The game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a suspenseful half-hour that
offers contestants the opportunity to dramatically improve their financial
picture.  Answer a dozen or so questions correctly, with help on a few if
necessary, and watch the bank account mushroom.

If it were really that simple, anyone could become wealthy overnight.  But
it doesn’t work that way.  Achieving financial success isn’t a game — it’s
a way of life.

Some will object to the notion that making a lot of money is the same as
achieving success.  I understand that argument, and I agree that success
comes in many ways besides just a bigger payday.

But I will submit that most of us expect our financial situation to improve
as we become ever more successful at what we do.  There is no shame in being
rewarded appropriately for our hard work.  Ambition combined with our best
efforts should have positive results.

As Oprah Winfrey so eloquently put it, “Doing the best at this moment puts
you in the best place for the next moment.”  If anyone would know what it
takes to be a self-made millionaire (actually billionaire), Oprah is a very
reliable source.

Here are some secrets shared by self-made millionaires:
* Educate yourself about money.  Even if you don’t have your sights set on
becoming the next Warren Buffett, a good understanding of finance will help
you set priorities and make decisions about spending, investments and
savings.  Knowledge is power.
* Set some clear goals.  You have to dream big if you want to succeed on a
large scale.  Don’t be afraid of your ambitions.  Start with a list of what
you want to achieve this year, and then select the one goal that would have
the greatest positive impact on your life, something you feel real passion
for.  Then get busy.
* Serve other people.  Structure your goals so they’re not just about you.
You’ll earn support from the people whose help you need by showing them how
your achievements will benefit them — and you’ll feel better about yourself
than you would if you concentrate only on what’s in it for you.
* Learn to sell yourself.  Whatever you create, you have to sell to someone
else.  You’ll need to understand sales and marketing no matter what industry
you’re in.  But at the same time, you have to sell others on your abilities.
Be honest and reliable so employers, customers, investors or other important
stakeholders know they can trust you to take care of them.
* Think of yourself as your own CEO.  Whether you work for a boss or for
yourself, view your career and success as your own.  That means taking full
responsibility for what happens to you — your decisions, failures and
triumphs.  Put all your energy into your goals.  Motivational guru Brian
Tracy advises taking the “40+” approach:  You work 40 hours a week for
survival.  Every minute you devote past that 40 hours is devoted to your
success.
Consider the story of the couple who retired to a cottage with a lovely view
of some rugged and rocky terrain.  Early one morning the wife watched from
her window as a young man dressed in work clothes walked down the lane
nearby.  He was carrying a shovel and a small case.  He disappeared from
view behind a grove of trees.

The scene repeated itself daily for a week.  Her curiosity got the best of
her, and she persuaded her husband to follow him one morning to see what he
was doing.

So the couple took a walk early the next day.  Just beyond the trees, they
found a very long and deep trench, rough and uneven at one end but neat and
straight at the other.  The young man arrived during their inspection, and
the couple peppered him with questions.  ”Why dig here, in this rocky
ground?  Why dig at all?  And what is in that case?”

The young man smiled and explained, “I’m digging a trench.  I’m actually
learning how to dig a good trench, because the job I’m being interviewed for
later today says that experience in doing that is essential — so I’m
getting the experience.  And the case has my lunch in it.”

There’s no secret to success.  It’s just ambition + hard work + dedication.

Mackay’s Moral:  We do what we have to do so we can do what we want to do.