The Broke Man's Guide to $10 Million

I had my first dream of being rich when I was six or seven years old.

In my dream, a sleek, white limousine pulls up to the playground. My classmates stop and look. A chauffeur comes around the car and opens the back door. Little me, in a white tuxedo and holding a gold-tipped cane, steps out. The gasps of astonishment and admiration are audible.

The reality for my family and me was otherwise. Ten of us were crammed into a dilapidated house across the street from the municipal gravel pits. I wore hand-me-down clothes donated by local charities. We drank powdered milk because we couldn’t afford real milk.

I had many such dreams as I grew into an adult. But it wasn’t until I was 32 that I did a series of things that made me rich. By my 50th birthday, against all odds, I had accumulated more wealth than I was ever going to be able to spend. So I took (another) stab at retirement. In 2000, I dropped or delegated away most of my business activities and focused on writing about what I’d learned…

I wrote about marketing and management and starting entrepreneurial businesses and earning wealth. Under the pen name Michael Masterson, I wrote eight books on those topics and more than 2,000 essays for my blog Early to Rise.

In 2010, I passed Early to Rise on to the reliable supervision of Craig Ballantyne. I thought I was done writing about wealth. But in the last seven years, I’ve written loads more. More importantly, I’ve learned more.

I’ve still got plenty to learn. But I’m pretty sure of one thing: With the right mindset and game plan, any ordinary, unconnected, wage-earning American can become wealthy.

Most people — like 98% — who fantasize about becoming rich never will. But for those who do the right things in the right order over a reasonable amount of time, the chances are very good. I’d say 90%+.

Doing the right things in the right order over a reasonable amount of time — what does that mean?

Here are six things that worked for me and that I’ve found — through all these years of writing and talking and mentoring on the subject — have worked for many others. That includes dozens of my protégés. In fact, I’d bet they are the same strategies that are working for the 1,700 people who become millionaires every day.

Six steps, written by someone who started with nothing

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