in your life dare
to go forward in the direction of
fulfilling your potential so always
move forward always have it dare
to go forward whenever you have a
choice of either staying still and
playing it safe or moving forward
move forward not because you'll
necessarily succeed every time
because it reinforces and cements
 the habit of moving forward and
most people when they have a
choice of moving forward or
staying playing it safe play it safe
but I think General mcarthur Doug
General Douglas macarthy said
there's no security in life only
opportunity life is very perverse in
a way because the more we seek
security the less we have it and the
more we seek opportunity the more
we have security I'm going to tell
you something that if you're not a
little bit afraid at least three or four
nights a week you're not trying
hard enough if you're not falling in
your face over and over again if
you're not trembling when you go
to sleep with your heart pounding
if then what is happening is you're
not trying hard enough you're
living too far within your potential
that all really successful people
live on the outside edge of what
they're capable of and it's always a
little bit scary on the outside is
because we all have feelings of
uncertainty we all have fears we all
have doubts that hold us back but
the brave person is simply the
person who moves forward and
keeps taking the chance and you
cannot imagine a successful person
without courage you cannot
imagine a successful person
without the courage to face and
confront their fears and to move
forward the fear of failure the fear
of making a mistake of losing our
money our time or effort is what
paralyzes us and holds us back but
the fear of failure is a habit which
can be counteracted by the habit of
Courage and the final quality of
self-made Millionaires and
Napoleon Hill called this the
master key to riches after studying
500 of the richest people in
American history he said is the
quality of self-discipline it's the
ability to make yourself do what
you should do when you should do
it whether you feel like it or not the
quality of self-discipline is the
quality that will make you a big
success it's the ability to force
yourself to do what you know you
should do and here is the
wonderful Discovery this
persistence is self-discipline in
action every time you persist you
build your self-discipline every
time you practice self-discipline
 you build your ability to persist
and the two of them are tied into
your self-esteem so the more you
persist the more you like yourself
and the more you like yourself the
more discipline you have and the
more discipline you have in
practice the more you like yourself
as a result the more you persist and
eventually you get under an upper
spiral where you become
absolutely Unstoppable you reach
the point where you know you can
achieve the goal and nothing in the
world can stop you and every step
that you take forward makes you
stronger and stronger and stronger
until finally people say I know one
thing about him I know one thing
about her you cannot stop him or
her once they decided they want
something they will not stop until
they get it and when you develop
that quality there will be nothing
that is impossible to you.

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