When I was **19 years old**, I decided to walk my know-it-all self into a new car dealership in Southern California. I was there to lease a V6, maroon colored, Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible for $299/month and “zero down”. (according to the commercial) Now, had I ever leased a car before? *Nope.* But in my mind, I **needed** this car and there was nothing anyone on earth could do to stop me. The problem? The salespeople knew this as well. So three hours later, I ended up driving out of that dealership with a **$525 lease** **payment** and placing nearly **$4,000 down**.
My mom was there. She co-signed. According to the dealership, she had “perfect credit”. *It seemed legit.* But it wasn’t until months later, after I began to struggle with the $525/monthly payment, that I would go on to realize the extent of what was done to me. What’s worse is that since I was talked into going home and opening up a credit card in order to place that down payment on, I now had a brand new $10k plastic loan in my pocket that I was free to start abusing. *And sure enough, I did.* The idea of large balances & minimum payments quickly became so appealing that I ran up **$20k** in debt. From there, I went into **default** just a few short years later.
I made a promise that no one else around me would get hustled like this. To make sure, I would soon find myself spending nights, weekends and holidays as the go-to ‘mean-mugger’ at various dealerships, accompanying any friends & relatives who were trying to buy or lease a car. In no time, I would go on to make a name for myself & every sales person in the city would come to **hate** me. Partly because once I found out the extent of what we could do, the goal was no longer simply to just get *deals* from them. The goal became finding ways to *completely* take the dealership for everything they had.
Eventually, these wins would allow me to become even more widely well-known for my work. I got hired to work in the ad agency for Nissan and Infiniti, behind the scenes, constructing the actual lease & finance deals that would appear in their radio & TV ads. Working behind the scenes and seeing the difference between what the manufacturer (Nissan) intended and what the dealership itself made sure never happened, for most people, this became the turning point. I now knew the extent of what could be had when sticking to the plan. And because of it, I became that much more of a problem. I decided to start my own business offering those same car buying services for clients outside of just friends and family.
**So…** Why **don’t** people realize they’re paying so much money on auto expenses? *Answer:* Because most of us refuse to treat our auto expenses as an annual **cost** that we divide by 12 and save for **monthly**. So when a car repair does happen, instead of taking it from savings like we should, we either put it off until it gets more expensive, hope we can find the money in our most recent paycheck, or even worse – we put it **on our credit cards**.
And we do this over and over and over again, always failing to plan and planning to fail until bankruptcy or repo happens. All because we insist on playing **debt** **potato** with our finances. You consistently find it difficult (and often impossible) to meet basic monthly expenses. #ButYouGotaBeamerTho You haven’t made a student loan payment since Bush was in office. #ButYouGotaBeamerTho You got 7 kids in a two-bedroom apartment. #ButYouGotaBeamerTho You ask for price checks at the Dollar Tree. #ButYouGotaBeamerTho Your luxury car door is broken so you have to enter and exit through the window like you’re stealing it. #ButYouGotaBeamerTho Judge just told you, “you have life in prison”, and your lawyer leans over & whispers in your ear “ButYouGotaBeamerTho”.
During this time he achieved great success as an attorney and journalist. His early career as a reporter helped finance his way through law school. He was given an assignment to write a series of success stories of famous men, and his big break came when he was asked to interview steel-magnate Andrew Carnegie. Mr. Carnegie commissioned Hill to interview over 500 millionaires to find a success formula that could be used by the average person. These included Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Elmer Gates, Charles M. Schwab, Theodore Roosevelt, William Wrigley Jr, John Wanamaker, William Jennings Bryan, George Eastman, Woodrow Wilson, William H. Taft, John D. Rockefeller, F. W. Woolworth, Jennings Randolph, among others.
He became an advisor to Andrew Carnegie, and with Carnegie’s help he formulated a philosophy of success, drawing on the thoughts and experience of a multitude of rags-to-riches tycoons. It took Hill over 20 years to produce his book, a classic in the Personal Development field called *Think and Grow Rich*. This book has sold over 7 million copies and has helped thousands achieve success.