Hi there, Mindvalley community.
My name is T. Harv Eker.
And I'm the author of "The New York Times" #1 bestseller, "Secrets of The Millionaire
Mind."
Vishen let me know that there were a lot of people asking about my background, and why,
especially, why I teach wealth and financial freedom.
And in fact, there's a whole story behind that.
So I'd like to just share a little bit behind that, and I think it's, kind of, interesting.
It might give you a little bit of insight, and maybe, there's some lessons for yourself.
You know, my parents came from Europe.
They had no money, whatsoever.
When I grew up, all my friends wanted to be doctors and lawyers and firemen and baseball
players, and I just wanted to be a millionaire.
I didn't even know why, but, you know, it was ingrained in me.
And so I left college actually at the end of the first year because it wasn't going
fast enough, and I wasn't rich enough yet.
After that, I proceeded to struggle, big time.
I mean, I thought I would get rich literally in a couple of years because, I don't know
why, but a lot of us do.
And I had...
Listen to this, I had 14 different jobs and 12 different businesses in only 10 years.
I tried everything and nothing worked for me.
It worked for my friends, it worked for my associates, it didn't work for me.
And I was doing all of this, everything.
I was taking all the seminars, reading all the books, in those days listening to all
the tapes, and still, I was broke.
There were many, many, many, many, many nights, far more nights than I care to remember that
I literally had to choose between putting $5 of gas in my car and eating dinner that
night, and a lot of times, I had to choose the car.
Things were not working for me, whatsoever.
I had to move back home, and I lived in my parents' basement.
And all I can tell you, it was nothing short of, I guess, the word is embarrassing.
I had a very low self-esteem because of that at the time.
And I was a completely different person than when I started when I was really gung-ho and
I thought I could make it.
It just wasn't working for me.
As the universe put things together, I was, as I said, in my parents' house, I met a friend
of my father's who was a very, very wealthy man.
And he stopped me in the hallway, and he said, "Harv, your father tells me that you're a
bum."
So I wasn't very happy about that, but he said, "You know, can I give you any advice?"
I go, "Well, sure, whatever."
And he said, "Listen, if you're not doing as well as you'd like to be doing, all that
means is there's something you don't know."
And being a brash young man at the time, I thought I knew what, you know, everything,
but I guess I didn't.
Then he says, "What do you want to do?"
And I said, "I wanna be rich.
I wanna make a lot of money."
And he says, "Well, that's not the world's best goal, but, you know, how do you want
to do it?"
And I said, "I wanna do it in business because, you know, I'm not gonna be a doctor or a lawyer.
I'm unemployable, unfortunately, or fortunately.
I can't deal with jobs really well, so I've gotta do it in business."
He says, "Well, you know, if you're gonna do it in business, you know, one thing you
need to know is that most rich business people think and do the same things, and most who
are successful in anything thing think can and do it the same way pretty well."
And I said, "You know, that makes sense."
So I wasn't making any money anyways, and I spent the next six months studying rich
business people, and I Iearned some very, very critical principles around that.
And, you know, one of the things that had happened was that I still had no money, whatsoever.
And I remember before getting further involved into any new ventures, I was so scared to
fail again.
I remember sitting in the back of my parents' house, and I was on a lounge chair and I was
looking up to the heavens, and for some reason, I just began to cry.
I mean, I don't cry a lot, but I was just...
Tears were just rolling down my face.
I was just so frustrated, and I was so scared, like, "What if I fail again?"
I don't know if any of you can relate to that, but, you know, when you start something, you're
so excited and then when it doesn't work, it's like, "Oh, not again, not again," and
pretty soon, it just takes a toll on you, doesn't it?
And so, that's what happened for me.
I looked up to the heavens, and I was crying.
And I said, "Universe or God or whatever is up there, I promise you, I promise you that
if somehow I make it, I will help other people do the same way that I did.
I mean, I just can't handle another failure."
And so I used the principles that I learned.
And I opened one of the first retail fitness stores in the world, and I started that with
$2,000 that I borrowed on my Visa card because, again, I had no money.
And literally, a year and a half later, I was a millionaire.
And I learned several, several, several critical lessons, key lessons, that I didn't know before.
I thought I knew, but I didn't know because everything I did before didn't work, and everything
I did then and now seems to work really, really well.
And so that's why I teach what I teach because I made a promise to the Big Guy, and I said,
"Listen, if I make it, I promise I'll help other people do the same."
Listen, I'm gonna be right up front with you, a lot of people wanna do well financially,
a lot of people wanna have balance in their lives, a lot of people are spiritually bent,
which I think is a very good thing, and I can tell you about that when we listen to
my upcoming Masterclass with Vishen, how I got involved in spirituality.
But, you know, we tend to think that it's one or the other.
You know, it's like, "Oh, if I'm, you know, spiritual, and my leanings are towards that,
then money is not an important thing."
Well, how's that working?
You know, that doesn't seem to work out really well in the real world either, does it?
Or we go for money and then, spirituality just seems to fall away and so does everything
else.
That doesn't work either.
So the big secret is, "How do you put this all together?"
And I...
You know, thank goodness, thank the universe that I was able to find an answer that's not
only worked for me, but literally, I have over two million students all around the world
now, and it seems to work for them too.
And I'd love for you to find out the secrets that I found out and be able to help you with
that.
And it really, really is a life changer.
So one thing, for sure, I learned is that who you learn from makes a difference.
There's a lot of teachers out there.
There's a lot of wonderful teachers and coaches.
At the same time, I'm always just gonna go with the same example that I've always used
which is, "If you are gonna climb Mount Everest, and you know your life is at stake at that,
would you be going with someone who's never been to Mount Everest before, has come down
from Mount Everest after reaching the top, and more importantly than that, has taught
and brought other people to go up and brought them down safely?"
I wouldn't.
And many people get stuck in this idea of, "I'll take this and I'll take that webinar,
and this seminar or this," and they're involved with people who aren't even financially successful
themselves.
So I would be careful about that one.
And the second thing is that when I was young, I remember sitting at the dinner table, and
my parents were asking me, "Harv, what do you want to do?
What do you want to be when you grow up?"
And I was already in the teens at that point in time, and I said, "Well, I'm not sure yet,
but I know that I wanna do what I love to do.
I'm gonna find what I love to do, and I'm gonna make money doing that."
And you know what they said to me?
They said, "You're living in Disneyland.
It doesn't work like that in the real world.
You can't just, like, do what you love to do and do well with it.
You have to listen closely, Harv."
This is what they said, "You have to spend six days a week working for money.
And then on Sundays, you can enjoy your life.
You know, you have to put bread on the table.
You've to be successful.
You can't be being a Pollyanna here."
And for some reason, that was one of the things they said to me that just did not register.
I said, "I cannot believe that that's what life is all about.
There's no way."
And so I stuck to my guns, and literally, here's what happened.
For the first of those 10 years that I was struggling, for the first nine and a half
years of that, I was doing what they told me to do.
I was trying to work for money, make money.
And forget about, like, the vehicle and what I enjoyed doing, forget about the [inaudible
00:08:15], and I was broke.
Then, finally, I made a decision, "That's it, I'm broke, anyway.
I've got nothing to do.
I got nowhere more down to go."
So I said, "You know, I'm just gonna do what I enjoy doing."
And that's why I was really, you know, heavy duty into fitness myself.
I was a big runner.
I was either helping people on the side, "Hey, do this.
Do that.
Work out."
And literally, I just said, "I'm just gonna get into the fitness industry, fitness because
I enjoy it."
And sure enough, I became a millionaire using these principles.
So, I invite you to join myself and Vishen on our Masterclass.
I would say that I think you're going to, only enjoy it, but you're gonna get a lot
out of it.
But after two million students, I have to be more confident for you then, to say...
I think actually I know that if you use what we teach you on this Masterclass, if you use
this, you will get the secret, you will have the secret.
The unlocking of that vault, the door that actually shows you exactly how do you put
it all together.
How do you put together money and spirituality and health and relationships and all of it?
But the big thing we're gonna talk about is money and spirituality.
Because I think spirituality, for me, it's one of the most important parts of my life,
if not the most important part, but I'm also…and I, you know, just be blunt, extremely, extremely,
extremely wealthy financially.
And I've been able to put that together, and that's been my greatest blessing.
So I look forward to seeing you on the Masterclass.
Bless you all now.
I'll see you soon.
Bye for now.