" In other words, be careful what you study and learn* because your mind is so powerful that you become what you put in your head. For example, if you study cooking, you then tend to cook. You become a cook. If you don't want to be a cook anymore, then you need to study something else. Let's say, a schoolteacher. After studying teaching, you often become a teacher. And so on. Choose what you study carefully. When it comes to money, the masses generally have one basic formula they learned in school. And that is, work for money. The formula I see that is predominant in the world is that every day millions of people get up and go to work, earn money, pay bills, balance checkbooks, buy some mutual funds and go back to work. That is the basic formula, or recipe. If you're tired of what you're doing, or you're not mak- ing enough, it's simply a case of changing the formula via which you make money. Years ago, when I was 26,1 took a weekend class called "How to Buy Real Estate Foreclosures." I learned a for- mula. The next trick was to have the discipline to actually put into action what I had learned. That is where most people stop. For three years, while working for Xerox, I spent my spare time learning to master the art of buying foreclosures. I've made several million dollars using that formula, but today, it's too slow and too many other peo- ple are doing it. So after I mastered that formula, I went in search of other formulas. For many of the classes, I did not use the information I learned directly, but I always learned some- thing new. I have attended classes designed for only derivative traders, also a class for commodity option traders and a class for Chaologists. I was way out of my league, being in a room full of people with doctorates in nuclear physics and space science. Yet, I learned a lot that made my stock and real estate investing more meaningful and lucrative. Most junior colleges and community colleges have classes on financial planning and buying of traditional in- vestments. They are great places to start. So I always search for a faster formula. That is why, on a fairly regular basis, I make more in a day than many people will make in their lifetime. Another side note. In today's fast-changing world, it's not so much what you know anymore that counts, because often what you know is old. It is how fast you learn. That skill is priceless. It's priceless in finding faster formulas- recipes, if you will, for making dough. Working hard for money is an old formula born in the day of cave men. 5. PAY YOURSELF FIRST: The power of self-discipline. If you cannot get control of yourself, do not try to get rich. You might first want to join the Marine Corps or some religious order so you can get control of your- self. It makes no sense to invest, make money and blow it. It is the lack of self-discipline that causes most lottery winners to go broke soon after winning millions.