Upgrade to a Millionaire

8  Principles for success, based on "I Believe" from the book "Millionaire upgrade" by  Richard Parkes Cordock:

I – I believe in myself.
B- Be passionate and want it.
E – Extend your comfort zone.
L – Lies and Luck don’t work.
I – Install goals.
E – Enjoy hard work.
V – Very very persistent.
E – Expect failure.


Set a Definite goal, describe the parameters to achieve, why you want it, set a time frame,  how.. and then be persistent, stay focused. Its like playing a match of squash or tennis. You have definite goals (scores to win), and all your focus is set to achieve the win, even in the face of defeat belief that you can win until the last point is scored by the winner.

WINNING vs. Avoiding DEFEAT

Having read many self development books, articles, blogs and viewed a few videos, every once in a while I come across the concept of Attitude making the difference. Attitudes are basically reactions to situations, and our reactions depend on how we perceive a situation.

Attitudes are reactions to perceptions, and perceptions could be deceiving

 Zig Zigglar in one of his talks mentions about a lady who came to him and asked for help. Her problem was that she didn't like the company she worked for, she didn't like the workplace, the staff, the management. Zig asked her to open a note book and start writing reasons why she loved her job, she was dumb founded as she though if she liked anything about the company then she had no reason to come to Zig for advice. Zig, however, nudged her on with a couple of suggestions like the company pays her for the work she did, they provided her with a decent office space, they covered her health insurance, and soon she had a list of 22 items (if I remember correctly) that she liked [loved] about her company. Next Zig asked her to go through the list every night and also after getting up in the morning. Next time they met after a few months she seemed very happy and when asked, she said people in my company have changed so much and she loves working there.

Similarly, race car drivers are taught to drive their cars along an ideal path on the racetrack, and not to drive to avoid hitting the side walls, meaning, worry about where to go and not about where not to go.

Imran Khan, Pakistan's finest cricket captain who helped them win the world cup, says that when he joined the national team as a teenager, he was taught to play so that they don't loose, and the result was they hardly ever won. When he became the captain of the national team, he demanded from his player to stop worrying about what if they loose, and instead focus upon what needs to be done to achieve victory. He gave the famous "cornered tiger" speech to the team when they were almost out of the world cup competition and only had a mathematical possibility of making it to the next round. The team responded and did what they had to do and leave the rest on mathematicians to figure out if they can qualify. Pakistan eventually ended up winner of that competition.

So, it's all in the mindset or attitude of a person, about what he or she wants. Determine the desire, set up a goal or destination. Once that is determined, next comes self discipline and determination which can be defined in many different ways but ultimately it comes down to a commitment to oneself to achieve what is desired and not to give up. And finally, the most important step towards success is to take the first step, and then keep moving towards your goal, jump over hurdles, go under the obstacles, keep getting up when tripped but remain determined to achieve what you desire. Good luck!

Principle of Minimum Required

The Minimum Required Principle (PMR) states that :

“to achieve a goal one need to set a specific measurable target, and then plan to achieve that utilizing minimum effort”

Let me clarify one thing right at the beginning. Minimum effort should not be confused with minimum standards. For example, to achieve an A in a certain subject at college you may determine that a score of 90% is required. At the same time to pass through that subject you may be required to score 50%. So “attaining a grade A in Applied Mathematics” and “passing Applied Mathematics” are two different specific goals and should be treated as such. This means the minimum required effort does not mean to “pass” the subject, but to “achieve a specific grade” can be treated as specific goals. Also, I may decide that I want to achieve 98% in a subject irrespective of what grade I would be given. So for each of these three goals (scoring A, D, or 98%) the minimum required effort would be different. I hope this analogy clarifies what minimum required means. My standard could be an A grade, while yours could be a 95% score.

Once a specific target has been set, next comes the plan “to achieve the goal/target utilizing minimum effort”. Here, again, minimum should not be confused with the standard definition of just enough, although that’s exactly what I am implying here but in a different sense. I am actually trying to say that to achieve a specific goal, our plan should not carry any extra baggage that does not contribute towards achieving that goal. So we are not putting in minimum effort, but in fact are focusing everything in our plan towards achieving the goal. I will go over a couple of examples to elaborate on this principle in my follow-up posts.