Authors Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and Robert Allen, author of bestsellers such as Nothing Down, want to create a million millionaires. Every 60 seconds, someone becomes a millionaire, and their goal is to help people one minute at a time. Their first tool is The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth (Harmony, $19.95, 416 pages, ISBN 0609609491), a unique book that uses both fiction and nonfiction to explain their ideas. Left-hand pages provide summaries of their nuts and bolts information in short lessons called Millionaire Minutes, which cover topics like leverage, real estate and marketing. Right-hand pages tell the fictional story of Michelle, a waitress and mother of two who has just 100 days to come up with $1 million dollars to save her family.
With ethics in business in seemingly short supply, Hansen and Allen’s goal of finding win/win solutions is refreshing. Their motto: Do no harm, do much good and operate out of stewardship. Both men contribute 10 percent of their earnings to their communities and want to inspire the same spirit in future millionaires. “Enlightened millionaires” not only build wealth but also make the world a better place.
If you want specific, concrete steps to lead you to your first million, Hansen and Allen’s plan for earning fast cash might be disappointing. Their road to riches takes you up a “millionaire mountain” and into the stock market, real estate or the Internet. But their advice is often generalities like “tap into your genius” and “you are your wealth” that don’t yield practical, money in your pocket results.
More valuable are their insights into our own sabotaging behavior. They describe the voice in all of us that wreaks havoc by “leaving landmines, setting ambushes, [or] blowing up your own bridges” and give advice on building congruence between your beliefs, your desires and your self-esteem. When those three elements are working toward the same goals, nothing can hold you back, the authors say. Leverage relationships with mentors, teams and networks are also important because “the person with the largest network of Rolodexes wins.” They suggest you start building that network by taking a millionaire to lunch each month and asking how they found success.
