Mentored by a Millionaire: Master Strategies of Super Achievers

ISBN-13: 9780471467632

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Wiley

Publication Date: 01-26-2004

Pages: 288

Product Dimensions: 6.42(w) x 9.47(h) x 1.11(d)

STEVEN K. SCOTT is the author of A Millionaire's Notebook and Simple Steps to Impossible Dreams. Mentored by a Millionaire is based on his bestselling Nightingale-Conant tape series, which became the number-one selling title of 2002. After failing in nine jobs, Steve discovered the power of partnering and launched more than a dozen multimillion-dollar companies from scratch, cofounding the American Telecast Corporation, which has achieved more than two billion dollars in sales.

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Mentored by a Millionaire

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Chapter One

A New Software Package

Reprogramming Your Onboard Computer for Extraordinary Success

Your Porsche Is Equipped with the World's Most Advanced Computer. Unfortunately, factory technicians have mistakenly programmed it to limit its top speed to 15 miles per hour. Who wants to pursue their dreams at 15 miles per hour? In order to get the kind of performance you want, you must reprogram the onboard computer to remove the limit to your speed. The master strategy we are going to focus on in this session is the reprogramming of your onboard computer. Once you've reprogrammed it, get ready for the ride of your life.

For years, Michael L.'s mother had told him he would never amount to anything. By the time he graduated from high school, he was convinced she was right. He graduated number 299 out of a class of 301.

Bill L. didn't make it as far as Michael. He dropped out of school in the sixth grade.

Tom E.'s mom believed in him, but his schoolteachers didn't. He only made it through his first three months of first grade. The school headmaster thought he was mentally retarded.

George R.'s mom and dad dropped him off at an orphanage at the age of seven and never had anything to do with him again.

Tom M. was only four when his father died. His mother handed him and his brother over to an orphanage.

Knowing their beginnings, the oddsmakers in Vegas would have gladly bet against any of these boys ever achieving anything significant with their lives. And yet, even though all five had rough starts in life, their names or their achievements have become known to all of us.

Michael L.

After graduating from high school at the bottom of his class, Michael L. did even worse in college. However, because he could throw a javelin farther than any other high school student in America, he landed a track scholarship to the University of Southern California. Unfortunately, he flunked out his freshman year and ended up sleeping on park benches in Santa Monica. Even though Mike failed to achieve any success whatsoever in high school or college, he went on to become the most successful television actor, writer, and director in Hollywood history Every single television series that he wrote, directed, or starred in became a huge prime time hit. No other actor, writer, or director has ever batted a thousand in television. How could someone who had failed so miserably become so extraordinarily successful? And yet, that is exactly what Michael Landon did.

During the 1980s, Mike became one of my best friends in Hollywood. As we got to know each other, I discovered that the same strategies that had been responsible for Steven Spielberg's success and mine had also worked miracles in Mike's life. Although each of us had plenty of evidence to justify our early beliefs that we would never succeed, all three of us made an awesome discovery-one that changed the course of our futures from unrelenting failure to unimaginable success. Interestingly, none of us made this discovery on our own. Instead, it was revealed to each of us by our mentors. They were the first to see it in us, the first to point it out to us, and the first to make us true believers. As one of your mentors, it is now my privilege to lead you into this same discovery. Before I do, let me tell you the rest of the stories about the other would-be losers. Like Steven Spielberg, Michael Landon, and myself these boys seemed destined to failure by their early beginnings. And yet their destinies began to change as they discovered and became believers in this same truth.

Bill L.

Had Bill Lear not dropped out of school in the sixth grade, he would have read in the high school physics books of his day that it was impossible to make a radio small enough to fit into an automobile. Fortunately, he never read those books and went on to invent the first car radio. You could say that this was a fluke had he not also invented the autopilot, which radically' changed the course of aviation. And later in his life, when the world's leading aviation companies said that there was no corporate market for small jets, and that building a prototype of such a jet would cost more than $100 million, Bill created his prototype business jet for under $10 million and provided corporate aviation with affordable, practical, and reliable Lear Jets years before the aviation giants followed his lead.

Tom E.

And who would have given Tom E. even a prayer for success? After being pulled out of the first grade by his mother and being judged mentally retarded by the school's headmaster, Tom's business life didn't seem any more promising. Working for the railroad at the age of 12, he was fired after only a few months on the job. And yet, this grade-school dropout not only invented the process of recording sound and making motion pictures, he gave us the first electric light bulb and over 1,000 other patented inventions. Even though he created more breakthrough inventions than any man in history, Thomas Edison would be the first to tell you that he was not a genius. Instead, he made the same discovery that you are about to make, and built his future on the exact same strategies that you are going to learn and begin to implement in our remaining sessions.

The Orphans

And then there are the orphans. George Ruth became known as the greatest baseball player of all time (and gained the nickname of "The Babe"), while Tom Monoghan and his brother started a pizza store that Tom turned into a chain with dominoes as its logo.

While each of these men achieved their impossible dreams by implementing these life-changing strategies, the foundation for doing so was securely laid when they discovered one truth that is just as true of you as it was of them. Although you may believe it about them, you may find it hard to believe about yourself, but I will give you all the proof you will need. First, let me clue you in on a secret. In our last session I told you that I was putting a brand-new Porsche Turbo Carrera in your garage. Guess what? You're not only the driver, you are the Porsche! Each strategy' we will be discussing is part of your new design and is just waiting to be utilized.

The first component of your Porsche that we're going to look at is your onboard computer. It's not only the most advanced computer ever put into an automobile, it's the most advanced computer ever created! And since you are the Porsche, this awesome computer is already in you! Now before you dismiss this truth as hogwash and tell me there's no way you've got such a powerful onboard computer, let me tell you that in our early years, Steven Spielberg, Mike Landon, Bill Lear, Thomas Edison, Babe Ruth, Tom Monoghan, and I would have told you we didn't have it either. (And our teachers would have agreed.) But we did have it, right from the very beginning. We came straight from the factory with it built in! We just didn't know we had it. It took our mentors to reveal its true power to us and make us believers.

The most powerful computer ever created isn't a mainframe, it's a micro and it's housed within the few cubic inches of your head.

In 1976 my mentor invited me to quit job number nine and form a marketing company with him. He had acquired the marketing rights to a product that had never been marketed. He told me that he wanted me to negotiate a contract with a famous celebrity and then write and produce a two-minute commercial to sell this product on television. How could he ask me to do any of these things? I had never negotiated a contract; I had never written, directed, or produced a television commercial. And yet, he not only asked me to do all of this, he was going to bet his last $5,000 on my successfully accomplishing all of this. Although he really believed in me and believed that I could do it, I had no confidence whatsoever. And here's where his brilliant mentoring came in. He gave me two simple strategies and a few techniques, and like software downloaded them into my "onboard computer." The result? I negotiated the contract with one of the most famous celebrities in America; I wrote and produced the commercial, and it yielded sales of more than $1 million per week for 20 weeks. I had discovered that what my mentor had believed was indeed true: I possessed the world's most advanced computer. All it needed was to be reprogrammed with the right software to achieve extraordinary outcomes. (A $5,000 investment producing $20 million in sales is a pretty extraordinary outcome.)

"Just because Steve Scott, Steven Spielberg, Michael Landon, Thomas Edison, Babe Ruth, and Thomas Monoghan have the world's most advanced computer doesn't mean I have it. My brain may be a lot less powerful ... right?"

If this is your first reaction, welcome to my club, because it was mine as well. But the fact is, your brain is just as powerful as mine-it just hasn't been programmed with the same software. But you and I are going to change all of that.

Back in the mid-1970s a friend of mine was one of the engineers who built the world's most advanced scientific computer. His eyes lit up with pride as he told me it could receive over 1 billion bits of information per second. And yet, he looked somewhat puzzled when I asked how many of those bits it could process simultaneously. He answered, "Just one." Even though the computer could process 1 billion bits per second, it could only process them one at a time. I then asked him how many computers would he need to process 4 million bits simultaneously. He replied, "'Four million." I then asked him how much space would be needed to house that many computers. "Hundreds of acres," he replied, "but why are you asking such ridiculous questions?.... What would you say if I said that such a computer already exists?" I asked. "I'd say you're nuts!" he replied. He was even more incredulous when I told him that this supercomputer could be contained in a few cubic inches of space. Finally, the light went on with my engineering friend. Of course I was talking about the human brain.

Unlike man-made computers, your brain doesn't just process one bit of information at a time. For example, right now as you read this sentence your brain is processing 4 million bits of information simultaneously just from your two eyes! Amazingly, it converts the 4 million photoelectric binary signals it receives from your eves instantly into a vision of your surroundings, perceiving that picture in three dimensions with color, depth, and motion. And all of this is done in one tiny, little portion of your brain. At the same time, your brain is receiving and processing hundreds of millions of other bits of information from your other senses, organs, and living tissues and sending out millions of commands! It's doing all of this without any conscious thought or effort on your part. And as if that's not enough, there are all of the other aspects of this supercomputer-the reasoning, communication, and emotional functions it performs. If you're still not in awe, realize that it does nearly all of this 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 70, 80, even 100 years, without any mechanical breakdown or outside maintenance. Can you think of any machine ever made that has worked around the clock for decades with no mechanical maintenance, replacement parts, or breakdowns?

So why am I telling you all of this? Because I want to show you that you were given this unbelievably awesome computer for a reason. It didn't just happen, and it wasn't placed inside your cranial cavity simply to support a mundane, mediocre, or unfulfilling life. To the contrary, you were equipped with the world's most advanced computer in order that you might achieve extraordinary outcomes from your efforts, both for your benefit and the benefit of others. If you are having a hard time believing that this is really true, let me ask you a question. Do you think any team of brilliant engineers would create the world's most advanced computer just to perform simple single-digit addition and subtraction? Of course not; that would be lunacy. The same is true about your Creator. He did not give you the world's most advanced computer so you could simply exist in mediocrity from day to day. That would be like giving your kids a million-dollar super-computer so they could play tic-tac-toe.

So here's the first revelation that changed my destiny and is foundational to changing yours. Because you've been equipped with the world's most advanced computer, you have everything it takes to achieve extraordinary success at work and at home. However, if your personal and professional life doesn't reflect this truth, don't panic. It does not mean that you were given an inferior computer. It simply means that you have not yet reprogrammed your computer for extraordinary achievement.

Like most people's, your computer was programmed for mediocrity by the time you graduated from high school. Going back to our analogy of your Porsche, even though it came from the factory equipped with the world's most advanced computer, that computer was preprogrammed to allow the car to be driven at a top speed of only 15 miles per hour. Until it's reprogrammed, the car will never perform anywhere near its intended capability. Once it's been reprogrammed and its speed cap has been eliminated, you'll be able to drive to any of your dreams at 180 miles per hour. However, if you don't take the time and make the effort to reprogram it, it will always be governed by its original program, and mediocrity and failure are likely to characterize both your personal and professional existence for the rest of your life. The good news is, reprogramming it for extraordinary success is easy-and I'm going to lead you through this process step by step.

The Third Law of Extraordinary Success

Regardless of past programming for mediocrity, anyone can reprogram their brain for extraordinary outcomes. All they need is the right software and the commitment to use it.]

Continues...

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Excerpted from Mentored by a Millionaire by Steven K. Scott Copyright © 2004 by Steven K. Scott . Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction.

Session 1.  A New Software Package for Your Brain.

Session 2. Discovering Your Personality Type—You'll Like Your Style!

Session 3. No Time, No Talent, No Money—No Problem!

Session 4. Steven Spielberg's Masterful Strategy for Maximum Achievement in Minimum Time.

Session 5. What You Say and How You Say It, Changes Everything!

Session 6. Using Your Master Key to Open Any Door.

Session 7. With This Technique You'll Super Achieve, Without It You Won't!

Session 8. The Power Achievement Process of the Rich and Famous.

Session 9. The Secret Strategy of the World's Most Successful People.

Session 10. Simple Techniques for Unlimited Creativity and Persistence.

Session 11. Removing the Single Greatest Roadblock to Achieving Your Dreams.

Session 12. Bring On the Critics..... and Beat Them!

Session 13. Taking Control and Keeping It.

Session 14. It's Easy to Become Positively Amazing.

Session 15. Discovering The High Octane Fuel of the World's Most Successful People.

Index.