$100. It doesnt seem like much, but it was all I needed to motivate myself to ultimately make millions as an entrepreneur.

Does that sound like an exaggeration? Its not, absolutely. The reality is millions of would-be entrepreneurs never make as much is $100. For me, making that first $100 represented crossing a threshold.

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A small one, yes, but a necessary one on the way toward reaching progressively larger goals. After all, you have to start somewhere, and $100 did it for me.

Youve Already Made $100 and It Didnt Do Anything For You Now What?

I completely get it. $100 doesnt buy a lot these days, and it certainly isnt life-changing. It doesnt mean youre rich, and it wont come close to guaranteeing you a comfortable retirement.

If you have a job, youve already made $100 many times over. You probably earn several times that amount in a single week. You already know it doesnt amount to the equivalent of a car payment or even a weeks worth of groceries. Mostly, its just pocket change.

So why is $100 so important to me?

My journey toward building wealth started when I read Robert Kyosakis eye-opening book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. If youre not familiar with the book and I consider it to be recommended reading Kyosaki chronicles the differences between his real dad, and another man he informally adopted as a dad.

His real dad spent most of his life doing little more than paying bills. He never accumulated a substantial amount of money, and struggled throughout his life. His real dad was his poor dad in the book.

But his adopted dad his rich dad figured out how to make money work for him early in life, and became a truly wealthy man.

Kyosaki used the comparison between the two dads to show how the average person follows the path of his real dad. That is, theyre trained to go to college, get a job, and begin acquiring the trappings of middle-class life. Unlike his rich dad, they dont learn the secrets of money, particularly how to leverage it to work for them.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad challenges us to change our mindset when it comes to money. It teaches us we can learn to master money and grow it by following the example of Kyosakis rich dad. But its a choice, and one we have to consciously embrace making.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad Was Just the Beginning

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a classic book when it comes to creating the motivation to build wealth. However, it stopped short of giving you a specific roadmap to show you how to get from where you are to where you want to be.

But all journeys begin with proper motivation, and the book certainly gave that to me. It stimulated a desire to experiment with different businesses and money-making ideas. Ultimately, you have to find what it is that works for you. This takes a healthy dose of trial and error, as well as a willingness to fail, then get back up and try again.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Winston Churchill

The problem for most people, as it was for me as well, is you dont know where to start. That can lead to paralysis by analysis, where you get trapped inside your own head, and fail to take action.

Fear is another obstacle. Theres no doubt when you step out and try something new, the risk of failure is a constant traveling companion. It can lead to loss of time, money, credibility with your peers, and even self-esteem.

Put another way, the emotional aspects of taking the chances necessary to create wealth leads most people to not even try.

The only way to overcome the paralysis and fear factors is by moving forward, one step at a time.

The M.O.R.E. Method to Building Wealth

As I began my journey into wealth building, I began to notice there were certain things I did that produced positive results. Whats more, I saw the same pattern with others who were either already wealthy, or well on their way.

It was from those patterns I hatched the M.O.R.E. concept. Its made up of the following components (Im sure youll excuse me for the fact that some letters in M.O.R.E. have more than one category!):

M #1: Mentor

This is about finding people who are already at the place you want to be. The goal is to find such people, get to know them, and find out what it is they do that leads them to success. Its a way of finding proven strategies from people who have actually done them. The alternative is to waste a lot of time, effort, and money trying to reinvent the wheel on your own. A mentor eliminates that long and painful process.

Mentoring is a great opportunity to deliver a rewarding and potentially life-changing experience for both the mentor and the mentee, reports Forbes Contributor, Mary Abbajay. It is one of the most important things a person can do to enhance their career and professional life. It takes time and commitment, but it is well worth the effort. Whether you are the mentor or the mentee, its a win-win for your career.

You dont need to know a successful person to make him or her your mentor. Robert Kyosaki was my first mentor, and Ive never met him. But by reading his books and following his work, he became an unknowing mentor to me.

You can do the same with other successful people. With the Internet, its easier to do than ever. Most popular wealth building people also have websites. There you can get access to additional information and resources. You may even have an opportunity for direct contact through email. Think of it as a start until youre able to connect with successful entrepreneurs on a face-to-face basis.

M #2: Mastermind Group

This is nothing more complicated than hooking up with a group of people who have similar interests and goals, and meeting with them regularly. Apart from sharing goals, it also works as an accountability group. That is, you hold each other accountable for the goals each of you sets.

Having people around to call on when you need it is one of the soundest investments you can make, Forbes Contributor Sarah Kathleen Peck says of mastermind groups. These are people you can call on to help you talk through tough decisions, and people whose businesses and lives you become a part of.

If youve never been part of a mastermind group, the accountability piece can seem a bit scary. But thats really the point whenever youre embarking on a new course in life you need to surround yourself with people who will help you work around obstacles and keep you from quitting.

But mastermind groups arent just about compelling you move forward. Theyre also an opportunity for you to share your successes with the group. Just as the successes of others will help you, your own victories will help the other members of the group.

When I joined a mastermind group early in my career, it led to exponential growth of my business and my income. Its the natural outcome of surrounding yourself with other successful, high achieving entrepreneurs. I was able to go to these people with my problems, and get insights and strategies on how to overcome them. Thats an advantage you cant put a price on.

O #1: Open an Investment Account

You can build wealth through your business or your career, but the accumulation really kicks into high gear only when you begin investing. Once you do, you begin earning money on your money, while youre busy with your primary occupation. Ultimately, it provides you with income from two sources your career and your portfolio.

You may already have an investment account, so Im addressing the O in M.O.R.E. to those who dont. And many dont, for all kinds of reasons. They may be waiting until they make more money, have more money, get out of debt, or for some other event.

A very common obstacle to investing is a lack of knowledge. But dont let that stop you either. Like everything else you do in life, investing is something you learn as you go. And with the many investment options there are today, particularly mutual funds and robo-advisors, you dont need to know anything at all about investing to get started.

When it comes to investing, youll need to pull the trigger sooner or later, and sooner is always better. You always learn more by taking action than researching the action you need to take!

Dont underestimate this step. Once you get started, investing is just a matter of scaling up your activity. This means adding money to your portfolio, and spreading it across the most productive asset classes, if only gradually. The sooner you start, the more time youll have the build wealth and gain experience.

No matter what your financial situation is right now, or what obstacles you face, open an investment account and get started.

O #1: Opening Your Personal Equity Fund

You may already have a savings account, like an emergency fund or a rainy day fund, but this is something completely different.

A personal equity fund is a savings account youre going to funnel money into on a regular basis for the sole purpose of investing in yourself.

Investing in yourself could be buying a course that will help you improve your career or business. It can also be hiring a business or career coach, or even joining a coaching program. It can also be something as simple as buying more how-to books or subscribing to a membership community that will help you either build your business or your investment portfolio.

The purpose of a personal equity fund is to remove the cost factor from the equation. If you need any information to grow your business or improve your investment performance, youll already have the money available. In this way, youll change your mindset and stop thinking of investing in yourself as being some sort of expense.

When it comes to investing in yourself, its important to get past the cost factor, and focus more on the much greater financial benefit youll gain. Its part of embracing a mentality of abundance, rather than scarcity.

When starting a business, you can either commit money or time to your project, explains Benjamin Brandt, CFP at Capital City Wealth Management, Inc, in Bismarck, ND, and host of the popular retirement podcast, Retirement Starts Today. If youre like most aspiring business owners, you dont have unlimited funds and youll need to bootstrap all aspects of your budding business. Fortunately for you, YouTube, blogs, and podcasts are available to teach anyone any topic from the comfort of your own home and generally for no cost.

R: Research

Whatever direction youre going to take your business or your investments, youll need to do plenty of research to help you get there. No one is born knowing exactly what to do its always a learning process.

Research will help you in developing and launching a product, an online course, an e-commerce store, or any income generating venture you come up with.

Research can involve using some of your personal equity fund to buy resources, like courses and programs that will help you with your venture. But it may also be something as simple as joining a Facebook group with people who are already on the same track. Youll need to do extensive research if youre looking to improve on an already existing product or service, and even more so if youre looking to launch something totally new.

But it has to be research with boundaries. I say this because its very possible to research too much.

One of the revelations that hit me in my business career is I dont have to know everything I just have to know enough to get started now.

This process is sometimes referred to as just in time learning.

For example, lets say you want to create a course on how to learn swimming. You dont need to first learn how to market on Facebook. You first need to create your course, then youll learn how to market on Facebook later. Put another way, youll learn what you need when you need it. If you try to learn everything before you even get started, youll probably never start.

Which is an excellent segue into the last part of my M.O.R.E. strategy

E: Execute and Enjoy

This can be the scariest part of the whole process, but you need to be ready to take whatever your plans are and put them out there into the real world. And you need to do it even if you dont think youre completely ready.

Youll never know if a business idea will be successful until you actually put it in motion. That will help you to know if you need to modify the idea, or even scrap it completely.

That was my experience when I launched my blog, Good Financial Cents. I hardly knew what blogging was, but I had a financial story to tell, and I wanted to get it out there. Without a doubt, I didnt know nearly what I needed to in order to make the blog a success. But by getting started by executing I put myself out there, and gradually learned what I needed to know. That idea alone has earned me several million dollars.

That brings me back to the seemingly insignificant $100. It took nine months for the blog to finally earn as much as $100. In fact, the actual payment received from Google Adsense was $152.91.

To many, that doesnt seem like enough compensation for nine months of work. But for me, I knew if I could earn that much, I would eventually turn it into so much more. And I did, and all because I earned that first $100+.

Final Thoughts

Dont underestimate the power of earning your first $100. If you plan to launch a business venture, this will be a pivotal moment. Remember once again most people who launch business ventures never make that much. They then give up, never to try again.

Launch a side hustle, with the goal of making your first $100. I promise you, youll be surprised at how empowering that achievement will be. Youll have created an income source that previously didnt exist. And youll know if you can make that much, you can make a lot more.

Creating wealth is really about getting started, making a little bit of money, then multiplying your success. Once you master the concept, you can take it as far as you want. And thats the whole purpose of the M.O.R.E. strategy.

Use it, and I promise youll get there faster than you ever dreamed.

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How I Turned $100 Into Millions Using The M.O.R.E. Method - Forbes