The title is brash, demanding and quite honestly almost stopped me from buying the book. The words blare at you like a foghorn: “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Think Rich to Get Rich”. A tickertape of dollar, pound and yen symbols duly parades in gold across the front cover in imperial purple.
Being suspicious of over-inflated promises and get-rich-quick fables, I had to overcome my natural cynicism to make the purchase. I’m glad that I did. Inside, I discovered a lucid, intelligent and thought-provoking exploration of the psychology of wealth.
The rich are different from you and me. Hemingway’s famous riposte – “Yes, they have more money!” is only half the story. Eker explains the true mental blueprint that marks out successful people like a hidden ultraviolet stamp. This book is the spiritual cousin of Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad” series – books that do not offer specific income strategies but instead explore that mysterious question – “What makes the rich tick? How do they think?”
The book doesn’t have the literary flair of Kiyosaki’s finely drawn father figures, but what it lacks in finesse it makes up for in bite. Eker pulls no punches: “Let me put it bluntly: anyone who says money isn’t important doesn’t have any!” Money, he rationalises, is very important in the areas where it works, and extremely unimportant in the areas where it doesn’t (health, spirituality, family etc). But he echoes the ideas of Conway’s nineteenth century classic “Acres of Diamonds”: What built your churches, sent your missionaries, fed the poor? The answer, however embarrassing it may appear to some, is cold hard cash.
Eker distils his principles into a simple set of “wealth principles”. Some border on the obvious, but others are profound and even subversive: “Money will only make you more of what you already are”. Some are just great quotes: “Rich people collect land. Poor people collect bills”.
He encourages us to mix and associate with the wealthy, and to build up a peer group of successful people. Recent scientific research shows that positive and negative emotions are socially contagious, so this could be a remarkably effective strategy. Eker also revives the metaphor of the “wealth thermostat” – the idea that people automatically set an acceptable, middling level of success and will always settle for this. If they sink below their self-perceived level, they will take radical action to restore their standard of living. However they will rarely stretch themselves beyond this comfort zone. And being comfortable, he argues, is highly over-rated.
One of Eker’s most compelling strategies is the idea of blessing that which you desire. He recounts his own experiences driving a beat-up clunker through a rough neighbourhood of San Diego. Everyone ignored him. Then he pitched up one year in a brand new Jaguar and before long, youths were throwing beer cans at his car. Wealth excites irrational envy, and Eker advises us to feel the opposite and adopt the Huna philosophy of “bless that which you want”. This may have a “law of attraction” ring to it, but it’s more likely just an exercise in adjusting our psychological comfort zone to embrace a more abundant lifestyle.
Here of three of Eker’s snappiest and most profound sound-bites. These aren’t happy-clappy, fuzzy mantras but accurate statements of what works in a market economy. And Eker, who managed a group of retail fitness scores, is soundly grounded in the commercial world. Here they are:
· If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what is hard, life will be easy.
· No thought lives in our heads rent-free (Robert Allen)
· The Law of Income: You will be paid in direct proportion to the value you deliver in the market place.
These aren’t magic bullets, but are signposts for the journey. “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” is a first class map for the wealth creation road. So look beyond the cheesy title, suspend your disbelief and turn on to the yellow brick road.
