The Maui Millionaires

By Staff

For my 5th selection in the 52 Books in 2008 series I picked up one that wasn’t even on my radar heading into the year, but caught my eye on the library shelf. At first glance it looked like one of those get rich quick books, but as I glanced through the first couple chapters in the library I thought there may be some nuggets I could take away. I’m glad I did.

The Maui Millionaires

It’s hard to imagine an event that goes for $30,000 per couple being sold out over a year in advance. That is the case with Maui Mastermind, a wealth retreat founded by authors David Finkel and Diane Kennedy. During this week-long retreat clients network and form “mastermind networks” to bounce off business ideas and to form partnerships. Of course, I don’t anticipate ever attending one of these events, so I thought the book might be the next best thing, as the authors have pitched the book as the “inside secrets” of this wealth retreat.

Instead of walking through the book chapter by chapter, or section by section, I’m going to take a different approach and present the five most thought-provoking ideas I found in the book. This book reads a little bit differently than other personal finance books. Sure, there are five steps laid out for the readers guaranteed to help you discover wealth, but around those specific steps are some noteworthy insights into what it takes to become financially independent. I also found the steps themselves to be full of sales pitches for the Maui course itself and references to other author materials.  It seemed like every other page’s footnote was pointing you to their website.  Not a big deal, but a bit distracting.  Now, for the five most important ideas I took from the book:

  1. “One of the greatest wealth skills you can ever develop is learning to get comfortable with the feeling of uncomfortable; learning to not be so afraid of feeling afraid. ” This is so true – to grow we must get out of our comfort zones and be willing to try new things.
  2. Where do our ideas about money and wealth-building come from?
    1. The parents who raised us
    2. Friends and family
    3. Teachers, coaches, and other adults of influence
    4. Cultural influence of media that we were exposed to growing up
    5. Societal influences
  3. Our opinions, beliefs and convictions about money are formed at a very young age. A great example provided by the authors was a child asking his parents for money.  The parents were ashamed that they couldn’t help, but responded with anger that the child would even ask.  The child remembers the pain associated with that experience and grows up with a fear of ever asking anyone for help again.
  4. The concept of  “timeline reframe.” Pretend you are watching a movie about your life and remember a particularly painful childhood experience.  What could the adult you tell the young you to help provide some comfort?  That’s the concept of timeline reframe – using the experience, wisdom and insights you’ve gained as an adult to heal wounds created when you were younger and didn’t have that toolset to deal with issues.
  5. Your Wealth Operating System (which is really just your collection of beliefs about wealth-building), typically mirrors that of the five people you spend the most time with. To upgrade your W.O.S you must surround yourself with successful people whose W.O.S. is in alignment with yours.

The Maui Millionaires is a great collection of wealth building advice, sprinkled around marketing for a website and a wealth-building retreat.  If you can ignore the marketing materials and pull out some of these great nuggets I think you will enjoy the book.  If you are the type that gets hung up on footnotes and subtle sales pitches this book probably isn’t for you.