Book Review #4: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Author: T Harv Eker

This is the review of the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind written by T Harv Eker

This book falls into the category of Inspirational Book. The full title of the book is 'Secrets of the millionaire mind - Mastering the inner game of wealth'. The key message in this book is that if you want to become rich, you have to think and act like rich.

I am structuring this book as a discussion between me and the book (SOTMM).

Me: So, SOTMM, tell me something about yourself?

SOTMM: As you read in the first paragraph, the focus in me is about thoughts and how they lead to actions. I am divided into two parts. The Part 1 focuses on how we are conditioned to think about being rich. Contrary to what we think, when it comes to riches, some of us are programmed to fail and remain poor. In this part,  I outline four strategies to change your thoughts to 'Wealth Accumulating' mode. Part 2 contains 17 'Wealth Files', each containing one difference in the way in which rich and poor think and act. At the end of each file, there are a set of declarations that you have to make loudly, and a set of actions that you have to follow. It is expected that by following these instructions, you will signal to the universe that you are ready to receive abundance of wealth. By the way, 'Ability to Receive Gracefully' is one of the traits that separate rich from the poor.

In addition, I am laced with nuggets of wisdom in the form of 'Wealth Principles'. Each principle is a gem on its own. Wealth Files together with Wealth Principles, if acted upon together can take you significant wealth in a short span of time. 

Me: You mention that when it comes to riches, some of us are conditioned to fail. Can you elaborate on that?

SOTMM: Let me give you an example. Suppose you are looking for a promotion. You go and tell your boss that you want that promotion. Then you add as an afterthought, 'But I am also a bit worried that this promotion will carry additional responsibility of people management. I have never done it in the past. I am worried if I will be able to handle that'. Do you think you are going to get that promotion. No. Here you are sending mixed signals to the boss. On the one hand you enthusiastically want that promotion, and other other hand, you are not sure if you can handle a key aspect of what that promotion entails.

Same is the case with most people when it comes to money. Sometime we say out aloud, 'I want to be rich'. Immediately universe hears it and gets ready to fill you with wealth and then you go, 'But will I be able to handle wealth? What if I am robbed? How will I handle taxmen? How will I handle people who come to me for charities? Will I be able to say no to them? What will I do if I get money? I don't have any clue of Investments?.....'

Now universe is confused. So it decide to wait giving you money to you are clear in your mind that you want money and wealth. The sad truth is that they maintain this ambivalence throughout their lives leaving their wealth generating potential untapped.

Me: Fascinating. How is this ambivalence generated?

SOTMM: Money is just an outer manifestation of your inner thought processes. Just as if you want get good fruits you have to nurture the roots, and if you want to remove the type, you have to updated the base document, if you want wealth, you have to work on the inner thought processes that generate wealth. The framework to get money is as follows.

P --> T --> F --> A-->R

P stands for mental Programming. The way you are conditioned to think. Programming leads to

T stands for Thoughts, which leads to

F stands for Feelings, which leads to

A stands for Actions, which ultimately leads to

R stands for Results, which in this case is more money, wealth and riches.

This means that the first step in your road to riches is to work on Programming. Most of the programming happens when you are at a young and impressionable age and you carry this into your adult life.

For most people, the above ambivalence is generated by three types of programming.

1. Verbal programming: What you heard about money when you were young. For example, in your childhood  (in my childhood, SOTMM is talking to me, remember) you used to hear these two statements regularly. One, 'Government jobs provide job security and pension' and two, 'Business is risky. A job provides steady income'. Tell me if you are not conditioned by these two statements even now. Of course you are!. So you go about life not taking risks, not starting a business and not realizing your full money potential !
2. Modelling: What you saw about money when you were young. For example, when you were young, you always saw your parents struggle with money. Money was always scarce and you were even afraid of asking your parents for simple things like Pencil and Stationery. How has it influenced you?
3. Specific Experiences: Any specific experiences about money that you had when you were young.

Me: It is quite revealing. But still you did not answer my question. How can one come out of the ambivalence?

SOTMM: There are four steps that you need to take to change your 'Money Blueptint'. First is 

Awareness. You have to be aware that above conditioning exists and your Money Blueprint need review and revision. Second is Understanding the origins of your thought processes. Understand all the experiences that conditioned you to think the way you do. Third is Dissociation. You have to dissociate yourself from your thoughts. You have to realize that you have changed, the circumstances have changed and so you cannot afford to have these limiting thoughts anymore and you have to dissociate from them. Fourth and final step is Reconditioning. You have to regularly declare new positive thoughts into your mind to replace the ones from which you Dissociated. The Fourth step is what the rest of the book is about.

Me: I also see that author emphasizes 'The Power of Declaration'. Can you elaborate on this?

SOTMM: Sure. Declarations are powerful statements of intention that you speak out aloud to the universe. The energy generated by Declarations is transmitted to the universe thereby goading it to take action to fulfill the declaration. When making declaration, you should touch your heart so that you internalize your declarations. There is a lot of emphasis on declarations in this book. Author sincerely believes in their power to make change.

Me: Let us come to Part 2. Tell me something about Part 2.

SOTMM: Mr.Eker believes that the key to changing your 'Money Blueprint', your ability to attract Money and Wealth, is to replace the existing negative Wealth Files with new Wealth Files which are positive and supportive to meeting your financial potential. With this objective in mind, the author has identified the following 17 new Wealth Files. They are: 

• Wealth File # 1: Rich people believe 'I create my life'. Poor people believe 'Life happens to me'
• Wealth File # 2: Rich people play money game to win. Poor people play money game not to lose.
• Wealth File # 3: Rich people are committed to become rich. Poor people want to be rich.
• Wealth File # 4: Rich people think big. Poor people think small.
• Wealth File # 5: Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.
• Wealth File # : Rich people admire other rich and successful people. Poor people resent other rich and successful people.
• Wealth File # 7: Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative, unsuccessful people.
• Wealth File # 8: Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promotion.
• Wealth File # 9: Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.
• Wealth File # 10: Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are poor receivers.
• Wealth File # 11: Rich people choose to get paid based on their results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.
• Wealth File # 12: Rich people think 'Both'. Poor people think 'Either / Or'.
• Wealth File # 13: Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people focus on their working income.
• Wealth File # 14: Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.
• Wealth File # 15: Rich people have their money work hard for them. Poor people work hard for their money.
• Wealth File # 16: Rich people act in spite of their fear. Poor people let fear stop them.
• Wealth File # 17: Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know. 

In addition to the 17 Wealth Files, the book is laced with 44 Wealth Principles. Wealth Principles acts as a peg around which you can consider your life experiences and make the necessary corrections and adjustments in your path to becoming rich. 

Now it was the turn of SOTMM to ask me some questions.

SOTMM: So Ram, now that you have read me and we had this discussion, what do you think of the points I mentioned? What did you like and What did you not like? Which are the points that are applicable to you and which you think are general?

I thought for a few moments before responding.

Me: There are a number of points that made me identify with the points in this book. Like most of the readers of this post, most of the people out there, I feel that I am yet to reach my full financial potential. While reading about my Financial Blueprint, I was thinking about some of the programming that has conditioned me  to think in a specific way. The most important I think is Fear. The fear of how I will handle being rich. How I will handle money, handle the responsibility that comes with it, handle the taxmen etc. Especially tax men. Since I am uncomfortable handling tax men, I tend to invest in Stocks and tax free bonds. In addition there is a lot of corruption in India. I have been told that you have to be corrupt in India to become rich. Since I don't want to be a part of Corruption, I take the way out by limiting myself to Tax free investment options. On further thoughts, I see that there are many people who has made money with out compromising their ethics. 

In addition, I belong to a community that prides itself on being very good government servants. Business is no-no for us. Right from childhood, I have been told that the best job is government job which comes with lifelong pension. Now I realize that the focus on 'Government Jobs' comes directly out of 'Paycheck Mentality'. It is very sad that many people know only 'Paycheck Mentality' and are not aware of 'Net worth Mentality'. Books like this will help people to understand that they have to think 'Net worth' if they hope to become rich. 

Also, I like some statements in the book. For example, 'You take yourself wherever you go'. So true. Our habits and attitudes stay with us wherever we go. We can't change ourselves by changing our physical location or our job. We have to change our thoughts and attitudes. Another point is that 'Not doing something also is a habit'. 

Another point mentioned is about the importance of learning. You can grow only by learning new stuff. Just as a tree starts to decay the moment it stops growing, people also start decaying the moment the stop learning and growing. Take an example of email. There are many people of older generation who, even now, do not know how to use email. Imagine how difficult it is for them in the current age when most of the communication happens through email !. As the book mentions, there is not age limit for learning and growing. I liked the idea. In fact I use it all the time. 

I also think that it is important to focus on 'Both'. That  is called 'Win-Win'. It is surprising to me the number of people who focus on 'I win, you lose' mindset. The entire blaming and criticism industry is based on 'I win, you lose' mindset. I think that whatever may be the conflict, you can find a Win-Win solution. 

SOTMM: So will you recommend this book?.

Me: Absolutely. I think that everyone should read this book. There are a lot of examples of people who learned the principles introduced in this book and were able to realize their money potential. .

If they can, So can you.