I’ve followed Alex Becker for a few years now. I’ve watched him go from a guy selling affiliate products with SEO to buying Lamborghinis and building an eight-figure business.

Which is why I was super pumped when he came out with his book The 10 Pillars of Wealth: Mind-Sets of the World’s Richest People.

Because I’ve seen this guy’s rise, I was eager to find out exactly how he did it.

The 10 Pillars of Wealth was a great read. Some of the material was stuff I had already internalized, but a few of the pillars (seven and eight especially) were game-changers for me. I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately about what to do next; applying those pillars just in the past few weeks has already helped. The “bonus material” breaking down different types of businesses also got my wheels spinning about long-term plans.

Because this book focuses on the mental game of what it takes to build – and maintain – a thriving business, the insights inside can help you regardless of your industry. Highly recommended.

Without further ado, here are my notes covering the most salient (to me) points from The 10 Pillars of Wealth.

Introduction

• Making money is hard, but not in the same way winning money at slots is hard. Making money is hard like getting really good at a video game is hard. (The key difference: people believe they can get awesome at a video game).
• Beliefs can enslave us and keep our lives mediocre, preventing us from working toward the lives we truly want. But they can ALSO ensure your success
• Rewiring your beliefs requires a massive change. The pain of the current option must overpower the comfort of the routine. Which leads to drastic action. For most people this will never happen.
• The “low risk, low reward” world is mediocre; the “high risk, high reward” world is success

The First Pillar: Rejecting “Getting Rich Slow”

• Everything you’ve heard about becoming rich is WRONG
• The 9 to 5 traffic-fighters obviously don’t have it all figured out. Do they seem like the best people to teach you about becoming financially free?
• Turning the idea of risk on its head: it’s much riskier to rely on getting rich slowly because so many variables are beyond your control.
• “Your financial well-being is decided by everyone and everything except you, and this is your fault because you are allowing it to happen!”
• Assuming an average salary of $120K and saving half of it for 30 years, you only have $1.8 mil
• Becker grew his wealth to eight figures within TWO YEARS – more than enough to retire on and live comfortably through investments
• Deciding to get rich quickly puts you in control (knowledge, effort, networking, etc.). Bet on yourself, not other people and circumstances!
• You can fail dozens of times, then finally get it right, and still be better off than get rich slowly
• Three key takeaways:
  • 1) You control your life
  • 2) You can get better at anything
  • 3) You’re allowed to fail
• Three key factors separating get rich quickly from get rich slowly: 1) material luxuries, 2) stress, and 3) choices

The Second Pillar: Separating Time from Money

• “Time is money” is NOT always true
• The goal: set up a system that runs and generates wealth no matter what you’re doing; remove time from the equation
• Even if you set your own salary as a freelancer, people can reject it because it’s too high, capping your earning potential
• Ideally, the only thing limiting my income are: 1) the size of the market, and 2) how well my system sells to it (this is totally doable with book sales)
• Once I’m maxed out in one market, I can make other machines in other markets
• Ask yourself
  • 1) Can this biz make $ while I’m not present?
  • 2) Can this process be done by others or automated by machines?
  • 3) If this works, can I train someone else to run it?
  • 4) Can I scale it without having to increase my time involvement?
• As a business owner, intelligently spending substantial chunks of my earnings to grow my business almost always increases my overall profit
• The wealthier you are, the more separated your time from profits. Your money makes money through investments

The Third Pillar: Accepting That You Must Be Better Than Everyone Else

• To be wealthy, you must be better than 99% of everyone else at making money
• You have to believe you are the best to seize the opportunities and take strategic risks
• Mindset shift: from “I can’t” to “I don’t know how to do that yet, but I’ll learn”

The Fourth Pillar: Everything Is Your Fault

• We can’t get caught up complaining when things go wrong/other people screw up
• The fact is, even when other people are technically at fault, we often end up paying the price
• Much more resourceful to accept responsibility and take action to grow our businesses
• Imagine what might go wrong, and take action to fix it before it does

The Fifth Pillar: Adopting an Abundance Mindset

• Money is repulsed when you try to hard to get it and are desperate – just like women are repulsed when you are needy and trying to impress them
• The aloof, I don’t need it attitude attracts way more. But to get that, you have to believe in your ability to always generate more income
• Shift: instead of trying so hard to budget and save, focus on making more money
• Doing everything yourself and trying too hard are roadblocks to making as much as you should

The Sixth Pillar: Forgetting “What If” and Focusing on “What Is”

• All our lives, we’ve been taught to wonder (and worry) about “what if?”
• Most of those things never happen, and things that do happen, are things we can’t anticipate
• So we must focus 100% on “what is” – what is the single biggest problem I’m facing right now and how can I solve it?
• First is finding clients, second is providing a product/service, and so on
• Experiential learning is the only way to do it
• The sooner you make mistakes, the sooner you’ll hit your success. Mistake → “a lesson that will help me make money in the future”
• What you must do first is recognize my “absolute simple problem” (for many, it’s getting paid)

The Seventh Pillar: Mapping Out Actions That Achieve Goals

• Key breakthroughs for me in here…
• First, we must know exactly where we want to go. Answer: 1) How much money per year would I like to generate to finance my ideal lifestyle? And 2) How will I do it?
• The “big event” of you making a ton of $ is really the result of many smaller actions coming together
• Next, what are five smaller goals I must achieve to reach my BIG GOAL? (using fiction books as an example)
• 1-Develop the “formula” for a successful fiction book
• 2-Create a system or platform to sell the books (Amazon, Apple, trad publish, etc.)
• 3-Find ways to advertise that attract the necessary sales
• 4-Craft an iconic brand
• 5-Get the books out into bookstores, movie deals, airports, etc.
• Next, if those smaller goals are still overwhelming, slice them up into even smaller parts. In this way you build a road map to get the lifestyle you want. Just focus on each little step at a time!

The Eighth Pillar: Focusing Solely on What Gets You Paid

• Identify your highest ROI activities
• Either stop doing low (or zero) ROI activities, cut back on them, or outsource them
• Keep doing this, and understand that your highest ROI now is probably not your highest ROI activity in the future
• In the beginning, highest ROI is selling your product/service. Then it shifts to providing it, then training others to provide it while you direct them from afar

The Ninth Pillar: People Give Money to People That Get People

• If there’s one magical skill that will serve you in any niche, it’s SELLING
• Learning to be persuasive, understand and influence people
• Selling and being comfortable with people is everything

The Tenth Pillar: Finding Competitive Friends and Suitable Mentors

• Bottom line: you are the product of your social environment
• Hanging out with successful (or fledgling) entrepreneurs and go-getters is a hell of a lot more inspirational than the typical 9 to 5 person who hates his job

Bonus Pillar: Starting Your Own Business the “Right Way”

• Awesome chapter that breaks down the three major types of businesses
  • 1. Cash flow businesses: these businesses are usually providing services; they don’t take much time or money investment up front, and they can generate profits quickly. But the downside is they tend to top out and be hard to scale (you only have so much time).
  • 2. High investment scalable business: the typical “business” you think about with a significant investment up front, but can often result in a high payout when sold. It’s scalable and doesn’t really matter if you serve 1,000 people or 1 million. It can be sold. Software business, product businesses, etc.
  • 3. Long-term investment business: businesses like real estate; takes a lot of money to start in the beginning, but provides a steady 10 to 20 percent ROI year after year. Passive income
• Ideally, you’ll want to convert a CF business into one of the other types, or use the profits you make there to start a HIS or LTI business so you can separate your time completely