You opened this page because you want to be a millionaire. Right?

But if I handed you R1 million today… This very second… What would you do with it?

Would you tell your boss to “shove it”? Would you buy a business? Would you buy the first plane ticket to anywhere?

As for me? I’m not sure.

I have a lot of dreams. I want to be a writer (a dream I’m fulfilling right now). I want to be an archaeologist. I want to inspire people. I want to change the world.

(The list could ramble on… And on… And on… So, for your sake, I’m going to stop now.)

But what I’m trying to get at is you don’t want to be a millionaire to make your bank statement look good. You want financial freedom so you can do the things you’ve always wanted to do (and stop doing the things you hate). And I don't doubt you'll do it, but I do know that there are some 'secrets' that’ll make the 'journey' a little easier. And that’s what I want to tell you about today.

You see, business guru Michael Masterson recently told me what makes up the 'millionaire's mindset'.  And I know these eight unique factors could change your life today…

8 ways to start developing a ‘millionaire mindset’...

In his thoroughly entertaining book The Prime Movers, Edwin A. Locke gives this example of the way entrepreneurs think...

An average person observes evergreens growing along the roadside and thinks they look pretty, especially when partly covered with snow...

At this point, his thinking stops. Whereas an entrepreneur observes the same trees and thinks: “These trees would look good in people’s living rooms at Christmas. I wonder what people would pay for them?”

And he would continue to ask such questions as: 

• How hard is it to grow evergreens?
• What investment is required?
• How big should they be before being cut?
• How difficult would it be to cut and transport them?
• How much would it cost?
• How long would they keep before losing their needles?
• Where would they be sold?
• What would the competition be like?
• Could I make other, related products – e.g., wreaths?
• Can I make money in such a seasonal business?
• How much?
• How can I get started?

This kind of active, directed thinking is one of the things that separate entrepreneurs from the rest of humanity. In fact, the most successful entrepreneurs in history – all of them mega-millionaires by today’s standards – seemed to have dynamic, pragmatic minds.

Locke gives plenty of examples, including these:

Thomas Edison: He was a “virtual thinking machine. Almost until the day he died, his mind poured forth a torrent of ideas, and he might track as many as 60 experiments at a time in his laboratory.”

Steve Jobs: He bombarded people with his ideas – his investors, his board of directors, his customers, his subordinates, and his CEO John Scully.

Henry Ford: “He threw himself into every detail, insisting on getting small things absolutely right... But he never lost sight of the ultimate, overall objective. He had a vision of what his new car (the Model T) should look like. From all the improvisation, hard thought, and hard work came a machine that was at once the simplest and the most sophisticated automobile built to date anywhere in the world.”

Why you don’t need to be Henry Ford to be successful

You may be thinking, “Hey, I’m no Thomas Edison or Steve Jobs or Henry Ford.” Well, neither am I. And I could rattle off a dozen multi-millionaire entrepreneurs I know who don’t have that kind of brain capacity either. Raw intelligence is not the issue. If it were, Einstein would have been wealthy. What matters in the world of commerce is how you think. Some people, whether because of their upbringing or their DNA, have a natural millionaire mind. But just about anyone who is smart and ambitious can learn to think like a millionaire. You can transform your mind completely and permanently in a matter of a few short months by making small changes, one at a time. It will take some effort, though. As Joshua Reynolds once said: “There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labour of thinking.”

Start developing your ‘millionaire mind’

Here are eight characteristics of the millionaire mind that you can emulate:

1. A ‘normal’ person is concerned with protecting his ego. When dealing with a problem he doesn’t really understand, he pretends he understands the contributing factors and doesn’t try to find out what anyone else thinks. A person with a millionaire mind asks questions incessantly. He has no ego when it comes to learning. He knows that knowledge is power.

2. A ‘normal’ person has a consumer mentality. He looks at a hot new product and thinks about how he would like to own one. A person with a millionaire mind has an entrepreneurial mentality. He looks at it and thinks, “How can I produce this or something similar in my own industry?”

3. A ‘normal’ person is wish focused. He daydreams about making gobs of money. A person with a millionaire mind is reality-based. He is always analysing his own success and the success of others and wondering how he could learn from it.

4. A ‘normal’ person, when confronted with a challenging idea, thinks of all the reasons why it might not work. A person with a millionaire mind sees the potential in it and disregards the problems until he has a clear vision of how it might succeed.

5. A ‘normal’ person resists change. A person with a millionaire mind embraces it.

6. A ‘normal’ person accepts the status quo. A person with a millionaire mind is always looking to make things – even good things – better.

7. A ‘normal’ person reacts. A person with a millionaire mind is proactive.

8. A ‘normal’ person looks at a successful business owner and thinks, “That guy’s lucky.” Or “That guy’s a shyster.” A person with a millionaire mind thinks, “What’s his secret?” And, “How can I do that?” Start by being humble and asking questions. Do this until it becomes a habit. Then take on another characteristic of the millionaire mind – like looking at a successful new product and thinking, “How can I do something like that?”

Go through the list, mastering one characteristic at a time, and within three months you will be able to create new businesses almost automatically. You will become a natural leader. Money will flow to you like water coming down a hill. And then you’ll be ready to deal with all the ‘normal’ people who are jealous of your incredible success.

In the name of financial freedom,

Chris Densley
Managing Editor of MoneyMaking Insider