Customer Reviews

Millionaire Upgrade: Lessons in Success From Those Who Travel at the Sharp End of the Plane

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Frankly, I did not know quite what to expect as I began to read this book. There are already so many in print whose titles include "millionaire" and which purport to offer "secrets," "keys," etc. to the accumulation of wealth. After having read several of them, I still retain my high regard for others published long ago, such as Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, Russell H. Conwell's Acres of Diamonds, Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, and Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. That said, I soon realized that Millionaire Update is worthy of inclusion with those four.

Only in recent years have the unique benefits of the business narrative been properly recognized. Much of the credit for this is shared by authors such as John Seely Brown (Storytelling in Organizations: Why Storytelling Is Transforming 21st Century Organizations and Management), Stephen Denning (The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations and The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative), Doug Lipman (Improving Your Storytelling), and Annette Simmons (The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion Through the Art of Storytelling).

Now let's focus on this book. Here's the situation. A hurried and harried business executive named Tom almost misses a critically important airline flight but, through the generosity of another business executive named Michael (who had purchased two tickets in business class but needed only one), sits next to him and the conversation which follows provides the narrative for Millionaire Upgrade. As Richard Parkes Cordock explains in the Introduction, this fictional situation is based on what once happened when one of his relatives, Jason Murphy, found himself seated next to Sir Richard Branson on an airline flight. Cordock also suggests that Michael represents both Branson and Sir Tom Hunter. Moreover, the wisdom which Michael shares with Tom also reflects what Cordock learned during his interviews of Branson, Hunter, and more than 50 other other wealthy entrepreneurs. As for Tom, he is "loosely based" on Cordock

It would a disservice to those who read this brief commentary as well as to Cordock to discuss any of the most important revelations during Tom's extended conversation with Michael. However, I can suggest that what Cordock shares can help many (if not most) of his readers to answer questions such as these:

1. What do I really, really want from life?

2. What do I want to be?

3. What do I really want to achieve?

4. Am I prepared to shape my life to ultimately achieve my goal?

Years ago, Rod Steiger was asked if he was often asked for advice about how to succeed as an actor. "Oh yeh, sure sure sure, many times. And I always ask, `Do you want to be an actor...or do you [begin italics] have to be [end italics] an actor?' The longer it takes to answer my question, the less likely that person will make it."

With all due respect to this and other thought-provoking books which provide valuable insights, the fact remains that many people have what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton characterize as a "knowing-doing gap" in that they know what they must do to achieve success (however defined) but, for whatever reasons, are unwilling and/or unable to do whatever must be done.

Point is, Cordock and other authors do all they can to help their readers to understand themselves and their circumstances better but, ultimately and obviously, it is insufficient merely to possess knowledge. As Yoda explained to Luke Skywalker, "Do or do not, there is no try." For those who read Millionaire Upgrade, what Cordock shares can be quite valuable...but only if they then apply what they learn while remaining patient as well as persistent during what is certain to be a very difficult period of personal growth. It all begins with upgrading a self-limiting mindset.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, Bill George's Authentic Leadership, Jim O'Toole's Creating the Good Life, David Whyte's The Heart Aroused, and David Maister's Practice What You Preach. Also two books by Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Success Classics and 50 Self-Help Classics, which provide an excellent introduction to a number of other books which also offer valuable insights.

What could you learn from spending eight hours talking with a successful entrepreneur? Millionaire Upgrade provides an armchair version of that experience.

Many business fables don't quite hit the mark. Some fables portray key concepts in such a general way that you aren't sure what lesson you're supposed to draw. Other fables feature such ridiculous situations that it's hard to take them seriously. A few fables are too complicated.

I usually find business fables to be most effective when the situation they describe resonate as being like something I've experienced, the advice reminds me of key lessons I wish someone had taught me when I was younger, and I come away with new insights I didn't have before.

By those standards, Millionaire Upgrade is a clear winner that will help you break through to the right entrepreneurial mind set to accomplish great things.

Let me share more about my reactions before describing the book's contents. I've had conversations in first class on airplanes like the one described in this book, both as the person providing and receiving the advice. I treasure those memories. In these days when more and more leaders only travel on their own planes, it's harder and harder to gain this kind of experience. It seemed appropriate to encapsulate the experience into a business fable for that reason, if for no other.

I also teach entrepreneurs. The hardest point to get across is how fascination, passion, perseverance, fresh thinking, exciting others and putting the right team together are critical elements to superior entrepreneurial results. Everyone smiles at me when I talk about those factors, but I can tell they usually haven't absorbed the lesson as deeply as they need to.

I have spent a lot of time interviewing top entrepreneurs. When you do, you get a sense of the person that's like the entrepreneur in this fable. Richard Parkes Cordock has done a great service in capturing those qualities of quiet, but never-ending, focus in his character of Michael. Undoubtedly, the dozens of interviews he had with successful entrepreneurs gave him that accurate reading of their characters and habits.

I also liked that the concept behind the fable was based loosely on a real incident where Jason Murphy, a member of the author's family, was upgraded to sit next to Sir Richard Branson in seat 1B where the peripatetic entrepreneur did indeed provide advice.

Finally, this book provided a very effective mnemonic device to help remind me of the book's lessons. Many fables try to do that, and I can remember neither the mnemonic nor its lessons by the end of the book. This one sticks well. Nice!

Here's a quick overview of the book. Tom has procrastinated in getting ready for a flight to do a dirty job. All of that delay makes him almost miss the flight. He's the last one to board and finds himself upgraded to business class in seat 1B after the occupant of 1A gives up the seat he had reserved for an assistant who didn't join the trip. 1A notices that Tom has a copy of Think and Grow Rich with him. They start conversing. 1A turns out to be Michael Redford, a successful entrepreneur (whose history shows some parallels to Sir Richard Branson's).

Through the eight brief chapters, Mr. Cordock introduces the concepts behind "I believe . . . [to a} t" which is the mnemonic device I mentioned earlier. It's a good device in part because "I believe" is the essence of the kind of positive thinking that helps entrepreneurs to accomplish.

I don't think it's fair to reveal what all of these lesson are, but you deserve a couple of examples of my favorites:

One of the e's stands for "expect failure." That may sound like the opposite of positive thinking, but most entrepreneurs succeed because they are prepared to survive and learn from potential failures. Often those who have the most failures in the beginning have the largest successes later on.

Another e is "enjoy hard work." I was thinking of that point yesterday when a young medical assistant advised me to stop working so I could enjoy life. Surprised, I said to her that I really liked what I was doing and didn't want to give my work up. She was speechless. It was a new thought for her.

Do you want to succeed as an entrepreneur? Read and apply this book!

Millionaire Upgrade is a modern update to Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" and Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People". If you're not familiar with either of those books, and are considering buying this one, I would definitely recommend you pick up all three - yes, you will be hearing similar concepts from all three, but that is exactly the point. Turns out, the basic "principles of success" have not changed much over the past hundred years! Millionaire Upgrade is a quick read and can serve as a great introduction to these concepts, and also as a great refresher to anyone who has previously studied Napoleon Hill or Dale Carnegie's works.

Yet another tree died in vain to produce the paper for this book. How the author was able to type whilst simultaneously patting his own back is a wonder to behold. If name-dropping from 20,000 feet is your styrofoam cup of tea, this self-congratulatory paean is for you.

As Mrs. Parker said of a similar book..."this is not a book to be lightly tossed aside. It should be thrown with great force."

This is a very well thought out and easy to digest book that guides you through some useful ideas and thinking about business. I would recommend it to anyone thinking of starting up a business, it's fun and also deeply thought provoking.

This business parable uses a composite successful entrepreneur who shares the principles of success that Richard Parkes Cordock learned by interviewing 50 self-made millionaires. The format of the story is based on a real event that happened when one of the Cordock relatives was seated next to Sir Richard Branson on a flight. Sir Richard, just like the Michael Redford of the book, was generous in sharing his business insights with the young entrepreneur. The book describes the key differences between the entrepreneur and the rest of us: attitude, persistence and tenacity. The acronym "I Believe" appears a bit strained, but the principles behind it are sound, established and timeless. We suggest this book may be best for a younger person ready to break out and take on the world, but even a more mature, seasoned entrepreneur may benefit from the pep talk.

I have very mixed emotions about this book. On the positive side, I think the principles the author lays out in this book are exactly right and can be very valuable for the right audience. I think that the right audience is for young adults who want to break out of the humdrum office life they have been for a few years or a young person who is so full of life, energy, and ambition that they know they have to build their own business. However, for anyone who has been around for awhile, these principles are pretty well known and either you have become an entrepreneur or you won't, not matter how much you dream. As the author notes, the employee mindset is 180 degrees out of phase with the mindset of the entrepreneur. The employee works towards his pension while the entrepreneur works for her passion.

The trick of the story is the acronym the author has created to teach the eight principles. It is awfully strained, but it has the merit of being memorable even if you have to strain to remember the individual principles for a while. The acronym is "I BELIEVE" and it stands for:

I = I Believe in myself

B = Be passionate and want it

E = Extend your comfort zone

L = Lies and Luck don't work

I = Install goals

E = Enjoy hard work

V = Very, very persistent

E = Expect failure

And the bonus principle, the magic ingredient is, you guessed it, teamwork.

So, can you see how strained it is to tack persistence onto the V of believe and I meaning install goals? Really a yuck from me. But the points themselves are good and true.

The author fashioned this business parable based on a real experience of one of his relatives happening to be seated next to Sir Richard Branson (of Virgin everything) on a flight. However, the successful entrepreneur teaching these principles to his young apprentice is a composite that the author made from his interviews with more than 50 of the United Kingdom's most successful entrepreneurs and then distilling what they said into this set of principles.

So, for the right audience this will be great and they will either enjoy or look past the clunky metaphor. For others, the principles are pretty well known and they have read them in many other books starting with Napoleon Hill.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

I have read many of such motivational books with similar "Get-Rich" theme. However, none of them has impressed me as much as yours. Your easy style of writing and creative story board sequencing of the principles "I Believe" has certainly won my admiration. I too shared your purpose in spread this gospel of "entrepreneur mindset" and have reaped the harvest in Singapore. I'll certainly add your perspective into my presentation and promote your book in my seminars and workshops. To date, I have bought 10 copies and given them away to my staff and friends. I would be purchasing another 10 copies to be given away to my clients....all in the name of spreading the gospel of a millionaire mindset.

Once again, Richard, thumbs up and a sensational job indeed...this book is "One in A Million". My kudos to ya.

The book is a great disappointment and a disaster. I have bought anywhere between 20 and 30 books on self-motivation and this book is absolutely the worst one. It is quite obvious that the writer copied his ideas from all those books published in the last few years which were popular, so none is his own ideas. There is nothing original in this book. The writer claimed that he had once sit on an airplane next to a self-made billionaire, Richard Brandson, who gave him the inspiration that later made his career. (The writer also started a MBA course called Millionaire MBA which made me wonder what he is capable of teaching, considering the poor quality of the book.)

I cannot understand the book is written in such a way that is both dry and empty. Anyone who talked to Sir Richard Brandson on an airplane, would definately be able to write a much better book! Why did the writer write a fiction that is nothing but unbelievable in many of the details.

For people who did not have any success which worth talking about and only made a carrier because the books he wrote about self-motivation, I always have my strong reservation: If he did not have any success with his own theory , then how valuable are the books he wrote? Pure imagination ? I can recommend the books wrote by Richard Brandson himself, Loosing My Viginity, and Screw It, Let's Do It! And the book by journalist commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich. It is much better to read the book written by the people who has made it rather than by someone who jumped on the band-waggon and wrote a me-too product in a hurry.