How to Get Rich

by Felix Dennis

Knowledge learned the hard way combined with the avoidance of error, whenever and wherever possible, is the soundest basis for success in any endeavour.

Whatever qualities the rich may have, they can be acquired by anyone with the tenacity to become rich. The key, I think, is confidence. Confidence and an unshakeable belief it can be done and that you are the one to do it. Tunnel vision helps. Being a bit of a shit helps. A thick skin helps. Stamina is crucial, as is a capacity to work so hard that your best friends mock you, your lovers despair and the rest of your acquaintances watch furtively from the sidelines, half in awe and half in contempt. Luck helps – but only if you don’t seek it. The answer to the question, then, is perhaps this: not those who want to and not those who need to, but those who are utterly determined to – whatever the cost.

The follow-through, the execution, is a thousand times more important than a ‘great idea’. In fact, if the execution is perfect, it sometimes barely matters what the idea is. If you want to get rich, don’t sit around waiting for inspiration to strike. Just get busy getting rich.

Even leaving any moral dimension – heaven, camels and the eyes of needles – out of the equation, consider at least the wise sentiments of the author James Baldwin in his book Nobody Knows My Name, in which he concluded: Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex. You thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it, and thought of other things if you did.

No task is a long one but the task on which one dare not start. It becomes a nightmare. CHARLES BAUDELAIRE, MY HEART LAID BARE

Never trust the vast mountain of conventional wisdom. It contains great nuggets of wisdom, it is true. But they lie alongside rivers of fool’s gold. Conventional wisdom daunts initiative and offers far too many convenient reasons for inaction, especially for those with a great deal to lose. Fortunately for you, you do not have anything to lose and can afford to ignore the ‘jobsworths’ and Jeremiahs who have lived upon the mountain for so long that they have come to worship it.

Anyone not busy learning is busy dying. For as long as you foster a willingness to learn, you will ward off sclerosis of the brain and hardening of the mental arteries. Curiosity has led many a man and women into the valley of serious wealth.

And what is fear? ‘Fear is the little death, death by a thousand cuts,’ goes the ancient Japanese saying. Nifty, but ultimately unhelpful. Similar to Shakespeare’s ‘Cowards die many time before their deaths: / The valiant never taste of death but once.’

There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damn lies and statistics. THOMAS CARLYLE, CHARTISM

‘Once begun – the job’s half done.’ Because taking that first, irrevocable step has proved to be the most difficult part of nearly every venture I have been involved in.

‘A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and quietly strangled,’ as Sir Barnett Cocks, clerk of the House of Commons, once pointed out. Well, Sir Barnett should certainly have known. He served on enough of them. Or in the words of an anonymous American wit: ‘A committee is a group of the unwilling, chosen from the unfit to do the unnecessary.’ Just so. And they do it so brilliantly well. Whether in a college dorm, or in the walnut-panelled boardroom of an international conglomerate, or around your own kitchen table.

Knowing isn’t doing what you need to do, my son; Telling me you know is only bluffing on the run; Knowing isn’t doing; Doing isn’t knowing; Nothing but the knowing and the doing gets it done.

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.

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 just one), then my suggestion is that you close this book and give it to a friend. 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.

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 impediment to amassing wealth. Trust me on this. If you shy away for any reason whatever, then the way is blocked. The gate is shut – and will remain shut. You will never get started. You will never get rich.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy; the chance to draw back; always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elemental truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one commits oneself, Providence moves all. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would come his or her way. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

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.

Capitalism demands that whoever takes the most financial risk calls the piper’s tune. The biggest rewards go not to those individuals who came up with the idea, nor to those individuals who built the empire. They go to those entities or individuals who funded the enterprise and own the most stock. Always bear this in mind during the Search.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

‘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 le...

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 will find themselves, when the music stops, holding a potful of money. 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 they judged needed doing, their search is over. And it is they who will become rich.

If you want to be rich, then watch your rivals closely and never be ashamed to emulate a winning strategy. They may josh you a little for doing it, but that’s a price well worth paying.

If you never have a single great idea in your life, but become skilled in executing the great ideas of others, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Seek them out and make them work. They do not have to be your ideas. Execution is all in this regard. If, on the other hand, you spend your days thinking up and developing in your mind this great idea or that, you are unlikely to get rich. Although you are likely to make many others rich. That is usually the way of it. Ideas don’t make you rich. The correct execution of ideas does.

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well. MARGARET THATCHER

That is what it is like in the beginning. Always. It is desperate and it is humiliating. As you will find, in your own way, unless you were born with a rich mummy or daddy or uncle. For the rest of us, if you want to be rich, then you must walk a narrow, lonely road to get the capital to make it so.

You must choose. Life is comfortable enough in the Western world for most people. In most parts of Europe there are the safety nets of the social services and of government-subsidised medical care. There are decent jobs at decent salaries with decent colleagues and a decent retirement; and all without the heart-stopping fear of bankruptcy, of years of risk amid fears of ignominious failure. Why do handstands on the rim of hell? Why bother to punish yourself in such a way? Nobody else does it – why should you? Go on, make everyone around you happy. Why not give in? If you are merely a wannabe, then the siren voices will prevail, and they will be right to prevail. If you are a gonnabe, then they will not prevail. Like Odysseus you will stop your ears with wax or bind yourself to the mast. You will learn to walk your narrow, lonely road – and to hell with the siren voices. You will not give in. And you will be rich.

Wishing for or desiring something is futile without an inner compulsion to achieve it. Such lack of compulsion, if not frankly acknowledged, can lead to great personal unhappiness. We have all met deeply unhappy souls muddling along in professions or careers for which they are patently unsuited. Worse still, by continually wishing and never delivering, you risk denting your confidence, beginning a vicious downward spiral that appears to draw misfortune like a magnet. The assumption that you might be able to achieve some goal if you only wished hard enough is not just a f***-up. It’s a potential personal tragedy.

You can improve cash flow by observing the following suggestions in a start-up’s early days: Keep payroll down to an absolute minimum. Overhead walks on two legs. Never sign long-term rent agreements or take upmarket office space. Never indulge in fancy office or reception furniture, unless your particular business demands that you make such an impression on clients. Never buy a business meal if the other side offers to. You can show off later. Pay yourself just enough to eat. Do not be shy to call customers who owe you money personally. It works. In a city, walk everywhere you can. It’s healthy and sets a good example. Check all staff travel and entertainment claims with an eagle eye. If you’re going to be late paying, call the vendor’s boss. Give a date. Stick to it. Always meet payroll, even at the expense of starving yourself that week. Issuing staff credit cards, company mobile phones or cars is the road to ruin. Leaving lights, computers, printers and copiers on overnight is just stupid. A vase of beautiful flowers in reception every week creates a better impression than £100,000 worth of fancy Italian furniture. Get used to grovelling. Grovelling is an effective tool in a start-up’s cash flow. They want your business. Play one supplier off against another. Ruthlessly. Only enter a factoring deal in absolute extremity. Exit it fast. Keep your chin up. It could be worse. You could be working for them.

‘Success is never permanent; failure is never fatal. The only thing that really counts is to never, never, never give up.’ That’s that old windbag Winston Churchill again. But he was bang on the money there.

By acting small, I mean remaining in touch. Remaining flexible. Constantly examining how your company could do better. Keeping a sense of proportion and humility. Not throwing your weight around playing the great ‘I Am’. Remembering that much of your success so far has been achieved by dumb luck. Acting small in the early days of your business sets an example to those around you. If staff see you indulging in long lunch hours and purchasing yourself a fancy company car, then they are either going to resent it or they are going to emulate you. This is not a good thing. You can do all that stuff later, when you’ve made your first fifty million.

Talent is usually conscious of its own value. But the currency of that value is not necessarily a million-dollar salary. The opportunity to prove themselves, and sometimes the chance to run the show on a day-to-day basis, will often do the trick just as well. This holds true even if talent is placed in the driver’s seat of a small division within an existing operation. What talent seeks, as often as not, is the chance to prove itself and the opportunity to excel. My advice on this subject was contained in the second paragraph of this section. You must identify talent. Then you must move heaven and earth to hire it. You must nurture it, reward it properly and protect it from being poached. If necessary, dream up a new project. Better still, get the talent to dream it up.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it. W.C. FIELDS, AMERICAN HUMORIST (ATTR.)

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Without self-belief nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible.

Firstly, if you have ever escaped from very serious trouble indeed, or have been at the point of death, then you will know that one of two things happens. Either you become cautious to an absurd degree, or you are liberated from many ordinary fears. With liberation comes the knowledge that nothing is really very important in the lives of men; nothing is as terrifying as the fear itself. And from that, paradoxically, comes self-belief – a belief that anything is possible.

Come to the edge. We might fall. Come to the edge. It’s too high! COME TO THE EDGE! And they came and he pushed and they flew … CHRISTOPHER LOGUE, ‘COME TO THE EDGE’

I am not a manager. I am not even a businessman. I’m an entrepreneur and I go with my gut. After that, managers and bean-counters and financial advisors take over. But only afterwards.

Trust your instincts. Do not be a slave to them, but when your instincts are screaming, Go! Go! Go! then it’s time for you to decide whether you really want to be rich or not. You cannot do this in a deliberate, considered manner. You can’t get rich painting by numbers. You can only do it by becoming a predator, by waiting patiently, by remaining alert and constantly sniffing the air and by bringing massive, murderous force to bear upon your prey when you pounce.

During the start-up, you concentrate on that one basket as if your life (and the life of your first-born) depends upon it. But once you have something that’s working and making some money, start looking around quickly for another opportunity. The more baskets the better.

One of my favourite philosophers, the first-century Roman Seneca, coined the following: ‘Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.’ I have never come across a better definition – that’s why I’m repeating it. Preparation multiplied by opportunity. Say it again. Learn it off by heart. Let it become a daily mantra. Luck is preparation multiplied by opportunity.

If you haven’t prepared yourself, the opportunity will go begging. It will be yet another regret in your life, another ‘if only …’ And even if you have prepared, but are too busy, probably buried in the minutiae of management, or a messy divorce, or moving house, or a hundred and one other things, then luck will again evade you. Months or years later you will be saying, ‘If only I had spotted that opportunity. I was ready for it, but I wasn’t paying attention.’ ‘If only …’ are the two saddest words in the English language.

Despite what you will read in many self-improvement tomes, ‘partnering’ and ‘symbiotic evolution’ are no way to get rich. They may be a way to a better world. They may make you a happier person and a better manager. But they will not make you rich – except, perhaps, in spirit. To become rich you must behave as a predator. I will go further, you must become a predator.

Uncontested markets are usually uncontested for a reason. Nature abhors a vacuum and if no one else is contesting a market, it may well be that no such market exists.