Blueprint for financial success

Blueprint for financial success

Chief executives by Janet Leiser | Senior Editor

An entrepreneur who sounds more like a psychologist and philosopher than CEO explains why people are poor. To change your outer world, he says, you must change your inner world.

T. Harv Eker failed as an entrepreneur at least a dozen times before he got it right and made his first million. In his quest, he learned what he says are the secrets of the millionaire mind and how poor people unconsciously sabotage themselves financially.

With "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" a No.1 bestseller and printed in 23 languages, Eker's motivational company, Peak Potential Training, hit $45 million in revenue this year, passing motivational guru Anthony Robbins in the process.

Ekers presented a four-hour seminar to about 50 members of the CEO Council of Tampa Bay Oct. 12. Why would a group of chief executives, who run multi-million dollar companies, spend their valuable time and $16,000 - the most the group has ever paid to a speaker - to hear Eker?

"He changes people's lives," says Kevin Hourigan, incoming chair of the Council and CEO/president of Bayshore Solutions.

Eker typically fills large convention centers wherever he goes with those who want to hear his message. He broke one of his own rules to speak to the CEOs. He hasn't spoken to a group of less than 1,000 in 18 years.

"I am of your ilk, that's why I chose to come here today," he said.

Eker failed at a dozen business ventures by the time he was 30.

Then about 20 years ago, he borrowed $2,000 on a credit card to start what he says was the first retail fitness store in North America. Within a couple years, he built it up to 10 locations and sold the company to A.J. Heinz Co. for $1.6 million.

"I know that doesn't like much today," he said. "But 20 years ago it wasn't bad."

Feeling like he'd made it, Eker semi-retired and began a consulting business. Before he knew it, he was holding group lessons because so many people were interested in his message.

He noticed not everyone who attended his seminars, however, achieved the same results.

"Two people can be sitting side-by-side and learn exactly the same principles and strategies," he said. "One skyrockets to success. What happens to the other person? Not a heck of a lot."

Eker struck on his concept of the millionaire mind and how a person must master the inner game of wealth.

"You can have the greatest tools in the world, but if you have a tiny leak in the toolbox, you have problems," he said.

In other words, everyone has a financial blueprint. To be successful, a person has to replace negative, subconscious thoughts about money with new positive ideas.

That's why some people can win the lottery and be broke again a few years later, while someone like Donald Trump can lose billions and then come back even stronger a few years later.

"He has the billionaire mind," Eker said.

"Most people's financial thermostats, that includes your staff, is set for thousands, not millions," he added. "Some are set to hundreds, while others are freezing and they don't know why."

Laws of nature

Educators, he said, omit a vital lesson in the schooling process.

"We don't live in only one world," Eker said. "We live in four different worlds at once. We live in the mental world, the emotional world, the spiritual world and the physical, material world. What happens to you and for you is nothing more than a printout of the other three areas. What's invisible causes what's visible."

Money and success are a result of what's going on in the emotional, mental and spiritual world, he said.

"A lack of business is a symptom of what's going on underneath - all the time," he adds. "You can try to ignore the laws of nature, and I tell you, you will get hurt every time."

Poor people focus on the results of their actions, he said. While wealthy people adjust to what goes wrong and continue trying.

"I can tell more about people in the seminar in 10 seconds than a shrink can tell about you in 30 years," he said. "Your thoughts lead to your feelings which lead to your actions and all that leads to your results."

The good news, he said, is a person can consciously choose to alter their blueprint (imprinted by their parents, grandparents, teachers and others as a child), replacing negative views such as those that money is bad or rich people are greedy.

A CEO has much at stake when it comes to the financial blueprints of his employees, he said.

"Your company's results, your company's success, will be in direct, exact proportion to the medium level of your staff's money blueprint," Eker said.

For example, a sales person who averages a $50,000 annual salary based on commission is not the only one that does better if his financial blueprint is changed so that he earns two or four times more.

"If we can change their blueprint to un-stick them and get them up to $100,000 or $200,000, what does that do to your company's money? It changes it dramatically," Eker said.

And if all members of a company's sales staff increase their financial blueprint, he said, what then happens to a company's revenue?

It skyrockets.

Secrets of the wealthy

Author and speaker T. Harv Eker says the mindset of wealthy people sets them apart from the poor, and he knows because he's speaking from experience.

The differences are:

• Rich people believe they create their life. Poor believe life happens to them.

• Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play to NOT lose.

• Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.

• Rich people think big. Poor people think small.

• Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.

• Rich people admire other rich, successful people. Poor people resent rich, successful people.

• Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.

• Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their values. Poor people think negatively about selling and promoting.

• Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.

• Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are poor receivers.

• Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.

• Rich people think 'both.' Poor people think 'either/or.'

• Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people focus on their working income.

• Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.

• Rich people have their money work hard for them. Poor people work hard for their money.

• Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.

• Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.

Source: "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind," by T. Harv Eker