I've been a Joe Vitale fan for as long as I can remember. I first discovered Joe's books when I was a college student at the University of Michigan and his books opened my eyes to the idea that I didn't have to go through the traditional path: get good grades, graduate, find a 9-to-5 job, earn a living. Rather, his books opened me up to the idea that there was more to life than just this path that everyone else goes on. This is why I'm honored to be writing this preface.

Joe's particular book The Awakened Millionaire serves an important purpose because it's a manifesto for the globe. It's about profiting; it's a wake up call to save people from going down a traditional path in life that is the path of working hard to get a job, to slave away from 9:00 to 5:00, to get some money so you can pay the bills, so you can survive. Most people are in survival mode when what we should be is in thriving mode. So this book could very well save you and shift you to a path where you are actually living a life of meaning.

See, the problem with the education system is that we ask people, “What do you want to be when you grown up?” And the nature of that question, and the nature of the idea itself, suggests that we grow up to take on a particular career, to earn money, to pay the bills, to survive.

But a better question might be, “What do you really enjoy doing that you might be able to turn into a gift for the world?” This is the question that this book has you answer. It's about spiritual wealth. It's about making peace with money. Not seeing money as something you have to slog to earn, but money as a reward for you doing good deeds for the world and fulfilling your mission.

And there's something amazing that happens when you work on something that you feel is a mission. It drives you. It inspires you. It motivates you. Life doesn't feel like an uphill climb. It almost feels as if you have the wind behind your back as you move towards this mission. When you do this, work dissolves. Work ceases to exist in your vocabulary because when you're working on your mission, nothing makes you happier. The money is just a beautiful side effect.

This book is the best of Joe's work so far—perhaps his greatest work out of 30 years and 50 books. It is designed to inspire people to stretch, to grow, to serve, to awaken. The first part of the book talks from a “we perspective” to help you realize that we are all one and because we are all one, what could be more important than creating a mission that serves a collective humanity?

The second part of the book is about you…it's from a “you perspective” to address your own personal call to action. It helps you identify your mission, how to make sure the mission is right, how to monetize your mission.

Just as few books in history have actually changed the course of history, this book, the manifesto, is designed to do the same for a new generation. Your generation. My generation. The time is now. The book is here.

Thank you.

Vishen Lakhiani
Founder, Mindvalley
Author, Code of the Extraordinary Mind