The Real Pursuit of Happyness Unveiled

By SaiF on Mar 13, 2008 in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

This is part 2 of the “21 Revealing Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires”. In today’s video, we will watch Chris Gardner, the character Will Smith plays in “The Pursuit of Happyness”, talking about the hardships he faced in part 1 of this 20/20 exclusive.

The first of today’s secret is one that I’m actively applying today. I believe it is of great practicality and you should use it too if you want to be a self-made millionaire.

6. Develop A Workaholic Mentality

The Question: How Many Hours Would You Work If You Knew Each Hour Is A Step Towards A Million Dollars?

In his book, Brian Tracy introduces the “40 Plus Formula”. Before I tell you what it is, did you know that “The average self-made millionaire in America works 59 hours per week and some of them work 70 and 80 hours”?

This really blew my mind! I mean, I thought relaxing at a beach somewhere would be the main job description of a Millionaire. Turns out I’m wrong. If you work it out 59 hours would mean an average of about 8.5 hours per day.

Now, you may be thinking, “Big deal! An 8 to 5 worker works 9 hours per day” Well you’re right, but an 8 to 5 worker only works 5 days a week which would equate to 45 hours. What more, we all know an 8 to 5 worker doesn’t really work the whole 45 hours!

I only discovered this when I worked an 8 to 5 job about a year ago. I would find that I was the only one who would have finished typing in at least 100 tax forms daily while the rest would hover around 50 to 70. I found out that a few of them were either taking regular 30 min toilet breaks while other would take the same amount of time to fill in 1 form.

Disgusting, I know. Which was why I quit after one week. Why did I tell you this? Because the key to being a self-made millionaire is to “work all the time you work” and 59 to 80 hours per week of working is a lot of work!

Nobody has ever told me that self-made millonaires worked really hard. I’ve heard the word “leverage” thrown around a couple of times so I thought it meant that the millionaires don’t really do the work themselves. Guess what? I’m wrong.

Tools To Help You: Like I said earlier, I have started applying this principle and it has been working wonderfully until today. The mistake : I didn’t have a schedule of what to do in front of me. Looks like I should really re-read my very popular time management post after this. That being said, just schedule in your 59 to 80 hours and you’re good to go.

7. Dedicate Yourself To Life-Long Learning

When Brian Tracy talked about what to do in this sub-chapter, I felt like he was describing a list of my regular activities.

Read 30 To 60 Minutes About Your Field Every Morning.

photo credit: shaycam

My bus journey to work everyday takes 45 to 60 minutes depending on traffic. It’s just enough time to complete 30 to 40 pages of a book. By the end of the week, I would have completed at least one book and gained that much knowledge on personal development.

I want to share with you a tip with you about books. Have a pencil or something to write ideas with. I personally use my handphone because it’s the easiest way. I currently have 71 drafts on my handphone and half of them are 10 pages full. So, if I lose my handphone and you were to find it you’ll be armed with at least 20 books worth of useful ideas!
Listen To Audio Programs. I don’t know about you but this one’s my most favorite form of learning. That’s because I’m quite a social person and I’d rather listen to a person’s voice then read their words. Secondly, the person’s energy about the topic will always be transmitted into you and you can’t help but feel really empowered.
How do I know that? Because I have over 200MBs of audio programs sitting on my hard-disk drive. I store about 20 of them in my Ipod at any one time, and would switch them around every month. Did you know that my life changed when I listened to Anthony Robbins’ 30-Day Audio Program called “Personal Power”? Maybe that’s why I have this urge to start podcasting. Speaking of which:

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Take Every Course And Seminar You Can Find In Your Chosen Field. I know it’s hard if you’re just starting out because these things cost a bomb! But you know what I’ve found after attending a few of these?
If you don’t attend them, the only thing that’s going to cost a bomb is the failures you make on your journey. The fact is that these courses and seminar cut your learning curve by a wide margin.

You know how people say there’s no way to get rich quick? That’s a lie. By cutting your learning curve, you bring yourself to the part of the curve that’s labelled “Make Money NOW!”

8. Pay Yourself First.

When I first heard this on CNBC’s “The Millionaire Inside”, I had no idea what it meant even though the Millionaires on that show were explaining it. I don’t know why that was the case, but I finally figured it out by myself. Paying yourself first essentially means the moment you get your paycheck, you don’t pay your bills or give your Mom a share and NO! Don’t even think about buying that dog food!

Instead, the moment you get your paycheck, give yourself your cut first! You worked for it, and nobody’s going to touch that money no matter what! Are we on the same page here? Good.

“If you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you.”

Tools To Help You: I have personally used T. Harv Eker’s system to divide my money since last year. Here’s how it looks like:

Financial Freedom Account: 10% This is the money that you musn’t touch, at all. It should be deposited straight into your savings account in the bank. Yes, all 10% of it.
Play Account: 10% Whoever said financial planning’s dumb was lying. Because this is the money that you must spend all of. I can see you smiling already. And yes, it all 10%.

photo credit: Coed

Long-Term Savings Account: 10% This is for your future. You can choose to do anything with it except spend it to meet your daily needs. This for me, has to be an investment well-spent.
Education Account: 10% This is the account you should go to whenever you need money to go for those seminars , books or get an audio program. No more excuses now!
Give Account: 10% You might be a bit surprised by this one. But you actually have to give this 10% away. It’s called tithing. Mark Victor Hansen has a whole book on this, but you don’t need to read it. It just says that you have to give away 10% of your income because “you get what you give” and it’s very true.

You might know this concept. It’s called Karma a.k.a The Law of Attraction. In my “Book Golden Nuggets” for “You Got To Read This Book!” Mark tells a story where he was very reluctant about giving away 10% of his income at that time which was $10,000 if I’m not wrong. Despite the reluctance, he did it. The next hour, he received a call from the bank telling him that they’ve decided to give him a 5% reduction on the interest rate of the housing loan - which added up to $100,000 over the few years!

Just imagine that. Mark credited this surprise to the law of attraction because the bank had no reason whatsoever to reduce that interest rate. The Universe gave him 100% Return on Investment on his tithing. How abundant!
Necessity Account: 50% And the rest is self-explanatory. Hot Tip: Track your expenses EVERY DAY! Don’t discredit this. I almost did and I’m happy that I chose to do it because when I started in October, I had a 20% outflow - I was more than broke. After a few months, my average cashflow is now 20%. I know even after I’ve told you this, some of you would still not track your expenses. Please, trust me on this one. In fact, go write down what you spend today in a MS Excel Spreadsheet. You’ll be thanking me in a few months time.

9. Learn Every Detail Of Your Business

Brian Tracy discusses a new law I’ve never heard of before here:

“The Law of Integrative Complexity says that, the individual who can integrate and use the greatest amount of information in any field soon rises to the top of that field.”

I want to stress that this is a Law. It works all the time. So, your job is to become the maven or the expert who learns every tiny detail about how to do your business better - and keep applying one every single day. There’s some magic in this one step a day thing, you know?

Just look at my opt-in box for my book below. Previously, I would get at most 2 to 3 subscribers daily. Even with your help of sending out the E-mails to you friends, I was getting about 3-4 subscribers daily. Yesterday, I made a small change by adding my photo next to it, and in the past 24 hours I’ve gotten 9 subscribers! Amazing isn’t it?

The moral of the story: When you want to entice people to do something for you, add my photo.

But seriously, as Brian says,”One small detail, insight or idea can be the turning point in your career. Always look for it!” Or like James Arthur Ray once said,“Details don’t mean a lot. They mean everything!” How true.

10. Dedicate Yourself To Serving Others

“Your rewards in life will always be in direct proportion to your service to other people. All self-made millionaires have an obsession with customer service. They think about their customers all the time. They are continually looking for new and better ways to serve their customers better than anyone else.”

This one I have noticed. Among other ideas, the most important one is to go the extra mile. Now, I’ve reserved this to the end of this entry because I think only those who are committed to reading this far are the ones who matter. It took me some time to get this, so come in a little closer.

“Your success in life is in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do.”

You might want to read that sentence again.

When you do something well and as well as your competitors, that’s not good enough. That’s expected. You don’t score points there.

However, when you take one step further. Just one step. When you send a thank you card to the client who bought something for you, you’re doing the unexpected. People notice the gesture. They like you. And remember, people only buy from those they like.

Wow! This has been quite a long post. So, I’ll end it with a parting quote that rocked my socks off the first time I heard it.

A Parting Quote

“Remember, there are never any traffic jams on the extra mile.”

- Brian Tracy

What’s next?