If a person does have a viable idea for a new product or service I think that is great. Many people say they have lots of ideas but no money. However, I again emphasize that my focus and recommendation is the surest route for most of us is to having $1,000,000 in the bank, which is to copy an existing business model that others have already done.
I kept writing my page a day, there were Army stories, business stories, family stories, and more. You would be amazed how many different stories you have in you. I was up to about 254 pages. This year I started to to turn my attention to the book I wanted to write to help others. Each day after writing my one page for My 365 Page Book, I would write some notes and thoughts on success, money making, goals, leadership, management, and more. On April 17, I had started a matrix of what different authors thought the secrets to success were and I thought I had found my book, All The Secrets to Success. I stopped doing my page a day for My 365 Page Book and focused on All The Secrets of Success. This was exciting, I dove into reading and rereading many books about success. Much of the research I had done could be used as a spring board. I was losing some interest a few months into the book, I was saying quite a bit in my book, but I began to question if it was practical. Many of the success books are very inspiring, but really do not tell you what to do to be successful. I guess in my mind I was starting to think people really wanted to know how to make money, not just be successful. Success is many things, and money definitely does not have to be part of it, but I was beginning to feel like my voice was going to be to motivate and then tell people as well as I could how to make lots of money.
Toward the end of the year, mostly December, I had moved away from All the Secrets of Success and now was looking at a very specific type of success-making lots of money.
Craig Ferguson-who would ever think that Craig Ferguson of the Late Late Show would be my inspiration to write more and enough to get me on track to eventually produce One Million in the Bank. I stumbled through the first part of 2011 without getting much done on my sales book, but after watching Ferguson’s show my writing took off.
Craig Ferguson interviews writer in Paris.
As I watched his show that night, I even had my notes and the little bit I had written opened with my pen in hand. Craig Ferguson was in Paris, France interviewing an American that owned a book store in Paris. She said she wanted to write a book, but could not find the time. What is important is what he told her. Craig Ferguson said,”Write one page a day and in one year you will have a 365 page book.” I know this is not earth shattering advice, but the combination of me not getting anywhere on my book and the lady in Paris not achieving her dreams-that was the right setting for me to really hear his advice and let it sink into my thick skull.
I stood up, walked to my computer and wrote a couple of pages about something easy, my childhood. Then as I would think of another story in my past, I would pause a second and put that topic into the table of contents and go back to writing. I called this book My 365 Page Book. At the end of the year I had to write 25 pages the last week of December to catch up. Still on on December 31, it had been 147 days and I made sure I had 147 pages written. This was my story, not a story of how to help others, but I remember thinking- I can write a whole book. Thanks, Craig. You really were my inspiration.
I did not get much done this whole year except talking about my sales book. Yes, I was putting some words on paper and taking notes in my sales book journal, but not as much as I should have. I talked to my employees, my family, my friends, and strangers, but not much got done. I had already read so many sales books over the years it was not funny. I had read them to get better at selling and negotiating. But now I needed to read for research to write my book. I bought and read many more sales books. Everyone had an angle, but most were saying the same thing. We are all selling all the time, so I thought I had a good topic, but honestly after reading all those extra books on sales, I did not think I could offer anything new. I would have to pick my own angle, my own buzz words then say what everybody else said. I guess I had lost the spark somewhere towards the end of 2010 to help people with a sales book.
I stared my One Million in the Bank blog on August 30th 2013, but I was working on the book long before that and was keeping my own journal. My first blog posting, One Million in the Bank-Starting My Book, and the next 3 entries of this book will be from my journal and dated when the entries were made.
I have for quite a while now wanted to give back and thought the best way to do this would be a book helping as many people as I could achieve financial success. I hope my blog and book will be helpful to everyone and then an ongoing inspiration for those people wanting to have $1,000,000 in the Bank. I am a West Point graduate, class of 1975, and then I had 10 great years of military service. I was recruited out of the military, and then had 7 years of real struggle including bankruptcy, and then a few years later I was a millionaire by the age of 45.
Although the goal was the same to help people to have financial freedom, I thought a sales book would be the best way to go. I have written in my journals about sales for many years. I have been seriously selling and teaching others to sell ever since I got out of the Army in 1985. In about 2005 I decided to write a book for real and as I said I wanted it to be a book that was helpful to people. My first try was to write a sales book, because I know everyone sales all the time. I never had a writing schedule and just worked on it when I wanted. I did not get much done in 2009.
