How to Get Rich

by Felix Dennis

Having avoided the sharks and perhaps swum with the dolphins, we turn to the fishes. How I love the fishes! How you will learn to love them, too! It was via the fishes that I made my own first money – the seed capital which ensured that I retained control and ownership of my own business back in the early days of Dennis Publishing. Fishes come in all shapes and sizes. Friends, acquaintances, relatives, business colleagues, small investors, friendly bank managers of the old school, professional advisors, ex-employers, suppliers and vendors are among them. But how can they be of any use? Let me illustrate by my own example. In 1972 I persuaded a jolly young lawyer I had met to act for me. His name was Bernie Simons. I had no money to pay him, but perhaps my chutzpah amused him. He helped me to register my £100 limited-liability company and provided me with at least a figleaf of respectability. I think I paid him £20 for his services. The company was called H. Bunch Associates and I intended to publish a series of comic books. Next, I persuaded a close friend, Dick Pountain, to join me as co-director and production manager. There wasn’t much in the way of a salary on offer, but Dick came all the same. We ‘liberated’ a few sticks of office furniture, two electric typewriters and a floor camera from the offices of OZ magazine (where Dick and I had met), which was then in the process of winding up.