Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 3

In earlier posts, I wrote about how LegalShield wants to create 1,000 millionaires by 2020, and how I expect to be one of them.

The company's goal of creating 1,000 millionaire fascinates me, for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that I know what a millionaire is.

Many people think that a millionaire is someone who has $1,000,000. That's a total misconception, for at least two reasons.

1) A millionaire is someone who has a net worth of $1,000,000. That means that if you add up the value of what they own, then subtract the value of what they owe, the result is at least $1,000,000.

If you have $1,000,000 cash, and owe $2,000,000, you are not a millionaire; you are a person with a serious debt problem.

2) You can be a millionaire without having any cash at all. If the only thing you own is a building worth $1,200,000 and the only thing you owe is a $200,000 mortgage on that building, you are, for that moment, a cashless millionaire.

That leads to a corollary:

2a) Not only do you not have to have $1,000,000 to be a millionaire; you don't have to have $1,000,000 to become one.

For instance, with that building worth $1,200,000, the fact that it is worth that much does not mean you would need $1,200,000 in cash to buy it. You might be able to buy it for $1,000,000. You might be able to buy it for $800,000. Life is unpredictable, and you never know what someone might be willing to sell something for. Heck, if you could buy that building for $150,000, and you got a mortgage for $115.000, you would only need $35,000 in cash to become a millionaire.

Here's another extreme example: You buy $100,000 worth of shares in the XYZ Corporation, and the company then takes off so dramatically that your shares become worth $1,000,000. Assuming you are net positive otherwise, you are now a millionaire.

Then there's the matter of creating assets. Writing a book, for instance, may take a lot of time, but it requires almost no money. If that book becomes a bestseller, it could make you a millionaire. And if you're J.K. Rowling, it could become a series of books that make you a billionaire.

So, while one can become a millionaire by direct earnings, the process can be accelerated by acquiring or creating assets that increase one's net worth.

Back to LegalShield: the second reason that LegalShield's goal to create 1,000 millionaires fascinates me is that, as far as I know, LegalShield gives associates one thing in compensation for our work: cash. Not real estate, not equities. Just cash. So when CEO Jeff Bell talks about creating 1,000 millionaires, he's talking about paying 1,000 individuals $1,000,000 in cash. Each.

I consider that remarkable.

I expect Legalshield to pay me $1,000,000 over time. But on the way towards that mark, I intend to use my growing excess cash both to acquire assets at a discount (there's always a deal somewhere for cash), and to create and market new assets, so that I become a millionaire before I've earned $1,000,000.

That will be fun. But this would be even more fun: helping someone else, or several someone elses, to get there.

I need to get serious about recruiting. For the fun of it.

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RELATED:
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 1
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 2

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 1

Last Saturday (June 27), I attended a LegalShield training event in Louisville at which James B. Rosseau Sr., Business Solutions Vice President, laid out some of the company's vision and goals for the year 2020. Two of the goals struck me immediately and deeply; I find them highly energizing.

The first one is to increase the customer base tenfold, from 1.4 million households to 14 million. When I saw the big "10X" on the screen, I immediately thought of Jack Welch, the legendary CEO whose vision of tenfold growth transformed General Electric into a stewpot of innovation. I find it exciting that our CEO, Jeff Bell, is thinking at that scale.

The second goal is to create 1,000 millionaires.

Think about that for a moment. Here is a company saying, publicly and out loud, that it wants 1,000 of its associates to become millionaires.

LegalShield knows how to make millionaires: more than 190 of our associates have already gained that status. Now the leadership wants to pick up the pace, a natural corollary to the goal of increasing the customer base tenfold.

So, the title of this post is not just quoting the game-show title. It's a real question: who, reading this, wants to become a millionaire? If you do, you might consider affiliating with a company that wants to create 1,000 millionaires.

In fact, I'd like to ask three real questions (there are no wrong answers):

1. Do you want to become a millionaire?
2. What is your most compelling reason for wanting to become a millionaire?
3. How might you make it happen?

NOTES:
1) Some people absolutely do not want to become millionaires; the idea of having that much money repels them (we will with the misconception that being a millionaire means having $1,000,000 in a later post). Indeed, it frightens some people. And some people even believe that not wanting to have that much money makes them better than people who do want to have that much money, or who actually have that much money.

Then there are those who want to become millionaires, but are afraid to say so. Which is a shame, because people should be able to say what they want - that's kinda the first step towards getting it.

2) Some people want to become millionaires, but their reasons for doing so are not nearly strong enough to keep them doing the work that's needed long enough for them to get there. Simply liking the idea of having a million dollars won't do it.

3) Some who say "Yes" to the first two questions, have no idea of how to get there. Which, it seems to me, could drive a person nuts.

I'm eager to hear your answers...

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RELATED:
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 2
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 3

The new adventures of old Coke

Over the past few years, I have noticed interesting and attractive design popping up in the most unexpected places.

Last Thursday and Friday, Janet and I drove down (well, I drove; she rode) to Louisville for my mother's 93rd birthday. It was about lunchtime when we arrived in the city, so I pulled off to grab lunch at a Dairy Queen. When I went in, I saw a soft-drink dispenser unlike any I'd ever seen:

Something about its curvilinear shape made it seem to lean forward as if it were offering to serve, and I found myself thinking of Rosie, the Jetsons' robot:

I half expected it to speak when I approached, but instead it silently presented me with the opportunity to choose from a larger selection of drinks than I remember ever seeing in a machine before - and presumably, even the opportunity to mix drinks (I didn't):

Now a quick Google search uncovers a YouTube video that was uploaded in August, 2009, letting me know that either Pittsburgh is way behind the times or I just need to get out more. Or both.

So, it's called the Freestyle. And it has not only been in existence for three years - it has its own website.

Huh? Why in the world would a pop machine have its own website? Playing with it a bit reveals several reasons - so that you can learn how to use the machine; so that you can find out where the nearest Freestyle is located (looks like the only two in Pittsburgh are in Oakland and the Strip District); so that you can download PUSH! +Play, a machine-related game app that was introduced in June 2011 (where have I been?), to your phone.

Apparently, Coke has been having a lot of fun with their machines that I have missed. In July 2010, they installed a "friendship machine" in Argentina, that required people to collaborate in order to use it:

And later that year, they placed "happiness machines," that dispensed bonuses ranging from extra drinks to cookies to t-shirts, on several college campuses:

I've wandered from my original intent, which was just to say that I think the design of Coca-Cola's new soft-drink dispensers is pretty cool. Now I'll say that Coca-Cola, which I might have described as a boring company (BORING IS GOOD!) has been doing interesting stuff with their machines for a while now (and generating a bunch of YouTube material along the way).

They've also lifted their share price by 43.14% in the past five years, compared with with a 3.31% drop in the S&P 500 during the same period. That's sweeter than high fructose corn syrup.

I leave you with this bit of cheerful improvisation that led people to get out of their cars in bumper to bumper traffic on a highway - an economist (or a neuroscientist?) could have a field day exploring the interplay of incentives, risks, and crowd psychology here:

Would you like a stock certificate with that?

Tonight, on my way home from a meeting that ran past 10 pm, I stopped at Wendy's and ordered the #1 combo - cheeseburger, fries and soft drink. I pulled out $6, thinking that would be enough. But the total was $6.10. Oh well - not an issue. A half hour later, at home, I was contentedly munching and drinking.

I can't say that I love Wendy's, but I generally trust Wendy's. It has become a reliable part of my life: wherever I am, I can generally find a Wendy's, and get something decent (not great, but decent) for an affordable price.

The fact that the #1 combo starts with a cheeseburger represents a change that I noticed a couple of months ago: plain burgers are no longer on the menu. They may still be available, but they aren't advertised. I imagine that replacing regular burgers with cheeseburgers accounts for a price increase, because I'm sure that the #1 combo used to be less than $6.10.

Still, $6.10 is not a high enough price to drive me away. Even with the cheeseburger, the #1 combo is affordable.

A few minutes ago, out of curiosity, I looked up the share price for The Wendy's Company (stock symbol: WEN). Guess what? The Wendy's Company is even more affordable than its #1 combo. The share price closed yesterday at $5.37.

Which leads to this gross generalization: if you can afford Wendy's #1 combo, you can afford to invest.

You know what I think? I think that Wendy's should have a sign next to their menu showing their share price. So should McDonald's ($99.82. SERIOUSLY??). And Yum!, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W ($59.42 - Wendy's is looking better and better).

In fact, I propose that every retailer in America, whether of fast food, slow food (Darden, parent of Longhorn and Olive Garden, among others: $45.01), clothing (Men's Wearhouse: $32.94), cars (Honda Motor Corporation: $31.88) or car parts (AutoZone: $333.85 - yikes!), have somewhere on its premises, in plain view of customers, a continually updating display of its company share price. If people simply became aware of the connection between their everyday lives and investment opportunities, it might help produce what one brokerage claimed they want to produce, in their commercials a couple of years ago: smarter investors.

Meanwhile, I'm going to investigate Wendy's to see whether $5.37 per share is a bargain or not. If I figure that it's actually worth $5.37, then, "Meh." AutoZone may actually turn out to be a better deal, if it's worth more than $333.85. I only want to pay $5.37 per share for Wendy's if I'm convinced that it's worth at least $10 now, and likely to be worth even more later. The only reason to buy shares of a company is to gain the ability to sell them later for a profit.

After all, I sure can't eat them.