Do you want to know how to become a millionaire? Everybody does. I give seminars all around North America on success, wealth building, business and more, and everybody wants to know one thing: how to become wealthy. You know what I’ve learned? It doesn’t matter how until you know why.
Let’s think about it simply. You probably know people that say they want to quit smoking, right? Well it’s pretty easy to quit smoking. Stop buying cigarettes! That’s it. And maybe step two would be stop hanging out with people that have cigarettes you can bum. That’s it! Step one and step two, that’s the how. But how many people do you know that don’t quit smoking because they don’t know the why? Why do you want to quit smoking?
I used to smoke. I knew I wanted to quit and I knew how to quit, but it wasn’t until one day when my eldest daughter, who is 30 years old now, came home from kindergarten and said to me, “You know what Dad? They told me at school today that smoking can kill you. Will you please quit smoking?” that I knew why I wanted to quit.
Why do you want to become a millionaire? I say in our industry there’s no excuse for not making a minimum of $500,000 a year in your pocket. Every one of you reading this is within an hour drive of a quarter of a billion to $2 billion in business, and there’s no law that says you can’t get it all. So how do you get it? Well most people know how to get it. Get off your duff and go sell, right? I mean obviously there are steps in identifying qualified prospects, warming them up and then securing appointments with them. We teach those strategies to Proforma Owners using the ProVantage Selling System, but right now I just want you to think about the why.
I want you to think about where your income is today. Think about how far away $500,000 or $1 million a year is from where you’re at now. Take $500,000 a year, my minimum expectation of success in this industry, and subtract however much you are making today. If you are making $100,000 today, then $500,000 minus $100,000 is $400,000. Then multiply that number by three to five—three to five years of being in this industry. So three times $400,000 is $1.2 million. Five times that would be $2 million. So if you had $1 million to $2 million more in three to five years, what would you do with it? What would you do with it for yourself, for your family and for your legacy? Big success requires big dreams.
One thing I think is sad for many people is they stopped dreaming in second grade. Remember when a teacher asked you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Some people said they wanted to be an astronaut, a ballerina or a policeman, and what’s interesting is that no matter what you said when you were in second grade, you believed with all your heart you were going to become that.
But somehow over the years, life beats the dreams out of us. I believe step number one to big success is dreaming again. It’s been since second grade, so give yourself a little practice. Shake off all of the beatings life has given you, all of the turning and urging, running and racing around, all the texting and everything else that fills up your life and keeps you from dreaming. You can do it. It starts with dreaming big.
I’m asking you seriously—pick up a pen and piece of paper and write down one thing you would do for yourself, for your family, for your legacy if and when you have an extra $1 to $2 million a year. What one thing would you do or buy that costs at least a quarter of a million dollars or more? Is it a second home, a big boat, paying off your children’s college education, making sure you have an education fund for your grandchildren, donating to a cause that you know could make this world a better place than when you were born?
Write it down. Get a picture of it. Don’t just say I want a home on the beach. Get a picture of it and put it in front of you. Don’t just say you want a big boat. Go see a boat dealer, go to the boat show—get a picture of it, put it on your desk and start picturing yourself having it. Why? It’s going to help you pursue your dream and remind you of it. Also, Einstein would say that there’s no significant difference between that which is vividly dreamed or actually perceived and achieved.
If you already did have a million or two in the bank, if you already did own that home, that boat, that educational fund for your children or grandchildren, how would you feel? My guess is you would feel a lot different than you feel today. You’d feel full of pride and self-confidence, self-assuredness and the strength to get out no matter what and go make things happen. And that’s what Einstein is saying. The power of dreams is to start feeling like you’ve already accomplished something, which makes it almost inevitable that it’s going to happen. That’s the power of dreaming big.
So, move from the how and focus on the why. Why do you want to become a millionaire? What’s your dream? As you start picturing it and start believing it and start acting as if you’ve almost already achieved it, the why will start turning into the how, and you will become a millionaire.
