How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets

by Felix Dennis

If you are young and reading this then I ask you to remember just this: you are richer than anyone older than you, and far richer than those who are much older.

Money is never owned. It is only in your custody for a while. Time is always running on, and the young have more of it in their pocket than the richest man or woman alive.

Wealth makes many demands and, by the time you have acquired it, you will be prey to certain habits. You will fear to lose it and must spend a great deal more time to defend it.

No one is “independent” of the human race. “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

You will be too busy keeping the sea from washing away the sand you have spent so long collecting at such terrible cost to your health and your sanity and your relationships with others. It is always thus. There is no escape. You believe (I know you do) that it will be different for you. But it won’t be. It never is.

The only people the self-made rich can trust are those who knew them before they became wealthy.

Perhaps, if I am lucky enough to become old, I will accumulate something else: the courage to give it all away before I die. That would be a good thing, I think.

As long as you have cut the parental knot, you are in good shape.

They want the familiarity and sense of false security that comes with things staying as they are.

You are to become a loner, an outcast, cut off from the very thing that defines what many of us believe we are.

Cut loose, my friend. Cut loose and get rich.

THE WORLD IS FULL OF MONEY. SOME OF IT HAS MY NAME ON IT. ALL I HAVE TO DO IS COLLECT IT.

Gold rushes don’t happen in old mines.

One thing is for sure, you must avoid the trap of going into what you think will make you money if you have no empathy or feeling for what you are about to do. There’s no future in that.

Fear nothing. Another easy-to-say and impossible piece of advice. Tough luck, chum. Life’s a bitch and then you die. Get used to it. It isn’t going to change anytime soon.

You will never start unless you start NOW!

Need will drive you, but you must not prevaricate. You must act at the slightest hint of a chance to make money. You must go, go, go!

If you wish to get rich, there are no reasons why you should not get rich. None at all.

Keep giving it away. The faster you give it away, the more money will flow back to you.

As soon as you’ve spent it, gifted it, loaned it or invested it, forget it.

Never loan it to friends. If you loan money to a friend, you will lose your friend as well as your money.

Your oldest friends are your only friends.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with orgies, parties, narcotics and booze—but they will kill you in the end.

Get your own private advisors. The professionals who help run your company must be first class. The professionals who run your private wealth for you must be even classier.

Do not try to be friends with your staff.

Do not sleep with your staff. It’s dumb. It’s unfair. And it sucks. Period.

Being rich doesn’t give you the right to abuse anyone.

No need to get paranoid about it, but effective security for you and your family has to become a priority.

Never stop looking for talent and promoting talent.

Your employees and advisors are just that: employees and advisors. You are the owner. You must follow your instincts. You must lead.

Stay as healthy as you can.

If you’re bored with a business, sell it.

Try to sell before you have to. You’re an entrepreneur. Your companies are not your “babies,” they are tools for acquiring wealth. Try to sell them before they peak.

Retirement will kill you. It’s official! Retirement kills the kind of people who make their own pile.

Remember you are only richer than them. Not smarter than them.

Cut loose from negative influences. Never give in. Stay the course.

Ignore “great ideas.” Concentrate on great execution.

Hire talent smarter than you. Delegate. Share the annual pie.

“Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.”