One Million in the Bank

Your favorite books and links
Fish
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One Million in the Bank

Post by Fish »

Michael L. F. Slavin, One Million in the Bank: How To Make $1,000,000 With Your Own Business Even If You Have No Money or Experience

Has anyone read this book? We must be immune to ads (or work), because I could find only a single mention on these forums. So much for promotion...
http://www.amazon.com/One-Million-Bank- ... 0996118608
jacob wrote:I wrote a chapter for this one (consider it my stamp of approval for the rest of the book) that recently came out. Just ignore the gimmicky title.
Description from the back cover:
Anyone can make enough to save $1,000,000 in 3-7 years. Most self-made millionaires are made through business ownership. Many people think about owning a business but never take action because they don't have an idea, they don't have the money, and flat just don't know how. This is a practical book to teach you how to find, start, finance, and get free advice to own and grow your own business.
Since my library doesn't have this book, purchase seems to be my best option, or I can get in line at paperbackswap (2 currently). So I'm interested to see whether you think this book is worth it.

Questions:
1) Will ERE fanboys/fangirls find it worth buying the book for the Jacob guest chapter alone?

2) How actionable is the content? Is this merely pleasure reading, or will the book actually guide a motivated reader into starting their own business?

simplex
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by simplex »

Did read the book.

Probably good if you want to start a business and read it as an introduction and to set your mindset.

If you have some business experience, or are more online oriented, the book has less value.

I'd rather recommend to read before starting a business:
- Jake Desyllas "Becoming and Entrepreneur" (search the forums for posts about him)

- M. Port "Book yourself solid"

7Wannabe5
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Thanks for mentioning this again. I definitely want to read. I think everybody on this forum ought to have their own garden, library, workshop, laboratory and business in some manifestation. Even a total distracted slacker like me who never threw more than 20 hrs/week at the enterprise was able to make some large fraction of $1,000,000 running her own business over the course of a bit more than a decade. When you are already engaged in high level self-aware and skilled Home Economics and Personal Finance and Investment, you are already managing your finances as if you were a business and you are already owning little pieces of other businesses, so starting/owning your own business is just the third point on this triangle.

Fish
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by Fish »

I read the first chapter (free book sample). It worked well as an abstract of the book but it seems the author gave away his most valuable ideas there. But maybe that's too simplistic a view, like saying ERE is only about saving 75%+ of income and becoming FI in a few years.

He's definitely not writing to impress. It seems written out of a genuine curiosity of wanting to understand how successful businesses are made and how to reliably get there from zero. If you don't also share this curiosity you will likely find it impractical or uninteresting.

The main idea of the book (and the reason it is targeted to the mass market) is that anyone can start a successful small business. That's a bit like saying anyone is capable of living on 25% of their income. The obstacles are not technical in nature once you understand the basic principles.

Thanks to the ideas of FIRE bloggers like MMM and Jacob, the idea of having $1MM in the bank is very much in the realm of possibility without the need for a business. We're not too many Wheaton levels removed from imagining this level of wealth for ourselves.

However, because of my higher spending and because $4k/month part-time gigs are rather uncommon, I do have an interest in exploring a part-time or seasonal business as a way to semi-retire or accelerate FIRE. That's where I think this book can help. And, unlike 4HWW, it doesn't require a lot of creativity and the luck of tapping an under-served market. Just find an existing business model that works for you.

I really like the book's message but I'm a bit skeptical that I can actually follow through on it. If I end up reading the book I'll follow up with a review. Interestingly, the $10 cost (more accurately, my values and lack of imminent need) is the only reason I'm not reading it sooner. The ERE book was the last book I bought at full price, and that was 3 years ago. Everything else I get for free (library, friends) or pre-depreciated. Maybe this book will be the one to break that streak.

BRUTE
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by BRUTE »

it would be interesting to have an ERE-type book for business. brute kind of wants to be a legit business man, but honestly has no skills at all. humans keep telling him to get skills by practicing, but so far it's not worked out very well despite several attempts. there's just something missing, something that's not clicking, whereas learning about ERE was more of a revelation that immediately clicked with brute. not sure if business is harder, more complex, or brute just doesn't have the talent.

FBeyer
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by FBeyer »

BRUTE wrote:...not sure if business is harder, more complex, or brute just doesn't have the talent.
Talent; what a fatalistic idea.
What businesses have you started and what did you do to improve and what did you learn?

Why, first and foremost, would you like to start your own business? What would you like to do?

BRUTE
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by BRUTE »

why brute wanted to start a business: some combination of entrepreneurship hype, having location/income/time flexibility.

brute's a bit over the whole business thing right now and so prefers not to talk about it, but he definitely thinks there's such a thing as innate talent. nonetheless, if that book was an equivalent to an ERE of business, that would be interesting.

ducknalddon
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by ducknalddon »

BRUTE wrote:not sure if business is harder, more complex, or brute just doesn't have the talent.
Having run a couple and met many people who do the same I'm coming to the conclusion a lot of it is just luck, being in the right place at the right time.

BRUTE
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by BRUTE »

there also seems to be a huge extrovert part to it, as business is 50%+ sales. brute is an introvert and would prefer humans leave him alone. typing facilitates this much better than sales.

jacob
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by jacob »

I read the book, obviously. (But it was a while ago.)

1) No. My chapter is financial responsibility/frugal living 101 and focusing on using your savings from low-expense living to self-fund instead of relying on investors to leverage and possibly go bankrupt from the pressure/failure to deliver before you run out of borrowed money. IOW, how to significantly increase the survival odds because you have more time and own money (cf other people's money). I also talk about how being a millionaire results from having made exactly 1M more than you've spent, whereas most people think being a millionaire is a spontaneous result from hitting the jackpot or having a super high income. Meaning I also talk about Millionaire Next Door sentiments and avoiding getting into a self-destructive mindset of blowing cash deluding yourself into believing it's an investment if it's really not.

2) I strongly believe Mike is an honest guy/really wants to help an underserved audience/think the book just might do that which is why I agreed to collaborate. A lot of books (most of them?) will be along the strategy of 1) get great idea 2) ???? 3) get rich. Or just leverage a bunch of real estate, dropship brainpowder,, etc. So that's not the point with this book. The main drive in One Million is to explain what and how much it takes and how to make money as a self-employed or small business owner. This means forgetting about all the sexy/easy stuff and focus on what works. What is robust? Well, you can learn this from simply seeing what kind of businesses operate in the area you live in. Your mission now is to create such a business. Basically, you figure out what works for you and in your area (baking bread? pumping septic tanks?) .. and then you start a business around that. IOW, the book wants to hit you with "above all else, be practical" clues. So not the book to read if your millionaire dream is to sell artisanal candles or bespoke knitted sweaters.

So if you've read the ERE book and you're FI or close to it, say you have 2-5 yrs of FU money and you have a burning desire to "be your own man", I'd say this is a very good book to read. If your motivation is more along the lines of hoping to join the two-comma club and figuring that your own business is the magic bullet, then forget about it. I'd even say that if you just want to contract a bit on the side or make $100/month on cafepress or your blog, you're not the target audience either. This is for people who are willing to work 60+ hours/week for it (at least in the beginning) and who adopt a professional approach (=to make money) and not for those who just want to live out a dream of opening a bed'n'breakfast or attempt to turn their random hobby into money.

One Million is more for those who absolutely want to work for themselves and seek a reasonably ROBUST way to make good money.

distracted_at_work
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by distracted_at_work »

@Jacob Thanks for the detailed review. I think I need to read this book; I've requested the library purchase one.

@Simplex I'll add your recommendations to my library search, thank you.

I'm positive I want to open and own a business in my lifetime. I have a lot I want to learn before pulling the trigger on anything.

(...............I have a lot I want to learn even before writing a detailed forum post asking for critical review on my idea :lol:)

jacob
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by jacob »

Hey, if I may ... in that regard.

Reading books and meeting smart people is one of the highest mental/career/lifestyle ROI activities out there. As far the book reading, you can expect 10% of the books to contain 90% of the insights you're looking for=> 90% of books are just fluff with maybe 1-2 sentences of bright light bulbs. Both on an absolute scale (most books are just fluff) and on a personal readiness scale (you're not ready to grok most such insights until you're ready => rereading good books is a good idea(*)). I know [everybody on this forum, myself including] like to get things for free. However, if this desire overrides other strategies to the extent that we only read what we can get for free, it eliminates a lot of potentially valuable insight.

(*) Unless you're really odd, those are the classics. Small problem is that it's not clear which amongst present books will eventually be classics.

Do the following calculation:

value gained from insight - cost of book - hourly time value * time spent reading - value from waiting + ... >? value gained from not reading + value from screwing around + ...

Methinks we ereites (I include myself) often err destructively on not spending money or worrying about resale value. I suggest maybe just consider book buying or seeking smart people like $100/year lottery money in that regard. But with much better odds than the actual lottery.

But only if you're pursuing serendipity. Blowing money on stuff is not magic. It's just leverage. But potentially big leverage.

As far as I'm concerned, 9/10 of books are negative value, but 1/10 have so much value that they justify a habit of copious reading and even buying books that I can't get easily from the library to justify this activity. Buy 10, give 9 away or keep them in boxes listed for amazon sales for years, but keep 1. That's me though. I read what I buy. My anti-library is tiny. There's an old scientists' rule that 1 hr in the library is worth more than 30 days in the lab. From my experience, this is true. If I'm strongly motivated in some direction, I wouldn't be spending several months waiting on the library or not reading something at all when I can read 1000 pages for $100.---I spend $100 and 900 pages of fluff reading .. but that's usually better than waiting 6 months on the library or 5 years figuring it out on my own in order to not spend money.

As an intellectual, I consider this expense to be a cost of being human.

TL;DR - If you're seriously contemplating this for the rest of your life or even the next 1-2 years, just spend $20 already, damnit. Also get Gerber's E-myth.

Fish
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by Fish »

@jacob Thanks for calling me out on being too cheap to my own detriment.

Seeking advice. Is paper vs. digital merely a personal preference or are there other considerations? If I buy digital, no trees get hurt but the book stays with me and dies with the e-reader. If paper, higher upfront cost but the possibility of resale or giving it away so the book continues to generate value.

It would seem for less common books with quality content, paper would be the preferred medium since it increases circulation of those ideas. Considering paper for precisely this reason.

jacob
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by jacob »

I also thank myself for calling out myself ;-P I need it on regular basis because I'm not entirely innocent/intelligent in this regard. My "paying"-habits reflect my public library availability, inversely proportional, and because we move every 3-5 years my personal book inventory management is a shitshow, but I flog/flay/... myself for err'ing on the cheap side over and over. I do find myself spending 30 days in the lab when I could have spent 1 hour in the library---and if not possible then $10 ordering a book instead of waiting 6 months to get it for free.

As for paper/digital/resale ... I've currently decided that blowing a couple of hundred bucks annually is worthwhile(*). If I resell it, great. It cost me very little. If I give it away either out the back alley, goodwill, or ERE meetups, good. Other people get smart. Charity. In terms of resource waste, I can almost always get books used (so zero waste beyond "transfer" costs). If not ... maybe that book needs to exist in greater numbers? So I buy it new and increase the species population.

(*) It's far less than almost all other material expenses. If you're gonna be environmental about it, you can compost your paper book or use it as toilet paper :P

I always go for paper. I actually do own a kindle reader (3G+keyboard) but in the 6+ years I've owned an electronic reader, I've NEVER bought a single e-book. As far as I'm concerned an ebook is $1-10 out the window permanently. A paperbook is $4-10 out with maybe $1-6 in again ... or if not, it's free or 50c for someone else. Frankly, I think information (being informed by reading) should be a service rather than an asset. I guess I'm hypocritical in that regard.

cmonkey
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by cmonkey »

@jacob, thanks for calling yet another out. Books are the single thing that tempt me continually, and even more when I can't get them from the library. So I just don't buy them, because...well....they MIGHT come to the library. You make a very good case for just buying the ones you can't get. INTJ's need to have fun too!

BRUTE
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by BRUTE »

good thing there are many.. uuh.. backup copies of ebooks online :)

jacob
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by jacob »

Content creators are of course aware of the existence of so-called free backup copies and ultimately tailor their efforts (if any) accordingly #TANSTAAFL

pukingRainbows
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by pukingRainbows »

As a business owner, I think there is no specific talent for business.
There's definitely an element of timing but I think the most important aspect is having character traits that push you to succeed no matter what.

BRUTE
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by BRUTE »

brute would suspect content creators react to market demand, not backup copies. if jacob declines to purchase the book and doesn't read it, and brute declines to purchase but still reads it, the incentives for the content creator are the same.

Fish
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Re: One Million in the Bank

Post by Fish »

@brute @jacob You already had this conversation a year ago: viewtopic.php?p=113444#p113444

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on paper vs. digital. Paper it is. If I can't resell, someone on paperbackswap will be delighted to have it after I'm done.

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