Think Like a Millionaire with Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (book review)
“It’s not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You have to be the right person in the right place at the right time.”
- T. Harv Eker
Unlike movies, I’m strict about what I look for in a good book. First, it must answer some immediate question or need. Second, it must provide a transferable framework to improve my decision making. In this review, I’ll explain why Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth,[affiliate link] by T. Harv Eker, does both.
Success Starts with Mindset
Without the right mindset, you fail before you start. But what is the right mindset? How should you alter your thinking to push the odds of financial success into your favor?
According to T. Harv Eker, the answer is in understanding your “money blueprint.” Then, updating your money blueprint to reflect the way rich people think and act.
The basic premise is that your money blueprint, i.e., how you think about money, determines whether you’ll be rich.
People who have a positive money blueprint find it easy to make and keep their money. Those with a negative money blueprint will never have enough.
For example, look at lottery winners who were poor when they won the lottery. It's common for them to lose their prize within a few years of winning it. Now take the self-made millionaire. They make their money through value creation. They don't always keep it, but if they lose it, they manage to get it back. And this may happen several times over.
Overview of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Eker divides Secrets of the Millionaire Mind into two sections. We can think of them as the two steps for developing a success mindset: Learn and Reprogram.
Part 1 – Your Money Blueprint
What is Your Money Blueprint?
The first section is what I view as the Learn section. It’s here that Eker explains your money blueprint and how your programming leads to the results you get in life. According to Eker,
“Each of us has a personal money and success blueprint already embedded in our subconscious mind. And this blueprint, more than anything and everything else combined, will determine your financial destiny.”
He goes on to say that,
“[Y]our money blueprint is simply your preset program or way of being, in relation to money.”
This preset program is the result of what our parents, siblings, friends, authority figures, the media, and our culture teach us about money.
Much of that learning came when we were young, but not all. Even as adults, others can still influence us.
Eker next moves on to describe how our programming turns into results.
From Programming to Results
A cause and effect mechanism moves us from programming to results. Our money blueprint is a combination of thoughts, feelings, and actions. So, the cause and effect chain looks like this:
P → T → F → A = R
Our programming leads to thoughts. Our thoughts lead to feelings. Our feelings lead to actions. And our actions lead to results. So, we can see that our programming is the input into the system that leads to our results. When we change our programming, we can improve our results.
Now we know how our programming around money leads to results. Let's move to part 2.
Part 2 – The Wealth Files
In part 2, Eker presents 17 ways that wealthy people think and act that differs from the poor and middle class. What he calls "wealth files."
The wealth files are the ways we must change our thoughts and actions. When we do that, we change the input into the causal chain discussed above. With the input changed, we improve our financial destiny.
The 17 wealth files offer a lot of valuable takeaways. Someone working to take control of their life by building wealth would do well to study them. While all are valuable, I found the following most compelling:
Rich people believe “I create my life.” Poor people believe “Life happens to me.”
Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
Rich people think big. Poor people think small.
Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.
Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.
Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promotion.
Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.
Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.
Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.
Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.
Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.
These points seem like common sense. But when I examined some of my recent decisions, it surprised me how much my thinking matched that of a poor person. Now, I'm making a conscious effort to push my money blueprint in the other direction.
Analysis of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
We Are Our Own Worst Enemy
One lesson from Secrets of the Millionaire Mind[affiliate link] is that we are our own worst enemy. So, we should focus on reprogramming our attitude toward money. Focus our energy on improving ourselves to increase our chance of success. That's a Strength and Reason core value.
Another lesson is that we live in a world of cause and effect. That's yet another core value. Building wealth requires us to take responsibility for our success. That means taking the actions necessary to be successful. Don't wait for the perfect time or for someone else to take the lead.
Eker demonstrates this concept when he explains how our programming leads to results. We must be responsible for changing the input into that cause and effect chain to get better results.
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind contributes to our freedom and independence. As I’ve said, my goal is to build wealth to build freedom. So, a book that teaches me how to develop the proper mindset to build wealth is a valuable tool in my arsenal.
Influences that Shape our Money Blueprint
We’ve established that our programming shapes our attitude towards money. And, our attitude towards money then determines our likelihood of building wealth.
Besides our family, the media and authority figures also contribute to our programming. Many authority figures and people in the media attack the rich as being greedy. Some politicians go so far say they will use government force to take wealth from the rich. They argue that this serves the greater good. In doing so, they paint the rich as villains and the reason why some people are less prosperous.
Given this rhetoric, it’s easy to develop a negative attitude toward building wealth.
Building wealth is our source of independence. So, we must have the tools to overcome that negative programming. When we do so, we can get down to the business of building wealth and gaining freedom.1
We now see why we must take the lessons in Secrets of the Millionaire Mind to heart.
Conclusion
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind isn’t perfect. For one thing, Eker pushes his seminars a little too hard throughout the book.2
Also, some readers may complain that the book provides too few specific steps to follow. But that's its strength. It avoids specifics to give you an adaptive framework for achieving success.
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind focuses on becoming rich. But with imagination, you can transfer the framework to other areas of life. For example, health and relationships.
Mindset is everything. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind explains the problem then provides a solution. It delivers the message that we are our own worst enemy when it comes to financial success. Then, it gives us the tools to identify and overcome our limiting beliefs, freeing us to build wealth. Remember, use your mind.
1 See my post on Reason for information on why reason and using your mind are essential.
2 Eker published the book in the early 2000s. I don't know if he still does the seminars.