by Brian Tracy

Courtesy of www.briantracy.com 

The way you think about money will determine how much of it you accumulate more than any other factor. Your attitude toward money affects your emotions and your motivations.

The Five Ways to Become a Millionaire

If you are really serious about becoming wealthy, you will want to know the five main ways fortunes are made in this country. Number one, top of the list, top of the hit parade throughout the history of America , is self-owned businesses. It is entrepreneurship of all kinds, including in real estate. Seventy-four percent of self-made millionaires in America, not only in this generation and in this century, but in the last century as well, come from self-owned businesses.

How Wealthy People Start Out

The great majority of wealthy people started businesses and built them from the ground up. In the 19th century, fortunes were built by people like Andrew Carnegie, Jacob van Astor, Thomas Edison, Commodore Vanderbilt, J. P. Morgan and others. In the 20th century, especially in the last few years, businesses and fortunes alike have been built by people like Bill Gates, Steve Case, Larry Ellison, Ross Perot and Sam Walton. Each of these people started with nothing and succeeded in building a business from scratch.

Become a Millionaire Where You Are

The second major source of self-made millionaires in America is senior executives. Ten percent of the self-made millionaires in America are men and women who have joined large corporations and worked with those corporations for many years. They rose to positions of seniority, were paid extremely well, given stock options, profit sharing and bonuses. As a result of holding onto the money, they became millionaires.

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Success Pays Big Rewards

Michael Eisner of Disney Corporation received a $126 million dollar bonus in a single year. Lee Iacoca of Chrysler Corporation was paid $26.7 million dollars as a bonus in a single year. It's not hard to become a self-made millionaire when you are making that kind of money.

The Professional Road to Wealth

The third source of self-made millionaires in America is doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Men and women who become very good at what they do and rise to the top of their professions are eventually paid very well. The top five percent in every field earn 10 and 20 times as much as the average person in that field.

Sell Your Way to the Top

The fourth major source of self-made millionaires in America are salespeople and sales consultants. Fully five percent of self-made millionaires are men and women who are the top salespeople in their fields. They never started their own businesses. They never went to college or university to get professional degrees. They just became very good salespeople for their products or services and were paid very good money. The secret was that they then invested the money conservatively and held on to it. Ninety-nine percent of self-made millionaires come from these four categories: self-owned businesses - 74 percent; senior executive positions - 10 percent: doctors, lawyers and other professionals - 10 percent; and salespeople and sales consultants - 5 percent.

Other Ways to Get Rich

The final one percent of self-made millionaires is made up of all the people in all other areas. This one percent consists of people who have made their money by inventions, in show business, in sports, through authorship of books and songs, lottery winners and inheritances. But these people make up only one percent of the total. The bottom line is that there are so many ways for you to become a self-made millionaire that it is almost impossible for you not to achieve this goal if you are really serious about it.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do to put this information into action as soon as possible. First, decide what it is you really enjoy doing and then throw your whole heart into doing it extremely well. There is a direct relationship between excellent performance and the kind of high income that leads to financial independence. Second, be perfectly honest with yourself on an ongoing basis. Is what you are doing right now going to lead you to financial independence, or do you have to begin making some serious changes in your work and in your life? Whatever your answer, take action on it immediately.

"Brian Tracy is the most listened to audio author on personal and business success in the world today. His fast-moving talks and seminars on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that people can immediately apply to get better results in every area. For more information, please go to the Brian Tracy Home Page ."