Wonder What It Takes To Be A Millionaire?

Cast Iron Cornbread (Photo credit: fritish)

This can't just be a coincidence.  One of the speakers at the Called Woman Conference that I'll be speaking at next Saturday is Beverly Davis who calls herself the Cornbread Millionaire.  She started her enterprise while she was living in a homeless shelter and has managed to prepare and promote her grandmother's special secret cornbread recipe on CNN news, Fox TV and Clark Howard to name a few.  She just mailed us her ebook to share with the participants at the conference and it's a pretty incredible story.   If you are someone who has said you would follow your dream if only you had the resources and time, then you need to hear the story of this woman who had literally NO resources and still managed to start her own business and follow her dream.

Then I got the weekly newsletter that I receive from Dan Miller, author of 48 Days To The Work You Love and guess what the topic is for this week?  "Do You Want To Be A Millionaire?"  No, I'm not kidding.  There are some fascinating statistics in the newsletter which you may want to read yourself, Dan's Newsletter   The one that most caught my eye was this:  74% of millionaires in the United States are self-employed and these are not necessarily people who have come up with the most creative, innovative idea ever.  The most common millionaire producing businesses are dry cleaning, printing and vending.  Guess what percentage of millionaires are in show business, athletics, authors, inventors or lottery winners?  One percent... Yet, aren't these the professions that receive the most attention, and the ones that most kids aspire to?  Sounds like Beverly Davis is definitely on the right track.

While your mission in life may or may not be to become a millionaire, I imagine we would all like to be financially secure while doing what we love most to do.  As both these examples show, the best way to accomplish that is to discover your talents, your gifts, then focus your energy in that direction.  This is exactly what my latest book, The Call:  Perfect Dream-Imperfect Life is all about.  It's my personal story of how I took my dream to be an author and developed a plan to make it happen.  It's at the printer's this week and should be available by the end of next week!  Here's the final cover...

What is your passion?  What are you doing to follow your dream?

Help! I'm Writing A Book!

Image via WikipediaCharles Schultz was a genius at bringing philosophical concepts into everyday life. In one of my favorite comic strips, Lucy says to Charlie, "You know, Charlie, life is like a deck chair. Some people place their deck chair so they can see where they're going. Some turn it around to see where they've been. Others, Charlie, place their deck chair right in the middle of the action to see what's going on all around them. Charlie sighs and says, "I'm just trying to get mine unfolded." This just cracks me up!  What an astute observation and don't you just get a mental picture of all these chairs facing every which way and then there are all the folks trying to get theirs open. 


Well, I'm opening my deck chair in a new direction and it involves setting a goal for writing a book.  Yes, you read that right.  I am going to spend the next two months of this blog reporting first on setting a goal to have a book finished and in print before the  middle of March. Why did I pick that time frame?  I'm speaking at A Called Women conference March 24th and I would like to have a book ready to share at that conference.  What will be the topic of the book?  It will be about discovering your passion, setting goals, visioning the future and achieving the goals you set.  I expect writing and publishing the book will be a key example of what I'm writing about!


 In my weekly blog,  I will  keep you informed on the steps and progress that I have made.  I'm excited and a little nervous to be announcing this.   I've had it in mind for quite some time and being a school counselor, I'm about to have some significant time off for the holidays.  So far I've blocked off certain days to spend writing.  I've also reviewed all my past blogs and made a spread sheet of different examples and stories with themes.  I expect I will be able to use some of this material in the book and I wanted to have it categorized so I could find it easily.  Will I be able to stick to my plan and get the book started?  Will I be able to get it finished and in print before the conference?  Well, I'll be opening my deck chair and facing it in that direction! I'll be keeping you informed of the progress and planning involved.

The next question of course is where are you in the picture? Have you opened your deck chair? Where is it facing for the new year?

Here's a great book to get you thinking about writing and publishing the book you've always dreamed of...