How to Get Rich

by Felix Dennis

A failure to obtain her master’s degree could be disguised fairly easily. It is not likely to be broadcast to the rest of the world. After all, she already has a degree. If failure seems likely, she can always quit, claiming she has become bored with bioengineering. The decision to take over her dad’s company, however, will be far more closely monitored – by relatives and neighbours, by the people who work there, by rival car dealerships, by the bank manager, and not least by her father. Should she fail, she will run the risk of becoming a laughing stock or an object of pity. So what is her best option? Much will depend on her desires and her goals in life. She is unlikely to get rich as a bio-engineer. But she might well get rich expanding the dealership, especially because she is aware that her father has never invested to the extent that he might have done in marketing and promotion, especially on the internet. There is an opportunity, but is she prepared to exploit it? Why is she unlikely to get rich in bio-engineering? Because starting up your own bio-engineering firm takes vast quantities of capital and the persuasive abilities of a Richard Branson to obtain it. The car dealership, however, is already capitalised, and although she will have to pay off her father eventually, the repayments can be spread over a number of years. He is hardly likely to foreclose on her. So what should our young college girl do? Normally, I would hesitate to offer any advice whatever. But...

To sum up then, if you wish to be rich, you must grow a carapace. A mental armour. Not so thick as to blind you to well constructed criticism and advice, especially from those you trust. Nor so thick as to cut you off from friends and family.

But thick enough to shrug off the inevitable sniggering and malicious mockery that will follow your inevitable failures, not to mention the poorly hidden envy that will accompany your eventual success. Few things in life are certain except death and being taxed. But sniggering and mockery prior to any attempt to better yourself financially, followed by envy later, or gloating during your initial failures – these are three certainties in life. It hurts. It’s mindless. And it doesn’t mean anything. But it will happen. Be prepared to shrug it off.

The Germans have a superb word for the (secret) pleasure humans obtain from the misfortunes of others. It is Schadenfreude – from schaden meaning ‘harm’ (from which we get the word ‘shadow’), and freude meaning ‘joy’. Those of you who are definitely going to be rich will recognise it often enough in the faces and body language of idiots around you. It is the price you must learn to pay for any atte...

Now comes the hard part. Before we really get started on getting started, I ask you to consider carefully the short list below. It is by no means comprehensive, nor will it be the last list in this book, but should you find yourself unable to measure up to even one of these initial demands (and I mean ju...

If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand very little chance of ever getting rich. If you care what the neighbours think, you will never get rich. If you cannot bear the thought of causing worry to your family, spouse or lover while you plough a lonely, dangerous road rather than taking the safe option of a regular job, you will never get rich. If you have artistic inclinations and fear that the search for wealth will coarsen such talents or degrade them, you will never get rich. (Because your fear, in this instance, is well justified.) If you are not prepared to work longer hours than almost anyone you know, despite the jibes of colleagues and friends, you are unlikely to get rich. If you cannot convince yourself that you are ‘good enough’ to be rich, you will never get rich. If you cannot treat your quest to get rich as a game, you will never be rich. If you cannot face up to your fear of failure, you will never be rich.

The truth is that getting rich means sacrifice. And the worst of it is, it isn’t always you that’s doing the sacrificing. You must get used to that, or give up the quest. This is not a calling for the faint-hearted. There is no shame in turning away.

If the fear of failure is holding you back – and it almost certainly is – then what strategies can be devised to set you free?

Think of this fear not as the King Kong of bogeymen, but as a mare. A nightmare. A mare, after all, is a horse. A horse can be tamed, bridled, saddled, harnessed and (eventually) ridden. Harnessing the power of such a creature adds mightily to your own. Thus the nightmare of prospective failure provides you with the very opportunity you are seeking.

Not only does it restrain smarter people than yourself from becoming rich –

and there can only be so many rich people in the world – it affords you the chance of increasing your confidence, both when you...

For make no mistake, if you will not confront and harness this all-too human emotion in one way or another, then you are...

You either get over it, go round it, go at it, mount it, duck under it or cosy up to it. But ...

That way lies paralysis, prevarication, ignom...

After a lifetime of making money and observing better men and women than I fall by the wayside, I am convinced that fear of failing in the eyes of the world is the single biggest...

If you shy away for any reason whatever, then the way is blocked. The gate is shut – and will remain shut. You will never ge...

ESTRAGON: Charming spot. Inspiring prospects. Let’s go. VLADIMIR: We can’t. ESTRAGON: Why not? VLADIMIR: We’re waiting for Godot. SAMUEL BECKETT, WAITING FOR GODOT Who never arrives. So is it such a terrible thing that the vast majority of us settle for what comes along rather than making a career plan and sticking with it? And how do you get to decide what career you might excel at anyway? Most parents and teachers reading this are not going to like my answer. It’s this: none of it matters a damn if you want to get rich. This is not to say that ‘the Search’ is not important to young people. It’s important and it’s scary and it’s fun and infuriatingly confusing. For most people, it occurs in their twenties or very early thirties. For a small number, the Search is over by their teens, either because they have a shriekingly obvious talent or because they have already spent too many hours hanging out in the wrong company.

They have provided too much choice for younger citizens. Nobody but an idiot would deny this is a good thing – even a wonderful thing. But choices are confusing. They take time to consider, to sample, spit out and reject. And too many of them provide a ready-made excuse for procrastination and shilly-shallying.

In other words, if you feel absolutely moved towards a particular vocation, then that’s exactly where you should head.

But be aware that if you want to make huge sums of money, then earning a living by slowly swarming up the greasy pole is rarely the way to do it. For a start, the salary begins to have an attraction and addictiveness all of its own. A regular paycheck and crack cocaine have that in common. In addition, and more to the point, working too long for other people can blunt your desire to take risks. This last factor is crucial, because the ability to live with and embrace risk is what sets apart the financial winners and losers in the world.

If you want to be rich, you are not looking for a ‘career’, except as a launch pad or as a chance to infiltrate and ...

Those who can never be rich may not want you to become rich. That’s an ugly thing to say, but unless you realise and accept that you cannot be ‘one of the boys’, that your bosses and you are not ‘in this thing together’, that only those who refuse to be conned by the idea of ‘team spirit’ in the workplace can succeed – unless you come to fully comprehend and understand all this, then you will only make other people rich. You will receive their heartfelt thanks and maybe a gold watch when you retire. But you will not get the money!

It’s the same with close friends and family members. Consciously and outwardly they may want you to succeed beyond your wildest dreams. But subconsciously, often without being aware of it themselves, they might be far happier if you failed or only succeeded to a limited degree.

On the other side of the ‘glamorous’ coin, very few of those who want their picture on the front cover of Vogue, or wish to become a movie director or to run the coolest PR company in the world, get to achieve anything. The reason is obvious. The laws of supply and demand are absolute – and they apply not only to commodities, but to people. Too many people want to make a blockbuster movie and live in Beverly Hills. Not enough people want to dig holes.

New or rapidly developing industries, whether glamorous or not, very often provide more opportunities to get rich than established sectors. The three reasons for this are availability of risk capital, ignorance and the power of a rising tide.

Investors are drawn to emerging industries in the hope of making a fast buck. To get rich, you will need capital, and to acquire capital you need to be where loose capital is searching for a home. In addition, the combination of ignorance and misconception that surrounds any new market or technology works in your favour. If you are quick at graspin...

Ownership! Ownership! Ownership!) Depressingly, the only way for a start-up entrepreneur to succeed is often to part with equity in return for an infusion of capital. But never forget that no matter what promises or verbal guarantees you receive from investors during the Search, the issue will eventually come down to control. And control, even by a single per cent of the shares of a business, the fabled 51–49 per cent split, is often the be-all and end-all of the game.

Whoever controls a business can force its sale. Whoever controls a business can implement a merger. Whoever controls a business can fire you. Whoever controls a business, even by a pitiful 1 per cent, is likely to take a great deal more money out of it than the minority shareholders.

Inch by inch, share by share, the nerds diluted to gain capital to expand and survive. Eventually, the majority of them lost control of their tiny companies. Many became salaried employees of the company they had helped to found. Much depended on whether they lost control prior to or after a public stock offering, but we needn’t go into that here. Just a few, a very few, held on to enough stock to become immensely wealthy. Ownership is power. Ask Bill Gates of Microsoft or Larry Ellison of Oracle.

The division of spoils comes only when there are spoils to divide.

So how to choose the arena in which you intend to carve yourself a fortune? There are usually three factors involved in the Search: inclination, aptitude and fate.

Your inclinations really do count. You have to pay attention to them.

If you love art, but cannot paint or sculpt to save your life, then perhaps you can still make your millions in the art world – providing you possess not only a natural affinity and sense of aesthetic, but the wit to spot and winkle out talent in young artists. Plus the ability to sell, which is usually nothing more than a talent for hype and keeping a straight face as you demand a fifty times mark-up from potential buyers who wouldn’t know a Damien Hirst from a pickled sardine. An understanding and passionate affinity with any subject, in combination with effective management, sales and marketing techniques, could well provide a tailor-made solution to the Search. Cherish your inclinations and affinities. Though not infallible, they may well lead you in the right direction. But do not fall into the error of making a fetish of your passion. You’re reading this book to get rich. Not to confirm your own prejudices regarding those talents or inclinations you may have.

Because aptitude is a very different kettle of fish. Few of us are lucky enough to be born with a talent so obvious that the Search is never an obstacle to progress. Yet even here, inclination may prove a stumbling block to real wealth. One of the best sales people I ever employed, and one who was so conscious of her ability that I was forced to pay her nearly twice the salary and bonus of her immediate boss, now lives in Cornwall and paints watercolours. They are not very good watercolours, in my opinion. But neither my opinion, nor the promise that she would be a multi-millionaire before she was thirty-five, proved a sufficient inducement to keep her nose to the grindstone. The aptitude for selling advertising was obvious, and was the envy of all her colleagues. But her inclinations led elsewhere. She is happy as far as I know and I wish her all the luck in the world. But she will never be rich. Fortunately, she says she has no wish to be.

So how do you judge your own aptitudes? Trial and error is the only...

Your parents, likely as not, will be of little use here. Their love for you may well blind them to the harsher realities of your true abilities and potential. There are a great many doctors and lawyers who apprenticed themselves to their profession solely to please an ambitious parent – only later to regret their acquiescence at leisure. If you do decide to ask for advice concerning your true aptitudes, then preparation shows you are serious and will be more likely to effect a serious response. As a godparent, I am always willing to discuss the matter, but only if my godchild has prepared a list of questions and suggestions, and only in private. Casual conversations around a family living room, with others sticking their oar in or trying to show off with banter and smart remarks, are tedious and counter-productive. For ambitious young people this is a serious matter and deserves to be taken seriously. Of course, such discussions cannot make you rich. But they can really help in the Search. They can build confidence, a key element in risk taking, and the only way I know of to get rich from a standing start. And they can inform you, too, of your weaknesses, which in turn can protect you from spending your working life making other people rich – the probable fate of nearly everyone you currently know.

If you are older, and by older I mean in your thirties, then the matter becomes far more difficult. I would say almost impossible, as far as advice is concerned. How many of us at that age know somebody to whom we can say: ‘What do you truly believe my strong points to be?’ and expect a meaningful answer? And even if we can find someone we feel comfortable discussing such a subject with, how many of us know anyone whose opinion is worth the potential embarrassment?

Blind faith and trial and error are just about all that’s left unfortunately. There ought to be a better way, but no one ...

Inclinations are easy to list. Aptitude is far less so. Trial and error, combined with fierce determination and a willingness to discard cherished perceptions abo...

It is highly unsatisfactory and frustrating that the most important decision we are likely to consciously mak...

A small success, though – even a tiny success – can provide a clue. It was my own success at selling magazines on the street that led m...

It is the instinct to seize an opportunity when it presents itself that perhaps sets apart the self-made filthy rich from the comfortably poor, the willingness to ignore conventional wisdom and risk everything on what others consider to be folly. One could even argue that it hardly mattered that young Henry Ford was drawn to automobiles, or that Ruben Rausing chose packaging, or that Bill Gates gravitated to software to create those vast fortunes. I would be open to persuasion that had their roles, and the century in which they lived, been reversed, they would have done just as well and raised themselves every inch as high from the common herd financially.

Their ability to take chances and to subsequently exploit initial success counted more than their inclination towards a particular industry. Their execution of a strategy trumped the subject of their obsession.

Boldness? The most successful generals or admirals in military history shared one characteristic: they were willing to ignore orders and risk utter disgrace in order to exploit rapidly changing circumstances. When the chance came, they recognised an opportunity, weighed the odds swiftly, and placed their lives and careers on the line to snatch a victory. (Not to mention the lives and careers of those around them.) The three great quotes concerning ‘luck’ for me are these: ‘Luck is preparation multiplied by opportunity.’ SENECA, ROMAN PHILOSOPHER ‘The harder I practised, the luckier I got.’ GARY PLAYER, GOLF CHAMPION ‘Luck is a dividend of sweat.’ RAY KROC, MCDONALD’S FOUNDER Fortune favours not just the brave but the bold. Boldness has a kind of genius in it, as Goethe pointed out. It can lead to complete failure and defeat, because conventional wisdom often proves to be at least wisdom of a kind. But should boldness succeed, should the chance be seized and sufficiently well executed, then success will surely lead to glory. All around us, every day, opportunities to get rich are popping up. The more alert you are, the more chance you have of spotting them. The more preparation you have done, the more chance you have of succeeding.

The more bold you are, the better chance you have of getting in on the ground floor and confounding the odds. The more self-belief you can muster, the more certain will be your aim and your timing. And the less you care what the neighbours think, the more likely you are to take the plunge and exploit an opportunity.

Here is the key, then, in the Search. Whatever your inclinations, your aptitude, your abilities or your preferences, never shrink when opportunities arrive. If you have weighed the odds and find yourself convinced, ignore the pro...

Seize Lady Luck by the forelock and hang on for your life. More men and women have become rich by this single tactic than all ‘the best-laid plans of ...

Chances come to everyone in life, in all shapes and sizes, often disguised, and more often radiating risk and potential humiliation. Those who are prepared to analyse the risk, to bear the humiliation and to act in deadly earnest – these are the ‘lucky’ ones who ...

But then, in reality, they made their own luck. They never stopped searching. Perhaps they spent months or even years searching in the wrong place. Or possibly they hit upon the object of their search at the first attempt. No matter. Having found what they needed where they needed it, and having done what th...

In the real world, at least, ideas are not hogwash. But they are very unlikely to make you rich on their own. More importantly, it really does not matter who gives birth to any particular idea. This is borne out by the laws relating to patents and inventions. You cannot patent an idea. You can only patent your own method for implementing an idea. It is for this reason that so many people have become rich despite never having had a single great idea in their lives. As it happens, I count myself among them.