Marc Allen Interview by Steve Pavlina

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Marc Allen InterviewApril 19th, 2006 by Steve Pavlina Email this article to a friend

Today I have a special treat for you an exclusive interview with multi-millionaire

Marc Allen. Marc Allen is the president and co-founder of New World Library, which

has published some outstanding books on personal development and spirituality,

including Eckhart Tolles The Power of Now, Shakti Gawains Creative Visualization,

and Dan Millmans The Way of the Peaceful Warrior. These are some of my all-time

favorite books.

At age 30 Marc Allen and Shakti Gawain launched New World

Library with no capital, and today the company is a major

independent publisher with the motto: Publishing books and

audio and video projects that change lives. A published author

himself, Marc has written several books, including The

Millionaire Course, Visionary Business, A Visionary Life, and

The Ten Percent Solution. Additionally, Marc is an accomplished musician and

co-founder of Watercourse Media.

Yet despite these significant accomplishments, Marc will be the first to admit that he is

definitely NOT a type-A workaholic. He sleeps until 11am. He doesnt get into the

office until after 1pm. He doesnt work on Mondays. Instead of putting in long hours at

the office, he uses the power of intention, visualization, and affirmation to attract what

he wants.

Marc has a new book out called The Type-Z Guide to Success: A Lazy Persons

Manifesto for Wealth and Fulfillment.

Marcs book The Millionaire Course is what inspired me to launch the Million Dollar

Experiment, which just recently manifested a collective total of $1,000,000 for its public

participants. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Marc in

Allen Interview http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/marc-allen-i

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connection with this conscious manifestation experiment.

1. Why did you intend to become a millionaire? What was your motivation?

I always knew that being a millionaire was not all that important there are far more

things that are far more important, such as family, friends, and doing what you love to

do in life. I knew early on that the most important thing for me was to do what I loved to

do in my life, and make that work somehow. And it always has. That bit of knowledge

has served me very well.

Kent Nerburn said a brilliant thing about money in his book Letters to My Son:

Money is central to our lives.

Yet money is not of central importance.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lasting values

that make life worth living.

This is good to keep in mind, always. It helps us keep money in the proper perspective.

It is a very, very good servant but a terrible master.

That being said, I realized in my early thirties that being a millionaire is a very good

goal. Its a solid, concrete number that your subconscious mind can grab hold of. My

motivation for that goal was simple: It dawned on me one day that I wanted to write

books and write and record music, and be successful enough to continue to do it for the

rest of my life and doing what I love to do is far easier with substantial reserves in

liquid assets than it is with no money. So I decided to become a millionaire. That

became a clear goal in my mind.

When you make a clear goal, and when you remind yourself of it enough so that your

subconscious mind grasps it, an amazing, mysterious thing happens. Some part of you

starts working backwards from that number, and finding how to achieve it. Its difficult

for me to explain how I feel the process works, but when you decide to become a

millionaire, you automatically start asking yourself how you can reach that goal. And

once you start asking that question, you start getting answers. All kinds of possibilities


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become obvious to you they were always there, but you never saw them before

because you werent looking for them.

2. What does it take to become a millionaire today?

Intention. Thats all it ever takes; thats all it has ever taken for anyone at any time.

There are just as many opportunities today as there were a generation ago, and a

hundred years ago. As Napoleon Hill said, Within every adversity is the seed of an

equal or greater benefit. I put these words, years ago, on my desk in big letters and

within a year I was a millionaire:

Within every adversity is an equal or greater benefit.

Within every problem is an opportunity.

Even in the knocks of life, we can find great gifts.

When you understand those words, it completely turns your thinking around. You start

to see benefits, opportunities, and gifts everywhere!

3. What prevents people from attracting greater wealth into their lives?

Our own doubts and fears are the only things that prevent us from attracting greater

wealth or achieving any expansive goal. The vast majority of the work it takes to

succeed is internal dealing with our doubts and fears.

Heres another thing I realized in my early thirties that turned my life around:

Our doubts and fears are not true in themselves.

Our deepest beliefs about ourselves

and the nature of our world

are not true in themselves,

but our thinking makes them true in our experience.

We can change our thinking and change even our

deepest core beliefs.

The truth is, Ive come to believe, that everyone is really a creative genius, in some


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unique way. Everyone has gifts they were born with. Everyone has dreams, desires,

goals that are attainable its just a matter of focusing our powerful, creative mind in

the right direction, going for that dream, that goal, and then dealing with the doubts and

fears that naturally arise in everyone as soon as we dare to dream an expansive future

and start taking steps toward it.

4. In your book The Millionaire Course, why do you recommend adding certain

phrases to intentions (i.e. in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive

way, in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all)?

I read about the power of affirmations years ago, in a book by Catherine Ponder, a

Unity Church minister. She suggested adding these words to every affirmation: In an

easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time, for the

highest good of all.

The day I turned thirty changed my life. I was unemployed, I had no money, and I was

struggling every month to come up with $65 to pay the rent on my one-room apartment

in the slums of Oakland, California. I took out a sheet of paper and wrote down my

ideal scene the best life for myself I could possibly imagine at the time. Then I

took out another sheet of paper and listed all the goals Id need to reach to achieve that

ideal scene. Then I listed each goal as an affirmation, as if it was coming into being in

the present I am now creating a successful company. I am now writing a

successful book. I am now creating a beautiful album of music. I am now getting

into real estate, and finding a starter house to buy.

I began each affirmation with the words, In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy

and positive way. And sometimes Id add the words, In its own perfect time, for the

highest good of all.

Over the years I came to realize that those four words easy, relaxed, healthy, and

positive in themselves, when repeated often, overcame a lot of my doubts and fears.

It wont be easy, whisper our doubts and fears. It certainly wont be relaxed

achieving success is stressful! Youve got to work really, really hard to succeed, etc.


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etc.

Affirming, over and over, I am now creating

a successful career (or whatever)

in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way

will over time overcome a huge number

of your doubts and fears.

This is not just theory this is true in my experience, and in the experience of a great

many others. You dont have to believe in any of this just try it for yourself, and

youll see the results!

5. What is The Ten Percent Solution, and why do you recommend it?

Theres nothing new in it. Its an ancient and powerful teaching that has been said a

million times, but most people still dont do it:

Save at least 10% of your income.

Start now.

If you have a windfall of some kind, save at least 50% of it.

A good way to begin is to set up two checking accounts. Put your regular income into

your main account, and immediately transfer at least 10% of every deposit into your

savings. Ive been doing this for years. Always round up so its over 10%: If youre

depositing $930, for example, put $100 into your savings [ed. 10% of $930 = $93, so

round up to $100]. Over time, it really adds up.

If youre in credit card debt, you can use your savings to pay it off. But get into the

habit of saving! At first, you may have to cheat a bit and go into your savings to pay

your monthly expenses. But keep saving, and youre sending a powerful message to

your subconscious mind: I am now living on less than 90% of my income, and saving

for my future is a priority.

Within a few months, youll find you can start building your savings. Then you start

investing it for a better return in stocks, bonds, real estate. Thats the one simple key to


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financial success!

And once you start saving, youre ready for the next step:

Give away at least 10% of your income.

The benefits of this simple act are tremendous,

for yourself and for the world.

Once youre saving 10%, set up a third checking account for donations, and put another

10% into that. Now youre instructing your powerful subconscious mind that youre

living on less than 80% of your income, saving over 10%, and giving 10% away to

people and organizations who are doing something beneficial in the world.

These two simple steps, saving and giving away 10% of your income, are great keys to abetter life and a better world. As Charles Colton said,

If universal charity prevailed,

Earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.

6. What role, if any, has meditation played in your experience of wealth creation?

Meditation has played a major role in my life and in my success. The way I look at it,there are two types of meditation:

(1) The first is what is normally thought of as meditation, where you simply let all

thought go, let all doing go, and just be in the moment. Its very simple. When you do

it, you find even if just for a moment at first that stillness that is beyond thought.

An easy way to get it is to do what Eckhart Tolle keeps recommending in The Power of

Now: simply connect with your presence or being within. The benefits of this are

endless, for everyone.

Another simple way to get into this meditation is something I learned from a Zen

teacher: Just stare at something, or close your eyes, and let all thought go as you exhale.

For one exhalation, anyone can let their thoughts go, at least for a moment. Do it over

and over, and you can learn at will to go beyond the constant stream of thoughts that


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most of us have throughout the day.

(2) The second type is creative meditation, the kind of thing Shakti Gawain wrote so

beautifully about in Creative Visualization. This has been invaluable to me over the

years: I imagined myself, over and over even way back when I was a total poverty

case living a life of ease, strolling around my big white house on a hill, with nothingto do, sitting on several million worth of assets. I visualized this repeatedly, and it came

true in my life.

With every project I set out to do, I visualize its completion. I see it finished, and

successful. Then the steps I need to take to make it happen become obvious. Along the

way, an intention forms that overcomes every apparent obstacle.

7. What does your typical workday look like?

Ive always been fairly lazy. Ive never been a morning person. I sleep usually until

about 11:00, and take a few hours to get up and get going. Tuesday through Friday, I

usually go into my office; I get there usually between 1:00 and 2:30. I never work over

thirty focused hours a week.

I never do work of any kind on Sunday thats my day for family and for rest. And Itake every Monday off thats my day for myself, for my mini-retreat. I never have

any plans on a Monday, except I usually have a massage in the late afternoon and I

have dinner with my family and put my son to bed. I stay at home on Mondays, and I

dont have internet access or email at home, so I have time for rest, rejuvenation,

writing, reflecting, playing music, staring at the clouds, doing nothing.

By Tuesday afternoon, I am ready to rock! I come into the office energized, whip

through a few hundred emails, and take care of what needs to be done to keep my

publishing company, New World Library, growing and blossoming, and to launch my

new enterprise, SuccessWithEase.net.

8. What do you believe is the relationship between wealth and spirituality? Is

there a connection between the two?


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For years I feared that the pursuit of wealth would hamper my spiritual life, distract me

from my spiritual path; that was one of the limiting beliefs I had that prevented me from

succeeding. But I realized somewhere in my early thirties that that belief, like all others,

wasnt true in itself. There is no conflict between wealth and spirituality, unless you

create it in your mind. I can pursue financial success and still have plenty of time as well

for my spiritual life. And, ultimately, theyre not even two separate things: My spiritual

life encompasses every moment of each day and night.

Teilhard de Chardin said one of my favorite quotes,

We are not physical beings who may

have a spiritual experience,

we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.

We are physical beings with physical needs, emotional beings with emotional needs,

mental beings with the power to fulfill our needs, and spiritual beings, every moment.

Acknowledging the spiritual in ourselves and in others gives us purpose in life, and puts

everything into the proper perspective.

We are not here just to become wealthy, isolated individuals. We are part of a great,

mysterious, wondrous whole, and we are here to love and serve ourselves, humanity,

and the whole planet, the whole environment. Thats the right perspective; thats what is

important in life.

The single most brilliant phrase I ever heard was from Ramana Maharshi, one of the

greatest teachers in India in the last century. He said:

The end of all wisdom is love,

love, love.

Thats what is important in life. If your education doesnt result in love for all of

humanity, for the whole world then your education hasnt been complete.

9. What advice would you give to participants in the Million Dollar Experiment

(i.e. people who are intending to become millionaires for the highest good of all)?


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Go for it! Go for your highest dreams. Youll never regret it. As Goethe said, Whatever

you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Take risks. Dont fear failure every successful person Ive ever known has had their

share of failures. If you keep intending to be successful, each failure is just another

stepping stone on your way to your inevitable success.

Burt Lahr, the comedian and actor, put it this way:

Keep on the merry-go-round long enough

and youre bound to catch the brass ring.

10. What projects are you working on now that may be of interest to participants

in the Million Dollar Experiment?

The Millionaire Course remains my main work I put everything I know into that

book. The three books I wrote before it have been very valuable for a lot of people, too:

Visionary Business, A Visionary Life, and The Ten Percent Solution.

My latest book is really original and fun: The Type-Z Guide to Success: A Lazy

Persons Manifesto for Wealth and Fulfillment. Its a short, breezy read designed for

lazy people and for Type As who want to get to the point quickly.

My music is always a big part of my life, too. My latest album is called Awakening; its

beautiful instrumental music (if I do say so myself), and you can sample that and all the

rest of my music for free at Watercourse Media.

Enjoy! And best wishes for the greatest success you can possibly imagine.

SP: Thank you so much, Marc. Your continued success is an inspiration to us all!

Update 4/29/06: You can now read my complete review of the Type-Z Guide to

Success.

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22 Responses to Marc Allen Interview

Illiterate Poet Says:April 20th, 2006 at 1:22 am

Apartment = New Storage Facility

I had my Arabic class today. It has almost been a month since my last class and I am

amazed at how much I have forgotten. Use it or loose it comes to mind. I have lots

of people coming

Everyday - Self Development Blog Archive Marc Allen InterviewSays:April 20th, 2006 at 6:53 am

[...] so you really should read it! [...]

Shaun Orpen Follow your dreams Says:April 20th, 2006 at 11:02 am

[...] From an interview with Marc Allen by Steve Pavlina. Go for it! Go for your

highest dreams. Youll never regret it. As Goethe said, Whatever you can do, or

dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. [...]

Paul Piotrowski's Blog Says:April 21st, 2006 at 9:03 am

Marc Allen Interview

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Meshio.Com Blog Archive The Millionaire in You! Says:April 22nd, 2006 at 8:02 am

[...] Plucked from Steves interview with Marc Allen For years I feared that the

pursuit of wealth would hamper my spiritual life, distract me from my spiritual path;

that was one of the limiting beliefs I had that prevented me from succeeding. But I

realized somewhere in my early thirties that that belief, like all others, wasnt true in

itself. There is no conflict between wealth and spirituality, unless you create it in


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your mind. I can pursue financial success and still have plenty of time as well for my

spiritual life. And, ultimately, theyre not even two separate things: My spiritual life

encompasses every moment of each day and night. [...]

Radical Mutual-Improvement Blog Archive Develop a simplemantra Says:

April 23rd, 2006 at 2:36 pm

[...] (inspired by combining advice in this interview with Marc Allen with this post

on remembering your dreams) [...]

Quote About Moneys Importance Investments + Editorials:Dissecting the good, the bad, and the ugly of investment / financialmedia! Says:April 24th, 2006 at 3:28 pm

[...] Quote About Moneys Importance Steve Pavlina published an interview heconducted with millionaire, Marc Allen. There were some interesting question and

answers regarding becoming a millionaire and about money in general. A terrific

quote, written by Kent Nerburn was thrown out that Id like to share: [...]

Achieve-IT! Says:April 24th, 2006 at 4:48 pm

If More Money is one of Your Goals Read This

whats the plot Blog Archive yahoo mail beta, etc Says:April 25th, 2006 at 5:22 am

[...] this morning, i read an interesting interview with marc allen. i dont really know

who he is, just that hes a multi millionaire and hes talking about how a person

should get there he makes some interesting points throughout the article the

three points that struck me the most were: 1. with regards to money, he says, It is a

very, very good servant but a terrible master. 2. he says that you should save at

least 10% of your salary monthly, and save more if you can. he says that onceyoure able to live off 90% of your salary, save another 10% and give it in charity,

saying that those two steps are great keys to a better life and a better world. 3. he

says that all it takes to becoming a millionaire today is intention. just intention, and

thats it. [...]

Like Your Work Blog Archive links for 2006-04-26 Says:April 25th, 2006 at 4:28 pm


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[...] Marc Allen Interview (tags: business personal) [...]

chris-elliott.com Blog Archive Visualize This Says:April 25th, 2006 at 6:09 pm

[...] One of the comments I got back was that I didnt find good applicable examples

in real life. I was having challenges with this thought earlier in the day after readinga posting on Steve Pavlinas blog about his interview with Marc Allen. I had my

speech written and ready to go and was unable to fit some of the gems I found in

Steves interview in my speech. Needless to say, I did write a lot of the quotes down

on my quote cards and peeked at them throughout the day when I was feeling less

then motivated. [...]

The Type-Z Guide to Success With Ease Says:April 29th, 2006 at 8:18 am

[...] You may have read my recent interview with multi-millionaire Marc Allen. This

is a review of his latest book, The Type-Z Guide to Success With Ease: A Lazy

Persons Manifesto for Wealth and Fulfillment. [...]

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digeratInc.com Millionaire interview of the day Says:May 2nd, 2006 at 2:24 am

[...] Via Lifehacker there is a pretty neat interview with a self-made man aka Marc

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believe and meditate and you will succeed mantras, there are some interesting and

pretty motivating quotes in there; such as Take risks. Dont fear failure every

successful person Ive ever known has had their share of failures. If you keepintending to be successful, each failure is just another stepping stone on your way to

your inevitable success. [...]

Ms. News Goat What I Learned from Running the Marathon Says:May 4th, 2006 at 9:05 pm

[...] I also learned a lot about taking care of my body. Like I said, I wasnt sure if

training for a marathon was a healthy thing to do. I knew it would stress my body


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and be hard on me. As it turns out, knowing that made me really focus on healthier

habits. I decided early on that I didnt want to make this any harder on my body

than it had to be. I think it was similar to the way Marc Allen adds the phrase in a

healthy and positive way to every affirmation. I wanted to do this in a way that was

healthy for me. [...]

A Pad 4 Ever Blog Archive Good stuff of the day 10/05/2006Says:May 9th, 2006 at 9:08 am

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[...] Marc Allen The Ten

Percent Solution [...]

Towards Better Life Blog Archive Affirmation - Easy, Relax,Healthy, Positive Says:July 16th, 2006 at 5:25 am

[...] The 4 words Easy, Relax, Healty, Positive is recommended by Mc Allen in his

book The Millionaire Course. He recommends to begin each affirmation with the

words, In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way. And

sometimes he would add the words, In its own perfect time, for the highest good ofall. In Steve Pavlinas interview with him Mc Allen mentions the following

experience that he had gone through: Over the years I came to realize that those

four words easy, relaxed, healthy, and positive in themselves, when repeated

often, overcame a lot of my doubts and fears. It wont be easy, whisper our

doubts and fears. It certainly wont be relaxed achieving success is stressful!

Youve got to work really, really hard to succeed, etc. etc. Affirming, over and

over, I am now creating a successful career (or whatever) in an easy and relaxed

manner, in a healthy and positive way will over time overcome a huge number of

your doubts and fears [...]

Change your thoughts Blog Archive New world library Says:October 8th, 2006 at 1:20 pm

[...] Steve Pavlina had an interview with Marc Allen on becoming a millionaire, read

the article here . Marc has had his own success At age 30 Marc Allen and Shakti

Gawain launched New World Library with no capital, and today the company is a


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major independent publisher with the motto: Publishing books and audio and video

projects that change lives. A published author himself, Marc has written several

books, including The Millionaire Course: Living the Life of Your Dreams, Visionary

Business: An Entrepreneurs Guide to Success, A Visionary Life: Conversations on

Creating the Life That You Want, and The Ten-percent Solution: For Personal and

Global Financial Problems. [...]

Power of affirmations Ramblings of an Eccentric Soul Says:November 21st, 2007 at 8:49 am

[...] I read about the power of affirmations years ago, in a book by Catherine

Ponder, a Unity Church minister. She suggested adding these words to every

affirmation: In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its

own perfect time, for the highest good of all. Marc Allen Interview [...]

Farhans Life Blog Archive The plot thickens as illness takesover Says:December 11th, 2007 at 4:07 am

[...] That is that its possible to accomplish something without effort Marc Allens

interview by Steve Pavlina really brought home to me the effortless part that I was

desperately moving away from Being a success, without working hard, that was

what I wanted in my world, and was the only way I wanted to manifest it yet it

seemed as if I was starting to go against my own inner sense of right and wrong,

without realising it. Perhaps or perhaps I was just resting, and my body wasde-toxing a lot more gunk that it could finally let out, after taking really powerful

nutritional supplements. Having a lymphoedema for a while now, Ive been

supplementing with USANA supplements, and whilst I know its making a huge

improvement to my long term health and well being, I know that my leg hasnt yet

recovered easily and effortlessly, but as the swelling reduces gradually I go through

a phase of detox and my body shuts me down, whilst it takes over, and instigates

corporate rest, ahead of any other activity for a few days. Normally, the onset of

such rest is accompanied by pivotal points of pain, and specific signals that my body

knows its about to go down.. and I didnt get any of those this time round. [...]

Intention and reality In 2 Deep Says:April 13th, 2008 at 9:15 am

[...] living your life in partnership and has a profitable business to prove it works.

Heres an interview of Marc by Steve Pavlina. If you have a wealth intention you

might be surprised at his approach and how effective its [...]


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Marc Allen Interview by Steve Pavlina

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