Do you ever wonder what it would take to become a self-made millionaire? Do you wish you had the resources they had? Do you believe that sadly you don’t have a chance?
Cheer up. You do have a chance. There’s an easy way to get access to the very secrets that helped self-made millionaires become who they are. And they’re not just the fluffy generalities you find in many books. They’re the real deal.
Adam Khoo's Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires, doesn't just provide a list of the kind of information that enabled the self-made millionaires to make their millions. You don’t find just pep talks although there are plenty of those. In fact, as you go through the book, you’ll discover, there’s real effort involved, and those pep talks can come in handy. You’ll have to work on your mindset as well as on your business. But it can be done. It has been done many times before, and Adam’s book gives you the tools to do it too.
The only problem: No more excuses.
So how will it work? In Adam’s typical style, he shares his personal history and plenty of motivational stories to get you excited and show you that you do have what it takes. If the people in his stories could do it, surely, you can too.
Adam gets you started with a little soul searching: Under the heading, “Reasons why I’m not rich yet,” you’re invited to list the reasons why you, yes you, are not yet rich. Then he proceeds to teach you how to overcome each and every one of those reasons.
He continues with an overview over the 9 habits of self-made Millionaires: from always exceeding expectations to being proactive, taking total responsibility, doing what you love, and more. The last one: Millionaires respect and love money.
Now here’s the rub for a lot of people. So before moving on, Adam deals with those money beliefs. So many of us have been brought up with very counterproductive beliefs about money. We were told that it’s evil. Or that we don’t deserve it and that we can never get it anyway. And if we do, it will only bring problems. And sooner or later, someone will take it away. So wouldn't it be better not even to get started?
With beliefs like that, is it any wonder if money stays at a safe distance? Adam proceeds with helping you install new beliefs, beliefs that are much more likely to help you draw money into your life. In fact, lots of money.
As he moves from chapter to chapter, he unpacks each of the nine habits he introduced and helps you make them your own. Not only does he provide numerous examples but also plenty of work sheets for you to fill out. This is a book that’s not just to be read, but also to be worked. If you don’t, it obviously won’t bring the results you’re hoping for. If you do, chances are very good that the sky will the limit for how far you can go.
Adam himself is a case in point, and he uses his story as a motivational example throughout the book. From his start as an academically weak student at the very bottom of the class, he turned himself into a top student. He also set himself the goal to become a millionaire by age 26 – and achieved it.
Inspiring as he is, he doesn’t rely just on his own story to make his case but provides us with many more inspirational examples throughout the book, including Warren Buffet.
In the chapter about the first of the habits of self-made millionaires, Adam gives us insights into cash flow strategies of the rich. And most of us are in for a surprise. There’s the myth out there of the extravagant millionaire who drives fancy cars and basically throws money away. Adam shows that nothing could be further from the truth.
While millionaires will pay for value, they can be outright stingy when they don’t feel the expense is necessary – or worth it. They also keep close tabs on what they spend, and every dollar that goes out the door has to basically earn its keep.
But the most fascinating – and toughest part – comes with the worksheets that are included. You, the reader, are challenged to take an assessment as to where exactly you stand with your own net worth.
There is room for income and outflow, and when Adam talks about spending less than you earn and invest the rest in a way that will make it grow with compounded interest, until it turns into a tool of positive cash flow, you may think of putting the book down. You’ve read that one before. Probably because it’s true.
Don’t give up yet. While Adam stresses the importance of the basics, as so many books do with good reason, he (unlike many of the other books) doesn’t stop there. In fact, it’s only the first of nine principles.
In fact, the very next chapter is a real eye-opener. The four levels of wealth. When most people think of “rich,” they actually have very murky ideas as to what that means. However, in order to actually become rich (and we’re not talking lottery here), it is necessary to have a very clear idea of what “rich” really means.
And Adam’s four levels of wealth is priceless here. He differentiates between four levels, as the chapter says: financial stability, financial security, financial freedom, and financial abundance. When I read through that chapter, it was the first time I began to get a picture of what I really wanted. And I also began to understand why it had been so elusive.
The coolest thing about the chapter: together with the lists that were created in the previous chapter, Adam guides you to create a financial plan to achieve your desired level of financial abundance, complete with work sheets. It seems so much more doable once it has been taken out of the realm of vague wishes to concrete plan and what it will take to achieve it. Now if that’s not motivational, I don’t know what is.
And he doesn’t just leave you with this dream, only to refer you to his high-priced coaching program like so many other gurus. No, he delivers the exact how-to right here in this book.
In fact, the very next chapter gets you going on that very path: How to massively increase your income. Again, with detailed worksheets and examples, he helps you make plans and actually implement them. From changing your mindset from thinking about your value rather than time put in, to very specific ways in which you can increase your value to your employer, almost no matter what you do. And he makes it sound so easy.
Next, he provides numerous ways to maximize and increase income in just about any career. And that’s even before he gets to creating multiple income streams online.
That chapter, on how to create those multiple streams of income online, is worth many times over the price of this book alone. To say it was excellent and comprehensive would be an understatement. I really wish I had read this book about a couple of years ago, or even five or ten years ago. It would have changed my life dramatically.
But as they say, better late than never.
So what makes this chapter so special? If you have tried to make money online, you probably have been bombarded with must-have offers and have spent thousands trying to learn how to do it. The problem, the vast majority of people have been left utterly confused, intimidated, and especially broke.
This chapter cuts through the smoke and mirrors of the online marketing world and provides a basic but highly effective plan for people to get online, set up their online business, and yes, make money. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read it. It’s so clearly explained. I have paid people thousands for this information, and Adam’s book helped me fill in some crucial gaps the others have conveniently left out.
While it provides outstanding information on how to select a market, how to find or create products to sell to them, how to sell them, and how to help the market find your offers, there are a couple of small points that aren’t entirely up-to-date anymore.
The online world changes very quickly, and especially the way Google ranks websites. So Adam’s recommendation for keyword density would have to be taken with a grain of salt. However, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry. The rest is so good that if you take the steps he recommends and also interact on the web, by the time you get to the keyword issue, you’ll know how to find updated information. And chances are, that this downloadable book will have been updated by the time you’ll get your hands on it.
Next, Adam goes into more depth about other millionaire habits, including keeping track of the money and not spending it frivolously. Once again, his book reads like your basic financial advisor handbook: stay away from credit cards, spend responsibly, and so on.
However, that seemingly conservative approach doesn’t extend to investing. In the following chapters, Adam shows how to invest safely yet with impressive returns. And over several chapters, he gives you such an outstanding guide to investing, including how to pick stocks, I was tempted to get started on the spot.
Finally, he wraps it all up by helping you design your very own Millionaire road map.
Once again, numerous worksheets guide you along, and by the time you’re finished, it’ll be just a matter of getting yourself in action.
Overall, an outstanding book. It promises a lot in its title, and while most of the other books with similar titles leave much to be desired, Adam’s book lives up to the first of the Millionaire Secrets: not only does it live up to even the kind of exaggerated expectations a book with this title might inspire, but it exceeds them.
