T. Harv Eker is one of North America’s most exciting instructors. He has worked with and shared the stage with some of the top authors and speakers in the world including: Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, Wayne Dyer, Robert Allen, Jay Abraham, Jay Conrad Levinson and Richard Carlson.
He teaches using ‘breakthrough’ techniques and high involvement accelerated learning technologies that help people learn faster, remember more and achieve maximum results.
The change in his students is immediate and permanent.
Eker’s motto is talk is cheap. His unique ability is getting people to take action in the real world to produce real success. He combines a unique brand of ‘street-smarts with heart’.
Harv is the founder of the ‘Street Smart Business School’ in San Diego and president of Peak Potentials Training, the fastest growing personal development company in North America.
Using the principles of the Millionaire Mind, that he teaches, Harv Eker went from zero to millionaire in only 2 1/2 years. In this month’s interview, we’re going to find out exactly how he did it, and how you can apply these principals in your life too. Plus we have a special surprise for you at the end of the interview!
Liz Thompson: Harv, you say you went from 0 to Millionaire in two and a half years. How on earth did you do that?
Harv Eker: Well, I guess my claim to fame is that I owned at least a dozen different businesses before I hit the age of 30. In one of those businesses I opened one of the first retail fitness stores in all of North America. And the interesting thing about that company is that I started that business with $2000 that I borrowed on my Visa card. From there I was able to open 10 locations in only 2 1/2 years. Then I sold half my company shares to the H. J. Heinz Corporation-you know, the Ketchup people-for $1.6 million dollars. So that’s how I did it.
Liz Thompson: Wow, 2000 bucks from a credit card to 1.6 million. That’s from 0 to Millionaire, for sure. Now you did this by using your tactics of The Millionaire Mind. So can you tell us exactly what The Millionaire Mind is?
Harv Eker: Well, I can’t say that I did this only by The Millionaire Mind, but I had some businesses prior to that that didn’t work out really well.
Two things, first of all, I learned some business strategies that were important definitely. But, you know, you can have the greatest business strategies in the world but if you don’t have the mindset to go along with them, you won’t use them. And if you do use them you will sabotage them somehow. So The Millionaire Mind is what transformed me, personally, to a person that really understood that the inner world really does create the outer world. There is a big difference in the way rich people think and the way poor and middle class people think. And it is this thinking that makes the difference in whether a person becomes financially successful or not.
Liz Thompson: Going along those same lines. Rich people don’t usually think that there are money problems, and often, poor people do. What would you say to somebody who thinks they did have money problems?
Harv Eker: Well, the obvious thing that I would say now that I know what I’m doing… (Laughter)…is that we live in a world of cause and effect. Money is a result. Wealth is a result. Health is a result. Illness is a result. Your weight is a result. And most people call the lack of money a problem. But a lack of money is never, ever, ever, ever a problem. A lack of money is merely a symptom of what is going on underneath and in their inner world, their mental, the emotional, and even their spiritual realm.
You know, in the universe, everything is created twice. First on the inside, and then on the outside. First in the mind and then in reality. You know that the only way that you can change your outer world, especially if you want to change it permanently, is to first change your inner world. There has to be a massive change on the inside of who you are and how you think. When you change your true beliefs on the inside, that will transform to the outside. So very simply, money is a result. And if you are not getting the results you want financially, it has got very little to do with what is happening on the outside. Because the outside has very little to do with what is happening on the inside. If you want to make the change permanently, you will need to make the change where it can be permanent. In your permanent way of thinking, feeling and acting. And the result is either success or not.
For me, the biggest turn around came when I went from being over anxious towards money to, I wasn’t doing so great.
I said, You know what, this isn’t working. I am not happy. I am not making it. I’ll go another route.
So, I started studying Zen Buddhism, and the whole spiritual side of things. I really enjoyed that, but the belief system that I modeled there, was that money is not important. It is not a thing in your life at all. Success is not important. Just be in the moment and all that.
That was great but I found that my money was doing even worse! My old way didn’t work, this way wasn’t working. I wasn’t happy.
I thought, Isn’t there some kind of nice balance here? I’d like to have both. I’d like to be very spiritual and be very loving and very giving and very in the moment and meditate, and do yoga, and be really rich.
Liz Thompson: (Laughter) They concepts aren’t mutually exclusive, right?
Harv Eker: What a concept! That is when I started my work on The Millionaire Mind Intensive. When I did that work, everything changed for me. I started to recognize that my beliefs were not who I was. That I could choose them for the time I was in, and I could rechoose them later, actually installing new ways of thinking – new information patterns and thought patterns into my own mind using this work. I found I could do things that are supportive to both of those things. I had a mindset that said, you can be rich and spiritual, then that’s was created. That is exactly what I did. I transformed my own way of thinking to one that allowed me to be what I wanted. I changed my money blueprint to one that allowed me to do well in business, and hopefully be a very nice guy too, help a lot of people, still do my meditations, still do my yoga, still be very spiritually oriented.
I am very, very fortunate. Over the last several years-it’s been about 12 to 14 years now-not only have I been fortunate enough to go the spiritually based route – I am talking from the standpoint of spirituality, and being a loving person, the universe, and being a conscious person – but I don’t make any bones about it. I am a multi- multi- multi- multi- multi- multi millionaire. I think that it’s fantastic and I hope that other people can model me.
I didn’t have any models before. The only models I had were people that had talked a little bit about money, but talked about it in a way that was kind of foreign to me. I just couldn’t get it. People like Deepak Chopra who was just a fantastic model. You know, here is this guy who is extremely conscious, very enlightened, and very rich. And makes no bones about it. And I make even less bones about it.
I say spirituality is great and if you want to live a monk’s life and you really, really want that, then just do it. But for most people they are looking more for a bit of a balance. They would love to have that and they would love to be very successful too. Why not have the beautiful things that life can offer? Go to see places, and be able to travel. Have the nice things. Have the beautiful home. I am looking at about 15 boats in the harbor here, out of West Vancouver. I am a totally blessed person, however, I didn’t get blessed before I started doing this type of stuff. I had to work on the inside.
I had to work on my money blueprint. This is my life’s work now.
You know what, now we have taken this work to a whole new level, the good thing about the blueprints is that you can change them on the spot. You can actually transform them right there. Most people who come to our Millionaire Mind Intensive program – we have usually over a thousand people at each one – most people walk in the door with one blueprint and, they walk out with a different blueprint.
Liz Thompson: Well, how do you figure out what your blueprint is?
Harv Eker: We do it primarily through looking at the programming that you’ve got. So again, the easiest way is to look at the completed picture – at your result. Whether you are a spender, whether you are a saver, whether you are an investor, whether you manage money well, or mismanage money well. Look at whether you struggle for money. Or whether it is easy for you. Whether you argue around money, or whether you don’t argue around money. Look at all these. Look at your income. All that stuff. That stuff is the picture of the outcome of your blueprint.
Basically, if the temperature of the room is 72 degrees, chances are the thermostat is set for 72 degrees. Now here’s the thing. Is it possible that the windows are open in the room? That it’s hot outside and that somehow that the temperature could go up to 77?
Liz Thompson: Yes.
Harv Eker: Absolutely. However, what will eventually happen? The thermostat will eventually kick in and drop it down to 72. And is it possible that the temperature of the room is 72 and the windows are open and it gets cold, that the temperature could go down to 65? Sure. But what will eventually happen? The thermostat will kick in and bring it back to 72. So what I am saying is that no matter what you do, you can take sales courses, you can take business courses, you can take financial courses, and learn. You can do everything else. But it doesn’t really matter on a long-term basis if your thermostat is not set for success. If it is not set for specific type of success – which we help people do. All of those things will only be temporary. They will be helpful, but it will be temporary because eventually, the thermostat will kick in and bring you back to where you are supposed to be.
One of the most amazing things in the program is that we actually change people’s blueprint right on the spot. And when you change that blueprint, it is changed permanently. You cannot think the same way you did before. We actually take the files in people’s minds – because everything is just stored in files – and we alter them. Some files we totally and radically change, take out the stuff that was in there and put in stuff that is supportive to happiness and success. And other files, other roots, are so deep that it is very hard to rip them out because they will leave a big gaping hole that will feel really weird. So then, what we do is we neutralize it. It is almost like taking a weed outside and spraying it, pour some neutralizer on it. So that the thing eventually just withers and dies because of suffocation or lack of energy. Again, that is what we do right at the program.
When people walk out of there, they are different people. The beautiful thing about this is that it is not just about money. Because again, money is a result. We work on the whole beingness. Four different quadrants, the mental, the emotional, the spiritual, and the physical. And here is the issue: the one quadrant that you don’t work on is the one that will take you down.
Liz Thompson: That makes sense. So when you are changing a blueprint, and you work on all four areas… is that what makes the change so fast?
Harv Eker: I believe so. You have to work on all four quadrants, because we are holistic beings, you cannot affect one part without effecting the other. That is why when we work on the money arena, it works on the happiness and the inner peace arena too – because it is all one thing basically.
I recognize how powerful it is, because it changed everything for me. I made that my life’s work even though I was still teaching business, I knew that this is what really did it for me. I started developing this, and now, am known, as the foremost expert in this arena.
We’ve worked with over 70, 000 people and made radical changes in their lives. Most of our students come from word of mouth. What’s happened is that people come back and their friends say, What’s happened to you?? You think differently, you look differently. Look what’s happening in your life now, what’s going on?? They tell them and then, some people call up out of the blue and say I’ve gotta go to this thing.
We are just totally blessed; I am totally blessed to be even a part of this.
You know, one thing that most people don’t realize is that money will only make you more of what you already are.
If you are a mean person, yeah, you can be more mean when you have money to throw around and overpower people if that is what you are like.
If you are a generous and beautiful person, then money is just going to allow you to be more generous and more beautiful to people.
Liz Thompson: That’s awesome.
Harv Eker: That’s all it can do, it’s only energy, right? And people don’t get that. They think that money is going to change them. Here’s what I say to my students. So the reason you are not going to get rich, or the reason you are not going to go for wealth is because you think money is going to change you? Let’s make a deal, instead of talking about this, and thinking about this, listening to other people’s opinions, why don’t you just get rich and then you will see for yourself. And if it changes you, then you can give your money to me!
Liz Thompson: (Laughter) Okay it’s a deal…. That’s great.
Harv Eker: People have these ideas about things, belief systems and that sort of thing, and they just want be right. One of the things we say in our program is You can be right or you can be rich, but not usually both.
You can be right and keep to your own ways. And if you are not doing so well right now, then maybe you just want to choose to be rich and let go of some of your ways of thinking and being. One of the things we do in our program is that we show people that you are not who you think you are. Your conditioned mind, your ego mind is not who you are.
You have a higher self that can observe what your ego self is doing and consciously you can make some changes. Now in our programs we work on the subconscious at the same time. Certainly we do some conscious fun stuff, but most of the things we do are unconscious. We work so radically on the unconscious that you just don’t even think that way any more.
Liz Thompson: Wow, alright, say we have this blueprint that is middle class, or poor, or even just not as rich as we want to be. How do we move from that blueprint into the blueprint of a richer person?
Harv Eker: One of the things that we start with is just simply awareness. One thing that we talk about is that rich people believe, I create my life, and poor people believe, Life happens to me.
Poor people and middle class people often believe that. If you want to create real wealth, it is important to believe that you are at the steering wheel of your life, especially your financial life.
You are the one that creates your success.
You are the one creating your mediocrity.
You are the one creating your struggle.
Instead of taking responsibility for their lot in life, poor people and many middle class people often play the role of the victim. And you can always tell a victim because they leave clues. Now, I am sure that this doesn’t apply to anyone who is reading this at this point in time.
Liz Thompson: Of course not. (Laughter)
Harv Eker: But in case you know somebody like this, have them tune in to this interview. Here are a couple of clues that you can tell that you are playing the victim. By the way, if you notice, I never said that you are a victim; I said that you are playing the role of the victim.
The first clue is blame. Poor people blame the economy; they blame their type of business. They blame the stock market. They blame their job. They blame the real estate market, taxes, and the government. They blame their employer, they blame their employees, they blame their managers. They blame their upline they blame their downline. It’s always something else. It’s always someone else. It’s always headquarters, or this or whatever it is. Then they justify their situation by saying something like, Well, you know, money is not really important.
Let me ask you a question. If you said that your husband or your wife or that your boyfriend or girlfriend wasn’t really important, would they be around for very long?
Liz Thompson: I don’t think so.
Harv Eker: Exactly. And neither would money. People come up to me in the programs that I do, and they say, you know Harv, money is not that important. And I look them square in the eye and I say I have two words for you.
And they go, Really what are they?
And I go, You’re broke! You’re broke aren’t you?
Well, right now, I am a little short.
And I say, Not right now… Always. You have always been broke, yes or yes?
And then they blibber or blabber, well…well…well…
Of course, they are broke. If you didn’t think that having a car was important would you have one? If you didn’t think having a sailboat was important would you have one? If you don’t think that money is important would you have any? Of course not!
There are no rich people who think that money isn’t important. They know that money is important. Now, of course, certain people – broke people – always tell you well, Money isn’t as important as love. Where’s the comparison there? What is more important your arm or your leg?
Maybe they are both important. Money does what it does in its environment. And love does what it does.
Why don’t you try this? Why don’t you go to the bank, and tell the bank teller that you want to deposit some love, and see what she says to you, all right?
Liz Thompson: She’ll probably scream, Security! (Laughter)
Harv Eker: For sure, you can’t replace love with money or happiness. They are two different worlds completely. A rich person would never say that…money isn’t important…
The second clue that someone is playing the victim is that they complain. Complaining is the absolute worst thing you can do. One of the universal principles we use is that what you focus on expands. I am going to repeat that. What you focus on expands.
When you are complaining, what are you focusing on? What’s right with your life, or what’s wrong with your life?
What’s wrong with your life.
So if what you focus on expands, that means you’re going to get more of what’s wrong with your life. If you are complaining, you are actually attracting crap into your life. You become a human crap magnet.
Liz Thompson: Oh, that is such a pleasant mental picture.
Harv Eker: (Laughter) Totally. And have you noticed that complainers usually have a crappy life? They say of course I complain, look how crappy my life is! Well, now you can say to them, No it’s because you complain that your life is so crappy. Do yourself a favor and shut up!
I have to give your readers some homework.
Liz Thompson: OK – what is it?
Harv Eker: For 7 days, absolutely no complaining – not out loud, not even in your head. When you can do that for 7 days, your whole life will change. At least you won’t be bringing crap to your life. You have to do it for a full 7 days, because, you know, you might have some residual crap coming to you.
For the first few days, you might not see any change. Because crap doesn’t travel at the speed of light, it travels at the speed of crap. So your old way of being is going to be coming to you over the next few days. It’s got to be a full 7 days. Then you will really start to notice something.
One of the things we want to have people recognize is that there is no such thing as a really rich victim. Who would listen to them? Oh I got a scratch on my boat. Yeah whatever.
Liz Thompson: Really! How would you recommend that somebody start on this process of identifying their blueprints and developing a Millionaire Mind? What would be the best thing for them to do?
Harv Eker: Well, without blowing my own horn here, or anything…
Liz Thompson: Blow your own horn, Harv, you’re awesome…
Harv Eker: You know, that’s one of the things we do in the Millionaire Mind Intensive, people need to train themselves to blow their own horn and to do it very appropriately, do it very nicely.
Most people’s issues are around marketing and promotion. Especially promoting themselves. It’s usually because they were trained to be quiet, and to not toot their own horn.
That’s ridiculous.
If you don’t toot your own horn, you can be sure that nobody else is going to toot it for you. For one they people just don’t do that, plus they might not think it’s worth tooting it for you.
You have to be kind of a person that will step out. And here’s what I think people need to recognize…. They need to have the awareness of, I am not doing as well as I can be doing.
I don’t care if on a financial level you are earning $20, 000, $50, 000, $100, 000, or $1 million. The people who come to our programs are the people who want to reach their full financial potential.
And by doing so, not only do you do this financially, but, as I said, it crosses over to every part of your life.
And the thing about financial success that I love is that I’m not that different than I was before…the things I have are not that different. I always wanted to live in a nice house. I always wanted to have a nice car and all that. I went through the toy stage and let that go.
But you know the biggest thing is freedom.
It’s the freedom to be able to do what you want with your time, with your money, with your life…
You know, say you want go on a boat tonight, you rent the boat and take your wife out for dinner on a boat and it’s going to cost you four or five hundred bucks, all right no big deal, it’s not going to break you. In fact, that comes in every few minutes for me. So, it’s the freedom to do what you want to do.
If you only have one life why not live it as a financially free, at least fairly rich, person who can do what you want? You can travel. Give generously, lay around on the beach. Golf. Go and help people.
In one of our other programs, called Life Directions, we help people find their true mission in life and have the wherewithal to go and live it. When you are struggling for a living, you are just trying to earn money to get by, to have a decent life; it’s a lot harder to help people, because you are not coming from a position of strength.
So you have your intention out there. You go and help a lot of people. The money just starts coming in and coming out in buckets. But, you’ve got to own your own power. The first thing that people need to do is to know that their success is going to come from who they are, not necessarily just from what they are doing.
What they are doing is going to be a result of who they are, and the decisions they make.
The second thing that they need to do is that they need to change their money blueprint. That is a subconscious level situation that will create your financial life and every other part of your life. And, unfortunately…in the old days, you couldn’t do anything about this…if you had a blueprint that was the end of it. Today there is something available to help them change their blueprints.
They can do it quickly and easily on the spot, in a loving way, that can change their whole life. We are very fortunate to have created The Millionaire Mind Intensive that does this for people. I would say to everyone that I cared about…my mother, my brother, my sister, my cousins, and everyone who I loved…the first thing you want do is get on a plane, train, drive…whatever and get to the Intensive. The last time we had the course, someone’s airplane ticket got screwed up, and they couldn’t afford another one, they drove 5 days from Atlanta with their whole family to Seattle.
If you are not the kind of person that will drive 4 days or 2 days or fly there, then you just don’t want it badly enough. One of the things that people have to realize is that rich people’s whole lives do not revolve around comfort and convenience.
You have to be the kind of person who will do whatever it takes to succeed. And if you’re not, then what makes you think that you are going to succeed anyway? If you think it’s just going to walk up and smack you in the face then you’re not going to have it. You’ve got to be a whatever it takes person. And that means if it’s inconvenient, so what? If it’s expensive, so what. It doesn’t matter. When you show the universe that you are willing to do whatever it takes, then the universe will bend over backwards to support you in every area of your life.
First, you’ve got to put in the wood, and then you get the fire. Most people are consistently asking for fire before they will go out and put some wood in!
You know there was an early time in my life, where I was a complete disaster, especially in business.
It was like the loch ness monster. I had heard of this thing called profit, I just never saw it! You know? People used to say, ‘Oh Harv, you’ve got so much potential.’ I would say, ‘Yeah, well, look at my bank account!’ I got tired of hearing how much potential I had. So I would say, Don’t tell me that any more, I do okay, but with all this ‘potential’ I am certainly not up to scale anywhere. I’m not anywhere I want to be.
Once I did this work, everything changed for me. And so I realized it’s not just the inner work that you have to do. It’s very specific inner work – on very cellular level. The only thing I can tell the people is, it’s not going to be books that are going to help you – and I love books, I’m an author. Books are great, but you’ve got to put things into action.
You have to stay in the conversation. Stay in the energy.
I encourage people to continuously grow. One of the t-shirts we came up with says grow or die, because if you’re not growing you’re dying.
If you’re not sure of that then just check out your plants. If a plant is not growing it’s what?
Liz Thompson: It’s dying.
Harv Eker: That’s right. And we’re the same…made of the same energy. You have to consistently grow yourself in order to make a better life.
And I encourage everyone to Don’t think about it. We have another t-shirt that says Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think….
Liz Thompson: I have that one, and believe me, I need the reminder! (Laughter)
Harv Eker: Yeah, because you know we think ourselves out of our success. We think ourselves out of our happiness. Thinking comes from the mind, and the mind’s job is not happiness. One of the things we teach in our programs is that your mind’s job is to protect you. That’s it. It’s the sentry on the ship. It’s always looking for what’s wrong or what could go wrong in any situation. And there is not a lot of happiness there.
The only time you can really be happy is when you quiet your mind.
And you come back to your center place, where your higher self resides. There you can find true joy and happiness.
People don’t get it because they have this voice that tells them one thing and the truth is another thing.
There’s no reason that people cannot earn $200,000, $500,000, a million dollars a year. That is out there for the receiving. You get that for adding value to the world. You don’t just get that, by sitting around and wishing for it. You know you can’t have a million dollars if you are at a $20,000/ year job or even a $50, 000. You’ve got to put out the value that creates the million dollars.
That doesn’t usually happen overnight. It’s a buildup. You know it will happen whatever your financial potential is….whatever your personal potential is…if you are going to live one time why not reach it??
Why not do the best you can? Why not have the best relationship you can, the most happiness you can have, have as much money as is necessary for you for you to live a fulfilled and happy and free life?
And reach your potential everywhere. Again if you are not growing you are dying. And that goes financially, relationally, everywhere. We have some totally amazing-I’m going to say mind blowing-strategies and techniques that work for people. And people say all the time, they say…is this brainwashing? And I say the same thing all the time…’I wish we could wash your brain!’ Please, bring me the sponge and the gloves…if we could wash your brain we would be in heaven here. But you know it’s not as easy as that. I wish we could wash your mind and then you could start clean, with information that is supportive.
But here’s the thing, we can’t wash your brain but we can help you install the information that you want installed.
You are going to be the one installing the information. You are going to be the one installing new ways of thinking and being that support you.
Liz Thompson: Well, thank you very much for this interview Harv. And we are definitely going to recommend that everybody goes to the Millionaire Mind Intensive because having experienced it ourselves, we know that it is absolutely life altering.
Harv Eker: It was a blessing to speak with you.
You know, really, from the deepest part of my heart, I wish that I could have everyone come to this program. And really see what it is that stopping them, not only that but also enhance what they are doing well, too.
I am sure that if any of your readers are like you, we would be blessed to have them. And we only invite great people to our programs.
Liz Thompson: Thank you.
Note: After speaking with Harv, we at Healthy Wealthy nWise were able to arrange a very special gift for you. His programs have so changed Ric’s and my lives for the better, that we wanted to make sure there was nothing standing in your way to attending them.
At the Millionaire Mind Intensive you’ll learn:
- Specific high income and wealth creation strategies
- How to quadruple your speed to financial freedom
- The 5 habits of truly wealthy people
- The underlying cause of almost all financial problems
- 12 ways to earn passive income so you can make money while you sleep
- The world’s easiest money management method that allows you to save a fortune and at the same time encourages you to spend money for play
- Why it’s imperative to manage your money NOW even if you don’t have much of it
- How your childhood conditioning is affecting your finances today
- How to identify and change your personal money and success blueprint, forever
- How to release your hidden emotional blocks to wealth
- How to recognize your money personality so you can build on your strengths and overcome your weaknesses
- How to use spiritual laws to create real world success
- How rich people think differently than everyone else
- How to recondition your mind for automatic success
Plus! You will play an amazing networking game where everyone in the room will help you get something you want.
The normal cost to attend the Intensive is $1295.00 for the first person and $995 for each additional family member.
Since you are a valued member of Healthy Wealthy nWise, we have arranged to sponsor your registration fee. That means that you and a family member can attend the Intensive on us – at no charge. This may never happen again, so as Harv would say Don’t Think! and Just frickin’ do it!.
Want to learn more about the program?
Check The Millionaire Mind teleclass – its FREE to Healthy Wealthy nWise Members too!
http://www.millionairemind.com/a/healthywealthywise?page=/wow/
