Book SummarySecrets of the Millionaire Mind, by T. Harv Eker

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

In Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker reveals the differences in the way rich people and poor people think and feel about money. Eker argues that these thoughts and beliefs impel you to take actions that either move you toward financial success or away from it—if you’re not happy with the state of your finances, it’s because your unproductive thoughts and beliefs about money hold you back from the financial success that you want.

According to Eker, you can dramatically improve your finances by taking conscious control of your thoughts and adopting a rich attitude—this rich attitude will inspire you to take new actions that lead to your financial success.

We’ll first explore how we form thoughts about money and how negative conditioning may have led you to develop a “poor mindset.” Then, we’ll discuss the different ways Eker says that rich people think and act in relation to money, and we’ll explore practical techniques for practicing a rich attitude and increasing your income.

Part 1: Your Money Mindset Defines Your Level of Wealth

According to Eker, your money mindset is a construct of all of the beliefs you hold about money. This construct programs the way you relate to money because:

1. Your thoughts and beliefs determine how you feel.
2. Your feelings determine the decisions you make and how you act.
3. Your actions determine the results you get and how much money you have.

Therefore, this programming leads you to develop habits and behave (often unconsciously) in specific ways to create results that align with your money mindset.

Your Thoughts About Money Impact Every Area of Your Life

While Eker narrows down the impact of your thoughts and beliefs on your behavior to focus solely on money, psychologists and self-help practitioners argue that your beliefs impact all areas of your life, even if they seem to relate to just one. This is because how you think, feel, and behave in one area of your life influences the decisions you make in all areas of your life.

• For example, you feel insecure about your love life. Each time you get into a relationship, you give up a lot of your time and energy in an attempt to make the relationship work. Your insecurity about your relationship leads you to neglect your friends and your personal goals, such as maintaining a fitness routine or working on side projects to meet your financial goals.

The example illustrates the difficulty with singling out thoughts and beliefs for specific areas of your life—in this case, your beliefs about your love life impact your finances, your fitness, and your friendships. Therefore, throughout the rest of this guide, reflect on how your thoughts and beliefs in all areas of your life impact your finances and vice versa—how your thoughts and beliefs about money impact your overall life experience.

Your Money Mindset Is a Result of Childhood Conditioning

Eker claims that your current money mindset is a result of childhood conditioning. As a child, you unconsciously absorbed thoughts, emotions, and beliefs about money from your role models and your environment. Everything you heard, saw, and experienced about money influenced your beliefs about how to manage your finances, and conditioned you to behave in specific ways. These thoughts and opinions now make up your mindset and determine what you believe about money. These beliefs then unconsciously dictate how you think, feel, and behave when you manage your finances.

For example, if your role models worked hard but never had enough money to enjoy themselves, you may have the belief: “There is never enough money, no matter how hard I work.” This belief creates an uncomfortable feeling every time you think about going to work or managing your finances, and it leads you to act in unproductive ways such as frivolously spending your money instead of saving it. Your discomfort may also cause you to resent people who do have enough money. In contrast, if you grew up in an environment where money was not a cause for concern because there was always enough, you’re less likely to feel discomfort or resentment around the subject of work and money.

Your Conditioning Is a Result of What You Believe to Be True

The author of Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz, validates Eker’s argument that you picked up beliefs throughout your childhood that conditioned you to behave in certain ways. He argues that you unconsciously adopted the opinions and beliefs of others as truths, regardless of whether or not these opinions were based on facts.

Why did your mind accept what you heard, saw, and experienced as truth? It’s because your nervous system can’t tell the difference between imagination and reality—it can only respond to what you think or imagine to be true. When you were young, you were less able to question what was going on around you and to form your own rational conclusions. As a result, you simply absorbed everything you experienced and your mind accepted these experiences as truths.

As an adult, you can decide what you choose to believe but, according to Maltz, the “truths” you accepted as a child continue to live in your mind and inform your feelings and behaviors. He suggests that you take control of these outdated truths and replace them with what you choose to believe by regularly visualizing yourself acting in ways that align with what you want. Maltz claims that, with constant practice, your mind will gradually become accustomed to accepting your new thoughts and beliefs as truth and will let go of the old, unproductive beliefs.

Your Childhood Influences: Are You Conforming or Rebelling?

Eker argues that while your money mindset is a result of childhood conditioning, it doesn’t always mean that you’ll...

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind Summary Shortform Introduction

In Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker reveals the difference between rich people and poor people. This difference doesn’t lie in what they do, but in how they’ve been conditioned to think and feel about money. Eker argues that these thoughts and beliefs impel you to take actions that either move you toward financial success or away from it—if you’re not happy with the state of your finances, it’s because your unproductive thoughts and beliefs about money hold you back from the financial success that you want.

According to Eker, you can dramatically improve your finances by taking conscious control of your thoughts and adopting a rich attitude—this rich attitude will inspire you to take new actions that lead to your financial success. Eker outlines the different ways that rich people think and act in relation to money and includes practical techniques you can use to immediately practice this rich attitude and increase your income.

About the Author

T. Harv Eker is a Canadian multimillionaire, bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, and motivational speaker. He shares his knowledge about financial success in his popular [Millionaire Mind...

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind Summary Part 1: Your Money Mindset Defines Your Level of Wealth

T. Harv Eker argues that there’s only one thing holding you back from the wealth that you want: your money mindset. We’ll discuss this concept in three parts.

In this first part of the guide, we’ll explain what your money mindset is, how your childhood influenced its formation, and how it impacts your attitude and behavior around money. We’ll also discuss your “financial setpoint”: the amount of money you feel you can comfortably manage.

In the second part, we’ll explore the difference between a poor mindset and a rich mindset. We’ll also clarify how negative conditioning leads you to develop tendencies that inhibit you from taking positive actions to improve your finances.

In the final part, we’ll cover specific techniques and strategies to help you adopt a rich mindset so that you can develop wealthy habits and ensure your financial success.

What Is Your Money Mindset?

According to Eker, your money mindset is a construct of all of the beliefs you hold about money. This construct programs the way you relate to money because:

1. Your thoughts and beliefs determine how you feel.
2. Your feelings determine the decisions you make and how you act.
3. Your...

Shortform Exercise: Assess Your Money Mindset

Eker claims that your money mindset is a result of childhood conditioning. This exercise will help you examine how your current finances reflect or oppose your upbringing.

Think about your financial situation. What’s one thing you think you do well when it comes to managing your money?

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind Summary Part 2: The Poor Mindset

In the first part of this guide, you learned that your money mindset is an accumulation of thoughts and beliefs that you picked up throughout your childhood. You unconsciously replicate or oppose the attitudes and behaviors that you grew up with, and this is why your finances are the way that they are.

Eker argues that thoughts and beliefs about money tend to fall into either a rich mindset (an attitude that moves you toward financial success) or a poor mindset (an attitude that moves you away from financial success). If you’re not happy with the state of your finances, it’s because you’ve been negatively conditioned to have a poor money mindset: Your unproductive thoughts and beliefs impel you to act in ways that move you away from financial success. Therefore, in this second part of the guide, we’ll explore how negative conditioning works, and we’ll help you to identify the specific thoughts and beliefs that discourage you from taking positive actions to improve your finances.

Wealth Doesn’t Always Equate to Success

Eker claims that your thoughts and beliefs about money fall into two categories: rich and poor. It’s also clear that he...

Shortform Exercise: Challenge Your Negative Tendencies

According to Eker, your negative tendencies reinforce the belief that you’re powerless when it comes to money. Challenging your negative tendencies is the first step to eliminating them.

Think about the last time you blamed a specific person or circumstance for your financial problems. Why did you feel they were to blame?

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind Summary Part 3: The Rich Mindset

In the previous part, you learned how negative conditioning creates specific thoughts and beliefs that discourage you from taking positive actions to improve your finances. In this final part of the guide, we’ll explore how developing a rich mindset leads to wealth. We’ll cover specific techniques and strategies to help you adopt and cultivate a wealthy attitude that ensures your financial success.

Why You Need a Rich Mindset

Eker argues that no matter how hard you work to accumulate money, or how many financial books you read or seminars that you attend, your finances cannot improve unless you improve your mindset. Recall: This is because your mindset will always find ways to sabotage the way you handle your money if the amount rises above your financial setpoint.

Fortunately, there is a way to increase your financial setpoint. Eker believes that you can consciously reprogram your money mindset to improve your finances by replacing your unproductive thoughts and beliefs about money with the productive thoughts and beliefs that rich people have. The more you think like a rich person, the more you’ll improve your money mindset and raise your financial setpoint so...

Shortform Exercise: Do You Have Rich Habits?

According to Eker, rich people have a specific attitude towards money and they manage their finances in a particular way. This exercise will help you start developing a richer mindset.

Think about the traits and habits Eker categorizes as “rich.” Did you find any of these surprising? Why or why not?