Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires

By O'Neil Francis

Discover the secrets of self-made millionaires and follow the trail they have left behind.

Do you want to be financially secure? Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a self-made millionaire? Anyone can learn the principles of wealth creation. This book reveals the secrets of men and women who have turned modest incomes into milli

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Sep 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647732431

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Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive

Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2020 O’neil Francis

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For information, address Trilogy Christian Publishing

Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, Ca 92780.

Trilogy Christian Publishing/ TBN and colophon are trade-marks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-64773-242-4

ISBN 978-1-64773-243-1 (ebook)

Dedication

To my father, Rupert Francis, a fine example and a great model of strength;

to my mother, Wildia Francis, a prudent financial manager in her own right;

and to my sister, Dr. Patrice Francis-Emmanuel, a source of inspiration and unwavering support

Contents

Unlikely Millionaires

Millionaire Secrets

Change your Mindset

Think Big

Fear Inhibits Wealth

Take Action

Set Financial Goals

Control Your Time

The Secrets to Wealth Creation from the Eagle, the Spider, and the Ant

The Secret of the Eagle

The Secret of the Spider

The Secret of the Ant

Three Fundamental Principles for Wealth Creation

Principle 1:Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees, But Money Grows Like Trees—The Lesson of the Tree and the Law of Time

Principle 2:Wealth Is Unlimited

Principle 3: Get Rich Slowly

Practical Guide to Wealth Building in the Stock Market

Trend Investing

Past Trends

The Starbucks Phenomenon

The Fast Casual, Health Care, and Internet Shopping Phenomena

Current Emerging Trends

How Health Care Can Make You Rich

How the Elderly Can Make You a Millionaire

How Global Trade Can Boost Your Wealth

How Understanding Hispanics Can Increase Your Returns

The Pivot to Asia, Africa, and Latin America: Building Wealth from Unlikely Places

How the Chinese Can Help You Build Wealth

Global Travel—A Key to Wealth Building

The Chinese Pie—How China Can Elevate You to Millionaire Status

How the Big Cities of the World Can Boost Your Wealth

Building Wealth from the Renewable Energy Sector

How Oil and Gas Can Make You Rich

The Future of Money Shows the Path to Wealth

Mobile Payments

The Unbanked and Underbanked

Look Into the Past and You Will See the Future

The Eagle and the Fourth Industrial Revolution—The Age of Smart Machines

The New Era of Driving

Basic Principles for Stock Investing

Amateur Investors Can Win in Stocks

Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters

How to Approach Stock Market Investing: The Basic Rule

Investing in Stock Index Funds

Why Does This Investment Strategy Work?

Stock Index Funds and Wealth Preservation

How Stocks Can Be Superior to Other Types of Investments

Stocks vs. Real Estate

Stocks vs. Treasury Bills

Stocks vs. Bonds

Stocks vs. Gold

The Final Verdict for Stock Investing

Why the Prospective Millionaire Should Not Be Anxious about Stock Market Volatility

Scheduled Investing

The Essential Commandments of Stock Investing

The Basic Steps of a Self-Made Millionaire

The Basic Steps

Basic Principles for Building Significant Wealth

The Ultimate Wealth—The Wisdom of the Coney

Men and women are best served by finding and making their home in the Rock.

Bibliography

Note to the Reader

Forty-four percent of Americans are unable to cover an unexpected $400 of emergency expenses, and many adults have no savings for retirement.¹ With this in mind, accumulating $1 million in savings may seem impossible to most Americans, but it is a perfectly achievable goal. One million dollars is a symbolic figure. It is often viewed as an aspirational amount. But as you will learn from this book, many ordinary Americans have achieved it, and the formula to achieve it can be learned and applied successfully by anyone.

While this book sets out a method for building wealth, the reader should note that its contents represent the opinions of the author. This book is sold and published subject to the understanding that the author is not providing legal, investment, tax, financial, accounting, or other advice of a professional nature. The reader should therefore seek advice from a licensed professional who is legally authorized to provide such advice. Any reference to specific stocks or asset classes is not intended to be a recommendation and should not be treated as such. References to specific stocks are merely illustrative and do not purport to make projections as to future price movements. The reader is also advised that past performance of any asset mentioned in this book is not a guarantee of future performance.

Therefore, the advice contained herein is not guaranteed or warranted to produce any particular result and may not be suitable for every individual.

Chapter 1

Unlikely Millionaires

In early 2004, an eighty-six-year old man of Chinese descent sat beside me on a three-hour flight from New York to Montego Bay. I noticed him busily flipping through a magazine, and ten minutes into the flight, he turned to me and introduced himself with an impish smile. He noticed my surprise and quickly introduced himself.

My new friend, Mr. Lee, was born in Jamaica and had traveled to the United States many decades before to start a new life. He grew up in a poor family in Jamaica. But despite arriving in America at an early age with hardly a dime in his possession, by age sixty-five, Mr. Lee confided to me that he had become financially independent for the rest of his life. He could now travel the world whenever he pleased, and whether he wanted to be in Scandinavia, on a cruise in the Mediterranean, or lay on a beach in the South of France, rental income was pouring into his bank accounts like clockwork from the rental properties he had acquired over many decades from saving and investing his modest salary as a tailor.

It sounded far too good to be true. Could it really have been so simple? I wanted details. There had to be more, and I wanted to hear how he had become so rich having started as a poor immigrant who had limited education and worked all his life as a humble tailor. I was desperate to learn how he had essentially risen from almost nothing when he moved to America with hardly a dime to accumulating far more assets and resources than he would ever need. I was fascinated and wanted to know how he had done it. Luckily for me, Mr. Lee gave me valuable insights into the secrets of his success. After my conversation with Mr. Lee, I was convinced that financial independence was possible for anyone irrespective of their level of education or income. In fact, I discovered that becoming a self-made millionaire was within the reach of anyone who had the drive, commitment, and patience of Mr. Lee.

My journey to discover the secrets of self-made millionaires began with my chance conversation with Mr. Lee. I was inspired by his story, and on my return to the US, for the first time in my life, I began to observe how the rich lived, and that changed my life. I saw Brooklynites who were wealthy beyond my wildest dreams and suddenly became conscious that poverty was far from a true picture of the world around me. The wealthy Brooklynites and Manhattan dwellers I was now becoming conscious of lived in beautiful brown stone homes in Crown Heights, Bushwick, Brooklyn Heights, and Park Slope. They had glitzy apartments in Soho, Tribeca, and on Park Avenue. They went to Broadway shows and ate at fine restaurants. They drove shiny new cars and owned businesses. Some were jewellers, some owned upscale boutiques, and still some owned and traded in real estate. Why the difference in fortunes? was the question I asked myself. Were the wealthy inherently better than everyone else? Were they more deserving? How did they become so rich, and how can their success be repeated?

It seemed like it was just about 1 percent, or perhaps 2 percent, of the Brooklynites who were truly wealthy. I couldn’t tell. But it seemed that that tiny clique owned 90 percent of all the assets in these luxurious neighbourhoods.

There had to be a secret, and I was determined to discover it.

It was then that I had my first epiphany; that is, the wealth I saw was not inherited. Most of the wealth was created by first-generation immigrants—whites, Jews, Russians, Armenians, Italians, and Irish. How did poor immigrants build such vast wealth in one generation?

What I discovered was stunning. I suddenly realized that anyone who wanted to become rich could achieve millionaire status. This first discovery inspired and encouraged me. To my further surprise, I learned that most of the world’s wealthy were never born into wealth and generated their own wealth.

With that introduction, I discovered that ordinary individuals working low-paying jobs and even having little to spare could become like those wealthy Brooklynites. I also discovered, happily, that inheritance was overrated.

My conversation with Mr. Lee and my subsequent observation of wealthy New Yorkers taught me that the most impactful discovery anyone hoping to become a millionaire could make is that anyone can create their own wealth. Let’s first consider the facts. Of the 585 US billionaires recorded in January 2016, the majority, or 65 percent, created their wealth themselves.²

The breakdown of the source of their wealth is surprising:³

Sources of % of Billionaires Number of Billionaires

Wealth

Self-Made 62% 363

Inheritance 20 % 117

Inheritance/ 18% 105

Self-Made

The lesson here is that since most self-made billionaires started with very little, it can be done by anyone who wants to be a millionaire and follows their path.

But how do people who do not inherit money and who have very little to start with become millionaires or even billionaires?

They discover the system for building wealth.

There is a system for building wealth. The tiny 1 percent which owns over 40 percent of the world’s wealth in 2020 has hit upon the formula. They have discovered a potent secret which appears to be off-limits to the rest of the world. But what could it be? I had contemplated the secret countless times, but for years, I never thought to apply it. My mind instinctively summoned the answer.

Millionaire Secrets

Change your Mindset

I wish to convey the thought that all achievement, no matter what its nature or purpose, must begin with an intense, burning desire for something definite.⁴

It is the way the rich think that truly makes them rich. Their attitude that making money is a right rather than a privilege and their intense desire to build wealth propel them to vast fortunes.

One of my favourite books on the subject of the mindset of the rich is How the Rich Think, a classic volume by Steve Siebold. I have never forgotten the statement by Siebold that world-class thinkers know in a capitalist country they have the right to be rich if they’re willing to create massive value for others.⁵

Those who become wealthy are those who view wealth as a right and not a privilege. Without exception, all millionaires had to change their outlook on money before they became millionaires. They first developed an intense, unshakeable, and unbending desire to become wealthy then cultivated a mindset that conceived of wealth as an entitlement.

On the other hand, the poor tend to cultivate a completely opposite mindset. They take the view that they are not entitled nor have the right, nor the skills, nor the resources to be rich. They tell themselves that they do not have the ability nor skill to make millions. On the other hand, the self-made millionaire persuades himself that he is as good as the wealthiest 1 percent in the world and that he deserves to be financially independent. He tells himself that wealth is not off-limits to him. It is that mindset that propels him to ask himself how he can develop a system to generate wealth. In other words, he commands his mind to believe that if others can become millionaires and billionaires, he can do the same thing by learning and applying the same formula that they used.

The consensus among the most respected researchers on the subject of wealth creation confirms his view. Cameron Smith, for instance, in his book The Top Ten Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class confirms that the millionaire’s way of thinking is the key factor that distinguishes him from those who fail to achieve financial independence. Those who ultimately become millionaires must first ask themselves how they will develop a formula for wealth creation. Cameron Smith argues that those who eventually become millionaires tend to ask themselves empowering questions while the poor and middle class ask disempowering ones. The empowering questions people who become rich ask themselves focus on what they can do to make the millions they aspire to earn. But the middle class ask less far-reaching questions which focus on their current circumstances rather than on a formula for wealth creation. Smith suggests that the questions one asks determine the results one gets. So the very first step the prospective millionaire should take is to develop a mindset that sees wealth as a right and not a privilege and then think about how to find the formula to wealth.

Think Big

For as [a man] thinketh in his heart so is he. (Proverbs 23:7 KJV)

The prospective millionaire’s second secret is big thinking. Mr. Lee’s own success was determined from the moment he set his own expectations. He set a goal of slowly accumulating enough rental property, which would provide a steady stream of income over time. He settled on buying rental apartments. On a meager salary, it was far from easy, but he stayed the course over decades, saving consistently, practicing extreme frugality, refusing to spend on luxuries, and buying cheap fixer-uppers, renovating them slowly then repeating the process.

If he had been content to buy one rental property, he would have reached his goal. But in the same breath, he would have deprived himself of much greater wealth.

He refused to limit what he could achieve and began building a portfolio of properties that were marked down due to disrepair. By the time I met Mr. Lee, he was receiving enough rental income on a monthly basis to be financially secure in his retirement. It was his willingness to think big that propelled him from a single tailor shop into, from his perspective, owning a virtual real estate empire.

In his book Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence, renowned neuroscientist Ben Carson wrote, Thinking Big means opening our horizons, reaching for new possibilities in our lives…Thinking Big is another way of restating one of my mother’s favourite sayings ‘You can do anything they can do—only you must try to do it better.

The poor fail to reach big financial goals because they fail to push beyond what is expected. But the would-be millionaire who succeeds frees himself of self-imposed limitations and moves outside of his comfort zone to hit a target further than he dreamed before. It is an article of faith that thinking big is a central commandment of wealth builders. But the greatest enemy to big thinking is fear.

Fear Inhibits Wealth

Fear is the enemy of big thinking. You only need to look at examples around you to see that great success is a function of overcoming fear. Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, only became a success by overcoming paralyzing fear. Bolt relates his journey to success by recounting one of his first international athletic meets, the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica. As a fifteen-year-old competing for the first time at the national level in a crowd of thousands, he became crippled by fear. His mother, in an interview, said very pointedly that he didn’t want to go…he was afraid to go up against the other boys who were bigger and more powerful than him. He was afraid to lose.⁶

With gentle coaxing, Bolt overcame that fear and participated in the games, winning gold and two silver medals. After becoming the most successful track athlete in Olympics history, Bolt was moved to say, World juniors made me who I am today.⁷

By the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, Bolt had become an eight-time Olympic gold medallist. He did the hitherto impossible feat of winning the 100-meter and 200-meter sprint in three consecutive Olympic games.

He became an eleven-time world champion, winning consecutive World Championship 100-meter, 200-meter and 4×100-meter relay gold medals from 2009 to 2015. He broke the 200-meter world record twice, setting 19.30 in 2008 and 19.19 in 2009.

In recognition of his extraordinary feats, he won IAAF World Athlete of the Year, Track and Field Athlete of the Year, and Laureus World Sportsman of the Year four times. If Usain Bolt had not overcome his fear, he would certainly never become the global Olympic legend he became. The same principle applies to the big thinking mentality required of the prospective millionaire. Most self-made millionaires will confirm that overcoming fear and having confidence in the ambitious big thinking goals they set themselves was a key ingredient to their success.

Take Action

Thinking big is just the beginning of the story. The next secret for the would-be millionaire is to take action.

Not everyone who decides to become a millionaire will become one. Most probably, only 10 to 20 percent of goals persons set themselves are met because a decision without action is as bad as no decision at all.

Taking action to build wealth is the indispensable ingredient of success for the self-made millionaire. Edward Rickenbacker (1842–1914) put it in very blunt terms by saying, There’s a six-word formula for success: Think things through, then follow through. The would-be millionaire must therefore first think big, then translate his vision of millionaire status into concrete daily steps by first writing and following a strategy.

But he must start immediately, not in another ten minutes, or another hour, or worse yet tomorrow, or next week. He cannot feed procrastination. He must tell himself every day that it must be done now, not a minute later. If your desire is to become a self-made millionaire, then I encourage you to adopt the Just Do It method, the famous slogan of the Nike brand. You must start your journey to millionaire status immediately. Starting immediately may very well make the difference between success and failure.

Set Financial Goals

Any prospective millionaire must write a clear strategy on how to achieve his goals. This is nonnegotiable. It is imperative that the strategy be written and reviewed from time to time, making slight adjustments as necessary.

His overall goal must also be broken down into intermediate and short-term time-bound goals. They may be weekly, monthly, or yearly goals. So while his overall goal may be to accumulate $1,000,000 by age fifty-five, his immediate goal may be to save 5 percent of his gross income in his first year from which to invest. Short-term and intermediate goals are usually measurable and realistic. If they are not realistic, they will lead to frustration and the temptation to abandon long-term goals. The prospective millionaire, therefore, starts modestly but becomes increasingly ambitious as time progresses. So his initial 5 percent saving may increase in the second year to perhaps 7 percent and then 10 percent of his gross income in the third year. The ultimate midterm goal may be to save a maximum of 20 percent of his pretax income from which to invest.

If your desire is to become a self-made millionaire, you should therefore write the basic route you would take to achieving financial freedom and reread it daily. There is no substitute for a written financial plan. With a written financial plan, the prospective millionaire is compelled to move from words to action. As financial planner Scott D. Hedgecock reflected, "The biggest difference between those