Mastering the Decisions That Define Your Life
Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child,
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me -
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.
Shel Silverstein
A book, like money, can change the world. But it can only do this if people like you honestly believe that ANYTHING can be. Like a smart five-year old, we know that ANYTHING can be. But unlike them, we know that for ANYTHING to be, you must first be aware of how to make it be. That's what this book is about, how to make certain ANYTHINGS be in the lives of all our nation's young people. Actually, it's about two ANYTHINGS that can be. The first is how we help young people lead economically successful lives. The second is how we can help them lead purpose-filled lives. Which means, this book has as much to say to RICH CHILDREN as it does to MIDDLE CLASS and POOR CHILDREN. This is a book that every teacher of high school students should read. This is also a book that every parent of high school children should read.
WAIT A MINUTE! Are you saying you honestly believe that every child in America can be a millionaire?
WHY NOT? It's just another ANYTHING that can be, and if every child in America is aware of how easy it is to become a millionaire—WHY CAN'T IT BE?
IT CANNOT BE because the poor will always be among us!
There you go thinking like a GROWNUP again, listening to the IMPOSSIBLES, and saying things cannot be because they've never been before. Thank goodness the Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't have you around as their chief cheerleader. Accumulating wealth is one of the easiest things in the world to do, if it's something you really want to do. All it requires is a basic awareness of how this is done, a bit of patience, and a little self-discipline. What's more, if you work it cleverly, it doesn't even require the discipline.
Well, MAYBE IT CAN BE, but I'm from Missouri, so you're going to have to show me.
That's exactly why we wrote this book. To show folks just like you what an easy concept this is to teach young people. Becoming a millionaire involves nothing more than making good decisions about your time and your money. And if you make good choices about the two most precious economic resources in your life, becoming a millionaire will happen almost automatically. Even if it doesn't, you'll still have one heck of a good life.
In this book, all we've done is set forth some time-proven precepts on economic and life success. You need the facts, but you also need a little fun, so we'll let you in on the real deal behind the Ant and the Grasshopper, Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, and The Little Red Hen. We know what really happened in these fairy tales, and like Paul Harvey, we want to give you "The Rest of the Story."
If you were not born wealthy, and you're not smart enough to marry wealthy, then the three most likely routes to your economic success are
A. ENTREPRENEURSHIP, either on a world-class stage like Bill Gates, or on local stage like millions of self-employed Millionaires Next Door,
B. DEVELOPING A GOD-GIVEN TALENT, like Tiger Woods, Stephen Spielberg, or renowned pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson, or
C. FINDING YOUR EMPLOYMENT PASSION AND INVESTING YOUR WAY TO WEALTH, like some 550,000 Millionaire Next Door university professors and researchers have done with TIAA/CREF.
Investing your way to wealth is not nearly as romantic as marrying wealthy. It is also not as lucrative as entrepreneurship or as personally fulfilling as developing a special talent. But it will allow anyone who truly wants to be a millionaire to be just that. All it demands is that you invest $166 a month - at 12% interest - for 420 months. And since the stock market has averaged about 12% over the last 73 years, it's not hard to find these kinds of investments. Assuming you invest just 10% of your net income on a monthly basis, to achieve your millionaire objective, your gross salary never has to be more than $25,000 a year. If you start at age 20, you'll be a millionaire by age 55. The average combined annual household income of our nations' K-12 teachers is $61,041.00. This statistic says that the only reason every teacher in America isn't a millionaire—by the time they give up the chalkboard and erasers—is that no one has ever taken them by the hand and shown them how easy it is to achieve this possibility. This defines half of what Discovering the Millionaire in Every Child is all about—showing teachers and parents how to help young people, as well as themselves, achieve lives of unimagined economic possibilities.
If you're extremely entrepreneurial, extremely talented, or a disciplined and forward-thinking investor, developing and carrying out a sound wealth-accumulation plan isn't complicated. All three strategies require personal commitment, but they are in no way complex. However, helping a young person discover their life calling and then develop a strategy to carry out this discovery is a whole other ball game. Strategic life planning, i.e. helping young people discover and live up to the demands of their "life purpose," is a powerful art every teacher and parent should not only understand but fully master.
Ultimately, everything we do in life is a function of our decisions about three very simple things: How we use our time, how we use our money, and those with whom we spend our time. If you know where you're going—and you master these decisions—you will define your life in very special ways.
We have a simple theory: Forty years from now, somebody is going to have to be the new Aaron Copeland, Amy Tan, Arthur C. Clarke, B.B. King, Beverly Cleary, Bill Cosby, Beverly Sills, Bill Gates, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Bob Keeshan, Carl Sagan, Eleanor Roosevelt, Garrison Keillor, Garth Brooks, George Lucas, Helen Keller, George Carlin, Jane Goodall, John Grisham, Joan Ganz Cooney, John Hope Franklin, Jonas Salk, Katherine Hepburn, Larry Ellison, Leonard Bernstein, Louie Armstrong, Margaret Mead, Louis L'Amour, Maya Angelou, Michael Dell, Montel Williams, Oprah Winfrey, Paul Harvey, Quincy Jones, Ralph Lauren, Ruth Bader Ginzberg, Stephen Hawking, Tina Turner, Tom Joyner, Walt Disney, and yes, even the new and improved Donald Trump.
This means, as always, a few young people are going to make the commitment to be among the very best in our society. Since this is true, the young people who are your children might as well be among them. Therein lies the other half of Discovering the Millionaire in Every Child—helping teachers and parents help young people, as well as themselves, discover how to live a life filled with unimagined growth and personal possibilities.
