How to Get Rich

By Woman's Day | Financially Fit – Tue, May 8, 2012 6:24 PM EDT

pile of moneyBy Daisy Chan

Self-made fortunes all begin the same way: with a good idea and some startup cash. Steal these savings tips from three millionaires who made a little into a lot.

Winning the lottery is everyone's fantasy, but the better bet is on a plan that relies more on pluck than luck. "You can become wealthy if you're disciplined, consistent and patient," says Andrew Hallam, who pulled it off on a teacher's salary. These qualities are especially important when you're starting out and trying to save the money needed to get your business idea (or investment strategy) off the ground.

To help you take the first steps, we asked three millionaires-none of whom were born that way-to share how they saved the money that launched their fortune. As you'll see, it's not only the rich who get richer. Photo credit: Thinkstock 
Super-Saver Tips: Joyce Bone

Cofounder of EarthCare and author ofMillionaire Moms

SAVED: $10,000

WHAT SHE DID WITH IT: Started an environmental waste management company that became a $125 million business. Photo credit: Picassa

"We were living off my husband's salary when he and I decided that we needed to get serious about saving if we were ever going to realize our dream of me owning my own business. So I began tracking our money like it was my job. I carried a notebook everywhere I went, wrote down each purchase and tallied up the total at the end of the day. That way, I knew exactly if and where I'd overspent, and I would cut back accordingly.

"I also carefully went over our bank and credit card statements each month. Mistakes happen. Once the bank put a $2,500 deposit in someone else's account instead of ours. And several times, I saw that the credit card company had charged us a late fee when we were only a day late. Each time, I called right away and was able to get them to rescind the fee.

"But it wasn't all bean counting-my husband and I also made sure to have fun. Our cheapest date nights cost $5. We'd get my mom to babysit, go to the $1 movie theater and have dinner at Costco-a hot dog and Coke for $1.50." Enjoy date night without spending a fortune.

Super-Saver Tips: Andrew Hallam

High school teacher and author of Millionaire Teacher

SAVED: $100-$300 a month throughout college

WHAT HE DID WITH IT: Invested in mutual index funds and some individual stocks, eventually amassing $1.5 million. Photo credit: Daemon Baizan

"When I was in college, I remember wanting to save $4,000 a year. That was huge-and what I actually started out saving was $1,200 per year. But having a goal, writing it down and keeping the piece of paper where you can see it every day are key. It keeps you committed and accountable, so you're more likely to stick with your program. When I was coming up short, I'd take extra jobs I wouldn't normally have been motivated to take, like washing buses and mowing lawns. Seeing that number in black and white increased my commitment and spurred me to stick with the program. When I reached my goal, it felt awesome.

"Even now, my wife, who is also a teacher, and I write down a savings goal every year. We aim to save 50% of our salaries, post-tax. Besides things like skipping cable TV and not buying the latest tech gadgets, we save a ton by being mindful of how we socialize. For example, we have certain friends who always like to eat out. If we tried to keep pace with them, we wouldn't save nearly as much money. So when getting together with those friends, we ask them to come to our house for dinner instead. Similarly, when we go on vacation with friends, we avoid the big spenders and travel with frugal people."
Discover 17 things you can get for free.

Super-Saver Tips: Dani Johnson

Owner of five businesses, author of First Steps to Wealth and mom of five

SAVED $5,000

WHAT SHE DID WITH IT Bought weight loss shakes and supplements to sell. Within two years she made her first million.

"Twenty years ago, I was homeless, literally living out of my car. I couldn't afford food, let alone gasoline, and my 4-year-old daughter was staying with family. I would go on dates in order to eat!

"One day, I looked in the back seat and noticed some leftover products for a weight loss program I used before I had hit such hard times. It occurred to me that if I could sell these products and collect payment before, rather than after delivery, I'd have instant cash flow, which I desperately needed.

"So I made a flyer, copying the ad, and posted it at a local post office. Forty people answered that first flyer, and with the $5,000 I got from charging them the retail price, I bought enough products, paying wholesale, to fill my orders and have extra to sell. (I sold the products from the trunk of my car!) I continued to buy and sell that way, reinvesting the original seed money and much of the profit, attracted more and more customers, and grew my business that way.

"But a decade later, when I had a family and could afford a beautiful 6,000-square-foot house, I got myself into debt because I was overspending. To save, I cut way back on all kinds of purchases, including groceries. I used to spend $300 a week at the supermarket, but I've cut it down to $100. Now I always shop with a list; without one, you tend to buy more. I also plan seven days' worth of lunches and dinners at a time, so I can shop just once a week. I save on gas, and I have fewer chances to make an impulse purchase at checkout.

"I try to stick to a regular supermarket, too. In a big-box store or a price club, there's so much that you never knew existed, and all of a sudden you have to have it! You end up buying more and more.

"And I'm always on the lookout for the cheaper alternative. For instance, instead of paper towels, I use a rag. It does the job just fine."
See more helpful work and money tips.

Keep Your Cash

To control spending, get a grip on your mail. Three out of four Americans say they've made purchases based on a direct mail solicitation; nearly 60% say an email has persuaded them to buy. So make the call-or hit reply-and ask to be removed from the mailing list today! SOURCE:DailyWorth.com Photo credit: Getty Images Cash in on your old clutter.

Original article appeared on WomansDay.com.

40 Under 40

by Fortune staff
Thursday, October 20, 2011

They're the hottest young stars in business across the globe. They're innovators, disrupters, and job creators; in fact, it's a pretty safe bet you're going to be working for them someday — if you aren't already! They're in technology, yes, but also in movies, music, athletic wear, and even curry-flavored chocolate. And the scary thing is they're just getting started.
1. Mark Zuckerberg

Photo: David Yellen

Founder and CEO, Facebook
Age: 27
Industry: Technology
This may have been the year your grandmother joined Facebook. The Harvard dropout and tech wizard is a household name, thanks in part to The Social Network, but the real-life script is still being written. In 2011 his baby hit 800 million users and was valued at $50 billion, setting the stage for a monster IPO to come. The company also partnered with Skype and redesigned key parts of its service, leading to the usual temporary backlash.
On the hunt: Zuck made headlines earlier this year when he told Fortune his goal for 2011 was to eat only animals he had personally killed.
2. Larry Page

Courtesy: Google

Co-founder and CEO, Google
Age: 38
Industry: Technology
Since retaking the reins at Google last April, the introverted Page has won praise for making some fast decisions — and big acquisitions. He's cut back on nonessential projects, while plowing resources into Facebook competitor Google. Ad-driven revenue is stronger than ever — in July the company reported record-breaking quarterly earnings. But with nearly 30,000 employees across some 30 countries, steering the search giant back to its nimbler roots won't be easy. Even Page recently admitted Google's biggest threat is, well, Google.
Net worth: Page is now worth some $17 billion.
3. Greg Jensen

Courtesy: Bridgewater

Co-CEO and co-CIO, Bridgewater Associates
Age: 37
Industry: Finance
Jensen's work overseeing research at the world's largest hedge fund (assets under management: $125 billion) has paid off. Bridgewater's flagship fund is up 25%, while many marquee names are losing money. Jensen also oversaw the rollout of the $10 billion fund Pure Alpha Major Markets in June. Jensen, who started at Bridgewater as an intern while at Dartmouth, believes the firm's unusual culture (articulated by founder Ray Dalio in the form of 300 self-help principles) is the key to the firm's success — and his own.

4. Aditya Mittal

Courtesy: ArcelorMittal

CFO, ArcelorMittal
Age: 35
Industry: Industrial
He's more than just the son of his company's billionaire founder: The finance whiz helped build the world's biggest steel group through acquisitions — and is now helping run it. This year he assumed responsibility for European operations, the company's largest division, and he just returned from the Arctic, where the company's new iron ore mine is one of billions of dollars' worth of new projects.
Media diet: He reads the state-controlled China Daily every day "to get perspective on how they are framing the news."
5. John Arnold

Photo: Centaurus Advisors

Founder, Centaurus Energy
Age: 37
Industry: Finance
The trading star who cut his teeth at Enron turned a talent for reading the notoriously fickle gas markets into an estimated $4 billion hedge fund fortune. He's bounced back from his first-ever down year, with his flagship fund up about 4%, and invests in natural-gas storage caverns and power plants, turning Centaurus into a diversified energy firm some have likened to a mini-Enron. Billionaire props include an art-filled modernist mansion in Houston and a foundation to support overhauling America's pension system.
Spare time: Arnold is said to be a Dave Matthews and U2 fan.
6. Brian Deese

Courtesy: National Economic Council

Deputy director, National Economic Council
Age: 33
Industry: Government
A driving force behind the auto bailouts, the Obama administration's most unalloyed win to date, Deese cemented his wunderkind status on the White House economic team by building the case against liquidating Chrysler. Now the Yale Law graduate claims an even bigger portfolio — ranging from Wall Street reform to housing finance — and the President's full attention. When Obama decamped for Martha's Vineyard in August, Deese went along to help him craft his new jobs plan.
Linguistic pet peeve: When people confuse "further" and "farther." ("Don't know why, but it drives me nuts.")
7. Daniel Ammann

Courtesy: General Motors

CFO, General Motors
Age: 39
Industry: Automotive
Last fall Ammann spent weeks on the road persuading investors to buy General Motors stock. Now he's working to keep them happy. The native New Zealander advised GM for years as a Morgan Stanley banker before taking over as CFO this spring. His job today: making sure the automaker stays profitable in any market — historically a tough task for GM. "We're off to a good start," says Ammann, who splits his time between Detroit and New York City; this year GM has earned $6.3 billion in a humdrum economy.
Least favorite business term: "End-to-end solution."
8. Jack Dorsey


Co-founder and executive chairman, Twitter; co-founder and CEO, Square
Age: 34
Industry: Technology
Dorsey's comeback is a classic Valley tale: After being ousted as CEO of Twitter in 2008, he returned to the company he helped found to lead product development (and clean house — four of Twitter's key product execs reportedly left in July). He continues to run Square, his hyper-hot mobile-payments startup, which has shipped more than 800,000 of its credit card readers and recently closed a $100 million round of funding, giving it a valuation north of $1 billion.
Relaxation technique: Dorsey is a big fan of going for walks; he also takes "microvacations," driving on Sundays to nearby Point Reyes or Big Sur.
9. Jeff George

Courtesy: Sandoz

Global head of Sandoz, Novartis
Age: 38
Industry: Consumer Products
Since joining Novartis in 2007, George, a former international-relations student and McKinsey consultant, has shot up the ranks at the Swiss pharmaceuticals giant. After stints in the company's vaccine and emerging-markets divisions, he was tapped in 2008 to lead Sandoz, the company's massive generics unit, whose $8.5 billion in revenue makes it the world's second-biggest generics operation after Israel's Teva. With George at the helm, Sandoz has posted double-digit revenue growth and made big gains in the field of biosimilars, or generic versions of complex drugs.
Stress reliever: Meditates each morning and runs three to four times a week.
10. Sid Sankaran

Courtesy: AIG

Chief risk officer, AIG
Age: 34
Industry: Finance
The financial crisis proved that AIG had no clothes — or at least no controls. Now it's up to Sankaran, a Canadian math hotshot (his degree from the University of Waterloo was in actuarial sciences) and former partner at consultancy Oliver Wyman, to make sure it doesn't happen again. Sankaran declined AIG at first; today, as chief risk officer, he oversees the billions flowing among disparate insurance operations and reports to CEO Robert Benmosche if something suspicious rears its head.
—Editorial package reported by Katie Benner, Scott Cendrowski, Betsy Feldman, Mina Kimes, Alex Konrad, Beth Kowitt, Collen Leahey, Michal Lev-Ram, Tara Moore, Tory Newmyer, Daniel Roberts, Christopher Tkaczyk and Anne Vandermey.

Steve Jobs and the 7 Rules of Success

Steve Jobs' impact on your life cannot be underestimated. His innovations have likely touched nearly every aspect -- computers, movies, music and mobile. As a communications coach, I learned from Jobs that a presentation can, indeed, inspire. For entrepreneurs, Jobs' greatest legacy is the set of principles that drove his success.

Over the years, I've become a student of sorts of Jobs' career and life. Here's my take on the rules and values underpinning his success. Any of us can adopt them to unleash our "inner Steve Jobs."

1. Do what you love. Jobs once said, "People with passion can change the world for the better." Asked about the advice he would offer would-be entrepreneurs, he said, "I'd get a job as a busboy or something until I figured out what I was really passionate about." That's how much it meant to him. Passion is everything.

2. Put a dent in the universe. Jobs believed in the power of vision. He once asked then-Pepsi President, John Sculley, "Do you want to spend your life selling sugar water or do you want to change the world?" Don't lose sight of the big vision.

3. Make connections. Jobs once said creativity is connecting things. He meant that people with a broad set of life experiences can often see things that others miss. He took calligraphy classes that didn't have any practical use in his life -- until he built the Macintosh. Jobs traveled to India and Asia. He studied design and hospitality. Don't live in a bubble. Connect ideas from different fields.

4. Say no to 1,000 things. Jobs was as proud of what Apple chose not to do as he was of what Apple did. When he returned in Apple in 1997, he took a company with 350 products and reduced them to 10 products in a two-year period. Why? So he could put the "A-Team" on each product. What are you saying "no" to?

5. Create insanely different experiences. Jobs also sought innovation in the customer-service experience. When he first came up with the concept for the Apple Stores, he said they would be different because instead of just moving boxes, the stores would enrich lives. Everything about the experience you have when you walk into an Apple store is intended to enrich your life and to create an emotional connection between you and the Apple brand. What are you doing to enrich the lives of your customers?

6. Master the message. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can't communicate your ideas, it doesn't matter. Jobs was the world's greatest corporate storyteller. Instead of simply delivering a presentation like most people do, he informed, he educated, he inspired and he entertained, all in one presentation.

7. Sell dreams, not products. Jobs captured our imagination because he really understood his customer. He knew that tablets would not capture our imaginations if they were too complicated. The result? One button on the front of an iPad. It's so simple, a 2-year-old can use it. Your customers don't care about your product. They care about themselves, their hopes, their ambitions. Jobs taught us that if you help your customers reach their dreams, you'll win them over.

There's one story that I think sums up Jobs' career at Apple. An executive who had the job of reinventing the Disney Store once called up Jobs and asked for advice. His counsel? Dream bigger. I think that's the best advice he could leave us with. See genius in your craziness, believe in yourself, believe in your vision, and be constantly prepared to defend those ideas.

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach, a popular keynote speaker and author of several books including The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. His latest is The Power of Foursquare (McGraw-Hill, 2011).

Welfare mom creates million dollar biz: how she did it

• by Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger, on Mon Oct 3, 2011 6:57am PDT

Trisha Waldron

Trisha Waldron was 28 years old when she realized that the life she had drifted into was a dead end. She had gone from being a daughter to a wife to having her first baby at 22. Now single and barely surviving on food stamps in the Black Hills of South Dakota, she had no college degree, no work experience to speak of, and no clear idea of what to do with the rest of her life. She owned a tiny two-bedroom house from her divorce, and she had her two lovely little girls, ages four and six, but that was about it.

You can create your own life

One afternoon, volunteering at her daughters’ school, she heard a teacher tell the kids, “You can create your own life.” That sentence changed everything. As she puts it, “I knew I had to take responsibility for my own life. I had been running it according to others and things hadn’t worked out very well.”

She applied for a student loan and went back to school. The first year, she and her girls lived on welfare, food stamps, and odd jobs, but the second year, an opportunity presented itself and she grabbed it. An artist friend offered her a job assembling jewelry for a mail order catalogue in her spare time. She knew it wouldn’t be easy: she’d be in school all day, taking care of the kids in the evening, and then have to work late into the night at her kitchen table, but she’d be working for herself and be able to get off welfare.

Having a job and being in school built up Trisha’s confidence and she eventually proposed to the owner of the catalogue that she design his entire line of jewelry. She says, “As an entrepreneur you are always going to be confronted by things you don’t know, but you can’t let it stop you.” She went to the library and dove into teaching herself the basics of jewelry design as well as exploring Native American motifs from which she would draw inspiration. She recalls that she didn’t get a lot of sleep in those days.

[ Donate: You can help struggling women get back into the workforce by giving to Empowered Women International. The award-winning non-profit channels the creative talents of low-income women into small businesses to create jobs. ]

Growing the business

Her business moved from the kitchen table to the garage where she installed a wood stove to keep it warm against the bitter South Dakota weather. Still, she had to work in gloves and a heavy coat during the winter. After two years, she decided she was ready for an even greater challenge and, in 1985, incorporated her own company.

From the beginning, Trisha was as excited by the cultures that informed her jewelry designs as she was by the final product. She learned the world was a whole lot bigger than Rapid City, South Dakota. She forged relationships with bead and stone vendors from Africa, India, and China.

Looking back, she says those relationships and the ones she developed with her staff made all the difference for the long-term success of her business. She explains, “At first, I had a super aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach. I might have gained something for myself but I wasn’t very nice to those around me. Eventually, I learned that you draw power as a woman in business by being compassionate and inclusive. This way, you can make long and loyal relationships.”

Her first million

After only five years in business, she had made her first million. But, as Trisha remembers, “Getting there was incredibly challenging, I learned by trial and error, I cried a lot. But I lived simply and didn’t need much to survive. I was in a small town and hired my girlfriends to help me. My neighbors pitched in with the kids. My big break came in 1987 when the catalogue of the Smithsonian Institution started featuring my work.”

Helping others help themselves

After winning the Smithsonian as a client, Trisha was able to move out of the garage into a proper jewelry studio. Other catalogues, such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, started picking up the line. When things got busy, she would hire as many as 40 other women, mostly single moms, to fabricate her designs out of their homes--just as she had when she first started.

In 2006, after over 20 years in business, Trisha sold her company to an employee and retired to California with her second husband.

Trisha’s advice for people who want to start their own businesses:

• Your responsibility is to be clear about your vision. Then you can ask others to help.
• There is a lot of assistance out there for entrepreneurs if you look for it: I learned bookkeeping from a volunteer group of retired accountants.
• Surround yourself with people who support you. A lot of people said I was crazy to start my own business as a single mom. But I had a few people who believed in me.
• Be okay with the knowledge that you won’t know how to do everything right away and trust that you can learn.
• Create a “mastermind group” – 2 or 3 people who are willing to have you bounce ideas off them every few weeks. I kept my group going for 10 years.
• Realize it will be hard, and accept that.

10 Ways to Start Earning Extra Money Now

Boost Your Income

Extra money every month is always useful, whether it goes toward paying bills or a trip to Cancun. People turn all sorts of skills—including cooking, teaching, and organizing—into cash. Here’s how you can, too.

Coaching

Are friends and family members constantly asking for your advice about a topic you know a lot about, such as how to fix customer-service problems or negotiate work conflicts? If so, perhaps you can turn it into a side business to get paid for your knowledge. Set up a website or blog to help find clients, and you’re in business.

Teaching
If standing in front of larger groups and following lesson plans is more your style, opportunities at local schools can let you tap into your inner professor. Community colleges and professional schools are often looking for outside experts and part-time teachers.

Writing

Almost everyone relies on the written word in some capacity, so those with editing and writing skills can often pick up contract work from companies and individuals who need help with their websites, marketing material, or product descriptions. Some writers also find success selling e-books or other digital products online.

Speaking

Not everyone likes the idea of speaking in front of a large group, but those who do (and are good at it) can often build a side career as a professional speaker. Industry groups, conference organizers, and companies frequently hire inspiring speakers for their events. Professional organizations, such as the National Speakers Association, can help you get started.

Sell Your Stuff

Cleaning out your bookshelves and closets can yield a nice pile of cash if you spend some time taking appealing photos and marketing the listings. Sites such as eBay and Craigslist make it easy to set up shop.

Cooking

As evidenced by the booming take-out market, busy professionals are willing to pay big bucks for someone to help them manage their meals. That’s why people with kitchen skills can often make decent money cooking up batches of food and delivering them to paying customers.

Rent out your space

If your home has an extra bedroom behind a door that locks, or even better, in its own suite, you could become a landlord. Students and recent graduates are often especially eager for affordable and small spaces.

Organize for Others

If getting a closet or drawer in order is your idea of a good time, you can turn that passion into a part-time business. An easy way to start is to offer your services to friends and family. Collect endorsements and then find your first real client.

Web Design

Web designers count everyone from Fortune 500 companies to nonprofits to individuals among their clients. Since almost all businesses need websites these days, anyone who can design appealing ones is in high demand.

IT Consultant

Are you the one your older family members are always asking to help them with their email and computer problems? If so, perhaps you can get paid for your skills (and patience) by setting up an IT consultancy on the side.

Entrepreneurship: Nothing to Lose and Everything to Gain

Provided by

by Dan Schawbel, contributor

I recently caught up with Ryan Blair, who is a serial entrepreneur and author of the new book "Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain." Ryan established his first company, 24-7 Tech when he was only twenty-one years old. Since then, he has created and actively invested in multiple start-ups and has become a self-made multimillionaire. After he sold his company ViSalus Sciences to Blyth in early 2008, the global recession took the company to the brink of failure resulting in a complete write off of the stock and near bankruptcy. Ryan as CEO went "all in" betting his last million dollars on its potential and turned the company around from the edge of failure to more than $150,000,000 a year in revenue in only 16 months winning the coveted DSN Global Turn Around Award in 2010. In this interview, Ryan talks about how he re-branded himself after being in a gang, the issues with the education system, and more.

How did you shake your criminal record and re-brand yourself?

I remember when I was working my way up in the first company that employed me, I used to have nightmares that one day they'd find out about that I had been in a gang, call me into the office, and fire me. In the beginning I didn't talk much about what I'd been through. But eventually when I got to a point where I had established myself as a professional entrepreneur, I embraced my past, used it as part of my branding, and crossed over.

Ryan Blair

In this day and age people want authenticity. Now that the world is social, people know all about you. Assuming you decided to join humanity, that is. It turned out that as I started showing my true identity, so did the rest of the world. One of the reasons my company ViSalus is one of the fastest growing companies in the industry today is because we share our good, bad, and ugly. Like sharing a video of me playing a practical joke on one of my employees, for instance. As a result of embracing authenticity, I turned the company around from near bankruptcy to over $15 million a month today. Unlike our competitors, our distributors and customers know exactly who we are, and I'd say that corporate America has a lot of catching up to do.

What's your take on the educational system? Will a college degree help or hurt your chances at starting a successful business?

As a product of Los Angeles's public school system, in a state with the highest dropout rate in the nation (about 20 percent), I can tell you from personal experience that some of our brightest minds are being misidentified because of a one-size-fits-all learning environment. Because I had ADD and dyslexia I never got past the 9th grade.

I recall sitting with a career counselor in continuation high school, being told that I didn't have the intellect or aptitude to become a doctor or a lawyer. They suggested a trade school, construction, something where I'd be working with my hands.

The irony is that today I employ plenty of doctors and lawyers. Would you rather be a doctor or a lawyer, or a guy who writes a check to doctors and lawyers?

If President Obama phoned me today and told me he was appointing me Educational Czar, I'd turn education into a business, a capitalistic, revenue driven system, creating a competitive environment where each school is trying to attract customers, based on quality of customer experience.

As an entrepreneur, having a college degree or getting classroom training won't hurt your chances for starting a successful business, but it's ultimately not necessary. In Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers," he makes a point that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to master a skill set at a professional level. That means experience, over traditional education.

What three business lessons did you learn from juvenile detention?

I learned a lot about business and life from my time spent incarcerated. I like to call these pieces of wisdom my Philosophies from the Jail Cell to the Boardroom. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that in Juvenile Hall, new guys always get tested. When I went in the first time, I was just a skinny little white kid and I had to learn fast. People will be bumping into you on the basketball court, or asking you for things, testing to see if you're tough.

And everyone knew that if a guy let someone take their milk during lunchtime, they weren't as tough as they looked. Soon you'd be taking their milk everyday, and so would everyone else. It's the same for business, if you give people the impression that you can be taken, you will be.

Also, adaptation is the key to survival. In jail the guy who rises to power isn't always the strongest or the smartest. As prisoners come and go, he's the one that adapts to the changing environment, while influencing the right people. You can use this in business, staying abreast of market trends, changing your game plan as technology shifts, and adapting our strategy around your company's strongest competitive advantages. Darwin was absolutely right — survival is a matter of how you respond to change.

The last lesson I got from jail is that you have to learn how to read people. You don't know who to trust. It's the same for business because a lot of people come into my office with a front. I have to figure out quickly who is the real deal and who isn't. Based on that fact, I developed an HR system that I use when interviewing potential new hires that I call the Connect Four Technique. Yep, you guessed it. I make my future employees — and I have hundreds of them — play me in Connect Four.

Can everyone be an entrepreneur? Can it be learned or do you have to be born with a special gene?

No. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur. There are two types of people in the world, domesticated and undomesticated. Some people are so domesticated through their social programming and belief system, so employee minded, that they could never be entrepreneurs. And they shouldn't even bother trying. The irony is that this is coming from a guy who teaches millions of people how to become entrepreneurs. I'm literally selling a book about becoming an entrepreneur, telling you that not everyone should read it.

To be an entrepreneur, you have to have fighting instincts. Are instincts genetic? I don't think so, but you 'inherit' them from your upbringing. Now, if you're smart you can reprogram your beliefs. But there are still some people that would rather watch other people be entrepreneurs, like the people in the Forbes "richest celebrity list" than take the time to reprogram themselves, and live their lives like rock stars, too.

Is there a need for business plans these days?

When you've really got the entrepreneurial bug, the last thing you want to do is sit down and write a business plan. It's the equivalent of writing a book about playing the guitar before actually knowing how to play the guitar. You don't know what your new business is going to be like. And just like a guitar, a business will have to be tweaked and tuned multiple times, and you'll need long practice sessions and repetition, before you can get even one successful song out of it.

In my book "Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain," I actually included a chapter called "I Hate Business Plans" where I talk about this. Most business plans that get sent to me, I close within seconds of opening them up because they are full of fluff and hype. A business plan should be simple, something you could scribble on a scratch pad. No more than three pages of your business objectives, expected results, and the strategy to get there. But the best business plan is one built from a business that is already up and running and that matches the business's actual results.

The point is that you should be so obsessed with your business that you can't sleep at night because that's all you can think about. And that's your ultimate "business plan."

Dan Schawbel is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, LLC, a full-service personal branding agency, and author of "Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future."