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How to Get Rich, by Felix Dennis
Matt Karamazov
January 24, 2024 ā¢ Estimated Reading Time: 18 minutes
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Let me ask you a question.
If you can actually count your money, are you truly rich?
The author of todayās book built a $600,000,000 publishing empire, spent approximately $100M of it on various āunsavoryā activities, and wrote thousands of poems (yes, poems), before dying of throat cancer in 2014.
By the end of it, he honestly couldnāt tell you how much money he had; his team of accountants and advisors would all come up with different numbers, the ārich listā journalists would all venture guesses - but nobody really knew for sure.
In the words of the art collector and oil billionaire John Paul Getty: āIf you can actually count your money, you are not really a rich man.āā
So yes, he then wrote a book entitled How to Get Rich, but the main question he brings up himself repeatedly in the book is:
Was it all worth it?
How to Get Rich is a business book - and a tremendously valuable one at that - but Dennisās deep regret over how much time and energy he devoted to piling up way more money than he would ever need is palpable on nearly every page.
While reading it, you get the sense that he had a ton of painful regrets, and if you read between the lines, you almost feel his hands on your shoulders, shaking you and yelling:
āDonāt do it! Donāt do it! Itās a trap!ā
He finally relents, of course, and tells you exactly how to get rich (honestly, this book could literally be worth millions to you), but you also canāt say that he didnāt warn you.
Below, I share a short summary of How to Get Rich, as well as my best book notes, along with some additional recommended reading.
Itās an absolutely phenomenal, unforgettable book, and one of my top favorites, but I also canāt say that I want to end up like him!
Anyway, if youāre looking for a book that will teach you exactly how to get rich AF, and if youāre willing to go against the advice of a regretful, lonely man who has been to the end of that road and has seen for himself whither it leads, then you might want to readā¦
My summary of this book and all my notes are available on Patreon, as well as my personal notes from more than 1,250+ other books. Updated monthly.
The support Iāve received on Patreon over the years has been nothing less than incredible and I just want to quickly mention two of my biggest supporters by name:
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They make my days brighter, and the weights lighter.
I didnāt try to make that rhyme, but here we are!
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You can always just preview my notes here on this page though before you make that $1 leap :)
Now, letās get back to todayās book!
From college dropout to centimillionaire publishing magnate, all the while harboring an immense love and talent for poetry and the written word, Felix Dennis certainly has the credentials to write a book like this.
But thereās also something tragic about the overall tone of How to Get Rich - tinged with regret as it is - and he actually spends a fairly large portion of the book trying to convince you not to get rich.
It can be extremely difficult, itās uncertain, it takes a long time, it can ruin your relationships, alienate you from the people you work with, and on and on.
He speaks from personal experience, having amassed personal wealth in the area between $600ā900M (rich people know how much money they have, but wealthy people are never entirely sure), and you get the sense that heās suffered all those losses and more.
In fact, he straight up tells you as much, and interspersed with all this great advice about running companies and amassing wealth, he keeps coming back to the question of āDo you really want to do this?ā
The answer is non-obvious and shouldnāt be rushed. Read this book first and ask yourself whether youāre willing to pay the price he paid.
All told, this is one of the very best books I read in 2023, and probably one of my favorites of all time.Ā
I learned a tremendous amount about growing and running a profitable business, but itās a very special book for many other reasons as well, and one that Iāll not soon forget.
āWhy would a rich person waste time writing a book to help other people get rich? Two reasons. Because I enjoy writing something I feel I know about. And because I believe that almost anyone of reasonable intelligence can become rich, given sufficient motivation and application.
It also helps that I am writing while sipping a very fine wine indeed (a Chateau dāYquem 1986 if you really want to know), nibbling on fresh smoked conch tidbits, ensconced by a window with one of the most beautiful views on earth.ā
āPeople who grow rich almost always improve their sex life. More people want to have sex with them. Thatās just the way human beings work.ā
āIf I had my time again, knowing what I know today, I would dedicate myself to making just enough to live comfortably (say $60 or $80 million), as quickly as I could - hopefully by the time I was thirty-five years old. I would then cash out immediately and retire to write poetry and plant trees.ā
āItās no excuse, but making money is a drug. Not the money itself. The making of the money. This sounds like so much hoopla, but itās true, all the same. Nobody believed that exercise could prove addictive until science stepped in and discovered āendorphinsā or whatever the damn things are called. And making money, I assure you, is a hell of a lot more of a rush than jogging.ā
āTo sum up then, if you wish to be rich, you must grow a carapace. A mental armor. 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.ā
āIf you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand very little chance of ever getting rich.ā
āāNever give inā is a useful catchphrase. But donāt take it too literally. We must all surrender at some time, to love, or desire, or death. You will be forced into the last of these, and a fool if you never surrender to the first.
But never give in easily. If you can, attempt one step farther along the road than appears sensible before giving in.
āPersistenceā is a vital attribute for those who wish to become rich, or who wish to achieve anything worthwhile for that matter. As is the ability to acknowledge that one has made a mistake and that a new plan of action must now be made. Any such acknowledgement is not a weakness, it is a sign of clear thinking. In its way, it is a kind of persistence in itself.
Try, try, try again, does not mean doing what has already failed, over and over again. Quitting is not dishonorable. Quitting when you believe you can still succeed is. You must keep the faith.
Belief in yourself and faith in your project can move mountains. But not if you insist on trying to scale the mountain by an impossible route which has already failed.ā
āIām fully aware that this isnāt a book about becoming a worthwhile human being. As I keep attempting to drum into you, riches arenāt particularly worthwhile in themselves in any case. They donāt make anyone a better person, at least as far as I have seen.
But listening continuously, listening and learning, is one of the vital components for those of you who wish to be rich. What you choose to do with your loot is up to you. But listen and learn if you want to be rich!ā
āIf you chase money desperately in the earnest belief that you can never be happy without it and seriously think that the chase is a meaningful occupation, I doubt very much you will succeed. You have to be fiercely determined, true. But an appreciation of the absurdity of the chase helps enormously.ā
āWould I give my brother all the money I ever made if he needed it? Yes, I would. But I will not give him a share in my company! Because ownership isnāt the important thing. If you want to be rich, itās the only thing.ā
āIf you own a company and that companyās purpose is to make you wealthy, you will be content, delighted even, for any amount of glory to go to anyone who works there, providing you get the money.ā
āThere is no fortress so strong that money cannot take it.ā
āNobody ever got poor by listening.ā
āIf you will not believe in yourself, then why should anyone else? Without self-belief, nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible. It is as brutal and as black and white as that. If you take no other memory from this book, then take that single thought. It was worth a damn sight more than the price you paid for it.ā
Currently, I donāt have a complete breakdown of How to Get RichĀ published on the Stairway to Wisdom (my library of expert book breakdowns), but below Iāve listed some similar breakdowns that you may enjoy instead.
When you become a member of the Stairway to Wisdom, youāll gain access to more than 100+ book breakdowns like these ones here, as well as a premium weekly newsletter that will help you build the kind of life for yourself that youāll love living.
By wanting to become rich, you are also saying that you want to accept the challenge to be better at making money than 99 percent of the people on this planet. Just by attempting this, you are going to have to accept the fact that you must not just be good, you must be incredible. Are you ready?
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Never before collected in one place, this book is a valuable repository of the transformative wisdom of investing icon Naval Ravikant. He shares everything he knows about wealth and happiness, as well as what he believes is one of the most important skills.
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Doing well in school has very little to do with how successful you become. In this new economy, the biggest factor in your success will not be abstract, academic learning but whether you develop the real-life success skills evinced by the people on these pages, and how early you do.
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Thatās it! I hope you found these book recommendations helpful, and Iāll be back with even more books for you very soon!
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Until next timeā¦happy reading!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
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