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

In one form or another this is one of the most frequent questions that I am asked: I was struck by your statement that business schools do not teach their students what type of small businesses are the most profitable. As a current business student, I have to tell this is very true, at least in the case of my school. I wanted to ask if you could direct me to resources that document which small businesses are the most profitable?  Andrew This young business student is wise in that he is contemplating self employment down the road.  "Note that...

Several advertisements for the Allen Edmonds shoe company have appeared in The Wall Street Journal.  The advertisement mentioned that the company rebuilt over 60,000 pairs of customers shoes in 2010.  I am not sure how many from the general public are repaired each year.  But most millionaires regularly have their shoes resoled or repaired.  It is not just the male members of the millionaire population who do this; the same is true for women.    I find that within the millionaire next door population women are even more frugal than their male counterparts.  Here are just a few examples of this:  having shoes resoled or repaired,...

What is the meaning of success?  Some define it in terms of occupational status, income, net worth, power, and even the size and location of one's home.  But these factors are not necessarily the ones held by Amy Chua who wrote an article, Why Chinese Mothers are Superior, in The Wall Street Journal.  Ms. Chua claims, "A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids."  She contends that successful child rearing in the Chinese family focuses on high academic achievement and proficiency in violin and piano.  Her two daughters have never been allowed to do much of anything else...

In the year prior to our economic meltdown, 16 million passenger vehicles were sold in the United States.  This year I estimate that less than 12 million will be sold.  Certainly this is a serious decline.   In spite of this decline, I believe that some people can still make a good living selling cars and a lot of other products.  And I'm not the only one who feels this way. Beverly Bishop spent more than 30 years as an extraordinary sales professional. In fact, I profiled Beverly in Millionaire Women Next Door.  During her career she sold over $100M worth of motor vehicles. ...

Glen W. Bell, Jr., the founder of the Taco Bell restaurant chain, recently passed away (see The New York Times).  After taking Taco Bell public, Mr. Bell sold it to Pepsico for $125 million.  At that time, the chain had 868 restaurants.  Today there are more than 5,000 Taco Bell stores operating worldwide.  All toll these restaurants sell two billion tacos and a billion burritos per year. Mr. Bell started out in the restaurant business as the owner/operator of a hamburger/hot dog stand in San Bernardino, CA.  That's where he first began selling tacos.  One of Mr. Bell's nearby competitors...