Of all of the self-made millionaire stories I encountered in my Rich Habits study, there was one that really stuck with me. What made this millionaire’s story so compelling was the anguish he described during his pursuit of success. At one long stage during his journey things were going very badly. He was on the verge of bankruptcy. All of the money he and others in his family had invested and all of the money he had borrowed was close to being depleted. During this very difficult stretch of time, 20 months, he told me he would have to force himself to get out of bed, shave, shower, dress, and drive to work. He felt like a zombie each day during this 20 month period. He wanted to run away and hide from everyone. He was severely depressed. He said he tried to avoid looking at himself in the mirror each morning because all he saw was a miserable failure. To avoid looking in the mirror, he shaved in the shower. Nonetheless, he kept at it very day. He never quit. He showed up every day.

Today, this individual is worth over $20 million. He has two magnificent homes. Both on the ocean. He travels frequently. Sometimes for months at a stretch. He’s happy. But interestingly, he says he looks back on that 20 month period fondly. It was during that period that he found the greatness within him. The anguish he encountered forced him to grow and get better. It also infused him with enormous confidence.

The pursuit of success is not easy. Growth and change is not easy. But it is necessary. You’ve got to show up every day, especially when it seems the world is conspiring against you. It is during those moments of great anguish, of great struggle that the butterfly eventually emerges from the cocoon.

Success isn’t an event it’s a process. We have become conditioned to view success as an event because self-made millionaires oftentimes experience some avalanche of success event that gets the attention of others. But that avalanche of success event is really the result of daily growth and consistent efforts that move you closer to achieving your goals and dreams. You become that successful person, long before the avalanche of success event occurs. The manifestation of any success event requires that you learn and grow every day.

The “Rule of 1” is a strategy that will help transform you into the person you need to be in order for success to occur. It’s a simple strategy. Each month you focus on learning one new thing. Ideally, this new thing should be something related to:

• Your main job
• A side job
• Your side business
• A future side business
• Goals or a dream you are pursuing

The “Rule of 1” process:

1. Every day for a month spend at least 30 minutes reading about a new topic or subject (alternatively, you can listen to podcasts or watch videos on the topic)
2. Write down important facts on a sheet of paper
3. Summarize the most important facts on large index cards
4. At the end of the month transfer the important facts on that topic from the index cards onto a summary sheet
5. Put the summary sheet in a “Fact Binder”
6. Repeat this process each month focusing on a different subject or topic
7. Once a week review each summary sheet

After one year you will have learned 12 new subject areas. You will have grown in your knowledge. This new knowledge will help you become an expert in your field. It will move you closer to becoming the person you need to be in order to realize that avalanche of success event.

If you want to become a self-made millionaire you need to begin creating multiple streams of income. In my Rich Habits study, 65% of the self-made millionaires did just that. They had 3 or more streams of income. 45% had 4 or more streams of income. 29% had 5 or more streams of income. Diversifying your sources of income enables you to weather the economic downturns that always occur. These downturns are not as severe to the wealthy as they are to the poor. The poor put “one pole in one pond” and when that single income stream is impacted by an economic downturn, the poor suffer financially. Conversely, the rich have “several poles in many ponds” and are able to draw income from other sources when one source is temporarily impaired. Some of the additional streams included: real estate rentals, REITs, Tenants-in-common real estate investments, triple net leases, stock market investments, annuities, seasonal real estate rentals (beach rentals, ski rentals, lakefront rentals), private equity investments, part ownership in side businesses, financing investments, ancillary product or services and royalties (patents, books, oil, timber).

In the movie Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg who is programmed to kill Sarah Connor. In one scene, John Connor, who is transported back in time to stop Arnold, tells Sarah: “That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.”  The Terminator is programmed to never quit until it succeeds with it’s objective or dies trying.

In my Rich Habits study I discovered a similar Terminator-type programming inherent in self-made millionaires – self-belief. Self-belief creates the passion (emotional fuel) to move you to act. This action results in many mistakes, failures, learning, self-correction, growth and then ultimately success. Self-belief transforms you into a success-seeking machine that will not stop, will never quit, until you succeed or die trying. Self-belief unleashes your inner terminator.

In his book, A Prescription For Happiness (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prescription-Happiness-Commitments-Happier-Healthier-ebook/dp/B00UZ2ATJU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1427311073&sr=8-4&keywords=a+prescription+for+happiness), Dr. Mark Rowe explains that in order to be truly happy we need to pursue good health in five key areas:

1. Physical Health (diet, exercise and Health IQ)
2. Psychological Health (stress, distress and destress)
3. Relationship Health (you become who you interact with)
4. Emotional Health (is your EQ affecting your IQ)
5. Legacy Health (are you achieving your potential)

What’s unique about Dr. Rowe’s happiness philosophy is the notion that the pursuit of permanent happiness is an itch that drives many of us to become overachievers, to excel in life. Attaining permanent happiness would be catastrophic. It would stop us in our tracks, ending our quest for excellence and mastery in life. The very fact that permanent happiness is unattainable is actually a blessing in disguise. Food for thought, my friends.

Do your homework or you can’t go out an play.

We hated hearing those words as kids. Homework was a chore. Something most of us dreaded, like going to the dentist or going shopping for clothes. It wasn’t fun at all. Why? Because to us it wasn’t our homework. It was someone else’s. It was a mandate that came from our teachers. As humans, we are hard-wired to distain doing someone else’s homework.

In a recent study, 71% polled admitted to not liking their job. Why? They didn’t like their job because they were doing someone else’s homework. They were working on someone else’s goals and life dream. In the adult world it’s not a teacher but some boss who is giving us homework to do.

When we pursue our own goals and dreams the work we do becomes our homework. Our perception changes. The work ceases to be a chore and we are infused with passion. We can work 14 hour days when we’re working for ourselves; when we’re doing our own homework. And that is the key to success in life. Is it any wonder that the vast majority of the self-made millionaires in the world are business owners? When we are working on our goals and our dreams, its not a chore. It becomes our life’s purpose.

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”  Patanjali

We accumulate habits in life. There are many sources that are responsible for the habits we have but, by far, those we associate with on a regular basis have the most influence over the habits we adopt. In my Rich Habits research, I uncovered 12 sources of habits, the majority of which are association habits. The #1 source of these Habits By Association is our parents. Many of our adult habits were forged in childhood by adopting habits we were exposed to at home. Secondary influencers in their order of importance are: mentors, teachers, spouses ( or significant others), friends, our culture, our neighborhood, schoolmates, sports teams, school clubs and the Kardashians. I mean, celebrities, not Kardashians. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention there.

While there is not much we can do about the habits we pick up from our parents as children, there is a great deal we can do as adults. We can choose which habits we adopt or cast aside by changing who we associate with. Associating with the right people dramatically affect your habits. By right people, I am referring to success-minded individuals; upbeat, positive, goal-oriented people. These individuals represent only about 5-10% of the population, so you have to make an effort to find them. They can be found running charitable groups, business groups, religious groups, within mentor groups (Boys and Girls Club, iMentor etc), at the best companies (http://fortune.com/best-companies/), in trade organizations and in mastermind groups. You have to seek out those you want to associate, who have those good habits that are so critical to success in life.

What you do every day matters. Consistency drives success and failure. Your actions, on a daily basis, determine if you will succeed, fail or just get by in life. Those who succeed in life consistently avoid bad habits and consistently follow good habits. Those who fail in life consistently avoid good habits and consistently follow bad habits. Those who get by in life are inconsistent in their application of good habits and bad habits. Consistency forges a life of success, failure or mediocrity.

Is your business struggling? Do you tell yourself every day how hard you work? Most people do. The purpose of this tip is to give you a little dose of reality. So here goes:

Success in business is actually a very simple two part formula:

1. You do the work you should be doing for those you serve and
2. You produce results that meet the expectations of those you serve.

If your business is struggling, the reality is that whatever work you are doing is not producing results for those you serve and that is why your business is struggling. 

How do you know you are not doing the work you should be doing? Very simple: You know you are not doing the work you should be doing when you are not producing results that meet the expectations of those you serve.

How do you know you are not producing the results that meet the expectations of those you serve? You eventually lose their business; those you serve begin to drift away to find others who will produce results that will meet their expectations. When you lose their business it’s actually a triple loss of business revenues: #1 you not only lose the business you have currently, #2 you also lose any new projects and #3 you lose referrals that would have been.

Doing the right work + produce results that meet expectations = successful businesses. Those who value your service will never leave you and will be happy to pay you more money to do more work for them and will refer others to you so long as you continue to produce results and meet their expectations in everything you do.