Running head: INSPIRATION BOOK 1

Inspiration Book: We should all be Millionaires

Lorena C. Hamilton

Arizona State University

OGL482

Module 2

March 26, 2023

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We should all be Millionaires

Each of us all have the ingredients to be millionaires, we just need a different recipe (Rodgers,

2022). The book I chose for my inspiration book project is We Should All Be Millionaires by

Rachel Rogers. In comparison to the other book options, the title caught my attention with the

word millionaire. I have never read a book quite like this one. As a minority woman that aspires

to become self-employed, this book really spoke to me. The author shares personal stories of

challenges, triumph, betrayal, and how those experiences and life lessons brought her to this

point in life. The book discusses how oppression, patriarchy, and disempowerment of woman has

affected us psychologically, socially, and hindered our ability to become wealthy. I highly

recommend the book, if you are woman looking to become a business owner, are underpaid, and

overworked, or looking to feel empowered. This book shares impactful information that could

truly change your life. I would recommend this book to a colleague or student focused on

learning organizational leadership studies because it emphasizes tips on clearly communicating

in the workplace, taking charge of your career and personal life, organization, discipline,

mindset, and other concepts directly connected with leadership.

I learned many lessons from the book. One of my biggest takeaways was the concept of

the mental money jail. The mental money jail is when women think negative thoughts that make

us stagnant. We mentally rehearse stories that keep us from making progress or even trying.

These negative thoughts include the fear that financial stability might be obtained but we will

lose it and everyone will know we were failures, or we tell ourselves that money is not

important, or we make the excuse that we are just not good with money anyway. This lesson

resonates with me because at one point or another, I have rehearsed every single one of those

negative thoughts in my mind. I now understand that in order to take financial leadership I have
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to quiet those negative thoughts. Yet this does not only come from my own mind. The reason I

believed those stories and negative thoughts is because woman have been conditioned to believe

that. The author talks about remembering that fact, forgiving yourself and being kinder to

yourself. This is not all our fault. One of the suggestions to combat negative thoughts is to focus

on thought work. Thought work is consciously paying attention to your thoughts and changing

them to positive and helpful thoughts. Another important lesson was that we need to forgive

ourselves if we are not good with money or if we made a poor financial decision. A quote shared

in the book by Maya Angelou is, “When you know better, you do better”. If finance is not your

strong suite, educate yourself and figure it out. Everyone can learn. As a leader in an

organization, I will use this lesson as knowledge to leave the tax and financials to our CFO and

accounting team. Corporate finance is not my forte but I do believe I should understand the

basics. The third lesson I took away from the book and maybe one of the more important for me

personally is to establish your million-dollar squad. A million-dollar squad is a group of people

who will significantly change your outcome. These people will bring you energy, power, wealth,

referrals, job leads, laughter, ideas, improve your mood and inspire you (Rodgers, 2022). This

lesson made me think long and hard as to who I consider my squad and I came to a realization

that my squad had shrunk. The reason for that was that I stopped becoming a joiner. A joiner is

described as a person who actively associates with groups and essentially, I stopped networking.

A joiner does that with the sole purpose of associating with like minded individuals. To become

a strong and well-rounded leader, I will need to join groups and network to find my squad.

This book was in no way like any other books I have read throughout my organizational

leadership courses, yet it did provide a correlation with habits, personality traits, and behaviors

of a leader. Chapter 6 in the book specifically identifies a handful of actions to take to embody
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the woman you want to become. Simple things like improving your attitude, changing your

mindset, practicing routine self-care, reading, and doing things that make you feel good are all

things that will help your confidence and are done by most leaders. The book also connects

theories discussed in several courses such as Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy and it directly

speaks to the fact that once the basics needs of a woman are fulfilled that there is a need to

belong and be part of a group. Rachel discusses taking the Clifton Strengths Assessment which is

an assessment I have taken as one of the course requirements. She became part of a group and

had a coach share her interpretation of the results. Rachel initially did not agree with the coach

but after thinking about it more she made the connections. I agree with my results. I feel that they

describe me perfectly. The book also connects with some of the principles taught in courses such

as OGL350 Diversity and Organizations. This course discusses interpretation on race, why it

exists, why it matters, what race looks like, how it impacts you, and how civility, dialogue, and

empathy all encourage and facilitate inclusivity for all races. On a deeper level, the book speaks

about how inequalities have directly affected women. The frames from Pro-Seminar I that I can

apply to this book are the political frame, structural frame, and symbolic frame. The political

frame is evident in the book because Rachel describes many situations where she felt that men

will mostly support each other before they support a woman, especially a minority woman. The

structural frame is also evident in the book, more specifically the division of labor component

because there are several times Rachel mentions having to do the majority of the work and not

getting appropriate credit or recognition. The symbolic is also evident because there are many

situations described that are driven by the culture or views of others.

The aspect of the book I identify with the most is Rachel’s personal story on how her

family at one point was doing quite well. Then disaster struck, her mother walked away from her
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job because she did not get the promotion, she felt she deserved and her father was laid off. She

described the shift from regularly going to a mall and shopping to being forced to use food

stamps. My family experienced a comparable situation. My family was middle class, two

working parents and we vacationed twice a year. My father was laid off and he spiraled into a

depressive state which eventually led to a divorce. Now we have one working parent, no

vacations, and we did not eat as well as we did. The fear of having money and losing it is a

negative thought I have to fight against because I lived it. It is a fear that sneaks into your

thoughts even to this day.

After reading the book and reflecting on the content I believe it will help me as an

organizational leader by empowering women by promoting based off skill level, dividing work

appropriately, giving credit where it is due, and offering fair pay. I believe it would also be

helpful to develop a woman’s group and provide a variety of courses or discussions such as self-

improvement, investing, business basics, wellness, and motivational. This book has positively

impacted my understanding of leadership. It has helped explain why I have experienced certain

setbacks in life when I thought I was doing my best and it made me realize how societal and

cultural beliefs about a woman’s role and place in the home and work has stifled the

advancement of woman. I can make a difference in my career by hiring woman, supporting

woman’s rights, promoting work life balance, supporting fair and equal treatment of woman in

the workplace and by providing woman support through education and providing resources.

If I could ask the author one question, it would be what is the single most important piece

of advice she ever received? I would like to know the answer to that question to see if I am able

to make a connection and use it in my life.

Conclusion
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The book has been eye opening for me. As a woman who is looking to start investing in a

business, I feel empowered to do so. I believe that Rachel’s tips on how to initiate change, find

motivation, and change your mindset could help me achieve my goals. I will use my success to

make a better world.

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References

Rodgers, R. (2022). We should all be millionaires: A woman's guide to earning more, building
wealth, and gaining economic power. HarperCollins Leadership, an imprint of
HarperCollins.