I haven’t linked to Steve Pavlina’s blog for a while, but here’s an article that caught my eye: 5 Wealth Lessons From 20 Percent of a Millionaire. Steve’s articles tend to be pretty long, so if you don’t have time to check it out, I’ll comment here on some of the main points that I found useful.

Most of us are interested in making money or at least having a pretty comfortable lifestyle and the sooner, the better. That may mean different things to each of us. For some of us, a million dollars will be way more than necessary for living the way we want, for others, not nearly enough, but it’s a pretty good general figure to shoot for. Most people wouldn’t argue with me if I said a million dollars in the bank would change your life.

With that said, Steve says that it’s “damned hard to earn a million dollars from scratch.” I can’t argue with this at all. If it were easy, I would have already done it and so would many of you. On the other hand, it’s not nearly an impossible task. Anybody can do it if they scrimp and save and invest wisely for a few decades. However, we’re not talking about taking a lifetime to achieve this goal. Steve mentions a 10 year time frame at one point in the article and that sounds like a reasonable goal.

His second point is about self-interest not being enough motivation. I don’t know that this is true for all people. While it does seem to be true for him, many of us may be motivated by making our own lives better. I don’t see anything wrong with this. For the altruists out there who think this is selfish, think about the fact that others will benefit from our efforts, too.

Both Stephen Covey and Napoleon Hill talk about the scarcity mentality. This is a view of the world that says that there is a finite amount of wealth available for all to share. I agree with them in believing that this is a fundamentally flawed idea. Wealth can most definitely be created. If you have a great idea and turn it into a book or invention that others place a value on, you’ve just created wealth. My point is that our efforts to create wealth will ultimately benefit others around us as long as we aren’t doing it in an illegal, unethical, or immoral way (I know it’s subjective; feel free to use your own interpretation).

His next point is the most important, I think: “Focus on providing value to others, and the money will follow.” I like this one a lot because it makes so much sense. If what you’re creating has no value to anybody else, how will you turn it into profit? You really have to ask yourself if what you’re doing will be of benefit to others. For instance, will this article prove useful to you who are reading it? I think so. It’s hard to establish a particular dollar amount on it, but if it helps you in some way, it has some value.

Another good point follows the last: “Becoming a millionaire requires a significant identity shift.” There is a lot of truth in this statement, too. Steve focuses more on attitudes toward what amount of money is significant, but I really don’t think that’s the best way to look at it. If you read something like The Millionaire Next Door, you’ll see that many millionaires (at least in the United States) have similar attitudes about money and lifestyle that may differ a bit from our own or what we would have expected to see. Adapting these ideas and habits, like living within your means, etc, will be helpful in accumulating wealth, whether it takes you 10 years or a lifetime.

The fifth and final point made in the article is in regard to what Steve calls “financial trolls.” These are people around us who have negative attitudes toward making money or wealthy people in general. Obviously, surrounding ourselves with nay-sayers and other pessimistic types isn’t going to be conducive to our success in any venture.

All in all, there are some good points made in this article and I found it useful myself. It’s well worth taking the time every so often to examine ourselves and our own beliefs and attitudes. These thought-patterns or habits of thinking affect everything we do, our happiness and our motivation in day to day life. With the right mindset, we can accomplish anything.