BECOME RICH DESMOND ELIOT

CONTINUITY

■ PROBABILITIES ARE EVERYTHING

Imagine you are an inexperienced dart thrower, slightly inebriated, in a darkened room, standing some distance from the dartboard. Even under these conditions, if you throw enough darts in the direction of the dartboard, you would eventually hit it. And if you continued to throw darts, almost in spite of yourself you would be- come more accurate. As a result, by the law of probabilities, you would eventually hit a bull’s-eye.

This metaphor explains why people who start off with high levels of desire and determination ultimately succeed. They just keep trying. And by the law of probabilities, they finally win. It is not luck. They create their own luck by what they do, or what they fail to do.

Now, imagine the conditions are different. Imagine that you are a skilled dart thrower, and that you practice every day to get better. In addition, you are fully rested, clear-headed, and completely pre- pared. The lights in the room are bright and you stand at a reason- able distance from the dartboard. Under these conditions, all of which are under your control, the time it would take you to hit a bull’s-eye would be greatly reduced. And of course, when you do hit a bull’s-eye, everyone would tell you how “lucky” you were. But you made your own luck.

Throughout your life, you must be constantly thinking about all the things you can do, in every area, to increase the probabilities that you will be successful in achieving your goals. You should leave nothing to chance. You should refuse to wish or hope, or trust to luck.You must take control of your situation. You are responsible.

■ YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE

You will achieve financial success only after you accept that every- thing that you ever become is completely up to you. You are responsible. No one is going to do it for you. Keep repeating, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!”

Fortunately, in America there are more opportunities for wealth creation and personal success than have ever existed previously in all of human history. The United States is the only country on earth that is commonly referred to overseas as “the land of dreams.” In 2003, it was rated as the most entrepreneurial country in the world. This means that it is easier to start and build a successful business in the United States than it is anywhere else on earth.

As information and technology continue to expand and multiply times each other, and competition continues to intensify, more and more opportunities are opening up every day for the creative minority who are willing to take advantage of them. Your job is to find these opportunities, and if you don’t find them, create them for yourself.

■ THE COMMON DENOMINATOR

One of the discoveries in the research on self-made millionaires is the finding that most of them start off with little or no money. Most of them start off by saving their money carefully for a long time until they have enough to start a small enterprise or business. Some of the biggest companies in America were started on a kitchen table or in a garage, like the Hewlett-Packard Company or Apple Computer. Some of the newest millionaires in America come from the field of multilevel marketing. Working from home, they paid $50 for a sample kit and went out to work. They sold something, made a profit, reinvested their profits, grew larger, and eventually achieved financial independence.

In Dr.Thomas Stanley’s interviews with self-made millionaires, he discovered their common denominator of success. The most important quality that self-made millionaires used to explain their suc- cess was the habit of hard, hard work.

Self-made millionaires work much harder than the average per- son. They start earlier, work harder, and stay later. According to many studies and interviews, self-made millionaires work an over- age of 59 hours per week. Some work considerably more, especially at the beginning.

■ WASTING TIME AT WORK

The average employed person puts in about 40 hours per week on the job, but only about 32 hours of that is officially working time. Fully 50 percent of time spent at work is wasted in idle socializing with co-workers, personal telephone calls, and personal business. Average employees start a little later, take long coffee breaks and lunch hours, and leave a little earlier. Even managers privately re- port that they spend fully half of the time they are at work doing things that have absolutely nothing whatever to do with the job.

Only about 5 percent of people working today work full-time on their jobs from the time they begin each day until the time they finish. These people are the ones on the fast track in their careers. They are moving upward and onward, getting paid more and being promoted faster. They are the movers and shakers in every business, and everyone knows who they are.

■ LOW-VALUE ACTIVITIES

The saddest part of the research into employee work habits is not just that people waste a lot of time at work. It is that in the other 50 percent of the time, when people are actually working on company tasks and responsibilities, they tend to work on low-value, low-priority tasks. As a result, they contribute little of value to their companies. Low productivity leads to lower wages and fewer opportunities.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are laid off from large and small corporations, often from white-collar, mismanage- mint jobs. Why is this? The answer is simple. The companies have finally learned that they are paying high salaries to people who are producing very little of value. No company can survive very long under these conditions, and these companies are determined to survive. So the redundant staff has to go.

■ YOU CAN DO IT

If you are serious about becoming financially independent, or even better, becoming a self-made millionaire over the course of your career, here are two facts: First, it is definitely possible. Hundreds of thousands of men and women become financially independent each year after having started from nothing. Whatever others have done, within reason, you can do as well. The very fact that someone else has achieved a particular financial goal is proof it is possible for you. The only question is, how badly do you want it?

Second, the reality principle says that if you want to be success full in any area, you have to find out what other successful people have done to succeed in that area, and then do the same things over and over until you get the same results. As long as you don’t try to fool yourself and look for shortcuts, you are virtually assured of eventually achieving, and even exceeding, your goals.

■ THE 40 PLUS FORMULA

Begin today to apply the “40 Plus Formula” to your work and your career. This formula says that you work 40 hours per week in the United States for survival. If you work only 40 hours per week—if you work only the number of hours that are required of you—then all you will ever do is survive. You will tread water financially. You will make enough to pay your bills and perhaps a little more be- sides, but you will never get ahead and you will never be successful. According to the 40 Plus Formula, every hour that you put in over 40 hours on your job, or on yourself, is an investment in your future success. You can tell where you are going to be five years from now by simply looking at how many hours per week you put in on your job. Every hour over 40 that you invest in getting more results for your employer and your customers adds up and contributes to your long-term success.

■ GIVE YOU AN EDGE

If you work 45 to 50 hours per week, you give yourself an edge over your co-workers. If you work 55 to 60 hours per week, your long- term success is virtually guaranteed. You put yourself on the side of the angels. Many self-made millionaires work 70 to 80 hours per week to get established in their careers. There are no shortcuts to lasting success. I have studied successful men and women in America for more than 25 years. I have never found a single successful person who got there working only 40 hours, or five days per week. The idea of the five-day week, which was promoted by the labor unions as a great advance in the life of the working person, has been the cause of more financial underachievement and failure than perhaps any other single myth.

The fact is that, especially at the beginning of their careers, all really successful people work much harder than the average person. They work 10 to 12 hours per day, six days per week. They work at this rate for many months and years, before they reach the point where they can slow down. The average self-made millionaire has taken 22 years to get from being broke to having a net worth of more than one million dollars. It is not easy and it is not quick. But it is definitely possible if you want it badly enough.

■ WORK ALL THE TIME YOU WORK

A key part of success at work is to use your time well, to focus on results, and avoid the time-wasting social activities of the poor per- formers. In correlation with this is the need for you to “work all the time you work.”

This is a remarkable idea for many people. Often employees think about work as if it was an extension of school. When they were growing up, they came to think of school as a place where you go to socialize. You take the required courses, but the most important part is spending time with your friends between classes. School be- comes a form of play.

Many people think, when they take their first job, that work is also a place where you go to spend time with your friends. This is why fully half of the working day is spent socializing, and in idle conversation on the telephone with friends and family. Work is seen as a giant sandbox where you continue to play as you did in school. You do a little work when the boss is watching, get a paycheck, and then go home.

But this is not for you. If you are determined to succeed greatly and be paid the very most, you must work all the time you work. When you go to work, you must put your head down and work wholeheartedly.

■ SOCIALIZING WITH CO-WORKERS

Many people believe the myth that you have to spend a lot of time getting along with your co-workers. They say, “Work is supposed to be fun!” And this is true up to a point.

Of course, it is important for you to be positive and agreeable person to work with. But you can accomplish this in a few minutes of pleasant interaction each day. You don’t have to spend endless hours chatting about sports, television shows, and family activities. Your job is to work all the time you work.

When you work, you work. You do not pick up your dry cleaning or drop off your laundry during working hours. You do not socialize with your friends or chat on the phone with your family. You do not take long coffee breaks and extended lunch hours. You work all the time you work. You commit yourself to getting the very most done that you possibly can in the time that you have available to you.

■ GET BACK TO WORK

Your goal is to earn the reputation around your company as being the hardest-working person in the organization. If someone wants to shoot the breeze with you, explain to him or her that you would be pleased to chat after work, but right now you have to get back to work. Keep repeating to yourself, “Back to work, back to work, back to work!”

People who achieve great financial success, either in their own businesses or working for other organizations, are people who very early develop a reputation for hard, hard work. There is a saying in business: “Everyone knows everything.” There are no secrets. Everyone knows who works the hardest in every organization, and who doesn’t.

There is no quality that will bring you to the attention of people who can help you faster than your developing a reputation for being one of the hardest-working people in your company.

■ START EARLIER, STAY LATER

Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, once told the story of a young man who started at the bottom of a large organization and eventually moved up into the top ranks of executives, passing all the people who had started with him at the same level. His strategy was simple. He noticed that his boss came in a little earlier than the rest of the staff, stayed to finish up his work, and left a little later than the others. This young man therefore resolved to arrive 15 minutes before his boss and to leave 15 minutes after his boss left.

He put his resolution into action the next day. This is another hallmark of high achievers: They don’t procrastinate when they have a good idea; they take action immediately. The young man began coming in 15 minutes before his boss and going straight to work, continuing all day. When his boss left he would still be at his desk, working away.

■ BE PATIENT AND PERSISTENT

The boss said nothing for several weeks. Finally, after work one evening, his boss came over to his desk and asked him why he al- ways seemed to be there, even though all his co-workers had left. The young man said it was because he was really determined to be successful in this company, and he knew he couldn’t be successful unless he was willing to work harder than anyone else.

The boss smiled and nodded and went on his way. Soon after that, the boss asked him to do something that was not part of his job description. He did it quickly and well, delivered it to his boss, and went back to his desk. Soon after, he was given another assignment, which he also completed quickly. Within a year, the young man had been given several additional responsibilities, each one of which he accepted and fulfilled immediately.

In his second year, he was promoted to a higher position. He studied, upgraded his skills, and continued to work hard. Within a couple of years he had surpassed all of his rivals. He had earned the respect and esteem of the other managers. They soon promoted him

So that he was one of them, rather than one of the staff. His career took off. Eventually he became a vice president of the company.