Millionairesville -- where real people reach millionaire dreams.

The first part of the philosophy behind Millionairesville is very practical:

There are many benefits to financial independence. This makes financial independence a goal worthy of diligent pursuit. And such a goal, achieved in the right way, can also carry with it some enormous benefits in terms of personal development.
Setting a vision, naming goals and taking effective daily action toward those goals are key ways -- the best ways -- to move toward financial independence.
A person can do more with the help of others than he or she can alone!

Underlying these simple practical thoughts, however, is a bit deeper philosophy of what wealth and making money are all about.

Wealth, like just about anything else, can be used for good or ill. Just like knowledge or strength, wealth is a form of power. If it's acquired fairly and used in the right way, wealth can result in a better life for oneself, one's family, and for many other people as well.

There are obviously many wrong ways to acquire wealth, such as stealing, cheating, and so forth. But there are also quite a few right ways.

Probably the very best means of acquiring wealth involves creating value for other people -- and then exchanging that value in fair trade for other things that have value (including money).

Now the more value you create, the more wealth you’re readily able to accumulate -- and also the more you contribute to other people and to society.

So in the very act of becoming wealthy, you're also helping others through the product or service that you provide.

Value can be created in many ways. Sometimes value is created simply by providing the convenience of making a needed, wanted product or service readily available, when it otherwise would have been hard to acquire. This is sales of the best kind, and it creates value. Even more apparent, whenever you provide a service that really helps people, or offer a new invention or a unique type of food, you've created value.

So to gain a million dollars in the very best way, then, (or a million pounds or whatever currency you like), you only have to: 1) find a way to create a million dollars' worth of value, and 2) exchange that value for a million dollars.

This isn't quite as complicated as it might sound at first. Baking pizza, creating art, educating people, and collecting trash all create value. And all of these activities have created millionaires.

Notice also the kind of person this makes you. Wealthy people are often the subject of negative stereotypes. They are often portrayed as miserly, greedy, unpleasant, unhappy people. And for some, this may indeed be the case. But... if you gain your wealth by really focusing on creating massive value for others, and exchanging that value in fair trade, then you might find it actually becomes a bit difficult not to end up as a decent, likable, happy, generous kind of person.

There's also a second philosophical reason to prefer value creation rather than simply getting money. Let's imagine you live in a community with 10 million dollars of wealth. Now suppose someone finds a way to get a million dollars without really adding value of any kind. What he's done is simply to remove money from the supervision of others and make the available "pot" smaller for everyone else: he has $1 million, now there's only $9 million for the other members of the community.

But this doesn't ever have to be the case.

Compare that with a community member who takes raw materials and builds homes, worth a total of $1 million more than what the raw materials cost, and who receives $1 million in exchange.

Now, instead of $10 million worth of wealth, the community has $11 million worth of wealth! True, the builder holds $1 million of it right now, but he'll eventually pass that on, either by spending it, giving it to charity, or leaving it to his kids. In the meantime, he hasn't taken anything away from others -- on the contrary, he's added to their lives, because they've demonstrated they would rather have the homes than the money they exchanged for them. So while on paper they might be no wealthier than before, in reality they're better off, and quite happy in their new homes.

When we create value instead of merely getting money, we expand the available wealth for everyone. And if everybody creates extra value, then everyone gets wealthier!

All of which brings us to another point: Wealth, in the end, is not limited, and it's not simply for hoarding. Those of us who successfully acquire wealth should be willing to find ways to share some of our abundance (both financial and otherwise) with others.

As the plaque on the wall of the Bailey Building & Loan reads in the old movie "It's A Wonderful Life": "All you can take with you is what you've given away." In fact, it is as we share with others that others are willing to share with us. If you want others to be generous with you, you must also be generous with them. This is true not just of money, but also for all of the other good resources of life.

The value of giving, though, goes beyond what you’re able to receive back. Giving is worth doing because it enriches the lives of others. It's also worth doing because giving, in one form or another, is the only means by which we can leave the world a better place than we found it. And that is one of the great methods (if not the great method) by which people bring meaning to their very lives.

So our ultimate goal, then, is abundance: not only in material wealth but also in health, relationships, and emotional and spiritual wholeness. And not only for ourselves, but abundance that we can use to help others as well.

Our goal here at Millionairesville is to help make people’s lives better, by enabling people to create value, accumulate wealth, and share it. We want to encourage the accumulation of wealth, and its use for good.

A key way that we do that is through the annual Millionaire Challenge.