RENEGADE MILLIONAIRE IDEA OF THE MONTH:
Attitude Of Gratitude

The accident of birth has a lot to do with wealth, because it has a lot to do with opportunity.

Other countries aren’t the utopias that liberal-critics of the U.S. would have us believe. If you listen to Michael Moore as example, you hear how much more sophisticated and happy the Europeans are. Many point to Canada as the shining example of conscientious health care.

I got a postcard from my friend, consultant Somers White, from his two month stay in France. He reported that their unemployment rate fluctuates between 9% and 10%, and he described the mood of French business leaders as “morose.” Anyone who wants the real skinny on the horrors of Canada’s health care system can quiz our Gold/VIP Member, Dr. Barry Lycka from Edmonton. Bill Glazer told me of a friend of his, a Canadian citizen living here part of the time, who returned to Canada because of some health concerns, was diagnosed with serious heart problems comparable to Clinton’s --- then waited 4 months for any treatment. And Canada’s tax structure is twice as obscene as our own: upwards from 30% national income tax on the successful, plus sales taxes adding up to 15%. In essence, 50% tax.

It is infinitely harder to become a millionaire entrepreneur from scratch anywhere else in the world. America is the place where it is easy to get rich.

We actually live in a ‘become a millionaire’ culture. People in other nations do not. A recent survey of NYU students found 61% expecting to be millionaires by age 30! You would never get such a result from a survey of students at any university anywhere other than the United States. We are certainly the most entrepreneurial population.

Being born here, or having immigrated here, is cause for celebration and gratitude. We take it for granted, of course, but shouldn’t. A lot of the wealthiest entrepreneurs I know are fiercely patriotic for this very reason; they fully recognize and appreciate the superiority of the free enterprise system. While they may be extremely confident individuals, perceived by others as arrogant, they quite often express their gratitude for the opportunities uniquely afforded them thanks to U.S. citizenship.

The accident of date of birth is another thing to be very grateful for.

I was born in 1954. Far preferable to 1924, or 1914. However, a lot of my entrepreneurial activity and wealth creation was still done with far fewer tools and readily available resources, under far more difficult circumstances than the younger entrepreneur, born, say, in 1974. I’m happy with my timing, don’t get me wrong. But don’t take for granted the conveniences, opportunities and tools now at your disposal. In communications, for example, overnight FedEx, the FAX, the Internet, your cellphones.

I learned about success principles listening to records.

Those are those big, round, plastic disks. Not Frisbees. Flatter, thinner.

People tell me now they’ve loaded my entire Renegade Millionaire System audios into their little I-pods, and easily carry the entire program with them to listen to while walking or traveling.

Recently I was listening as a 30-year-old told me about his pain and suffering and how hard he’d worked to put on a three day seminar that produced well over a million dollars in revenue. I was amused. He’d filled the event 80% with e-mails sent at push of a button, 20% from just two direct-mail pieces. He’d worked at the event about 5 hours.

In the early 1980’s, I was part of a team that had million dollar seminars too. It took 12 of us working all 3 days, from 7:00 A.M. to past midnight, to conduct the event and make the necessary sales at the event. The seats were filled with massive mailings, rooms full of telemarketers, TV commercials, tele-conferences (conducted at 10 times today’s cost), and speakers doing previews in a dozen cities.

In 1983, to sell 35 chiropractors a $1,000.00 program, we had to send waves of direct-mail into an area, rent a hotel room, send a speaker in, have him conduct a three hour seminar. Today, the same doctors are brought to a teleseminar or webinar, using FAXes, e-mail and voice broadcast, the speakers sits in his easy chair at home.

That’s how much easier it’s all gotten, in just 20 years.

By comparison to all my experience, getting (at least moderately) rich in a matter of just a few years has become ridiculously easy.