The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way To Wealth

By Mark Victor Hanson and Robert G. Allen

I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to review "The One Minute Millionaire." I'm not sure if it's fair to classify it as a business book, or if it's designed as a pure feel-good, self-help book.

The book is divided into two parts. Half is non-fiction advice about creating wealth. The other half is a fictional story about creating wealth. I didn't read the fictional story. (The fictional story is printed in purple with big purple margins. I half expected Barney The Dinosaur to pop out.) I skimmed through most of the non-fiction material.

First, the butterfly on the cover. It's not that some printer messed up and put the cover design for a poetry book on this get-rich-quick book (and somewhere out there is a book of poetry with a dollar sign on its cover!) Rather, Hanson and Allen borrowed from the idea of physics chaos, where the flapping wings of a butterfly in one part of the world can affect the weather patterns in another part of the world.

The authors write "... we believe you can accomplish amazing things with your life--even become a millionaire--using a carefully designed system of focused actions delivered in 60-second increments. We call each of these million-dollar flutters a Millionaire Minute."

The authors argue that by making small changes in your attitude toward wealth you can become much more successful. The authors write: "Ben Feldman, known to many as the world's greatest insurance salesman, once taught Mark that the difference between earning $100,000 per year and a million dollars per year was effectively one zero."

In physics, we call that one zero an order of magnitude. In business, it's no small matter to improve sales performance by an order of magnitude. Tell any entrepreneur with a company with sales of $2 million that it's only one zero to get to $20 million in sales sometime. He'll/she'll get a kick out of that!

The authors say the goal of this book is to create more millionaires so these millionaires can give their money away and make the world a better place. I didn't quite buy that. Hanson and Allen write: "The Enlightened Millionaire knows that giving money actually expands in the spiritual dimension (100% x 10% = 1,000%. This is spiritual math...." Spiritual math?

The book does have some good advice sprinkled among the silly stuff. For example, the authors point out that "the size of the question determines the size of the result. Asking yourself "How can I earn $40,000?" is very different from asking "How can I earn $400,000?"

It's not just one zero, but you'll need to qualitatively come up with different options for the more ambitious goal (Most jobs offer $40,000 per year. Few jobs offer $400,000 per year. You'll need to think beyond typical employment.).

The book says you should network and build a personal dream team. Seek a good mentor. That's good advice. The authors also say you should use other people's experience (OPE). Try to get to know people who can help you, and if that's not possible, read their books or attend their seminars.

The one-page discussion of Rocky is great. We're told Sylvestor Stallone was a struggling screenwriter and actor when he wrote Rocky. He was offered $300,000 for the script, but they didn't want Stallone to act in it. Stallone insisted he act in Rocky and received far less money than if another actor had taken the role. But, Stallone went on to make a series that generated over a billion dollars, and it made his career. It's difficult to image a better person to play Rocky. So, sticking to his demand of acting in it was a crucial move in Stallone's life. The lesson: Follow Your Gut. Believe in yourself, and don't sell out too cheaply.

The book briefly discusses real estate and entrepreneurship. Allen is also the author of the popular book "Nothing Down" about real estate.

I'm not into real estate, but I know any reputable lender isn't going to leverage a property 100% (at least, not without a personal guarantee and collateral). The risk of default is too great (This is one reason PMI exists. People with less than 20% down represent high-risk to the lender). So, a deal like this will probably only come about as the result of "educating" (as Allen calls it) a seller about the advantages of a "nothing down" deal.

It sounds like he's implying you find someone really stupid and trick them into giving you property for a vague promise to pay. Or, find an already-wealthy person who'll cosign the borrowing. The book fails to point out the risks involved in using high leverage. High leverage means that even a slight burp in the real estate market or the inability to find renters could easily toss you (or your company) into bankruptcy. That should put butterflies in your stomach.

The book says your business should market to addicts. The authors write: "Everyone of us is positively addicted to something--exercise, weight lifting, golf, sports, Beanie Babies, food, hobbies, ..., money, prayer, pregnant mothers (pregnant mothers?), video games, Starbucks." Hmm... I get it.... sell something.

The book ends by showing how the authors could hypothetically earn $1 million dollars in one minute by blasting out "a million e-mails with an irresistible offer."