Please read this article all the way through to the end, where I discuss exactly why this is such a good idea and why you should try it at least once
I am using British Pounds as my currency here, this article works easily as well in any other currency. Just convert directly into your currency :1p=1¢, £1=$1 for example.
Double your way to a Million
This technique started off as a bit of fun, but as the power and benefits of the system came to light it started to be taken much more seriously. The main benefit of the system is that you start it off with absolutely nothing.
The main benefit of the system is that it will teach you how to make money, and you will learn and grow with the system until you know exactly how to make a million, 10 million or even 100 million. Using this system is fantastic training for becoming a millionaire.
How does it work
The human mind is a strange thing. It likes its information to come in small, easily digestible chunks: something which I talk about at length in the psychology section. If you try to think about making a million from nothing, you will end up sitting down and not achieving a thing. Why?
Because the brain can't handle such a large idea, the project is too large
Every successful person, be they a writer, engineer, philosopher or, heaven forbid, entrepreneur knows that
A large project must be broken down into manageable chunks, and that chunk must be concentrated on exclusively until it is completed
There are 28 steps to becoming a millionaire:
- Find 1p lying on the street, or be given it without asking for it.
- Double 1p - 2p
- 2p - 4p
- 4p - 8p
- 8p - 16p
- 16p - 32p
- 32p - 64p
- 64p - £1.28
- £1.28 - £2.56
- £2.56 - £5.12 (round off to £5 to make it easier)
- £5 - £10
- £10 - £20
- £20 - £40
- £40 - £80
- £80 - £160
- £160 - £320
- £320 - £640
- £640 - £1280
- £1280 - £2560
- £2560 - £5120 (let's say to £5000 to make it easier)
- £5000 - £10000
- £10000 - £20000
- £20000 - £40000
- £40000 - £80000
- £80000 - £160000
- £160000 - £320000
- £320000 - £640000
- £64000 - £1280000
You’re a millionaire, and have £280000 spare change to celebrate with.
The Rules
The pot is defined as the money that is part of your million attempt.
Rule 1 - You must find, or be given the first coin. A 1p piece. Ideally you should find it in the street, although being given one without asking will count as well. You may not use 1p of your own money! This is very important so get it right now. The money must not be borrowed from yourself or anyone else, it must be a lucky find.
You will actually find your first penny quite difficult to get. Once you've found it you'll start seeing them all over the place. C'est la vie.
Rule 2 - Any more found money can be added to your pot. So you’re part way through the challenge and you find £5 lying on the street. Congratulations, you’ve jumped to step 11!
Rule 3 - You must only use money from your pot in any doubling attempt. You can NOT borrow £5 off yourself to help you buy a product, or borrow money off someone else and use it to help in your next double. All the money has to come directly from the pot. You don’t have to use all the pot in any attempt, only as much as you feel you need to.
Rule 4 - You must keep the pot separate from your own cash. What I mean is get a second purse or wallet and put all your pot money into it. Once you have too much money to be carrying around with you, open an extra bank account and use it for all the money that goes into and out of your attempts. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you keep the pot money and your own money separate. Do not allow them to mix at all.
Rule 5 - You do not have to complete a double in a single step. So you’re doubling from £80 - £160 and your plan means you made £120. You’re still on the same step and have to keep trying until you break £160 and move on to the next step.
Rule 6 - You may not take money out of the pot for your personal use until you have passed $1000000! This is the hardest rule. By the time a person gets to a few hundred the temptation gets the better of them and they borrow some for some ‘essential’. You need to learn willpower if you’re going to become a millionaire.
Rule 7 - You may not add to the pot with money you would have earned if you were not doing this strategy. Essentially what this means is that you can’t do a normal days work and add it to your pot. The idea is that you’re trading up to higher levels, not just doing your normal day job to get to a million. However:
Rule 8 - You can add the costs of your labour if it is work you would not have done otherwise. If you use the pot to buy some raw materials for example, you can work them into a product and sell that product. You could also use the pot money to set up a business. Just so long as it isn’t work that you would have been doing otherwise.
Rule 9 - You may not use hidden or stolen resources. A stolen or hidden recourse is one which you borrow from excessively to help you on your way. You have to use common sense and your sense of fair play here. Using your car to meet someone is OK. Using your car to set up a taxi service isn’t, as the cost of the car and probably the MOT, insurance, petrol etc didn’t come out of the pot. Running off a single page on your printer is OK, but using your printer to print out 1000 copies of a document to sell isn’t, as the cost of the printer, the ink, paper and wear and tear on the equipment didn’t come out of the pot. Using the pot to buy a printer and all the supplies makes it ok. Hiring a printer to print the documents is also ok.
Rule 10 - If you fail on a step, and lost money, you carry on from the step that you finish up on. Say you’ve got £80 and are on step 15, but lose in your venture and end up with £15. You’re now part way through step 12 and have to continue from there.
Rule 11 - You have to keep a diary as you complete the steps. You may think it strange, but I’ll explain why later. Mark down the dates when you hit milestones, and write discussions and info of all the things you achieve as you achieve them (write down your failures too!). Get a notebook to do this, or write them on a file on your computer.
Rule 12 - Only ever think about the step that you are on. Ok, the final rule isn’t really a rule, it is just the most important thing you should know. Your all consuming thought when you start should be ‘How do I get a penny’. Not ‘How will I turn £5000 - £10000’. Always think only of how you are going to complete this step and forget about all the others. You’ll know how to turn £5000 into £10000 after you’ve turned £2500 into £5000. You will not truly know before you have done that.
Why does it work?
The human mind likes things in bite-sized nuggets. It likes a small goal it can focus on. If I asked you to take nothing and make a million pounds in a year, you’d tell me you couldn’t do it. If I offered to give you £5000000 and asked you to, you’d probably accept. If I told you that there would be no repercussions if you lost the £500000, you’d have to be pretty spineless not to do it.
What this little strategy does is teach you all the things that you need to know to become rich.
Ideas - You start with something you already know: how to make a few pence from nothing. By building up gradually you see what ideas work in what situations and learn how to move around huge amounts of money to make profits.
Courage - You find the first penny by luck for a reason. All the money you make in this system was gained through luck, and you don’t stand to lose a thing if it fails. Because the money was never really yours to begin with, it teaches you to take risks and seize opportunities that you may not have been prepared to take with your own money.
Goal setting - The key to being successful in any venture is learning how to break down impossible tasks, into possible steps. This system helps you learn how to do that by making you focus on a single step at a time.
Willpower - It surprises people to learn that the hardest thing you’ll find isn’t coming up with ideas, or making money. It’s having the willpower to keep your hands off the money until it has built up to a million. You will feel an irresistible urge to spend some of the money when it reaches a few hundred, or a few thousand. Successful people have willpower. Learn it.
Mentality - The most important thing that you will learn is that it takes a certain mindset to win. Ability and ideas count for little, you have to set your mind up to achieve your goal. Only those who learn how to use their mind will ever manage to become a millionaire.
Hints and Tips
- Try to set up a small ‘mastermind’ group of friends who are all trying to complete this scheme. You can bounce ideas of each other, and help each other through the hard times you will undoubtedly face.
- Don’t tell everyone what you are doing. Most people you meet are negative, and will take any opportunity to bring you down. Why? Because if you succeed it reflects badly on them, and it’s far easier to bring you down to size. Do you remember the bully in the playground? They were always the most insecure kid deep down, that’s why they needed to take it out on others. People will scoff, and they will laugh. Bullies still exist in adult life, they just take it out on people in different ways.
