Millionaire Upgrade: Lessons in Success from Those Who Travel at the Sharp End of the Plane by Richard Parkes Cordock is a self-development book examining the millionaire mindset.
This is an interesting book, it takes a fictional approach to telling a real life story. The whole premise of the book is that the main character Tom is upgraded to first class by a kind and wealthy millionaire, who has a spare seat next to him in Business Class. The Millionaire protagonist usually books two seats for himself for comfort, but given that the plane is full, he agrees via the check-in staff to give up one of his seats to Tom, who would otherwise not be able to travel on the full plane. The millionaire chats with Tom and throughout the flight coaches him to develop a millionaire mentality.
There are some good nuggets of information in this book. It is however a little bit like one of those books where the author becomes a millionaire by selling books about how to become a millionaire. It is very much an introductory sales pitch for the authors more comprehensive program call The Millionaire MBA. The content and structure of the book centers around using the mnemonic phrase “I believe”. In other words, each of the letters of the phrase stand for one of the 8 core concepts for developing the mindset. From a mnemonics perspective the links between the letters and concepts are pretty terrible. I can guarantee that they will not help in remembering those 8 core concepts. For example, the “v” in believe stood for “very very” something and having just put down the book, I can’t remember what the something was.
Criticisms aside this book should be taken for what it is… a light, short read and an interesting approach to delivering the overall concept. Another nugget maybe a book referral from the 1930’s called “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. This definitely sounds like a book worth reading and I’ve heard it mentioned in a few places of interest. The follow up program to Millionaire Upgrade, “The Millionaire MBA”, may also be worth a look. It contains interviews with 50 self made millionaires including Duncan Bannatyne and Simon Woodruff from Dragons Den fame. I should warn you that the program costs around £150 so not inexpensive by average standards.
Effort required to finish this book is minimal, it could be read in a reasonable 2-3hr train ride or flight, so not too much considering the value of the content and worth scanning through for some of those nuggets. I’ll leave you with this quote that caught my attention:
“Luck is the crossroads where opportunity and preparation meet.”
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