Today I want to talk about the Formula for Riches. It's made up of six steps. I talk about this in Chapter 1 of The NEW Think and Grow Rich, because it's that important. It starts with Desire—and this is where a lot of people completely miss the boat.

A few years back I was at a Christmas party, and a gentleman approached because he knew I had just released The NEW Think and Grow Rich. And he says, "Well, I'm gonna be a millionaire, too."

I said, "Great, great!" and I asked him how he was going to do it. He didn't have the first idea. A year later, on New Years' Eve, a person found out I was the author of The NEW Think and Grow Rich and a professional motivator, and sought me out because they wanted to be somebody. They wanted to make a difference.

I asked them, "Okay, how are you going to do it?" And they said, "Don't know." I asked, "How are you going to make your contribution?" and the reply was, "Don't know. I'm still trying to decide."

This is the whole thing about Desire. Number one, you've got to get off your lazy duff and decide clearly and definitely what it is you want, otherwise how in the world can you ever go to work making it manifest? You can't!

With the Formula for Riches, there are only four questions to answer, and two things to do so that you program your subconscious mind. The first question is, "How much do you want?" And let's make it easy: let's say you want a million dollars net worth after taxes.

That net worth is important, because a million dollars gross isn't enough. I know people who've made millions of dollars, and they still went bankrupt because it wasn't net. Income is not the same thing as what's left after expenses.

So get clear how much you want. A lot of people try to weenie out and say, "How can I know?" And I say "Get clear." There are a lot of reasons for that.

The second question is, "When do you want it?" Again, a lot of people blow this when they say "I want a million dollars, and I want it by the end of this month." You look over at the calendar, and it's two weeks away from the end of the month. I'm not going to say it can't happen, but you'd better have a miracle up your sleeve.

Be realistic, whatever that means to you. You're going to be making a plan, and yes, a million bucks can come rather quickly. What's realistic for one person is not the same for another.

And then, Question #3—"How are you going to earn this money?" To use a cinematic analogy, are you going to create a single film to do that, or are you going to go into filmmaking—a Steven Spielberg kind of thinking? Or are you going to go into sports, because that's your natural strength? Are you going to go into real estate? How are you going to make it?

Once you have these three things—how much, when, and how—you can begin to create a plan. A lot of times, a plan is really overrated. I talk a lot about the "napkin plan," where essentially all you need is to know where you want to go, to make an honest assessment of where you're at right now, and then just connect the dots.

What do you have to do, acquire or connect with en route, to make everything happen that you need to make happen? Now, again, it's obvious that complex things require more planning than simple things, but you should always be able to boil your plan down to something that you could write in the palm of your hand. That's the 25-words-or-less summary, right?

Say you've done that. Now you know exactly how much you want, what it's going to look like, how you're going to get it, and by when. And then it's a matter of making the steps to acquire it. You know, they say never to leave the scene of an affirmation or goal without taking the first step.

Well, the first step (Point #5 in our Formula for Riches) is to write it down, in an affirmative, present tense statement. Write down something like, "It's now 2012 and my film has just grossed $200 million, and I know there's been more for me that's great." Then you go on, right?

In other words, what you've got now is an affirmative statement that lets you implement Point #6 in the Formula for Riches—programming. You can repeat that over and over again—you've got a formula that means something to you.

Let's say you're out running and you say that, or you're at the grocery store and you say that, or you're walking across campus, or going to another office building, or jostling amongst people, or driving. Whatever you're doing, you can say that. You're programming your subconscious mind.

Most people say they want a million dollars, but have no idea how to get it—or are even courageous enough to put it on paper.

And do you see how much further ahead you are than the majority of people already? Just here, on page six, you've done the six steps.

Author's Bio: 

Ted Ciuba, "living legend" and bestselling author of The NEW Think and Grow Rich, is one of the world's top human potential trainers. He helps people find, define, and actualize their passions to transmute their intangible desires into real money. To find out more about Ciuba, how he can help you, and to collect $297 worth of free gifts, visit