Guerrilla Millionaire: Unlock the Secrets of the Self-Made Millionaire

by Douglas Vermeeren

Overview

If you want to become an authentic, self-made guerrilla millionaire, then it makes a whole lot of sense to learn from one. That’s what you’re about to do as you open the pages of Guerrilla Millionaire by Douglas Vermeeren, with an enthusiastic assist from Jay Conrad Levinson. In the book, you’ll learn how to:

• grasp what it truly takes to become a millionaire; • change your life no matter what your current financial situation; • imitate those who’ve overcome the same obstacles you face.

If you want a million dollars, it’s not going to be a straight course to the bank, but you can follow in the footsteps of others to make getting that million much, much easier. You do it by being the right person, doing the right things, surrounding yourself with the right opportunities, situations and people, and then acting on them consistently and regularly. Loaded with inspirational quotes, questions to help you assess your current finances, and proven strategies to build wealth, this guidebook is a must-have for those seeking to become truly rich.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491773888
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/27/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	184
File size:	360 KB

Read an Excerpt

Guerrilla Millionaire

Unlock the Secrets of the Self-Made Millionaire

---

By Douglas Vermeeren, Jay Conrad Levinson

iUniverse

Copyright © 2015 Douglas Vermeeren
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-7387-1

---

CHAPTER 1

Abundance, Wealth and Why You Want to Become a Millionaire

The phrase "how to make money" is one of the most-searched concepts on the Google search engine. There are more than 167 million results that claim to share effective advice for creating increased cash flow.

It is obvious that having more money occupies the minds of most people on the planet. And rightly so — you can't do much without having to pay for it. Your food, clothing, shelter, transportation and quality of life are all directly attached to your level of income.

Money has a significant impact on our entire day-to-day experience. Zig Ziglar once observed, "Some people don't think money is very important, but I think it ranks right up there with oxygen." You really can't get very far without it.

Money is for making things happen.

— Richard Branson

IS MONEY HAPPINESS?

You've probably heard the statement that money never was happiness, but how closely are the two connected? Does money actually create more happiness? Does money actually change a person's situation? Does it actually make your life better? To answer this question we must first look at another important philosophical question: what is happiness?

Happiness has been described as a choice. We choose to be happy. Our happiness is very closely connected to our ability to make choices. Happiness comes from having more freedom and opportunity to make better choices. When you have the freedom and opportunity to explore your greatest potential, you experience the greatest happiness.

With increased freedom and opportunity, you can also benefit the lives of others around you. Great happiness also comes from blessing the lives of others. Money often opens the door to more freedom of choice and opportunity to explore. Therefore, it is reasonable to say that money contributes to happiness. Maybe this idea could be best expressed in the following equation:

Happiness = Freedom and opportunity to explore our potential and greatest desires Money has the potential to expand freedom and opportunity Therefore, money can contribute to happiness.

So if happiness is enhanced by having an abundance of choice, it is safe to say that money can expand that. When financial abundance grows, so does our capacity to be happy.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

— Henry David Thoreau

The less financial power you have, the less power you have to make choices. As a result, you become less happy.

Findings by the Institute of Economic Affairs show that happiness levels correlate directly with the amount of wealth a person accumulates, and they do not level off when assets reach a specific threshold, as some have thought.

To prove the point, let's look at the opposite of wealth for a moment. When a person is poor, how much opportunity and freedom do they have? Are they happy about their situation? How do you feel when you don't have enough money to meet your obligations? What opportunities become closed to you when you can't afford the admission price? How free are you when you don't have enough money to pay your rent or utilities? How happy are you when you are burdened by a negative credit rating? I have yet to meet anyone who would be overjoyed to get a call from a collection agency.

Poverty does not provide peace of mind or happiness. Instead it creates a level of stress that affects sleeping patterns, appetites, energy levels and ultimately health.

When you are poor you have no choice but to cry over spilt milk because that was the last of it.

— Wendell Austin Payne

Poverty never was happiness. Statistical research demonstrates that frustration in marital relationships, particularly those that end in divorce, can often be traced directly back to financial woes.

The top three reasons for divorce in the United States are traced back to financial problems. Number one in this list is particularly interesting. The number one cause of divorce in the United States is called financial infidelity. Financial infidelity occurs when marriage partners spend their joint resources without consulting or considering the needs of the partnership. Naturally, this creates incredible stress in the relationship. When there is no money, the love soon dies. According to a report from MSN News, out of 300 interviewed divorce lawyers, the majority indicate that divorce is a result of financial infidelity more often than sexual infidelity.

The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty ... Our first duty — a duty to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor.

— George Bernard Shaw

When there is financial trouble people begin to act in ways that they otherwise would not. They are more likely to be unkind, uncaring and callous. Without money the brain operates in a reactive survival mode and everything in its path can become a potential threat.

Money affects more than just the happiness and circumstances of an individual. It affects the entire community of that individual.

While it may be said that the love of money is the root of all evil, it is more true to say that a lack of money is the root of all evil.

Research on crime in the United States confirms that areas of low income, low employment and high debt are areas of high crime. These low income areas have greater levels of depression, self-esteem issues, suicide, drug use and violent crime. The same cannot be said of higher income areas. In fact, this same study confirmed that 53% of individuals in prisons in the United States come from high poverty situations, with incomes of less than $10 thousand annually.

Lack of money is the root of all evil.

— George Bernard Shaw

DOES MONEY GUARANTEE HAPPINESS?

A recent study looked at this question in a unique way. This study found that money doesn't always equate with happiness. In fact, it really came down to what the person purchased with their money. Happiness is tied closely to spending habits. The study determined that purchases that provided a life experience often provided higher levels of satisfaction than the purchase of material objects.

Experiences are what create our memories. Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president of the United States made this observation about money and memories: "Money can't buy happiness, but it will get you a better class of memories."

Money affects the memories we have of our childhood, teenage years and even our adulthood. No doubt your memories of these things affect not only the happiness with which you look back at your youth, but also how you want your financial circumstances to look today in order for you to be happy.

The only question with wealth is what you will do with it.

— John D. Rockefeller

A further study involving purchasing power and happiness looked at two extremes.

The first group in the study was made up of people who acquired wealth and spent it on expanding and enriching activities. The second group of people acquired wealth and spent it on fleeting fancies and items that did not return value. On the frivolous spending side there were even a few cases that included individuals who ended up with drug addictions, gambling issues and other forms of addictive behavior. Naturally, the happiness of both of these groups who had money was significantly different.

Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it.

— David Lee Roth

Having money alone doesn't guarantee happiness. But how you spend it can. Spending choices are tied directly back to the concepts of freedom and opportunity. Some purchases will expand freedom and opportunity, while others will take it away.

ARE RICH PEOPLE JERKS?

It has been supposed by some that when people become rich they become jerks — disagreeable, ornery, selfish and Scrooge-like. This is false. Money is the great magnifying glass. In some ways it is also a mirror that reveals true character.

If you were a jerk before, money will give you more power to become a bigger jerk. But if you were a kindhearted person before making your money, the money will allow you to be more of the same.

All things the same — most people are happier on payday!

— Anonymous

Hopefully by now you have been convinced that it is better to be wealthy than poor. Hopefully you have also been convinced that how you spend your wealth will determine your happiness with wealth. Wallace D. Wattles, the author of The Science of Getting Rich, stated that wealth was an essential component of success. He said: "Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains, it is impossible to enjoy a complete and successful life unless one is rich."

Let's find out how wealth would affect your experience.

$1 MILLION TO SPEND!

Consider for a moment that I were to write you a check for $1 million. Take a moment and seriously think about what you would do with that money today. Make a list of ten things that you would do. Remember that to be successful with the training in this book, it is important to actually complete the exercises. Take sixty seconds and I do mean literally sixty seconds. I don't want you to spend too much time thinking about it. Shoot straight from the hip. What would you do with $1 million? Set your stopwatch and get writing!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

What did you decide you wanted to buy?

What did you want to have?

What did you want to do?

What did you decide to spend the money on?

Typically a person spends their money on one of three things.

How did your decisions fit into the three following categories?

Quality of life (Q) — The first category that most people spend their money on is in increasing their quality of life. This can include having less stress, more free time, the ability to eat the things they want, visit the places they want, wear the clothes they want, drive the cars they want, live in the house they want and so forth. Quality of life is directly connected to happiness. When we use our wealth to increase our quality of life we grow in our happiness.

Create (C) — This category is about creating things. Perhaps you want to create a business from an idea that you have had for a long time, or maybe you want to develop a project that you've been dreaming about. Often this category is about expanding something that is either going on in your life already or creating something new that you have always wanted to do. For example, one of the people in my coaching program has always wanted to record a CD of her own music. With an increase in wealth she has now begun her project.

Contribute (C) — When people have a level of financial abundance established in their lives one of the greatest sources of joy comes from helping others. That is exactly what this category is about. When you have reached a level of surplus in your finances you may be looking to contribute back to your community and the society around you. Again, an example from our coaching program: We have several individuals whose goal is once they have provided for their own financial needs to contribute back to feeding the needy, church missionary programs, helping provide supplies for schools in third world countries and even wheelchairs for those in need. Contribution is a significant activity that wealth allows you to participate in. A 2006 study in the Journal of Science found that giving away money always brings feelings of joy.6

In the future we will abbreviate these three factors as Q C C. (Quality of life, Create and Contribute.) We will refer to these often along the way.

WHAT IS WEALTH?

We have talked quite a bit so far about the need for wealth and why you want to have it, but what is wealth? One author suggested that wealth is measured by how long you could maintain your current lifestyle without taking another paycheck. If you could only last a week or two weeks you don't have a lot of wealth. I like what oil-billionaire J. Paul Getty once said about money, "If you can still count it, you aren't rich."

The word wealth comes from a middle English word that actually means abundance. What does abundance mean? Abundance means overflowing. When your financial situation is overflowing then you have wealth. Perhaps it's for this reason, (and I will get into more detail on this in the following chapter as we discuss definitions of what a millionaire is) that I don't believe wealth is a specific amount as much as I believe it is a constant flow. Wealth is a constant overflowing of financial power to you, not a single event.

This can be well illustrated by individuals who win the lottery. That one-time win very seldom makes them wealthy in the long run. There is no constant flow of financial power toward them. In fact, there have been scores of studies that have demonstrated that most lottery winners are either where they were before winning or worse off in less than three years.

A regular recurring flow of abundance toward you will make you wealthy.

BROKE OR POOR? WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

As we begin our journey together to explore tactics and strategies that self-made millionaires use to create fortunes, there is a question that we need to answer to determine how effective the materials in this book will be for you. Are you broke or are you poor?

Your first thought might be to ask, what's the difference? Aren't they the same thing? Nope. Let's look a little more closely.

Broke means that you are temporarily in a tight spot. For the moment, your wallet is empty. Sometimes this can happen when you get surprised by expenses or setbacks that you didn't see coming. But even though things are tight, you are not in despair, you know things will change. Even rich people can end up broke from time to time. Broke is never permanent.

Poor is a state of mind. If you are poor, it doesn't matter what is going on around you whether good or bad, you will stay poor. You are in a state of despair and you can't see any hope for change. You don't take risks, because you believe they will never pay off.

If you are temporarily broke and are ready for a change, and believe it can happen, then this book is going to help — a lot. Broke can be fixed.

If you are poor, no book or program can help you until your thinking changes. Make the decision now that you want to be wealthy, that you can be wealthy and will be wealthy. Decision is the first step to change.

If you are poor, let's take a minute and look at why. A "poor" state of mind comes from habit. You have fallen into a poor state of mind because what you have been trying to do up until now has not yielded stellar results. As a consequence of experiencing repetitive failures, you have come to expect that you deserve the results you have had previously or you believe that your current results are your only possibility. You don't know what else to try and therefore believe that you have tried everything. You have grown comfortable living with less than you deserve.

Change is possible in any financial situation. Generally speaking, the only way something doesn't change is if a person continues doing what they have always done. Right now you are operating from what you currently understand.

The Chinese philosopher Confucius once described how to attain wisdom. He suggested that there were three ways:

Reflection (the most noble way)

Imitation (the easiest way)

Experience (the most painful way)

You've already tried experience, which got you where you are today.

Reflection generally doesn't help much either. Mostly because it is hard to rise higher than the thoughts with which you currently have to work. You can't expand beyond that which you have not yet understood.

But imitation ... Well, that's where we can help.

In this book I am going to share several time-tested strategies and formulas that have been used by multiple self-made millionaires before you. In my personal research, I have explored more than 1000 successful self-made millionaires and what they do differently from the rest of us. It is time for a change, and change is possible.

Poor thinkers, take a minute and think on this:

What is holding you back in your current financial circumstance?

What could you observe or learn that would allow you to create a different outcome?

My challenge to you is to go out and find someone to imitate who has already made it through what's currently holding you back. Pay careful attention to what they did to break through. It may surprise you to learn that not everything came easily to them either. Wealth requires perseverance and focused effort. But it can be done, and you've got to start thinking that way.

If you have not yet set a goal to be financially abundant, now is the time to do so. Wealth, not poverty, will allow you to begin to live the life you want and deserve.

EXERCISES

Remember the power in this book will come into your life only as you apply what you are learning. The exercises are designed to help you make those changes. It will be well worth your while to pause and complete the exercises before moving on.

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Guerrilla Millionaire by Douglas Vermeeren, Jay Conrad Levinson. Copyright © 2015 Douglas Vermeeren. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword by Jay Conrad Levinson, vii,
Preface, ix,
PART 1 — MILLIONAIRES AND WHY YOU WANT TO BE ONE,
Chapter 1: Abundance, Wealth and Why You Want to Become a Millionaire, 1,
Chapter 2: What is a Real Millionaire?, 13,
Chapter 3: What are Your Chances of Making a Million?, 27,
Chapter 4: How are People Becoming Self-Made Millionaires Right Now?, 47,
PART 2 — MONEY AND HOW YOU CAN JOIN THE MILLIONAIRES CLUB,
Chapter 5: What You Believe about Money Matters, 67,
Chapter 6: The Keys to Millionaire Thinking, 83,
PART 3 — WHAT WILL YOU DO TO START THE BALL ROLLING?,
Chapter 7: Millionaire Habits, 105,
Chapter 8: How Money Comes to You, 125,
Chapter 9: Millionaires and Strategy, 143,
Chapter 10: Getting Started on Your First Million, 157,