Secrets of the

Millionaire Mind

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to easily

accumulate wealth while others are always cash-strapped?
Is it the education they had or their intelligence, skills,
habits or career choices? For T. Harv Eker, the truth is
that the answer is none of these. The author of The Secrets
of the Millionaire Mind has gone from zero to becoming a
millionaire in just two and a half years using principles
that later became the foundation of the book. In The
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, Harv creates a model
through which people can reprogram themselves to
significantly increase their earnings and thus accumulate
wealth. The idea is that you are able to combine your
mind game and your tools to become truly rich. Do you
want to do this?

Understand Your Money Mental Model

Everyone has unconscious programmed thoughts, mental

models, to deal with money within their minds. Some are
programmed for wealth, while others are programmed for
poverty. The mental model we use to think about money
stems from our childhood experiences, and it guides our
behavior in such a way that it directly influences how
much wealth we will have in the future. According to
Harv, one's income hardly strays from the level that was
mentally defined for him or her in childhood. But why?

A person's subconscious works to regulates his/her ability

to accumulate wealth much like a thermostat. If it's set too
low, then when this person makes some extra money,
he/she will spend it. If the thermostat is set high, such as
for a rich person, and there is an eventual loss of money,
then the cash will be quickly recovered. The majority of
the population is programmed to live on a low income,
and few people are actually able to get rich and
accumulate lasting wealth. Our thought patterns are
shaped by what our parents taught us about money, and
we need to understand how they work so we may shape
them. The things that we heard our parents say about
money when we were children, stay in our minds for as
long as we live, forming ideas that ultimately determine
how we think about money later in life.

Families have either positive or negative approaches to

money. Do you remember your father saying that "Money
does not grow on trees?" or that "Money does not buy
happiness?" These are the negative approaches. On
hearing this phrase from your parents, two things may
have happened to you. You can agree with them and
assimilate this view that money is scarce, or you may have
disagreed with them and taken a different stance on
money. If you have agreed, then you are probably
programmed to be poor, but even if you have rebelled
against their posture, you are still not prepared for success
and wealth. Rebellion leads you to want to be superior to
your parentsand not necessarily to accumulate a lot of
money.

It is important to understand these models and be able to

break away from them to succeed financially. When
people learn the positive approach and families reinforce
that money is a means to reach and win things, then these
people tend to easily earn real money. This comes from
the motivation of being free and independent through
financial success. You need to understand your mental
model about money in order to accumulate wealth.

We Are Like Our Parents

In addition to the things we hear from our parents about

money, much of our mental model also comes from their
attitudes and how they made money. When you were a
child and asked your mother for money, did she tell you to
ask your father? If so, this brings you to the idea that man
is responsible for finances and women are not able to
handle money. During our childhood, we captured our
parents' attitude, and it gets trapped in our subconscious.
So when you start your first job, open a business and start
making money, you mimic your parents' standards
without realizing it. Therefore, it is important to be aware,
as it is challenging to change these beliefs in our financial
mind model. To change our beliefs about money, we need
to understand them and change our habits accordingly.

Before Changing Your Way of Thinking, Evaluate

Everything

Although your wealth-building potential depends on your

money mental model, you can change it but it requires a
lot of effort.

The first step is to understand where your money concepts

come from. You need to understand how your
subconscious sabotages your pursuit of wealth. Analyze
your mental programming, take note of your role models
and what your parents said when you were growing up.
Analyze if you still live by these same concepts. If you
could not own something as a child, then you should not
strengthen this belief in adulthood. Ask yourself: Why
not? It is also important to analyze your financial
situation. Are you in debt? Do you have enough money in
the bank? Understand the reason for each of the two.
Understand also all the successful and flawed investments
you have made in your life. Why did they work? Why did
they not?
Once you understand the tricks your brain plays on you,
comes the time to overcome them. You need to
recondition your brain to think contrary to these limiting
beliefs and mental models. Everything that refers to
poverty and a scarcity mentality needs to be
reprogrammed. We need to replace old beliefs about
money in our systems and not just add new ones. To
change them, we must find our new mental model of
wealth and work to reinforce it daily in our minds through
repetition.

Repeat to Conquer

If you want to fix a mental model of wealth in your brain,

you need to constantly repeat, out loud, to yourself your
new truths. Look in the mirror and say, "I have a million
dollar mind" or "The more money I make, the more
money it attracts." Gradually these new beliefs are being
incorporated into your day-to-day, and your mental model
is being replaced, and this occurs with repetition. This
exercise needs to become a routine for you. You need to
create the habit of always reinforcing positive beliefs. In
addition to reinforcing the belief, you need to create
positive habits in the face of wealth.

If you see a product that you would like to have at a low

price, you would normally buy it, would you not? At these
times it is crucial to analyze your financial mindset and to
understand if you really need that product or are just
looking for momentary happiness.

If you are in debt, for example, you must verbally affirm

that buying this will only make your debt worse. Verbal
affirmation is the most efficient way to reprogram your
brain. Be the master of your destiny. One of the most
important beliefs for those who want to get rich is to know
that you are in control of your destiny and not others.
Your wealth does not depend on the world, your boss, or
your job. It depends on you. Rich people take control of
their lives, while poor people tend to victimize and
surrender control of their wealth to banks and others.

Think about it, who do you think buys lottery tickets? The
poor, of course. Rich people know that money over their
control is a much better investment than being at the
mercy of luck. As long as you do not realize that you are
the one who decides your financial success, nothing about
it will change, and you will remain poor. To eradicate
victimistthoughts, you should list all your spending and
investments that did not return well and understand why
they did not. Are you buying too much? Making bad
choices? Instead of complaining, focus on what you can
change. Stop making new purchases. Choose your
investments with more discretion.

Be Positive
Poor people believe that being rich keeps you from being a
good person. In their mental model, the rich have been
lucky and are not good, honest and working people. And
that's an extremely limiting belief about money. People
who think like so are afraid of getting rich. They believe
that wealth will attract disgrace, alienate friendships and
turn them into bad people.

Whoever sees these obstacles in wealth, is bound to not

become rich. These people close themselves to the
possibility of enrichment. To really accumulate wealth,
you have to overcome any kind of limiting belief about
money. The rich are not bad people. They just look at
money differently. They are willing to seize opportunities
and take risks that bring a high potential for return.

To become truly rich, you must know the rich and

sincerely like them, admiring them. Anyone who envies or
distrusts the rich will have difficulty having a positive
outlook on money. Also, wealthy people can be great
advisers to help you get along initially, after all, they have
already achieved what you desire.

Dedicate Yourself

To become rich, you must really want to. It is not enough

to dream it, you must desire it with intensity and to take
actions towards it. That means sacrificing yourself,
working hard for long hours, and keeping your focus at all
times. True wealth calls for real commitment. You also
need to challenge yourself to grow and evolve. Studying
finances, reading about investments, and understanding
the stories of how wealthy became rich are essential, after
all, the more you know the world of money, the easier it
will be to become a wealthy person.

Your commitment may come through a new business, a

new partnership, but it is important that you take the first
step. Yes, luck can happen, but if you do not start
something and do not try, then you will never truly be
rich. Choose an area to explore with passion and curiosity.
You can start underneath, no matter the rank. Enter the
industry, understand how it works, take your lessons from
it to map the greatest opportunities.

Aim High

If you want to become rich, you need challenging goals.

While the poor want to pay the bills, the millionaires want
to be billionaires. These desires materialize in the results
of these people, so it is essential to think great.

If you are going to start a business, think of something

that impacts thousands, millions or billions of people.
Also, if you want to set up a business that will make you
rich, choose one that does not depend on your time and
service. If you are a doctor, for example, there are only a
fixed number of patients you can attend each day. You
need something that is as big as your dream to be able to
reach it.

If you make money in exchange for your time, you're in

trouble because time is a scarce resource. Instead of
serving as a doctor, in this case, the rich way of thinking
would be to set up a network of clinics to serve thousands
of people, not just dozens.

Take Money Seriously

Just making money is not enough if you want to become

really rich. You need to accumulate it, and that takes
discipline and intelligence. A large salary will not bring
you wealth by itself. You need to learn to deal with it
wisely. Many view their wealth based only on how much
they earn in a given month. The right way to measure your
real wealth is by analyzing your net worth, that is, the
value of everything you own. We must focus on growing
this heritage at all times. For this, you need a long-term
financial plan that seeks the balance between revenues,
expenses, investments, and reserves.

If you have trouble creating one, do not be afraid to hire a

financial advisor to help you create this plan. Another
important point is to have a source of passive income, that
is, revenue channels that generate constant earnings,
regardless of your work. These gains can come from
equity investments, mutual funds or even rents. To be
rich, you must know how to make your money work for
you, always in a strategic way.

One recommendation of T. Harv Eker is that you have

different bank accounts. Ideally, you have one for
investments and put 10% of all your income into it. Turn
your capital into sources of passive gains. Another
important point is to spend only 50% of your overheads
and reserve 10% of your money for the luxuries and
pleasures you dream of achieving. Keep your cost of living
minimal and never waste money. If you waste your money
on purchases that bring you instant gratification, you will
not get rich. One must know whether to deprive this
bonus and focus on long-term gains and equity growth.

Keep Your Self-Esteem High

To be rich, you need to value yourself and know how

much you deserve that which you earned. The poor tend
not to believe in them, and this draws even more poverty.
When you know your true value, then you know how to
promote yourself, promote your ideas and your business.
In addition to knowing your value, you must be able to
lead.
As a leader, you have to find followers and you will only
succeed if you believe in your ideas and know how to sell
them. To discover its value and sell it to other people, you
must discover your strengths and use them to your
advantage in everything you do. To feel part of the world
of the rich and grow your self-esteem, you need to
surround yourself with wealth. Attending the same places
as rich people and considering yourself deserving of it is
essential.

Do you always dream of going to an expensive restaurant?

Use the 10% of your revenue that you set aside for this.
Enroll in that country club in your city. Feel what the life
of the rich is like to develop your self-love, after all, if you
do not believe in your true worth, then you will hardly be
able to communicate it and make people believe in it.

Final Notes:

Your way of thinking about money, wealth, and prosperity

is based on the beliefs that were programmed about
money in your mind, still in your childhood. You need to
understand how this mental model was formed, what its
limitations are, and work to develop it constantly if you
really want to become rich. Also, you must always reaffirm
your commitment to prosperity and do your best to
achieve it indeed.
12min tip: Check out our Accidental Billionaires
microbook and discover the story of Mark Zuckerberg and
Eduardo Saverin, who with Facebook became accidental
billionaires.