The Millionaire Course

by Marc Allen

  I now have a life of ease and lightness.

  Every day, in every way,

  I’m getting better and better.

  I am working smarter, not harder.

  I am now creating the life of my dreams,

  In an easy and relaxed manner,

  In a healthy and positive way,

  In its own perfect time,

  For the highest good of all.

  LESSON 10

  GIVE ABUNDANTLY AND REAP THE REWARDS: THE TEN PERCENT SOLUTION FOR PERSONAL AND GLOBAL PROBLEMS

  THE TEN PERCENT SOLUTION

  You’ve certainly heard at least parts of this key before — many, many times. Like every key in this Course, it bears repeating until it has an impact in our lives — and even after that. It bears repeating until we have transformed our lives and our world into our ideal scene.

  The Ten Percent Solution is a simple program to understand, and a challenging one to implement. Don’t let its simplicity fool you. Within it are keys to lasting wealth and — even more important — personal fulfillment.

  There are three basic parts to it:

  1

  SAVE AT LEAST 10 PERCENT

  This is a simple, practical, and highly effective way to create lasting wealth: Save at least 10 percent of your income. Start now. Even if you’re in debt — start saving to first pay off that debt and then to build for your future.

  If you have your own business and have at least a few employees, set up a profit-sharing pension plan like the one we have, where the company gives out substantial profit sharing every year, partly in cash and partly invested into a diversified portfolio for each employee in their retirement accounts. This way everyone automatically saves over 10 percent, and it costs them nothing.

  Do whatever you can at work, then supplement it as much as you can. Saving 10 percent is excellent; saving 20 percent is even better. Set up a savings account and deposit at least 10 percent of every check you receive into that account for long-term savings. If you don’t think it’s possible, try it anyway. When you do it, you send a strong message to your powerful subconscious mind that you’re going to live on 90 percent of your income. And in a short time, you find yourself doing just that.

  Saving 10 percent leads to

  financial independence.

  It’s so simple, yet so few do it. Spend less than you make. It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?

  Why don’t more of us do it? As soon as we start saving regularly, we make an expansive mental and emotional shift. We realize in a deeper way that we live in an abundant world, and we see how we can easily and effortlessly tap into that abundance, that prosperity.

  It’s as easy as saving 10 percent. Saving more is even better. A woman I met at a seminar told me she was saving 70 percent of the income she was making as an exotic dancer. She was more than halfway through her plan of dancing for five years, and in two more years she would be set for life, able to support herself and her two children on the interest and rental income her investments make. She has her plan, and is implementing it.

  Lowering the gradient

  If you can’t save 10 percent, there’s a great psychological trick called “lowering the gradient”: Save 5 percent, or 3 percent. Start with 1 percent, if you have to — certainly you can save one dollar for every hundred that flows through your hands. Then move it up to three, then five, until you work up to ten.

  I set aside 10 percent of every check that comes in. What has been even more helpful to me is visualizing and even praying for large chunks of cash to come in at times, and saving a much larger percentage of that — 50 percent or more. I have reached what radio show host Bob Brinker calls “critical mass” — I have enough in passive income from a variety of sources (mostly stocks, bonds, real estate) that I could happily live on that income without needing to work for a living.* (I continue to work, though, because I love my job!)

  If you save just 10 percent, it will quickly grow into a substantial amount of money. Then the magic of compound interest occurs, and that money begins to make money on its own. You are now making money absolutely effortlessly.

  Save just 10 percent, and you’ll become a magician with money.

  2

  GIVE AWAY AT LEAST 10 PERCENT

  Here’s another key, one that creates great solutions in the world — one we’ve all heard many, many times as well: Give away at least 10 percent of your income. Discover the power of tithing — giving 10 percent has great effects in both your own life and in the world.

  I’m not sure who Charles Colton was — apparently he was a writer; I’ve never read his work. But a great visionary quote of his is floating around:

  If universal charity prevailed,

  Earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.

  — Charles Colton

  Those are wise words. If we all practiced charity, Earth would be a heaven. To the degree that more and more of us start to tithe and support various worthwhile organizations working for some good cause, the world becomes more and more a world that works for all its inhabitants.

  If you have problems giving away 10 percent, lower the gradient again: Give away 5 percent, or 3 percent. Or one. Then steadily move back up the gradient, until you reach 10 percent.

  The easiest way to make sure you do it is to set up another bank account and deposit 10 percent of your income into it. Use it only for donations. Your savings account tithes to yourself; with your donation account you tithe to the world.

  Just watch, as soon as you set up clearly in your mind that this is a priority in your life (and setting up separate accounts for saving and for donations is a great help), you’ll find you’re quite capable of living on 80 percent of your income. You might have a few slips until you really get it, deep within, but you’ve clearly told your subconscious mind that saving and giving are priorities in your life — you want to save at least 10 percent and give at least 10 percent, and you intend to do it. Your subconscious says Yes, and shows you exactly how to do it, easily and effortlessly.

  THE POWER OF GENEROSITY

  This simple act of giving 10 percent (or more) shows us the power of generosity: By being generous, we create a dynamic set of solutions to the problems in our lives and our world. Generosity contains the power to generate — in fact, the two words have the same root word (genus, in Latin, to grow, to create family). To be generous is to generate endless creative energy, energy that comes back and supports you and affects your life in countless ways.

  Giving at least 10 percent

  changes your life and your world for the better.

  Again I’ll repeat: These words are not theory. It has been proven over and over throughout history that when these words are applied in people’s lives, their lives change dramatically. These are words that help us in our evolution.

  3

  LIVE AND WORK IN PARTNERSHIP

  Originally, what I called the Ten Percent Solution only had two steps: saving and tithing. But something felt incomplete about it, and I realized that people could save and tithe and still be part of the problem rather than the solution if they didn’t do something else: work in partnership with one another.

  The greatest solution of all is

  to live and work in partnership

  with yourself, your family and friends,

  your work and community, your nation,

  your world, nature, and spirit.

  We dealt extensively with this key in Lesson 5. As soon as someone does any one of these three things — saving, tithing, and working in partnership — they’re part of the solution. When someone does all three, they’re a creative force for great and positive change in their life and in the world.

  PARTNERSHIP CREATES SOLUTIONS

  What if a great number of us brainstormed far more often on possible solutions to the problems in our world? What if it included listing at least twelve What Ifs about the next 10 or 50 or 100 years of life on Earth?

  Many people are already doing this
kind of work, and as their ideas enter into the mainstream — which is happening as I write this, and as you read this — we’re seeing great change, quantum leaps in our evolution.

  It’s already begun. The twenty-first century will be one of great change. It’s completely up to us whether that change will be for good or ill. This much is obvious to me and many others:

  A partnership of corporations, governments,

  nonprofits, and individuals can save the world.

  Years ago, walking through the hills, I had a fascinating brainstorming session with myself, and saw a possible future for us and the generations to follow. It grew into a fantasy that kept recurring, and getting more detailed — and then I saw that it’s not only possible, but it’s already beginning to occur, around the world.

  The way I first imagined it, the future unfolded almost like a Utopian novel. What if:

  What if a nonprofit foundation was founded and grew to a huge size, big enough to fulfill its purpose, which is to get at least (1) 10 percent of the people of the world to give away at least 10 percent of their income; (2) 10 percent of the wealthiest people in the world to give away at least 10 percent of their assets; and (3) 10 percent of the corporations of the world to give away at least 5 percent of their pretax profits. This would be enough money to help everyone on Earth, on every level of society, to improve their lives. This would be enough to change the world.

  It has already started with grassroot organizations, with people who are forming “Giving Circles,” with wealthy individuals who are giving generously, and with corporations already donating part of their profits. It has already started within nonprofit corporations, and it has always been a major concern of governments and churches. The infrastructure is already being built. It just needs far more support, both with money and volunteers.

  What if a single nonprofit or group of nonprofits and visionary people working together generate huge sums of money and mobilize a vast army of volunteers who do the work necessary to help everyone improve the quality of their lives? What if we had enough vision and resources so that the entire global population could move higher up the pyramid of human consciousness that was first formulated by the famous psychologist Abraham Maslow:

  We need to fuel more money and resources into helping people on the bottom levels of our society. With the support of enough people and corporations, we can certainly feed the hungry and house the homeless. We have the capability to provide free medical care for all, and recovery and therapy programs for those who need it.

  Once we are fed and sheltered and healthy, we naturally move up the pyramid and become hungry for an education. Certainly we have the resources — when we work in partnership with our schools, communities, corporations, and governments — to provide free public education, from preschool and day care for infants up through graduate school. We have the resources to vastly improve our educational systems, including substantial pay raises for teachers on every level, so that they become what teachers should be in every society: respected, well-paid professionals doing critically important work.

  Once we have an education, we’re at the top of the pyramid, and we’re ready to fulfill our artistic dreams, or business plans, or do humanitarian work. At this level, too, we need financing, support, and mentoring. What if we had art centers, business schools, and millions of other nonprofits and individuals that supported all of us in financing our dreams? And when people achieve their dreams, what if they all donate back to the organizations that supported them along the way, so that vast income streams are generated from those who have benefited as well as from outside contributors.

  It’s all doable. Our nonprofits, corporations, and governments together can generate enough money and people power to solve our global problems of hunger, homelessness, lack of medical care, lack of recovery tools and therapy, lack of good education, and lack of programs that support budding artists, entrepreneurs, and humanitarians.

  The basic infrastructure is already in place, and we are building more and expanding daily. We are on the verge of a great international quantum leap — something that, as Barbara Marx Hubbard reminds us, will happen very quickly, in a burst of new ideas catching flame throughout the world. This will help us make that leap:

  Donate at least ten percent of your income

  to groups and individuals working

  to improve the world.

  And encourage others in the businesses

  and communities around you to donate as well.

  When we give generously we reap countless rewards in our lives. One of the great rewards is that we begin to see solutions, everywhere, to what were formerly intractable problems.

  A CHAMENGE TO US AM

  Let’s challenge ourselves to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. To do this, we need to first clearly imagine what the solutions are. Let’s all imagine, each in our own way, how our lives and our world can improve. Let’s imagine an ideal scene for the whole world. And let’s take some steps forward, in whatever ways we can, toward that ideal.

  This Course is filled with possibilities: Take some of these possibilities and run with them, or come up with some solutions of your own.

  Add any notes or quotes from this lesson that you particularly want to remember into your folder. Review it regularly.

  SUMMARY

  • The Ten Percent Solution is a simple program to follow: Don’t let its simplicity fool you. Within it are keys to lasting wealth and — even more important — personal fulfillment. There are three basic parts to it:

  • 1. Save at least 10 percent of your income. This is a simple, practical, highly effective way to create lasting wealth. Save 10 percent or more, and you’ll become a magician with money.

  • 2. Give away at least 10 percent of your income. Discover the power of tithing — giving 10 percent has great effects in both your own life and in the world. As Charles Colton said, If universal charity prevailed, Earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable. As soon as you set up clearly in your mind that saving and giving are priorities in your life — and setting up separate accounts for saving and for donations is a great help — you’ll find you’re quite capable of living on 80 percent of your income. This simple act of giving 10 percent shows us the power of generosity: By being generous, we create an endless stream of solutions to the problems in our lives and our world.

  • 3. The third part of the solution is to live and work in partnership with yourself, your family and friends, your work and community, your nation, your world, nature, and spirit.

  • As soon as you do any one of these three things — saving, tithing, and working in partnership — you are part of the solution. When you do all three, you become a creative force for great and positive change in your life and in the world.

  • Partnership creates solutions. A great many people are already living and working in partnership — and as soon as their ideas enter into the mainstream, we’ll be seeing great change, quantum leaps in our evolution.

  • A partnership of corporations, governments, nonprofits, and individuals can save the world. It’s all doable. Our nonprofits, corporations, and governments together can generate enough money and people power to solve our global problems of hunger, homelessness, lack of medical care, lack of recovery tools and therapy, lack of good education, and lack of programs that support budding artists, entrepreneurs, and humanitarians.

  • It has already begun. The infrastructure is already being built. It just needs far more support, both with money and volunteers. We all have the power to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

  • This Course is filled with possibilities: Take some of these possibilities and run with them, or come up with something of your own.

  If universal charity prevailed,

  Earth would be a Heaven,

  and

  Hell a fable.

  — Charles Colton

  * Bob Brinker hosts a show on radio stations around th
e country (KGO in San Francisco) called “Moneytalk.” It’s filled with excellent nuts-and-bolts financial advice. Website: WWW.BOBBRINKER.COM.

  LESSON 11

  BECOME MORE AWARE OF THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF LIFE THE POWER OF PRAYER, MEDITATION, AND RELAXATION

  OUR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL BODIES

  It is easy to see how extraordinary our physical bodies are — a simple blade of grass is phenomenal, when we think about it. It grows, it generates more of its kind, it dies, the elements that formed it change into something else and become a new form in an eternal process of creation and destruction.

  It is not so easy to see or understand the force that is behind all these living things. What animates a blade of grass?

  We know that every DNA molecule contains a library of information, the complete building plans for the living thing it creates — but what power made those plans, and carries out the plans? How do we understand or describe the force that is capable of creating life as we know it?

  We know how subatomic particles act and react, but what is the force that brings them together into ever more complex patterns of partnership that eventually result in a human being, or a tree, or a cricket playing its music?

  Many of us have witnessed someone dying. One moment, they are the animated individuals we know them to be, the next moment they are gone, and we are left with a lifeless lump of material that we know has no connection anymore with the person we knew and loved.