There’s lots of advice on how to become a millionaire, but almost none on what stops you from being a millionaire.

Most people are accidentally distancing themselves from their millionaire dreams permanently because of a few careless, unintentional, misunderstood ideas.

I have read many books on these millionaires — Branson, Musk, Zucks, Robbins — that people seem to idolize and the advice that they give on preventing success is intriguing. It’s more about what they don’t do than what they actually do, which makes them worth financially wealthy.

This is what prevents you from ever becoming a millionaire:

Life sucks attitude

If you believe your life sucks, you are dropping a nuclear bomb on your millionaire dreams and watching them melt in radiation for generations to come.

Your life may suck, but life itself doesn’t suck.

There are people who are doing well and enjoying their life — and plenty of them don’t have much money, strangely.

Your life may suck because you are obsessed with the goal of making a million dollars rather than doing something which is selfless and gives you a level of fulfillment you have never experienced.

Change your attitude, change your life and perhaps get a shot at a million bucks.

Comparing your beginning to someone else’s end

This idea comes from the author Tim Hiller and it’s a bloody excellent point.

Comparing yourself to people who are already millionaires is stupid. All of us are at different stages of life and if you are just beginning, then expecting your circumstances to be the same as someone who has been playing the game for a decade and already has several million dollars is flawed.

Comparing, a lot of the time, is unhelpful.

All it does it make you feel worthless or like you are missing out on the millionaire lifestyle that Instagram has on the front page every day to remind you how much of a piece of crap you are because you’re not good enough.

Worry about your journey and put your attention towards doing the work rather than acknowledging the masterpieces of someone else’s life.

The economy sucks

If you think this is a limitation, then you got a big problem. The economy doing poorly is the greatest modern-day opportunity you have to make a million dollars.

The economy doing bad is when everything goes on sale and you can become a millionaire faster.

Blaming your life on a failing economy is the worst excuse imaginable. More people become millionaires in recessions than they do during the good times of a bull market that seems to go on forever.

Measuring money rather than value created

A million dollars is a measure of value, so think of it this way instead:

What are you doing every day to create enormous value in the lives of others?

Adopting the habits of those who failed

What you do repeatedly leads to the million-dollar dream.

If you consciously copy the habits of those who have never made a million dollars, then you too will join their club.

Million-dollar habits include:

Saving followed closely by investing money
Investing in yourself
Giving money even when you are starting out
Improving the lives of others
Influencing through words, pictures, videos or audio

On the other hand, the habits that will see you fail and never make one million dollars include the following:

Complaining
Watching mainstream news
Too much streaming of TV shows
Zero mentors
A comfortable life spent inside with the heater on

Millionaires spend very little time on the couch and most of their time experimenting with possibilities.

An acceptance for how things are

The mindset of a millionaire is to reject how things are.

They are the ones seeking change, reimagining the world we live in, and questioning why we do what we do. It’s an acceptance that things can be better rather than a fixed reality of “this is how it always will be and has been.”

You may never have made a million dollars and that could have been your life to date, but that doesn’t mean that it’s how things always will be.

Any of us can do something in this world that has the power to create a million dollars.

Lacking determination

Making a bucket load of cashola is no easy task.

The level of determination you need to push through all the guaranteed rejections you are going to have is enormous.

The harsh reality is that you’ll never be a millionaire unless you are determined and that is going to take a cause or mission bigger than yourself to empower you to keep going when things get tough.

How bad do you want this?

What are you willing to do?

These are questions that will spark your determination and put a bonfire in your belly to begin your journey towards a million smack-aroo-barbs.

Everything has been done

This idea will hold you back. Everything has not been done.

Better yet, much of what has already been done has been done poorly and that is an opportunity for you.

There are still so many ideas and ways of looking at the world that you can introduce, create or become the master of. So far, humans have only dominated on Earth. There are many more planets and galaxies still undiscovered that have their own opportunities.

Maybe you will be the Usain Bolt of Mars.

Maybe you will be the Bruno Mars of the undiscovered Galactica and sing to alien robots high on volcano fumes.

Maybe you will be the Obama of Usana You-Momma region of Pluto.

Letting your ego take center stage

Too much ego destroys your dreams and blocks you from forming the relationships you’ll need to make a million dollars.

That’s right, you can’t do this alone.

You’ll need a customer, prospect, employee or freelancer at some point to make this million dollar dream a reality.

Failing to listen

The opportunities you need to make a million dollars will come from the people you listen to rather than your endless talking and interrupting.

If you don’t listen, you’ll never make anyone feel valued or cared for and then there’s no one that will be willing to part ways with their cold, hard cash which will contribute towards your million bucks.

Shut up, listen more, and the million dollars will become audible.

Trying to start with all the answers

No one who made a million dollars ever knew at the beginning how they’d make it. What they had was the belief in themselves, not the strategies written in stone.

We’re all amateurs when we start a huge goal like making a million dollars and that’s how it’s supposed to be amigo.

If we all had the blueprint to making a million dollars, well, we’d all be millionaires, wouldn’t we?

No people skills

Look up emotional intelligence, study it and develop your people skills. You are going to need them more than any other skill if your goal is to make a million dollars.

A lack of belief in yourself

If you think you will always be poor financially, then you will be.

Making a million dollars is a mindset primarily. If you believe in yourself, then you’ll find a way to making a million dollars.

Final thought

What I’ve learned is that in the process of making a million dollars, you may just discover that it really doesn’t matter.

You might start with the million-dollar goal and then, like me, find the fulfillment in contributing to others and leaving a legacy behind is far more important in life.

You can’t take the dollars with you once you die, so why not use the process of making a million dollars to become a better person and find the meaning of your life in the process?