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"How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

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Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#32

I can tell you how to get rich. Make more money than you spend. Think of ways to increase the amount of money coming in by investing the left-over money. It accumulates. My new startup is going to help you do that (FIRST HINT :))

Respectfully, that's advice on how to not be poor before it's advice on how to get rich. To be rich, you have to consider the way you make your money. Getting paid lots of money per hour is not going to make you rich on your own 99 times out of 100 (the other time being those people who make $1000 an hour or something), because as soon as you stop working, that income stream is gone. You can only also work so many hours in a day. Investing helps, for sure; and many people have gotten rich that way. However, investing on its own has a very slow velocity for someone getting started. The best way (from what I can tell) is to find a way to decouple the money you make from the amount of time you have invested in it. That means royalties or licensing fees for something you have created or own the rights to.

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#33
post #32

I can tell you how to get rich. Make more money than you spend. Think of ways to increase the amount of money coming in by investing the left-over money. It accumulates. My new startup is going to help you do that (FIRST HINT :))

Respectfully, that's advice on how to not be poor before it's advice on how to get rich. To be rich, you have to consider the way you make your money. Getting paid lots of money per hour is not going to make you rich on your own 99 times out of 100 (the other time being those people who make $1000 an hour or something), because as soon as you stop working, that income stream is gone. You can only also work so many ho…

You don't understand how to get rich then. Let me give you an example. I work and make $1000, and spend $700. This leaves me $300 extra. I work another month and the same thing happens. Now I have $600 extra. I take this $600 of extra money, and I purchase 300 shoes in china, and sell them for $3 a piece. I now have $1800 in extra cash. I work another month, and I have $2100 extra (in 3 months).

I take the $2100 and buy two medical devices, which I then sell in the 3rd world for $4000 a piece. I now have $8300 in excess money after 4 months. Notice that each business I did required roughly the same time, but the profits increase because I am able to buy more and more expensive things.

Now, with my $8300, I buy a second hand taxi and I lease it to a pakistani guy to drive around. He pays me $2000 a month. Now, each month my excess income is $2300. I repeat the process. I can quit my job after 4 months and still earn more money.

What we say does not disagree with each other. Every business you do has to not require much of your time.

But the basic philosophy is that you need excess income, and you need to keep investing and reinvesting this excess income in things that bring a percentage income. You then end the process by putting the money into something that guarantees an excess of income every month above what you started off with.

That's the REAL way of getting rich. The other ways are just playing lotto. Unfortunately, most people buy flatscreen TVs, Playstations and drinks with their excess $300.

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#34
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully, that's advice on how to not be poor before it's advice on how to get rich. To be rich, you have to consider the way you make your money. Getting paid lots of money per hour is not going to make you rich on your own 99 times out of 100 (the other time being those people who make $1000 an hour or something), because as soon as you stop working, that income stream is gone. You can only also work so many ho…

You don't understand how to get rich then. Let me give you an example. I work and make $1000, and spend $700. This leaves me $300 extra. I work another month and the same thing happens. Now I have $600 extra. I take this $600 of extra money, and I purchase 300 shoes in china, and sell them for $3 a piece. I now have $1800 in extra cash. I work another month, and I have $2100 extra (in 3 months). I take the $2100 and…

I think you should re-read my last two sentences. This is exactly what I said to do.

I think perhaps the emphasis is different. You say that it's just "spend less than you make", and I say that it's primarily "don't sell your hours for a fixed price".

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#35
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't understand how to get rich then. Let me give you an example. I work and make $1000, and spend $700. This leaves me $300 extra. I work another month and the same thing happens. Now I have $600 extra. I take this $600 of extra money, and I purchase 300 shoes in china, and sell them for $3 a piece. I now have $1800 in extra cash. I work another month, and I have $2100 extra (in 3 months). I take the $2100 and…

I think you should re-read my last two sentences. This is exactly what I said to do. I think perhaps the emphasis is different. You say that it's just "spend less than you make", and I say that it's primarily "don't sell your hours for a fixed price".

[deleted]

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#36
post #35
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you should re-read my last two sentences. This is exactly what I said to do. I think perhaps the emphasis is different. You say that it's just "spend less than you make", and I say that it's primarily "don't sell your hours for a fixed price".

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#37
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't understand how to get rich then. Let me give you an example. I work and make $1000, and spend $700. This leaves me $300 extra. I work another month and the same thing happens. Now I have $600 extra. I take this $600 of extra money, and I purchase 300 shoes in china, and sell them for $3 a piece. I now have $1800 in extra cash. I work another month, and I have $2100 extra (in 3 months). I take the $2100 and…

I think you should re-read my last two sentences. This is exactly what I said to do. I think perhaps the emphasis is different. You say that it's just "spend less than you make", and I say that it's primarily "don't sell your hours for a fixed price".

No, it's a different philosophy entirely. Making money in a way that does not require you to work is only half the picture. The MAIN and MOST IMPORTANT part of things is that you need to KEEP REINVESTING in things that keep bringing higher returns. Nothing you do keeps bringing in steady income without requiring time. It starts of good but just drifts downwards as time passes. It is imperative to keep changing your investments for higher returns, otherwise you cannot get rich.

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#39

I don't like all aspects of this guy's philosophy. He is to a large extent only concerned with his own well-being. A great example is where he talks about how he fired his entire management team because they asked for an equity share in this company. For startups, the philosophy should be "we're all in this together", not "I own the company and you're not going to get a share of the success." That being said, the boo…

There are two basic problems with people who give you advice based on their own experience. 1) It may have been correct for them to do whatever they are advising you to do, but incorrect for you to do it. 2) It may have been incorrect for them to do whatever they are advising you to do, but they did so many other things correctly (including, but not limited to, being in the right place at the right time) that they su…

Wise words.

I used to read and listen to a LOT of self-help/business development material. I found at least a 10-1 noise-to-signal ratio as far as material I thought had relevance to me. Then, I winnows out all of that stuff, I came to realize that each author can only give you their best shot at explaining how it worked for them in their situation. Simply because they think they know how to make it: that doesn't make it true. They just have theories and observations that they've made into life rules. The attitude and tactics that worked as a publisher in 1982 in Manhattan might be the opposite attitude you need for Silicon Valley in 2008. If they're honest they'll tell you "Beats me, kid. This is just my opinion." But it's really hard to sell books like that.

And even if they are spot on, if there is ONE set of truths or poems or something that is THE answer for what you need in your situation -- the things that you think are useful in that 10-to-1 ratio -- you have no way of knowing whether your selection criteria matches you up to receive what you need. It's just a gut feeling on your part.Probably a lot of books out there like "How to get Rich" where you could use the advice but its packaged the wrong way for you to select or consume it effectively. I know I wouldn't buy another book with "get rich" in its title. I don't want to get rich -- I want to help the most number of people possible.

So I'm ordering the book. I might or might not have time to read it. One of the funny things I noted in the video was how readers kept reading it over and over. To me, we got something funky going on here. If you're reading it over and over, why aren't you out in the real world making money instead of reading?

I've got a few books/tapes I have repeatedly listened to. Stuff like negotiation and communication skills that I am weak on and need practice. But mostly the good books you say "Wow! I needed that!" and put them down and start using them. You don't go back and re-read them. Somebody said once that the defining attribute of self-help books wasn't whether they actually helped you, it was that they made you feel good by reading them. Repeated reading is a warning sign.

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#40
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the fact that you define "Properly lives his life" as spending over 100 million on whores and drugs over the course of it. :-)

whoops! Freudian slip I think!!!

Haha. Your true colours are showing
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