The One Minute Millionaire, The Enlightened Way to Wealth - Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen

OK, I cheated a bit with this book. I picked it up on CD and listened to it on my way to client sites, but I can still tell you that this book is worth reading (or listening to).
The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen is a great way to think about your worth and your wealth, differently than you were brought up to think about it. The book is presented in three parts on three disks. Each disk has one part of the book and is delivered like two books, a Non-fiction audio book (for the engineer type learner) and a novel (to engage artists). The non-fiction part of this book is the "How To" with tips on everything from self-enlightenment to property investment. The other is a story about Michelle. Michelle's Story is so compelling, filled with emotion and empathy that I had to stop listening to it when going to my client's sites because I did not want to arrive with tears in my eyes. The authors take turns reading the two styles.
Hansen and Allen talk about the two key requirements to build wealth:

1. A commitment driven by desire and faith
   
2. The ability to take action.

They call this the Millionaire Map. They state that there are only four ways to create wealth.

• Investments - stocks, bonds, funds, etc.
  
• Real estate
• Business - marketing product or service
• Internet

Part One
In Part One the authors talk about the 24 -principles of wealth (or Aha's as they refer to them). These are all inspirational, enlightening views of ourselves and our environment. Some of the Aha's covered are things like "Words Transform". Remember your mother telling you "if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all". Well this elaborates on the notion that negative thought and words produce negative results. Another Aha "Clarity is Power" describes how to use your goals to get you to where you want to go. They attribute a success philosopher named Neville for this thought:

• "Don’t think of your goals, think from you goals"

For the entire list of the 24 principles visit:

• www.oneminutemillionaire.com/downloads/misc/24AhaPrintouts.pdf

At the end of Part One they open the story of Michelle and how she looses everything: her husband, her house, her job and her kids all because of a car accident. It takes us through her emotions of disbelief and frustration and into a world of powerlessness. We are left contemplating the parallel between the 24 principles and Michelle's situation. Her situation and her negative reaction to her circumstances really emphasize the power of the 24 principles in a inverse way. We see what happens when we don't apply the principles.

Part Two
In Part Two the authors talk about the team. This team is part of the lever required to create wealth. A team should consist of 2 or more people with a common purpose and they state that, "Attitude is critical and can make or break your success." Use their H.O.T.S. Survey when building a team to discover your strengths and those of your team members.

• www.oneminutemillionaire.com/tools/hots.asp

H.O.T.S. defines people as four different categories of workers: people that look for solutions, strategies, problems, or results, known as the Hares, the Owls, the Tortoise, and the Squirrels. The four types of workers are needed to have a well rounded team. A tortoise as an example brings attributes like the ability to "make sure a concept is thought through and how it can be improved and implemented". I am a Tortus according to the H.O.T.S. survey and when I read the full description it pretty much describes the qualities I would bring to a team.
Part Two of Michelle's Story continues on in her life, if you can call it that. She is a broken women, spending most of her time blaming her situation on everyone and everything else. She is of course not responsible for the accident that precipitated her current situation, but she was responsible for letting her insurance laps. When she meets Sam, a woman that takes on a mentoring role in Michelle's life, she starts to change. With her desire to reclaim her children and her faith in her abilities Sam helps propel Michelle forward into action. Michelle's first task was to build a team of people as dedicated and driven to getting to a goal as she was, and she succeeds.

Part Three
In part three of the book the authors describe the details for many different models of creating wealth including how to purchase real estate using OPM (Other Peoples Money). Some of the models are quite complex and I found I had to listen to it a couple of times to understand how they arrived at the final values, but the ideas are simply brilliant.
On this CD they conclude Michelle's story with the final tally of her wealth and where her money comes from. It is unbelievable to think that someone could make $600 000 with no money for a down payment or $250 000 in a few minutes giving away a free book, but this is the concept that lead to the creation of The One Minute Millionaire.

I love this book, both for the engineer in me and for the artist. There are plenty of reasons (at least a million) to read or listen to this book and lots of resources on their website to take advantage of.
Enjoy

• www.oneminutemillionaire.com/