Debbie Penner

Do you have the millionaire mindset? Studies have shown that all successful people share certain qualities. It would follow, then that in order to be a success, you will have to develop these qualities. Read them honestly. You will know instantly whether you are destined for success, and if you aren’t you’ll know what you have to work on.

People with the Millionaire Mindset take 100% responsibility.

If you haven’t succeeded at life yet, I can almost guarantee you are doing one of two things. You are either blaming or justifying. You blame others for your mistakes and failures, or you blame yourself. Or worse yet, you make excuses. You are too young, too old, too busy or too poor. Some obstacle has stopped you, and that’s just the way it is.

People with the millionaire mindset don’t make excuses, and they don’t lay the blame on others. Sure there are obstacles in our past or present circumstances, but successful people take responsibility to make changes in their lives. This isn’t always easy, but honestly, there is no other solution. No one is going to make those changes for you.

You are the only one who can make it happen.

People with the Millionaire Mindset control their thoughts.

You may have heard the axim: “You become what you think about most of the time.” This is the ultimate success principle, and all successful people take it very seriously. If they dwell on the lack in their lives, that lack will take control, and they will spiral down in to worse and worse poverty.

So, they choose carefully what they will think about. They spend their time thinking about what they want instead of what they don’t want.

One study has shown that 85% of our self talk is negative. This is NOT the millionaire mindset.

In order to change what you think about, you need to learn to ask the right question. Don’t ask “Why is this happening to me?” ask “What can I learn from this challenge?” or “How can I benefit from this opportunity?”

People with the Millionaire Mindset search for mentors and build strong networks.

The only people who can help you are the ones who are more successful than you are. You need their influence and advice in order to succeed. Look for people who have the power to help you, and develop your relationship with them. Build a team around you with the same purpose you have. Meet regularly to share ideas, and hold each other accountable.

Surround yourself with positive, successful people and honest friends. Search for mentors, and learn from successful people as much as you can.

There you have it. The three basic secrets to developing the millionaire mindset. Don’t wait for the perfect time to start changing. It will never come. Take responsibility. Choose what you will think about, surround yourself with successful people and build strong networks starting today. You will be amazed at the results.

Success, as I mentioned yesterday (in a previous article) is not based on what you have or what you have achieved, but rather who you have become. Success actually has little to do with your financial situation, and everything to do with what goes on in your mind, and how you respond when things get tough.

Here are seven attitudes that you will never, never see in a truly successful person. If you have any of these thinking patterns, you absolutely MUST replace them before you will ever experience success.

1. Do you see yourself as a victim of external circumstances? Are you helpless to change your situation?

2. Do you have a negative attitude? Do you complain a lot? Do things have to be perfect before you can enjoy yourself?

3. Do you find yourself surrounded with negative people a lot of the time? Do your friends and family encourage you, or are they a drag when it comes to improving yourself or your circumstances?

4. Are many of the decisions you make based on fear? Are you basically a defensive, rather than

   an offensive person? Do you find yourself spending a lot of your time looking for ways to protect yourself from potential danger?

5. Is you thinking about life based on the old school mentality that says “Go to school, get the highest degree you can, find a good job, and work faithfully, and life will be good.”? Do you feel that wages are better than profits?

6. Do you trade your time for money? Does someone other than yourself control your freedom, how you spend your time, and how much money you make?

7. Do you blame others for your lack of success, and justify your failures?

If any of these things apply to you, making a conscious effort to eliminate the negative will not be very effective. Try adding the converse positive attribute to your life and character. For instance, if you complain a lot, don’t just try to stop. Learn to be grateful for every good thing that you experience during the day, starting with the sunshine in the morning, and ending with your pillow at the end of the day. Verbalize every good thing you can find. If you see yourself as a victim, write yourself a mantra. Tell yourself that you alone care enough to get you out of your situation, and if you don’t take action, no one will.

Working to eliminate these things from your thinking will make success possible in many areas of your life. Give it a try!

Like many of you reading this, I was poor. Not just shiny poor. Not even just raggedy poor. I was wear the same clothes every day for 8 months at a time, never answer the phone because it was probably a collection agency, breathe a sigh of relief when the electricity stayed on for just one more month poor.

My definition of success could be summed up in one word: MONEY!

I worked hard to achieve success online. I put in 16 hour days, compromising my health and my eyesight, tried a zillion different things, stuck tenaciously to some of them, and like most internet marketers, lost a ton of money, much of it borrowed. Years passed, I wasn’t as young as I had been, and still I was struggling to make even a few dollars online.

One day I realized that I wasn’t making money because my basic premise was wrong. Success has almost nothing to do with money. It’s all about becoming a successful person! That’s why some people can lose it all, and a few months later be at the top again. It’s all about who you are, not what you have.

I began to understand that how I live TODAY is who I am. How I imagined myself living once I had made my fortune was just a thin wisp of a dream. I noticed that I had denied myself many of the small luxuries that cost no money at all, simply because I was waiting to live until I had met my financial goals. There were many things I had the freedom to do, and I started doing them. I didn’t want to risk never having allowed myself to really live because I hadn’t succeeded in one small area of my life.

Here are some things I discovered about success. They are true for you too.

Your worth as a person has very little to do with your financial status.

Your enjoyment in life has even less to do with your financial situation.

Failure doesn’t ever have to lead to defeat. Each individual failure is another step in the stairway to greatness and success.

Challenges are not obstacles, they are opportunities.

When I realized these things my life began to turn around. I learned that there are several major keys to success.

If you are still living with the horrible pressure that comes from believing that money is everything, you may not be able to hear what I’m trying to say. The roar in your ears and soul that comes from the panic of impending ruin does tend to drown everything else out.

Stop for a moment.

Just STOP.

You WILL succeed if you keep it up, and in the meantime, the sky is just as blue, the fruit is just as sweet, and your loved ones are just as dear as if you were a millionaire today. Don’t close your eyes to what you have already achieved. Be the best you that you can be this moment, an enjoy to the fullest all the blessings that you have this very day.

I’ll be covering the six major secrets to real success in the next several posts. Stay tuned!

Gmail was down for me here in Japan this morning, so there was no sense placing ads on my safelist, or even doing a blast to my email lists. (Yes I DO still use safelists. But NO I don’t surf for credits. The upgraded versions of some of the larger lists are really quite effective. Here’s a list of my favorites.)

So I decided to work on my blog. First stop, Bling for inspiration. No need to stay mucking around in internet marketing blogs. I looked up elephants. First thing that caught my eye was this - which is perfectly ok to swipe, since it’s been on Reuters.

Now what could two very clever elephants in love have to do with internet marketing? Everything actually. Why are spending hours each day trying to squeeze an extra dollar or two from your laptop? I bet your thoughts don’t wander far before someone else’s wellbeing comes to mind. I want to send my daughter to a private college, and enable her dream of spending a season in Greece writing children’s books. I want her to be able to quit her part time work (which isn’t at all part time) so she can paint and write to her heart’s content.

There’s a huge danger in pursuing this type of dream online, though. I’m on here for love, but it’s easy to get so welded to the computer that I don’t have time to show my love to people around me NOW. I hope you don’t fall into this trap. Studies have shown that people who have a life offline are more effective online as well. There’s no need to make your loved ones live without you altogether. Take some time to let them know you are still there for them today.

What else does this photo have to do with marketing? Well, if you happen to be involved in Send Out Cards, this one is definitely a winner for valentines day, as well as a simple “I love you most of all even IF it seems I’m married to the computer” message for that very special someone. Send Out Cards is such a warm and human way to make money online. Check it out.

I did a test to see which safelist was the most responsive safelist. I know these stats change over time, but these are my findings for August. It’s surprising. Active Safelist has only about 3500 members, but it shows to be the more responsive and useful per hit than ones that are 10 times as big.

Active Safelist is definitely worth joining, and is a good use of your advertising dollars if you are considering upgrading. Here’s the proof.

Ok! I have a lot of configuring to do, but my own personal business blog is now live! I heard an amazing training session today. The thing that was the most useful for me was this chart:

I’ve been promoting my business opportunity directly in my twitter profile, but according to this chart, I should have my blog up there instead. Then I can promote multiple things from within my blog, and offer valuable content at the same time.

The content syndication network is a group of people who agree to promote each other’s content. If I write a new blog post, I contact them, and they bookmark it, as well as alerting their contact base (twitter followers etc.) to my new content. I do the same for them. This gives me instant traffic for any new content I produce in my blog. Cool.

Thus the new blog. I’ll be configuring it until it’s acceptable, then posting the link to my social sites instead of my primary business.