Amal is an applicant for my 7 Millionaires … In Training! ‘grand experiment’ [AJC: we are down to our Final 30 now! Good Luck to all of those who made it this far!].

She says that she is 51 and came from Egypt (“the Land of the Pyramids, the Pharaohs Legends”) to the US 20 yrs ago. Since then Amal has studied nursing, worked as a personal banker and teller, even started a small business but she says that it “didn’t make me a Millionaire either!!”

Amal e-mailed in this question for Thursday night’s Live Chat Show:

What you do if you are alone in a world of a desire of making millions? When your hard work and persistency attitude toward reaching the ultimate goal, don’t make any sense to others?

I answered last night with the need to have a clear idea of why you need to be “making millions” in the first place; without the massive why, you won’t have the driving need that creates the massive action needed to make the big bucks. But, you can see me answer Amal’s question on YouTube, so I won’t repeat it here …

No, the part of Amal’s question that I want to discuss today is “when you don’t make sense to others”.

You see, I’m in the middle of a harmless ‘tussle’ with a couple of the ‘save your way to wealth … because there can be NO other way in our book’ guys on one of the forums that I occasionally drop into, but a couple of them started to become quite nasty and personal.

According to these ‘save and ye shall be delivered’ boneheads (you won’t see this post because the comments were so vile that the original poster removed the quote thread!): I have an “infomercial” (I don’t); I “spam” (I provide links to relevant posts where allowed by the host site); I “scam” (I don’t sell/endorse any products or even allow any advertising on my sites); and, I even have “zits” (I don’t … but, I am thinning on top, so “baldy” would be a better insult) …

… but, would I let it get me down? Of course not – but, it does put into new perspective the e-mail that I just received from JD Roth (who writes Get Rich Slowly, perhaps the most widely read personal finance blog on the blogosphere) unexpectedly and out of the wild, blue yonder. JD says:

Hey, Adrian.

I spent several hours going through most of your archives. I’m impressed. Though you and I disagree on some fundamental points (such as the value of diversification), not only do I agree with and support most of what you say, I actually think you’re covering territory that nobody else is covering. I *want* to focus on money-making strategies at Get Rich Slowly, but I’m not doing a good job of it. For the most part, my readers love the frugality stuff, and so getting them to pay attention to boosting their income is a challenge.

Anyhow, count me as a new subscriber!

–j.d.

You see, JD also doesn’t agree with everything that he found on my blog … and, some things that I say even run totally counter to what he tells his readers – which is how he makes his living!

Yet, he can sift through what he likes, and what he doesn’t like … and, take away what he wants to, simply leaving the rest.

Similarly, I’m still an avid reader of personal finance books; some things I take on board, others I discard. But, I don’t dismiss the author and their writings out of hand. I wouldn’t be writing this blog today, if some other authors hadn’t shaken my entrenched belief system … THEY made me rich!

So, here’s what I sent back to JD:

Well JD that’s a mark of the Man … you have a fantastic blog; you’re a pioneer in this ‘industry’ and an inspiration to all of us following along. You are right at the top of the PF blogosphere … yet you actually take the time to investigate a potentially opposing view!

 Most people respond to a differing point of view far more negatively/aggressively – these are the guys sitting in the bleachers with their faces painted, yelling at the players who are actually out there on the field working their butts off for them.
 
But, you are right there … in the dugout, patiently waiting for your turn with the bat. I am just an average player on the other team, covering 2nd base. My ‘team’ dares to question diversification and other PF mantras.
 
It’s true that we have some heavy hitters, and some guys who seem to swing and miss a lot … all in all, we do pretty well.
 
Your pitcher is John Bogle; mine is Warren Buffett … two great players who openly show great mutual respect and admiration.

Now, you can see why some people are pioneers in their field (JD being the clear leader in personal finance blogging) and others are relegated to shouting abuse from the sidelines …

So, are you in the game or just hurling abuse at the players from the bleachers?

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