This book is the culmination of 15 years of research, teaching, and personal experience on the subject of self-made millionaires. These pages contain the key ideas and strategies I have discovered in reading hundreds of books and thousands of articles on the subject of wealth accumulation. The ideas and strategies are presented in a simple, tested, proven, easy-to-use format so that you can learn and apply them immediately.

When I was a teenager growing up in Pomona, California, in a home where we never had very much money, my dream, my fantasy, was to be a millionaire by the time I was 30. Lots of people have the same dream, I'm sure.

However, when I reached the age of 30, I was still just as broke as when I was 20. Then I did something that changed my life. I began asking, Why are some people more successful than others? I especially wanted to know, How is it that some people start off with nothing and eventually become millionaires? This question set me off on a search for the answers, which has led to this book.

I chose self-made millionaires as my focal point because these people had demonstrated special qualities and behaviors that were both observable and measurable. They had started with nothing and passed the magic million-dollar mark as the result of doing certain things in a certain way, over and over.

What I learned was that in order to achieve great success in life, you must become a special kind of person. To rise above the majority, you must develop qualities and disciplines that the average person lacks.

The most important factor in achieving great financial success is not the money. It is the kind of person you have to become to earn that money and then hold on to it.

These 21 “success secrets” are the keys to great success in every area of life, whether or not you make a lot of money. The good news is that these principles are so powerful that you can apply them to accomplish almost anything you really want. Many of these methods and techniques will seem familiar to you. This is because they have been discovered and rediscovered for hundreds of years. I see myself more as a student of success—a reader, a researcher, a synthesizer, and a teacher of great ideas—than as an originator or creator of brand new concepts. I believe, as it says in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

Since you are reading this book, I know that one of your great goals in life is to become an extraordinary person, to realize more and more of your true potential. Each of these success secrets will help you to move ahead more rapidly toward the wonderful life that is possible for you. Enjoy the journey!

BRIAN TRACY

August 2000