In the spring of 1944 a boy who we’ll call J.P. was born to im- migrant parents in a rough neighborhood in the heart of Los An- geles. Before J.P. was two years old, his parents divorced, his mother struggled financially, and by the time he was nine years old J.P. was out on the streets looking for a way to help his mom make ends meet. Newspapers, flowerpots, Christmas cards–you name it, he most likely tried to sell it. When his mother could no longer take care of J.P. and his brother, the boys were placed in a foster home. As a teenager with no parental guidance, J.P. fell into the wrong crowd, joined a local gang, and struggled to pass his classes as a stu- dent at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles.
One day in 11th grade, J.P.’s high school teacher caught him and his friend Michelle goofing-off and passing notes in class, and proceeded to make them both stand up in front of the room while he proclaimed; “See these two? Don’t hang around them because they’re not going to amount to anything. They’ll absolutely never make it in any business.” J.P. may have not realized it at the time, but moments like that are what start to create our life habits: successful ones but also bad ones that can hold us back from our full potential. J.P. could have said to himself: “I’ll never amount to anything”. But he said, “The hell with that guy, I’ll prove him wrong.” J.P. developed his first success habit on one of his very first jobs. He said, “I worked all of my life, starting from nine years old. I had things like paper routes at eleven years old that I continued through- out high school. I even worked for a while at the local dry cleaner sweeping the floors and doing odd jobs for an owner that was so tight with money that he squeaked when he walked! I was working as hard as I possibly could for a mere $1.25 per hour.
Then one day after school he called me over and said, ‘Last night I looked behind Go to www.TheBetterLife.com and take the challenge 3 the cabinets and there was no dust! Then I picked up a rug, no dust! You clean this place as if I’m watching you every minute!’ I said, ‘You hired me to clean and my job is to do the best I can.’ He was so pleased he gave me a raise to a $1.50 an hour. For him to do that, it was like I won an Academy Award.
And to be honest, I learned an important lesson from this period of my life. Successful people, whether they’re working for somebody else or working for them- selves, do whatever they do to the best of their ability—as if the boss is watching them every minute of every day. I learned that in every- thing you do, always do your best.” Some may believe that this makes you a foolish “Yes man”. I believe that doing your best is just one of many success habits you should develop. The benefits are numerous, varied, and significant. In this instance, his habit helped J.P. complete a mundane task in the present (and complete it well) and led him to tasks in the future that he loved.
Before continuing with J.P.’s story, I’d like to tell you a little about success habits and how this book will help you to make them your own. I am going to show you a path and process that will allow you to adopt success habits so they stick. You don’t have to flip your world upside down, or try to force “new habits” overnight that disrupt your life and cause you to go back to where you started. Rather, you can make barely-noticeable, small shifts in your daily routines by nudging out those things that don’t serve you and replacing them with habits that create a path to wealth and abundance. It doesn’t matter if you are an entrepreneur, a business owner, an executive, an investor, an employee, or a young person just starting your first job.
The habits, principles, recipes, and exercises in the coming chapters will give you a competitive edge, catapulting you to that next level. So while this book’s main focus is on financial success, the meth- 4 Millionaire Success Habits ods I’ll share can also propel you to new levels of fulfillment in other areas of your life, including family, parenting, friendships, relation- ships, spirituality, health, physical fitness, love, passion, intimacy, and more. No matter what anyone has told you in the past, you are entitled to and can possess fulfillment, joy, and abundance in all areas of your life. I’ll help you develop these habits through a variety of methods. I’ll share amazing stories of hugely successful people I know and how they learned and applied the behaviors and routines that allowed them to become high achievers and earners. I’ll provide exercises for you to develop and practice new habits.
And I’ll offer some stories from my own life that I hope will inspire and instruct. More about all this a bit later. Now let’s return to our friend, who when we last saw him was sweeping floors with great effort and skill. J.P. proceeded to graduate high school, but didn’t go to college. Instead he joined the U.S. Navy and served two years on the aircraft carrier, USS Hornet. After the navy, J.P. held various low-paying jobs including working as a janitor, at a gas station, and as an insurance salesman. He worked briefly for Redken Laboratories, but was fired after a disagreement with his boss. He even took a job as a low-paid door-to-door encyclopedia salesman.