Lee: Hello everybody, this is Lee Milteer, and welcome to the Millionaire Mindset Program. The purpose of our coaching program is for profit and productivity. Our expert guest this month is Keith Cameron Smith, and if you haven’t heard of Keith, you’re going to hear a lot about him, a lot in the future. He is a very successful writer; he has his own radio show. He is a very successful entrepreneur and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to interview him for our group. He’s the created of the Wisdom Create Freedom Workshop. He teaches around the country. He is the author of The Top Ten Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class. He’s also the author of a couple of other books. Keith are you on the line?
Keith: I am here. Good to be with you.
Lee: Good, great for you to be with us. Keith, tell us your website so people who are interested in you and your books can find you.
Keith: Sure. It’s KeithCameronSmith.com.
Lee: All right, and the topic today is about the distinctions between millionaires and the middle class, and Dan Kennedy actually sent me Keith’s book, and I really loved it, and you folks will love it, and one of the great things I like it is concise, it’s to the point, it’s informative, and you can read it in a fast time, but you get such meat out of it, and that’s, as entrepreneurs, what we always want to do is be able to get information really quick.
So Keith, let’s first talk about the top ten distinctions between millionaires and the middle class. You wrote this book because of your own experience, and because of studying other successful people, and you have found very clear distinctions between how millionaires think and how the middle class thinks, and folks, let me first say this.
Entrepreneurs, I know that probably none of you are middle class, but many of us were brought up in middle class mind-sets, and you may have some ghost in your closets that you’re not aware of, and one of the great things about what Keith is going to share us today is to remind you how important your thinking is. So Keith, tell us about the first distinction, number ten.
Keith: Yeah, I like to start at ten and countdown to number one. And I’ll say this before we reveal what all the distinctions are. Number ten I think is one of the - or should be the starting distinction for everybody, every entrepreneur, everybody who’s an employee that wants to become an entrepreneur, they’ve really got to start with distinction number ten, and then count-down to number one, and I think number one is the most important, as you’ll see when we get there.
Distinction number ten is simply millionaires think long-term and the middle class things short-term, and in that distinction I break society down into five groups of people, from the very poor, to the poor, to the middle class, to the rich, and then to the very rich. Very poor people they think day-to-day. Poor people think week-to-week, month - or excuse me -middle class people think month-to-month. Rich people think year-to-year, and very rich people think decade-to-decade.
I have seen this live out in the real world time and time and time again, and in those five groups of people you’ll also find three primary goals. Like the primary goal for a very poor and poor person is survival. They’re just doing whatever they can to survive. The primary goal for the middle class people is comfort. They just want to be comfortable, but the primary goal fro rich and very rich people, who think year-to-year and decade-to-decade, their primary goal is freedom - where they’re going to do whatever it takes to experience abundance and freedom.
Lee: Well, Keith, we like to hear this because all of us as entrepreneurs, our goal is to be in the rich category. I notice that you talk a lot about seek and you shall find kind of mindset. So talk about that in distinction ten.
Keith: Yeah that’s exactly where we are in the distinction right now. It’s, if you think to survive, you will. If you think to be comfortable, you will be, but if you think freedom, you will find it, and one of the reasons you must learn to think long-term is because it takes longer to acquire freedom than it does to acquire survival. It takes longer to become free than it does to become comfortable.
So, we’ve got to have business plans to go at least a year into the future, and most of the multi-millionaires that I know personally, as well as myself, we have business plans that go at least ten years into the future. In fact, I’m only 36 years old right now, and I’ve got business plans that go until I’m 55. And then when I’m 55 I think things will change a little bit, but I have a very clear, accurate - and you know, clarity is power - I have a very clear picture of what my life is going to look like over the next 20 years.
So you know, we could talk about the power of vision her, you know, the old scripture that says, “Without vision, people perish,” and I like to say, “With vision, people flourish.” So, it’s you know, where do you want to be five years from now? Where do you want to be ten years from now? If you don’t ask yourself those questions very often, I just challenge you to ask those questions on a daily basis, or even a weekly basis.
Lee: Now talk about how rich and very rich people have developed the discipline of delayed gratification versus middle class people want instant gratification.
Keith: Yeah, you know, the simple definition that I use for delayed gratification is, giving up something that you want today, for something that you want even more tomorrow. Like today, we might want to be comfortable today, but tomorrow, I’m going to want to be free.
So, I’m going to give up a little bit of my comfort today, and maybe do some things that I don’t really like, or really love, and just going to press in, and I’m going to do some things that make me uncomfortable. I’m going to step out of my box, and think a little different, and do some things that are a little scary, and you know, if I’m willing to be uncomfortable, I believe the time will come when I’m totally, completely, financially free.
This distinction of thinking long-term works in every area of life, but today we’re focusing mostly on the money, but it also works in your relationships. You know, with people that you know. If you think long-term in your relationships, you’re going to think more and more from a win-win perspective.
If you’re thinking short-term in a relationship, you’re probably just thinking what can I get from this person, and as we know as entrepreneurs, you know, it’s the relationship that we could cultivate that really makes us rich. It’s all about, you know, success in life is all about successful relationships.
So, I say think long-term, not just in your business plan, but think long-term in the relationship that you have. One of the multi-millionaires that has been my mentor for several years now, he makes at least ten million dollars every year. Not that he just made at one time, but he continues to make ten million dollars, at least, minimum, every year. He says that there’s five people, he can count on one hand, five people who have made him a multi- multi- multi-millionaire over the last twenty years. I think we can learn from him from that that it’s not just about thinking long-term in the business land, but also in our relationships. What are those key relationships that we can develop and cultivate that will help us become more financially successful.
Lee: You also, in your chapter, talked about how important it was to think long-term about your physical health, so speak to us about that, because as entrepreneurs if we get sick, everything shuts down.
Keith: Right. That’s the point I’m making is that thinking long-term works for every area of life, not just your money. It’s very important when it comes to your business, but it’s also important in your relationships, and it’s important for your physical body. If we think long-term on our physical health, then we’re going to take better care of our bodies, so that we can work longer, we have more energy to do some of the things that we need to do.
It’s very hard to work when you’re really overweight, and out of shape, and you just have no energy, you might have a great million dollar idea, but if you have no energy to go do it, you’re not going to. So it’s thinking long-term in every area of life, even with your mental life, like your piece of mind. What do you enjoy thinking about, what would you love to wake up everyday and say, “Hey, I get to think about this.”
I think you can learn to make money in that area, and I know a lot of multi-millionaires have changed careers time and time again, but the most successful millionaires that I know are people who do something that they love to do, they enjoy thinking about it. When you spend your life building a business in a subject that inspires you, it created incredible peace of mind, and that’s one of my goals everyday, just to create peace of mind for myself.
Money is great, and it’s wonderful, and you can do a lot of good powerful things with money, but if I’m stressed out, what good is the money? I mean, money’s great, but if I have a bad relationship with my wife, or my kids, you know, what good is the money? Or if the money’s great, but what if I’m totally overweight and out of shape, and sickly in my physical body? Then the money’s really not that much good. So, you know, thinking long-term in every area of life brings a lot of balance to your life, so that you can become more successful, and fulfilled at the same time.
Lee: You talk about, that millionaires have the kind of attitude of whatever it takes, and that middle class people give up when the pressure is on because they value comfort and they don’t persevere when the going gets tough. What advice would you give our entrepreneurs about when the going gets tough?
Keith: Well you’ve just got to keep on keeping on. I mean, you just said it. If you value comfort, and you have an opportunity to take a risk, and do something a little different, and try something new, and if you step out of your comfort zone, as soon as things get uncomfortable, as soon as things are a little bit too much pressure on it, you’re going to back up, you’re going to draw back. That’s if you value comfort. If your primary goal is freedom, like we talked about, then you’re willing to deal with some un-comfort or discomfort, and you’re willing to press on, so you’ve got to keep on keeping on, even through the seasons of discomfort.
All multi-millionaires I know have had some very tough, hard seasons in their life, and I’m sure most everybody listening to my voice right now, is going through something in some area of their life that’s a kind of tough season, and that’s part of life. We just have to embrace it, learn the lessons that life is trying to teach us, and press toward our goal of freedom.
Lee: Okay, I didn’t say this earlier folks, but you know, it’s very clear to me, if you’re not writing notes, you should be. Just to recap, the distinction number ten was millionaires think long-term, the middle-class people think short-term. Keith, distinction number nine is millionaires talk about ideas, the middle class talks about other things and other people. Let’s talk about this, because this is a great subject. People get very unconscious in their mindset of what they’re thinking and what they’re saying. Talk about the power of what we say.
Keith: Yeah, I believe that our life is a reflection of the thoughts we’ve been thinking, and the words we’ve been speaking. So, if we want our life to be better tomorrow, or next week, or next year, then we’ve got to change our thoughts, and change our words, and one of the things about this distinction, about millionaires talk about ideas, and the middle class talk about things and other people, is that middle class, a lot of times when they’re talking about things and other people, they’re complaining about things and other people, and I think complaining is one of the absolute worst things you can do in your life.
It’s like you’re cursing yourself when you’re complaining, and a belief that I have is that whatever I complain about, I get more of versus whatever I appreciate I get more of. So, I practice in my life talking about things that I love, people that I love, places that I love, things that I appreciate, things that I’m grateful for, so that more of that will come into my life. Getting back to the subject of ideas, I saw a plaque in a businessman’s office many, many, many years ago, and it’s really where I came up with this distinction, and the plaque said this, it said, “Big people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about other people.”
Lee: How true is that. It’s so true.
Keith: Yes, and then you know, the other old saying that most of us have heard before, is that there’s three types of people, those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who say what happened? Well, if you put those two statements together, you gain some insight I believe, and it’s like, millionaires will talk about ideas, and they make things happen.
Middle class people will talk about things, and they’ll watch things happen. Very poor people will talk about other people, and they end up saying what happened? So, I believe one of the other principles to become financially free, to become successful in your business is to spend more time talking about ideas, and a lot less time talking about things and other people.
One of the things I share at the seminars and the events that I speak at, is that middle class people they talk about cars, they talk about sports, they talk about movies, they talk about vacation spots. Well, do you realize that millionaires own all those things?
Millionaires come up with ideas that the middle class spends their money on. So, you want to talk more about ideas and get in a circle of influence where you can bounce your ideas off of each other, and I think a major point is that when you’re discussing ideas, discuss it with other optimistic, success-minded people. When you discuss your ideas to grow, and mature, and become free with people who have a limited mentality, or a pessimistic attitude, you’re not going to get anywhere.