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

by Felix Dennis

You will get the most out of any senior employee in their first year or two in a new position. After that, they enter a “comfort zone.”

Focus on Doing an Outstanding Job

Ownership Shall Be Half of the Law; Doing an Outstanding Job Shall Be the Other Half.

Why does it count? Why is it important to focus on doing an outstanding job? Firstly, talent will flock to your company.

Firstly, talent will flock to your company.

Secondly, you will make fe...

Thirdly, it places a premium on your assets and the worth...

So focus on your business, whatever it is. It represents what you are.

Being the best, or at least striving to be, will speed up the process of getting rich. Trust me.

Focusing on doing an outstanding job is an important part of getting rich.

level. It’s the lying and ducking and diving, the wasting of their time calling you and never having their calls returned that really gets their goat.

Don’t play it like that. Play it straight. Be honest with them and show them you’re doing your best. You can’t do any more than that.

Closing down a business or going into bankruptcy is a miserable affair at any time. My advice is not to make it worse by omitting to apologize and shoulder the responsibility squarely. But don’t take it too much to heart. There’s always the chance of a comeback.

work. I work eight to ten hours every day locked away in a purpose-built work area.

That’s another reason to keep on the straight and narrow. You don’t waste a lot of time covering up and wondering if you will be found out.

As for becoming a tax exile (leaving a country to avoid paying tax by exploiting loopholes in the law), I tried it once, twenty-odd years ago. It may work for some people, but I found it tiresome, oddly disturbing and counterproductive.

Getting rich isn’t so difficult. But if you want to stay rich, then pay your taxes and don’t milk the cow without reporting it. End of lecture.

“cut to the chase”

There is no fortress so strong that money cannot take it. — CICERO, IN VERREM

You have to cut loose to get rich. There isn’t any other way. Firstly, of course, you must break loose from your parents and family home.

Now you must cut yourself loose from naysayers and negative influences: the Jeremiahs.

Fear of failure is a subject about which I have already written in this book, probably to excess. I repeat that it is the main stumbling block to getting rich for most people.

You simply have to face up to it, stare it in the eye and cut loose from such thoughts.

Such knowledge breeds the kind of recklessness you see when people walk right to the edge of a cliff and perform a handstand, just for the hell of it.

I’m not suggesting you begin doing handstands on clifftops or risking life and limb. But I am suggesting that you must cut loose, in your mind, from your previous life.

I am suggesting that you must cut loose, in your mind, from your previous life. Getting rich comes from an attitude of mind. It isn’t going to happen if things drift on pretty much the way they are right now.

you must cut loose, in your mind, from your previous life. Getting rich comes from an attitude of mind. It isn’t going to happen if things drift o...

Getting rich comes from an attitude of mind. It isn’t going to happen if things drift on pretty muc...

Focus, determination and relentless drive are wearing in themselves—both to you and those around you. Any distraction whatever can cost you a chance that may not come again.

Lastly, it goes without saying that you must cut loose from working for other people.

The air itself reeks of drive, and determination and focus. It is like a drug. And it has served America and her people well—at least in the sense of material wealth.

Our job defines us. But it cannot define you. Not anymore. You are a wild pig rooting for truffles. You are a weasel about to rip the throat out of a rabbit. You are an entrepreneur.

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. There will be people making a good living out of old mines, but they won’t be too keen to let you muscle in on their stake. Look for new mountains where gold is being mined; or will be mined soon.

you have to choose a new mine where you suspect

there is money, or an old mine with a different angle to get rich. The right mountain.

Avoid that trap. Don’t do anything because you feel you have to. Go for what attracts you. Go for something that exploits your natural talents.

Go to the mountain which produces money. Money that has your name on it.

You are going to die. Nothing can alter the fact. It is immutable. Incomprehensible. Unfair. All those things. But it sets you free, don’t you see? It sets you free.

Try for just a single day, a whole day when you refuse to acknowledge fear of failure,

I dare you. If you can do it, this will transform your life. Not

All that is stopping you is fear. I do not know of what kind. It may even be fear of succeeding. But if you want to be rich, gentle reader, and if you can read these words, then all that is stopping you is fear of one kind or another.

That is what getting rich is going to be like. You will become a predator. A killer. You will cease to be prey. You will not succumb to fear. Others will fear you. Especially gazelles bearing diamonds.

Much of what I have written in this book may be wrong. Misguided. “Tosh” as we used to say in my school playground. I accept that. I am far from infallible on the subject of getting rich. But this last short essay concerning fear and its influence is, I think, wholly true. It is fear that rules us. Love and respect and other such emotions make it bearable, at a price. But fear rules us all, and always has.

you must somehow learn to harness fear to your own advantage.

Is that what I have done in my own life? Was all that rage and fierceness and drive and stamina rooted in my own fear? Have I used fear as a fuel in the getting of money?

In the words of the wisest of men, William Shakespeare: “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.”

You have less time than you think. We all do. Why then are you waiting to fulfill your perfectly legitimate, if foolish, desire?

You will never start unless you start NOW! That’s right. Right now. Even as your eyes scan this page, your brain should be plotting and planning ideas and possibilities, weaving a web to ensnare what you could achieve,