Recommended Reading: The Education of Millionaires - The Chris Cicero Report

I do not recall who recommeded me this book, I wish I could as I want to thank them. Regardless, I have introduced many a friend, acquaintance and sometimes even strangers to The Education of Millionaires by Michael Ellsberg.

Here are my notes, highlights and parts I found interesting and useful.

“The future is here—it’s just not evenly distributed.”

Making an impact on large groups of people involves leading them in some way. Yet, seeking to be a leader is akin to seeking what economists call a “positional good.” A classic example of a positional good is a penthouse apartment. You can’t have a penthouse apartment unless there are apartments below it. Not everyone in society could have a penthouse apartment.

a decision is to cut off, or kill, other possibilities.

The reality is that the vast majority of people today, even when they are on their deathbed, find that their regrets largely center around things they didn’t do, not things they did do.”

In his book The Monk and the Riddle, Randy Komisar advises you to ask a simple question about your current mode of income: Would you be willing to do this for the rest of your life? The point is not that you will do it for the rest of your life. But would you be willing? If this was all there was—no brighter tomorrow, no magic promotion or raise or investment that vaults you into the shrouded next level. Just this. Now. Would you be happy with this the rest of your life?

Critics of my book will likely say that what sets them apart is they simply took bigger risks than others: the people I interviewed were simply the winners at the roulette wheel, and I failed to talk about all the people who played at the wheel and got wiped out. (This line of critique would charge me with a fallacy of statistical reasoning known as “survivorship bias”: making assertions about some process based on conclusions drawn only via looking at the “winners” of that process, without taking into account the experience of the—usually much larger—sample of losers

I believe that for most of the people featured in this book a trait even more important than luck was resilience.

Because if I can’t find it I know I’m not the only one. Other people can’t find it. There’s an unserved niche in the market,

Jim Rohn says, ‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’ And on a bigger picture, you are a reflection of the twenty or thirty people who give you the best advice. Everything is about people.

if you want to be successful, and make a huge impact in your life, find exceptional people to learn from, and surround yourself with them.

The entrepreneurs in this book, in turn, understand that true giving generates wealth, and true wealth helps you give more. They understand flow. They understand affluence.

if you look up affluence in the dictionary, you’ll see its root is a Latin phrase meaning ‘to flow with abundance.’ So in order to be truly affluent, you must always let what you’ve received flow back into the world.”

the wealthiest people are not the ones who are hoarding the most value—they’re the ones who have the most value flowing in and out of their lives.

Seth Godin writes: “It’s difficult to be generous when you’re hungry. Yet being generous keeps you from going hungry.”

“You can have anything you want in life, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

“The amount of money you earn is the measure of the value that others place on your contribution…. To increase the value of the money you are getting out, you must increase the value of the work that you are putting in. To earn more money, you must add more value.”

To get value, give value.

connection capital is a highly scalable, highly leverage able

I am constantly seeking out ways I can be of service to the people I talk with, in ways that are meaningful and impactful to them.

If it’s a personal context (cocktail party, dinner party, etc.), ask about their life; if it’s a business context (conference, networking event, etc.), ask about their business. Note: These shouldn’t be the first words out of your mouth when you initially meet someone. Of course not. You’ve got to have some trust and rapport going in the conversation first.

The second major component of connection capital is your ability to give relevant and valuable advice.

Some people spend their time amassing financial capital— cash, stock, bonds—and real capital such as buildings. In turn, I’ve noticed that many people I interviewed for this book spend an inordinate amount of time, effort, and money investing in the growth and maintenance of what I’ve called “connection capital.”

If you want to succeed, find leaders who are doing amazing things in the world, and push them up. Find powerful people and help them reach their goals. If you’re of service to them, they will be of service back.”

if you want to be successful, and make a huge impact in your life, find exceptional people to learn from, and surround yourself with them.

the key to making money was to cause something to get sold.

He has become a capitalist—a capitalist of giving and service to others.

connection capital is a highly scalable, highly leverage able

I’m going to teach you two questions that, if you put them into use at parties, events, and conferences, will change your life forever and will grow your network faster than you ever thought possible:

1. What’s most exciting for you right now in your life/ business?

2. What’s challenging for you in your life/business right now?

I am constantly seeking out ways I can be of service to the people I talk with, in ways that are meaningful and impactful to them.

To get value, give value.

fact, if you look up affluence in the dictionary, you’ll see its root is a Latin phrase meaning ‘to flow with abundance.’ So in order to be truly affluent, you must always let what you’ve received flow back into the world.”

“You can have anything you want in life, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

Seth Godin writes: “It’s difficult to be generous when you’re hungry. Yet being generous keeps you from going hungry.”

view, the wealthiest people are not the ones who are hoarding the most value—they’re the ones who have the most value flowing in and out of their lives.

The entrepreneurs in this book, in turn, understand that true giving generates wealth, and true wealth helps you give more. They understand flow. They understand affluence.

Give give give. Give give give. Give give give. Give generously within your network, and to people you hope will be in your network one day. Always inquire within yourself, and within your deepest creativity, how you can be of greater service. Without keeping track and without concern for a specific quid pro quo.

Keith Ferrazzi (http://www.keithferrazzi.com) is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets to Success: One Relationship at a Time and Who’s Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success—and Won’t Let You Fail.

At some point, if you’re interested in money, and the making of it, you should immerse yourself in the work of Kennedy (http://www.dankennedy.com). He will piss you off, infuriate you, make you shake your fist, make you slam down his book at some point, but still, you need to read him. What you will get from Kennedy, if you open yourself to his message, is the Gospel of Marketing. At some point while reading him, it will click for you—as it did for me, and for Frank—and you will just “get it.” In particular you will get that, if you’re serious about financial results in your life—whatever business you’re in, however large or small, and whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur—you need to become a lifelong student of marketing. Period.

if you’re serious about financial results in your life—whatever business you’re in, however large or small, and whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur—you need to become a lifelong student of marketing. Period.

Whenever Cameron Johnson has started one of his dozen-plus profitable businesses, many of which he’s sold for nice payoffs, he asks a few simple questions: “What do people in this industry need? What’s bothering them, hassling them, costing them money, keeping them from getting what they want? . . . [C]ustomers with needs come along every single day. There are always people and niches with unfulfilled needs. With this approach to business, you don’t need to rely on luck, timing, or the fickleness of fads and crazes—just on your own ability to observe and create. Choose a niche, find a need, and then see what could help those people do their job better.”

“What do people in this industry need? What’s bothering them, hassling them, costing them money, keeping them from getting what they want? . . . [C]ustomers with needs come along every single day. There are always people and niches with unfulfilled needs. With this approach to business, you don’t need to rely on luck, timing, or the fickleness of fads and crazes—just on your own ability to observe and create. Choose a niche, find a need, and then see what could help those people do their job better.”

“The people who are most successful, they had a problem that was gnawing at them, and they couldn’t be comfortable unless they did something to solve that problem. It was so clear to them that they needed to do this thing, that every minute they weren’t doing it, they were unhappy. It was about an outcome in the world, more than some romantic notion of making it big as an entrepreneur. It was about solving a problem.”

Seth Godin writes in Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, “start[s] with a problem you can solve for a customer (who realizes he has a problem!).”4 Good marketing, in other words, is not something you do after you create the product; the fact that most marketing is done this way is why we hate the word “marketing” so much. If you start with marketing—that is, with thinking about, anticipating, and meeting the needs of a market in an original, effective, compelling way—then that market will be glad to hear about what you’re offering.

YOU are either going to be an influencer, or they’re going to be influenced. They’re either going to be a leader, or be led by someone else. There’s always going to be two sides to that coin. Which side would you rather have your kid be?”

The process Craig offered was simple: make a list of your prospects’ biggest fears, frustrations, desires, dreams, and nightmares around the issue your product or service helps them with. List twenty-five answers for each of these categories.

Focus instead on learning how to get results, real-world results that people actually care about, and which speak to deep desires, wants, and needs. Your competitors can wipe their asses with their formal credentials.

In her book, Rubies in the Orchard: The POM Queen’s Secrets to Marketing Just About Anything, Lynda continues the theme we’ve been developing in this chapter. Good marketing is not about pushing your stuff onto an unwilling audience. It’s about listening to your audience. Really, really well. At its best, it is not a sleazy endeavor, but a deeply empathic one:

I call it the “I’m Above Learning How to Sell” mentality, and it’s pretty much the bread and butter of our nation’s highereducation system. What they sell you is the idea that, if you get enough of their credentials, enough letters after your name, then financial security, a great career, and real-world success will just fall in your lap without your having to do anything. To the extent you haven’t achieved the material results you want in the real world, it’s because you’ve bought into this “I’m Above Learning to Sell” mentality. Expunge it from your system. Now. Every last drop of it.

Sales is simply persuasive face-to-face communication. It’s relevant anytime you are talking with someone and you want a specific outcome to arise from the conversation.

‘You’ve got to increase your rejections. The faster you fail, the more you are going to learn.’

You can’t truly learn anything about sales until the “I’m Above Learning How to Sell” mentality is fully expunged from your system.