Thomas J. Stanley : Millionaire Next Door Author; Researcher; Expert

This case study may brighten your day.  Sara Blakely is the youngest selfmade woman to join this year's billionaire's club-turning $5,000 in savings into a new retail category:  shapewear, according to Forbes, March 26, 2012. Ms. Blakely once had her heart set on going to law school, but according to the Forbes article, she performed poorly on the LSAT exam for law school admission.  So what if she lacked high analytic intellect? Only 9% of decamillionaires, both men and women, indicated that their choice of career was based upon aptitude test results [The Millionaire Mind]. Like most people who are destined to succeed, she...

News stories and editorials which define the rich as "evil" greatly outnumber those which tell the other side of the story.  Even those newspaper stories that do mention the good deeds done by the rich are rarely on the front page.   As an example, consider the following newspaper [print version] headline: As a Disease-Fighting Fund Struggles, Bill Gates Donates $750 Million Somehow the way this headline is written separates the magnanimous and extraordinarily generous character of Bill Gates from the millions of third world recipients of this generosity.  His gift is much more than funding a fund.  Ultimately his donations will help save millions who would...

Will our economy improve?  I believe it will; it has been improving for about the last two years.  I know this because I have a special crystal ball that reveals the future!  Actually, part of the crystal ball is in print form:  the weekly editions of Automotive News.  I am particularly interested in the production and sales figures for manufacturers of motor vehicles.  Fundamental to the health of our economy is the health and well-being of our automobile industry.  According to Automotive News, in 2007 approximately 16.2 million light vehicles [cars, SUVs, minivans, pick-up trucks] were sold in the United States.  But in...

You are contemplating pursuing a graduate degree.  Several weeks after you take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), your scores arrive in the mail.  How do you rank?  You discover that your verbal aptitude score is in the third quarter, or below average range.  Naturally you are disappointed.  If this was your score, would you still think about going to graduate school?  What if you showed your score to a team of guidance counselors or career advisors?  They might advise you that you aren't graduate school material.  Some might even be bold enough to tell you that you should lower your...

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada recently stated: Only a tiny fraction of people making more than a million dollars [a year], probably less than 1 percent, are small business owners.  And only a tiny fraction of that tiny fraction are traditional job creators. Most of these businesses are hedge fund managers or wealthy lawyers.  They don't do much hiring and they don't need tax breaks. Many Americans share Mr. Reid's views.  And if you did a content analysis of the news headlines over the past few years, you might get the impression that investment types, especially hedge fund managers and lawyers who win...