WHO WANTS TO be a millionaire? You do? Well, quit your job, don't work too hard and stop being too clever. So says Roger Hamilton, a successful entrepreneur who claims to have discovered the Midas touch and is now travelling Asia to let others in on the secret - for a fee, of course.
Hong Kong-born Hamilton (right) describes himself as a 'wealth coach' - like a health coach except he aims to get your bank account, rather than your biceps, bulging. 'If you follow a physical fitness coach you have no choice but to get fit. If you follow my steps, you have no choice but to become wealthy,' beams the 34-year-old, who claims to have helped turn 20 people into US dollar millionaires over the past three years.
His unconventional techniques have seen him hired as a consultant by chief executive officers, give seminars and speeches to more than 20,000 wealth-seekers and publish a book, Wink And Grow Rich, which is released in Hong Kong this month. The book is an allegorical tale of a nine-year-old boy called Richard who, when asked by his impoverished but hard-working father to make the daily trudge to the 'well of wealth' and pay $1 to draw water, strays from the path his father has told him to take. On his subsequent adventure, he meets enlightened characters who teach him how to create wealth.
Hamilton, born to a Scottish father and Chinese mother who were both Hong Kong police officers, says anyone who follows his teachings is guaranteed riches. 'It works even for people who don't know what they want to do or how they're going to get the wealth they want,' he says. 'By using my formula and building a foundation, it's only a matter of time before it comes to them.'
The financial guru's rapid-fire speech is peppered with handy maxims: 'Your passion is your compass'; 'wealth is not the end, it's the beginning'; 'invest time, not money'. He exudes the evangelical zeal of a preacher extolling the path to eternal life, except Hamilton says there are eight paths to riches: the creator, star, supporter, deal-maker, trader, accumulator, lord and mechanic. For example, Bill Gates is a creator, Tom Cruise a star and Li Ka-shing a deal-maker.
Hamilton has devised 'wealth dynamics', a profiling system that enables people to analyse their personality to see which path to take. 'They cut out a lot of stuff that isn't working for them and find what they enjoy most. It's fun but they're finding success,' he maintains.