Luck, knowledge, hard work—especially hard work—a man needs them all to become a millionaire. But, above all, he needs what can be called “the millionaire mentality”: that vitally aware state of mind which harnesses all of an individual’s skills and intelligence to the tasks and goals of his business.
Most men fall into one of four general categories:
In the first group are those individuals who work best when they work entirely for themselves—when they own and operate their own business. They want to be their own bosses and are willing to accept the responsibilities and risk this entails.
Next are the men who, for any of a large number of reasons, do not want to go into business for themselves, but who achieve the best, and sometimes spectacular, results when they are employed by others and share in the profits of the business.
The third category includes individuals who want only to be salaried employees, people who are reluctant to take risks and who work best when they are employed by others and enjoy the security of a steady salary.
Lastly, there are those who work for others but have the same attitude toward their employers that postal clerks have toward the Post Office Department. (A postal clerk doesn’t care whether the Post Office Department makes a profit or operates at a deficit.)
There is a frame of mind which puts an individual a long way ahead on the road to success in business, whether it be in his own or as an executive. In short, The Millionaire Mentality is one which is always and above all cost-conscious and profit-minded. It is most likely to be found among men in the first two categories. This Millionaire Mentality is rarely found among individuals in the third group. But then, they seldom have ambitions to be anything more than employees in the lower or middle echelons of a business organization. The Millionaire Mentality is entirely nonexistent among men in the forth category. Unfortunately, however, these are usually the very people who have the wildest delusions about their own value—the ones who do the least and demand the most. They view the company for which they work as a cornucopia from which good things should flow to them rather than as something to which they owe loyalty and which they should strive to build.
The man with a Millionaire Mentality is not a penny pincher and money-grubber. If he is an executive, he watches costs and tries to reduce them—and strives to increase production and sales and thus profits—in every way he can because he has the interests of the company, its shareholders and employees at heart. He knows that the healthier the company, the better its profit picture, the more those shareholders and employees will benefit.
* Source: How to Be Rich by J. Paul Getty