Anyone who tells you there are secrets to becoming successful<br >and wealthy is wrong. I know， because I spent years looking for<br >those secrets. My search taught me how to make millions of dollars<br >and introduced me to a richer life than I had ever imagined for<br >myself; but it also showed me that there are no secrets to success.<br >There are simply hidden opportunities， and many of them lie right<br >before our eyes， once we learn how to recognize them.<br > Of course， it s understandable that I once thought wealthy<br >people shared some mysterious knowledge that they kept from<br >the rest of the world. Those of us who lived in the working-/<br >class neighborhood where I grew up never came in contact with<br >the kinds of people who had all the money they could ever need.<br >We knew， in a vague sort of way， that such people existed. But<br >somehow we didn t believe they could be ordinary people like<br >ourselves.<br > At a young age I promised myself I d learn the mysterious<br >formulas others had used to accumulate riches and then apply them<br >to make myself a fortune. Not only that， but I determined to<br >overcome the barriers of privilege set up by the very rich and to share<br >this carefully guarded knowledge with anyone else who wanted it.<br >Once I learned how to become rich， I planned to help every man and<br >woman who started out at the bottom of the economic heap the way<br >I didpwithout inherited wealth， without fancy private schooling，<br >l<br ><br >