Robert G. Allen / Mark Victor Hansen

I have written hundreds of these reviews and this was probably the hardest one that I have ever written.

Normally when I am creating a review, I either have a positive or negative feeling (on some level) about the subject matter. In a few rare cases, I haven’t cared about the subject at all. Sort of a blasé neutral.

I can’t say that about Robert Allen or Mark Victor Hansen. The reason I have grouped these two characters together is that they have a book out that a lot of people are talking about called “The One Minute Millionaire”. I am careful to say that a lot of people are talking about it because I have found that people either HATE THIS BOOK or THEY LOVE IT. I am still not sure after going through the 3 hours of audio that I bought for $12 which camp I am in (the blasé neutral is starting to look really good).

I have to give you a tad bit of backend before I go off. I am not a big reader. I read about a dozen books a year. About one a month. I do read the newspaper, about eight magazines, countless online newsletters and all the crap that I write (I have to re-read as I edit) so I only pick a book a month that I am going to read. About half of the books I read are business books, the other half are about WWII or other subjects.

I would be lying if I said I had a great opinion of Robert Allen before I listened to this audio. I have liked some of his anti-goals stuff but never really cared for his products or style of real estate. I don’t really have an opinion on Mark Victor Hansen because I have never read any of his “Chicken Soup For The Soul” books and probably never will. I like chicken soup but my soul prefers vegetable.

The point being is that I didn’t go into this with the best opinion of Robert Allen and after reading that book, that hasn’t changed.

I guess the best thing for me to do is give you my good, bad and ugly. This might help you understand why people have such strong feelings about the book.

The Good: The book is (of course) professionally written and created. It is basically two books in one. One part is Robert Allen telling you things you need to do to be successful (REAL WORLD) and Mark Victor Hansen tells you a story about a Mom that loses her kids after her husband dies (FICTION).

Some of Robert G Allen’s ideas about finding a mentor and creating a team of people to help you with your business are quite good. I know this because I have already done it. I like the way they described a system that integrated a team concept. Very important stuff.

The Bad: Robert Allen. While I will admit that some of Allen’s ideas about being successful are good. Some of them are downright dumb. He tells you that you should put a rubber band on your arm and snap it every time you have a negative thought. As soon as your arm is beat red, you won’t have negative thoughts anymore. Give me a break. He also has long list of things a person needs to do business, but doesn’t give you a freaking clue how to do them. 13 parts of a real estate deal. He then quickly will list them but this doesn’t really teach someone how to do real estate. I hear they have $5,000 mentoring programs to teach you the real secrets.

The Ugly: Mark Victor Hansen: His story (the one about the mother trying to get her kids back) starts out kind of good but gets so far fetched, any lessons you might learn from it are lost.

Very long story short...The Mom loses her kids when her husband dies and meets a very successful gal who offers to teach her how to be rich. The mom has to make $1,000,000 (in cash) in 90 days to get her kids back. She (of course) does it but with so much luck and so many holes in the story it is useless.

The one part that kills me (and my staff) is when they compile a list of 100,000 people that download a free book on making money. They gather this list in something like 30 days. I have been creating a list like this for nearly two years and I have about 40,000 names. That's it! The people in the book didn’t even know what they are doing. They also send out an email offering a $1,000 mentor seminar to the 100,000 person list. This is where the book became downright laughable. The mailing goes out and they get their first order in like two minutes. People wouldn’t even have opened the email yet much less read the thing, made a decision or gotten out their card. Have Allen or Hansen ever done this stuff? Obviously not.

They also magically get money in their merchant account in a few hours. No way someone starting out is going to get a merchant account with a $600,000 limit (most start at $10,000) and the money takes three to five days to become liquid (more with that amount). Totally useless story.

I cannot recommend this book to you unless you are a total newbie to business or really like cheesy, sappy, fake motivational stories. The most experienced person may get a bit out of the book but it may not be worth their time.

Matt Gagnon