8 Steps to Your Fast Fortune Starting Today

by Tyler G. Hicks from his classic book Smart Money Shortcuts to Becoming Rich.

You have, within yourself, all the skills needed to build & fortune quickly. If you didn’t have the interest in building a fortune in as short a time as possible, you’d be reading another book, perhaps the newest novel or detective story. But the fact that you’re reading these words, here and now, sets you aside and makes you different from those who hunger after wealth but do nothing about it.

You’ve taken the first step. You’re trying to unlock the secret of building a fortune — preferably in a hurry. You and your family want and need things now. The sooner you can buy that new furniture, new car, or new boat, the happier everyone will be.

Don’t be discouraged. Start today! Take these eight fortune winning steps.

Eight Steps to a Fortune

1. Decide what you want or need. List all the things you need or want. Don’t be bashful. If you want a $100,000 Chris-Craft yacht, list it. Find out what others close to you want or need. List these items and their prices.
2. Convert your needs to dollars. Add up the cost of all the things you need and want. Apply a safety factor of 25 percent. Thus, if you need $300,000 to buy what you want, find your real needs as (1.25) (300,000)= $375,000. You now know, perhaps for the first time in your life, how much money you need to feel wealthy. Many people who complain about being poor have never bothered to take this simple but informative step. Don’t you be that lazy! Take this step now to learn what wealth would really give you. Be rich in your mind and money will begin to come to you.
3. Select a way to build quick wealth. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ideas for fast accumulation of wealth. When you read good books and get great information, you’ll get even more ideas. Pick the one idea which appeals most strongly to you. If you can’t pick a single idea, choose several. List them in the order of their appeal.
4. Earn your fortune — mentally. You haven’t yet invested a penny in the business or job that will earn you your fortune. And you won’t have to invest another penny while you mentally earn your fortune, if you use the proven wealth-building method given here. To use this method, sit down in a quiet corner and mentally imagine you are buying the business or applying for the job that will earn your fortune. Review each step you’d take, the obstacles you might meet, the difficulties you would meet. Continue imagining each step until you mentally reach your wealth goal. Don’t take any mental short-cuts; mentally review each step several times until you’re sure you know exactly what you’d face and how you’d overcome it.
5. Put your wealth plan on paper. Write out the steps you must take to turn your dreams into quick wealth. One man I told to do this looked at me in amazement and laughed. “That’s impossible to do,” he said. “How do you know, if you haven’t tried?” I asked him. “I’ll show you,” he said. Two weeks later he returned with his list: 3,812 items. “It works,” he said, showing me the list. “Now I know exactly what I have to do. This is the first time I’ve ever known exactly what’s ahead of me.”
6. Review your list, step by step. Go over your list, examining each step. Cross out unnecessary steps; add new ones you overlooked. Don’t finish your review until you are sure that you know that each step is necessary and useful.
7. Take the first, inexpensive steps. Write for catalogs: obtain free information; consult with people who know the business. Don’t spend large sums of money; confine yourself to pennies for stamps and letter paper — and even less for email. Go to the library and read the business books applying to your interests. If any of these books will have long-range use for you, buy them. Every cent you invest in good business and self-help books will pay of many times over.
8. Move ahead, if you’re sure. Your list and studies will give you enough facts and figures to permit you to make a decision. If your decision is yes, go ahead at full speed. Build your enthusiasm. This will give you greater momentum to overcome the rough spots you are almost certain to meet.

Go to the Cash — You’ll Love It

You can become immensely rich, incredibly rich, magnificently rich — if you go where the cash is and make it yours.

But you must go where the money is; you must take a risk; and you must work hard.

Where is the money? Look around yourself today. See with money-conscious eyes. Build a drive to earn as much as you can as soon as you can.

You must take risks. The people in this world who won’t take a business risk wind up in a mediocre job at a modest salary. You must take risks if you want to hit the big money. In my personal business activities, which are many, I take many big risks because, to date, they have paid off. Further, these risks make every business I go into a big adventure. Since I love adventure, business has become fun to me, particularly when the profits are rolling in.

But I wasn’t always interested in taking risks. I had to acquire the taste for it. If you are this way, start by taking a small risk, then a larger one. Soon you’ll be looking for profitable business risks wherever you go.

You must work hard. Just being where the money is won’t make it yours. You must work hard if you expect to build wealth in a hurry. The hard work you do today puts a dollar in your pocket tomorrow. My personal credo on hard work, which has always paid off, is: Accept additional work and challenges as they occur.

You will, if you truly want to, find time and energy to do the work. Your income wil rise and you’ll be on your way to getting richer than you think sooner than you thought possible.