Review of Brendon Burchard’s “Millionaire Messenger”
By Marc on March 22nd, 2011
 Brendon Burchard has a new book, The Millionaire Messenger, that is already a New York Times #1 bestseller. This book has impacted me profoundly, capturing my own aspirations to such a degree that I consider Burchard as the next “Napoleon Hill” of the new information economy. Napoleon Hill of course, wrote “Think and Grow Rich” way back in 1937, which is still one of the best business development / self-help book ever written. I haven’t yet read anyone who has captured the aspiration of the current generation of social entrepreneurs / internet marketers as well as Brendon Burchard.
The fundamental premise of the book is that everyone has life experiences and knowledge that have value to someone (a “teachable point of view” as Mike Jay calls it), and that most people greatly underestimate the value of this; that anyone these days can create a product and reach an audience on a shoestring budget; and that this profession – Brendon calls it the “experts industry”, I call it “internet information marketing” – is one of most fulfilling professions to be in, that successfully mentoring others is a path to a very meaningful life, and to significant income generation as well. Some of the interesting people whom Brendon mentions who have followed this path include Lorie Marrero of The Clutter Diet (home-organizing), Marci Shimoff of Happy for No Reason, Frank Kern (who apparently started out selling dog training products), and Shane and Chantal Valentine “Baby cuisine experts”. In other words, your field of expertise doesn’t have to be abstrusely intellectual or emotionally penetrating, it can be something very practical and down-to-earth.
Brendon presents a pretty penetrating analysis of the so-called “experts industry” – both the great opportunities it presents (unique in modern history) and its flaws and traps. In addition to the idea that anyone with a life-changing story to tell and a contribution to make can become very successful, the book also provides a blueprint for success, a business
development program, a precise 10-step method to market oneself. To his credit and in contrast to other motivational content (such as “The Secret” in particular), he doesn’t over-emphasize the financial aspect of this, it’s more about creating value and meaning. Frankly, we can’t all become millionaires (and truly, do we really want to?), but I feel we all ought to be able to earn a decent living doing something that we are passionate about, and enjoy doing at least most of the time. And this is really what I am up to, to figure this out
for myself, and then to teach it to others. This is my “10,000 hours” (based on Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”, 10,000 hours is the amount of time that it takes a person to achieve mastery in their profession, and hence start to generate massive income), and this is the fundamental basis of this program at Lifestyle Design School.
And of course, it’s all in the execution – just because we want to, just because we dream and vision a possible future, doesn’t mean we are going to do the work. This is the crux of the problem, and too complex to get into right now.
I will expand on this article later. In fact, we will probably start a Mastermind / study group for it later this year, including studying Brendon’s larger program where these things are taught (Experts Academy). In the meantime, head over to Amazon and buy the book. It’s worth it, trust me.
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Sounds like a good read.
My husband has a PhD in electrical engineering, so most of our income for the bulk of our 25 years of marriage has been from his very intellectual expertise. But I've also had a home business since 1987.
One of the best parts of my venture has been my public speaking. I speak mostly at homeschool conventions and "mom groups." It took me a long time to realize that with six kids and 17 years of homeschooling under my belt, I had more expertise in these areas than most people working at them. Most people I know are, as you say, the same, but underestimate the value of what they have to share.
[...] – I am more-or-less exactly following the path to internet stardom that has been laid out by Brendon Burchard in the Millionaire Messenger, and it’s a good [...]