A colleague of mine, Andy Jenkins, is a smart, savvy Internet marketer. So when he gives me advice, I listen. His most recent tip provides a great lesson to budding entrepreneurs. He told me to change the short bio on the back page of my forthcoming book from “self-made millionaire” to “socially made millionaire.”

Andy’s argument was that success is never "self-made." The idea of someone being a self-made millionaire is like saying, “Hey, look at me, I did this by myself!” And people look at someone like that and think, “I can’t do that all by myself." And what’s the point of reading a book about business by someone whose level of success is impossible to attain?

After listening to Andy’s advice, I realized that he was right. I’m not self-made because I’ve had to rely on other people my entire career. I’ve drawn from other people’s experience by finding mentors and leaders to learn from and emulate, I’ve used other people’s money by getting funding from investors, and I’ve leveraged other people’s networks along with my own. Even my companies were founded on other people’s ideas that I improved upon. The more social I became, the more successful I became.

So, if you’re reading this and thinking that you can’t become a millionaire, I came up with a quick list of tips that explain how you can become a socially made millionaire:

• Assess your skills: First take an inventory of your network. What skills do you have, and what are you lacking? The key is to partner with people who are knowledgeable or good at doing the things you aren’t. For instance, Andy has significant Internet and marketing skills that I don’t have, which is why we work well together on our team.

• Listen to your network: If you apply the experience and collective wisdom of the people you’ve selected to mentor you, they will notice and say, “Hey, he took my advice.” It’s a way of giving the people who support you a form of credit.

• Honor your mentors: And speaking of credit—always give credit where it’s due. Make sure you honor the people who are responsible for your success.

• Evaluate your connections: When you think about the value of your network, try to put a price tag on an individual. This might sound strange, but it is a great piece of advice I got from an early mentor Todd Goergen (founder and managing partner at private equity firm Ropart Asset Management Funds). For instance, when I hit it off with someone important, I go into my Outlook or Gmail contacts list and write down the skills or background experience they have that inspired me when I first met them. This will help you prioritize who has the most value to you in your network, and it’ll serve as a mnemonic device as your network begins to outgrow your short-term memory.

• Return the favor: After evaluating others, ask yourself how you bring value to the people in your network? Constantly keep in touch with them. Invite them to events and parties. Buy a nice bottle of wine or champagne when you’re out with them. Send them a copy of a book or an email with an article they might be interested in attached. The point is, when you’re asking people to get involved in your business, you want them to get something out of it. Show them a return for their valuable time, money, and endorsement.

• Protect your network: Don’t become an antisocially made millionaire by jeopardizing your contacts. For instance, an intern of mine, after watching me make it all look so easy over and over, decided to go out and start pitching investors with an idea for a business that ultimately turned out to be a scam. In the end, he may have made a fast $10,000 from the initial fundraising, but he lost billion-dollar connections in the process.