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Twenty years ago, Jeff Harris hardly seemed on the road to wealth. He was a college dropout who struggled to support his wife, DeAnn, and three kids, working as a grocery store clerk and at a junkyard where he melted scrap metal alongside convicts. "At times we were so broke that we washed our clothes in the bathtub because we couldn't afford the laundromat." Now he's a 49-year-old investment advisor and multimillionaire in York, South Carolina.
There was one big reason Jeff pulled ahead of the pack; He always knew he'd be rich. The reality is that 80 percent of Americans worth at least $5 million grew up in middle-class or lesser households, just like Jeff.
"Wanting to be wealthy is a crucial first step," says Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. "The biggest obstacle to wealth is fear. People are afraid to think big, but if you think small, you'll only achieve small things."
It all started for Jeff when he met a stockbroker at a Christmas party. "Talking to him, it felt like discovering fire," he says. "I started reading books about investing during my breaks at the grocery store, and I began putting $25 a month in a mutual fund." Next he taught a class at a local community college on investing. His students became his first clients, which led to his investment practice. "There were lots of struggles," says Jeff, "but what got me through was believing with all my heart that I would succeed."