Comments on: Why You Will Never Be A Millionaire

By: Mark McClure

Mark McClure — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:04:11 +0000

@Bradley – Hey, I’m a multi-millionaire too – it says right here in my Japanese bank account!

Congrats on your success! What inspired you to work hard? And don’t get all spiritual on us

So what am I selling? Guess…

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:56:20 +0000

@Dave – I’m sure that narrow-mindedness has its place, when something absolutely must be achieved and is pivotal to strategy, but like you say it can often result in derailment – from a holistic perspective I guess.
I wonder if the o-ring incident in NASA was a result of this? (Albeit, as well as many other systematic management failures)
It takes awareness and confidence to know when to apply total focus, and when you have clarity of purpose, you are armed with the choice.

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:51:51 +0000

@Michael – great point! Without the clarity of purpose, corrective actions are made more difficult as there isn’t always a context in which to make the decision. If we have many competing objectives in our heads, we will often make a major compromise or make no decision at all, until issues become desparate!

By: Dave Crain

Dave Crain — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:19:26 +0000

Simon,

We must be drinking from the same water fountain! My last post was on the very same topic of clarity. Too weird.

I think you have an important point here that clarity of purpose is indispensable in achieving success. As I pointed out in my post “focus can too easily become narrow-mindedness, and activity doesn’t necessarily translate into progress.”

I do not want to minimize the value of hard work either. All the successful entrepreneurs I’ve worked with have basically dedicated their lives to being successful. We’re talking 7 days a week, 80+ hours a week for years dedication.

@Bradley – my guess is that you made your money through not only hard work, but with commitment to a focused plan. I think that may be what Simon is talking about.

By: Michael Cruse

Michael Cruse — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:40:28 +0000

Simon,

I agree with you. If you do not have a goal and plan to achieve wealth, you will never take the required actions. Success does not “just happen” to most people.

For me, it took effort and planning to get where I am today. I know many people that float through life and lack the willingness to stick through tough times to achieve great success. They move from job to job or start-up to start-up because they run into some obstacles and do not have the internal strength to fight through harder times. Then they wonder why lasting success never arrives. They just have no vision of where they want to end up…

By: Nick McCormick

Nick McCormick — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:55:52 +0000

Timely post for me Simon. I happen to be right in the middle of Nikos Mourkogiannis’ book, “Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies.” I’m still in search of…

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:22:28 +0000

@Bradley – congrats on becoming a millionaire! Bradley I don’t have much to go on about your situation, but I have a couple of thoughts in response.
1) You’re probably an exception rather than the rule. In my experience, hard work alone doesn’t generate success alone, rather, it’s a component of success
2) Your motivation to ‘work hard’ must have come from somewhere. Maybe it wasn’t obvious but underneath the hard work was probably motivation generated by a goal you had set yourself and applied against… which is another way of saying you had clarity of purpose, even if the purpose was to be a millionaire come what may.

To work hard is to invest in something – something that may or may not pay off, so it is also a risk. But the risk is a calculated one based on a clear view of what the effort is to achieve, and the controls/plan-bs you put in place, is it not?

Thanks for your comment Bradley!

By: Bradley Applestone

Bradley Applestone — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:51:58 +0000

Simon I think this a pile of crap! I am a millionaire, and I did it without ‘clarity of purpose’ as you put it. I worked hard – that’s all.
You’re getting all spiritual on us. Or
What are you trying to sell? I can’t find the product!