Richer Than a Millionaire

Book excerpt: Richer Than A Millionaire A Pathway to True Prosperity Having taught thousands of students over our careers, it is clear to the authors that many young people are clueless about their direction in life. Yes, they want a career, and yes, they want a good life, but knowing what to do is to many quite a challenge. Some say they want to be rich, but they really don't know what that means. In a sense, to paraphrase the Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci, many are like ships on the high seas of life without rudders! They have tremendous potential but no direction. In our book, Richer Than A Millionaire A Pathway to True Prosperity, we hope to inspire and to point all people (but especially young adults and concerned parents and grandparents who want sound advice for the next generation) in what we believe is the right direction. This direction has been reinforced by over forty years of academic and consulting research on what it really means to be rich. Our approach relies heavily on tried-and-true social science research methods of personal interviews and large-scale structured surveys. In other words, we have more than our personal opinions to offer. While there are many self-help books about wealth or happiness, we believe our book is unique in that it combines these topics. We show that it is possible to be modestly wealthy and happy. In order to reach true prosperity- health, happiness, and wealth, in all likelihood behavior modification will be required. And change is hard. Benjamin Franklin understood this, as he concluded in The Way to Wealth essay 250 years ago: the people heard the advice, agreed with it, and then practiced the contrary.