How to Get RichHow to Get Rich

Felix Dennis built a publishing company from a tiny magazine into a business worth hundreds of millions, and then wrote the least flattering book about getting rich I've read. He's funny, and very open about his mistakes. He spends a lot of the book trying to talk you out of it.

His advice when he does give it is blunt. Ownership is everything: you'll never get rich working for someone else, however well they pay you, so own as much of what you build as you possibly can. Don't wait to be ready. Most of what he learned, he learned by starting before he understood what he was doing. Get good people and let them be good. And don't be afraid of failing in front of everyone, because the embarrassment passes and the lessons don't.

What makes the book different is how much of it is about the cost. He's clear that chasing money took years of his life he won't get back, and that being very rich didn't make him much happier. Late in life he wrote poetry and planted a huge forest in England. He tells you plainly that some readers should close the book and go live a good, normal life instead.

I respect that he told the truth when the rest of the shelf mostly doesn't. The idea about ownership stuck. It's part of why I'd rather build my own things, even small ones, than only build for other people.