Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

February 14, 2005
Eker's claim to fame is that he took a $2,000 credit card loan, opened "one of the first fitness stores in North America," turned it into a chain of 10 within two and a half years and sold it in 1987 for a cool (but somewhat modest-seeming) $1.6 million. Now the Vancouver-based entrepreneur traverses the continent with his "Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar," on which this debut motivational business manual is based. What sets it apart is Eker's focus on the way people think and feel about money and his canny, class-based analyses of broad differences among groups. In rat-a-tat, "Let me explain" seminar-speak, Eker asks readers to think back to their childhoods and pick apart the lessons they passively absorbed from parents and others about money. With such psychological nuggets as "Rich people focus on opportunities/ Poor people focus on obstacles," Eker puts a positive spin on stereotypes, arguing that poverty begins, or rather, is allowed to continue, in one's imagination first, with actual material life becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. To that end, Eker counsels for admiration and against resentment, for positivity, self-promotion and thinking big and against wallowing, self-abnegation and small-mindedness. While much of the advice is self-evident, Eker's contribution is permission to think of one's financial foibles as a kind of mental illness—one, he says, that has a ready set of cures. 6-city author tour; 25-city radio tour.
Agent,
Bonnie Solow
.

March 1, 2005
Eker, a multimillionaire, teaches us how to become rich. He believes thoughts lead to feelings, which lead to actions, which lead to results, and hence the key to attaining great wealth begins with thinking--like rich people do. He offers new ways of thinking and acting that will lead to new and different results, and he tells us, "Success is a learnable skill. You can learn to succeed at anything." The book emphasizes Eker's 17 principles for amassing wealth, which include: rich people believe that they create their life, while poor people believe "life happens to me." Rich people focus on opportunities, while poor people focus on obstacles. Rich people act in spite of fear, while poor people let fear stop them. Rich people constantly learn and grow, while poor people think they know enough. This is an obvious infomercial for the author's training seminars; however, although many may not agree with all of Eker's ideas, his book offers thought-provoking advice and valuable insight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)