
"How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis - dpapathanasiou
http://www.didigetthingsdone.com/2008/06/18/how-to-get-rich-felix-dennis-book-review/
======
hassy
Here's an excerpt from the book:
[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1084093.ece?pri...](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1084093.ece?print=yes)

Felix Dennis is one of those rare racehorses that not only can run fast, but
can also tell you exactly how to run fast.

One of the best books I've read. Very frank and upfront. I re-evaluated many
of my beliefs and assumptions after reading it.

------
bprater
When I was staying in Amsterdam, I picked up this book and read it from cover-
to-cover. And when I got back to the states, I read it again.

I read an enormous number of how-to, self-help, technical and spiritual books
every year. I can easily tell the fluff from the meat. This is a book I'll
keep in my library for a long time.

He talks very frankly about his successes and failures. That's hard to find in
business books today, which are full on theory, but this guy backs up his
missives with a $100m bank account.

Anyway, I strongly recommend this book. It's a fast read and even if you don't
agree with everything he says, you'll certainly get a few good nuggets from
it.

~~~
josefresco
Guys like you are why guys that this have $100m bank accounts.

~~~
hhm
He already had $100m before writing the book.

~~~
josefresco
It's a joke, thanks for the karma hit.

~~~
hhm
I didn't downmod you, I only replied to your comment. Anyway, talking about
karma is probably just noise here.

~~~
gizmo
Curiously, given the points on your comment, comments about comments about
karma ARE ok.

I motion that ALL comments that distract by talking about karma are voted
down. I guess that includes this comment about comments about karma.

~~~
derefr
I have a stronger suggestion: that any branch in the conversation tree (a post
and all its replies, recursively) should be able to be marked _meta_ or
_orthogonal_. Comments are supposed to be rewarded with global "comment
karma", I suspect, for the contribution they make to the original topic (the
same one that the posted article discusses.) Comments that have nothing to do
with the article subject (note that the article itself may be a horrible
presentation of the subject; it is not the subject _as stated_ by the article,
but rather the subject the community extracts _from_ the article that is the
focus.)

Anyway, comments (and all replies to those comments) marked orthogonal enough
times by the community would have their comment karma removed, and be
collapsed and perhaps restyled. To restore them, you could click on a
"seperate discussion" action link on the collapsed thread, which would submit
the thread as a separate story, to be voted up and down on its own,
_orthogonal_ merits (clicking it again once the story had been so submitted
would vote said story up.) If that post, then, achieved a certain (low
minimum) score, its posts' comment karma would be reinstated.

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gaborcselle
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 book is a very entertaining read.

~~~
mattmaroon
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 succeeded wildly anyway and therefore don't recognize
some or all of their mistakes as such.

From a lot of the advice I've read of his, I think it suffers from a little of
both.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
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.

~~~
mattmaroon
I don't think it's bad to read self-help books at all. It's just bad to take
blanket generalizations as gospel.

His advice, in particular, that you should never give up equity seems the sort
that he succeeded in spite of.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
I don't either. That's why I said I was buying this one.

It's just a crap shoot, that's all.

~~~
mattmaroon
Yeah, you just kind of have to have the attitude that you're searching for a
diamond in the rough going in. I may buy that one as well.

Check out J Paul Getty's How To Be Rich, which is both about how to attain
wealth and what to do once you succeed. Pretty awesome really.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Thanks. Added to the list for the next Amazon purchase.

Somebody should do a meta-book on success/self-help literature. I guess it
started with "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill? I dunno, but there's a
boatload of it out there.

~~~
mattmaroon
My friend Richard Brodie did just that. It's called Getting Past OK. Worth a
read.

------
wyclif
"I am convinced that fear of failing in the eyes of the world is the single
biggest impediment to amassing wealth."

~~~
known
True Scientists Celebrate Failures!

------
Hexstream
With a title like that I would never have considered reading this book ever
had it not been for the comments on this thread.

~~~
edw519
One more comment from someone who really values the content here on hn...

I'm still not quite sure why, but undoubtably my favorite business book. Looks
like I could use a reread tonight. For some reason, that'll really stoke my
flame.

------
azharcs
I remember a quote from some movie i don't really remember which said " If you
can't help yourself, Self-Help Books can't really Help you".

I have always felt, self-help books are a big sham. First the mainstream media
convinces you that you are a loser by showing people younger and dumber than
you having more money. Once you go into the loser phase, some smart idiot who
has inherited millions of dollars, who has never seen poverty writes a book
which teaches you how to get rich. Are we humans so naive now that we have
started reading books which teach us how to become rich.

I don't know how you become rich and also i am pretty much sure Bill Gates or
Warren Buffett can't you teach you that too(mainly because there was lot of
chance or randomness involved in their richness). This is my view, if you have
a contradictory view, i would like to hear.

~~~
dkokelley
I do have a contradictory view :)

While a lot of becoming rich may be "chance and randomness" like you say,
there are certainly patterns and other statistical data that shows different
mindsets, beliefs, and character traits between the super-wealthy and the rest
of us. You could increase your chances of becoming rich by inheriting certain
traits of those who are already wealthy (and became so on their own. No
inheritances or royalty here).

I would argue that becoming wealthy is less chance and more personal character
traits, while the _degree_ of wealth is mostly due to chance.

There can be only 1 Bill Gates, but for every one of him, there are thousands
others who are successful, but on a much smaller scale. That's my view. :P

~~~
azharcs
Isn't it more common-sense, i mean we already imitate or inherit most of the
qualities of our idols. A guy who has Steve Jobs as an idol, surely likes
design and thinks more of himself as an artist.

I can give you an example of MBA's, they pretty much learn Business( which
means they know more than other people about Business), but as i see they are
no more successful than people who have no MBA's. MBA's go through tons of
case-studies yet they are not able to start successful companies. What i mean
to say is, sometimes our Uniqueness is what is more important for our success,
when we read the famous books, it makes us similar to other successful people
which might be an disadvantage rather than advantage because successful people
when they became successful, it was because they and their business were
different from other successful people. To be really successful, we have to be
different rather than same, we have to stand out from the crowd.

Everyone is Unique, only if we live up to that Uniqueness.

------
j2d2
If you liked this, check out tom ashbrooks interview with Felix from NPR.

[http://archives.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/06/20080623_b_ma...](http://archives.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/06/20080623_b_main.asp)

~~~
alexfarran
I liked that they had the woman from Harvard Business school on at the end to
offer an alternative point of view. In the end it was nothing but her word
against his, but I was surprised he didn't have better answers to her counter
examples. Warren Buffet, for example, has become very rich without
(apparently) making the kind of sacrifices that Felix has done.

------
rokhayakebe
"You cannot help yourself because you suck at whatever it is you need help
with"

------
inovica
Felix Dennis is great. No nonesense but he properly lives his life too. Thanks
for the link - I've seen documentaries about him, but didn't realise he'd
written a book, so I'll go buy this as its sure to be a good read

~~~
kschrader
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. :-)

~~~
inovica
whoops! Freudian slip I think!!!

~~~
groovyone
Haha. Your true colours are showing

------
kirubakaran
This is one of my most favorite books. It is highly probable that you (as a HN
user) will like it too.

~~~
davidw
Why don't you review/summarize it for Squeezed Books?:-)

------
maxklein
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 :))

~~~
icey
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.

~~~
maxklein
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.

~~~
icey
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".

~~~
maxklein
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.

~~~
LarryV
I am currently reading 'The Black Swan' and he does a good job of explaining
how some fields lend themselves to extremes and others don't and that it is
hard for our minds to wrap themselves around this. He explains that if you
take the shortest person ever and the tallest person ever - the differences
would be a lot but not orders of magnitude greater. Yet, if we were to take
this year's best selling book, it would be so many orders of magnitude more
than the least selling book. Our minds have a hard time dealing with
comparisons that don't have real world equivalents.

What this does is create an opportunity for some industries to have 'winner
takes almost all' scenarios. Book publishing and POP music are two examples
where the very top people take almost all the rewards. Brain surgeon is not
one of these industries - being the very best brain surgeon would still
require a (in comparison) a lot more time than the author of the Harry Potter
books takes to sell another book.

Most wealth is created by massively scalable business models such as
licensing, show biz and mass media. And interestingly not that many fortunes
come from Wall Street.

------
alins
Felix Dennis: ex-addict, poet - and murderer?

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/03/pressandpublishi...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/03/pressandpublishing)

~~~
anaphoric
Plot thickens...

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584076/Felix-
Dennis-...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584076/Felix-Dennis-
murder-claim-innocent-or-guilty.html)

------
FleursDuMal
This is easily one of the most valuable business books I've ever read. It has
an exceptionally honest personal perspective on success.

------
99Frogs
There's a medium somewhere between "suck at everything" and $100m - he's one
of those bombastic Brits like Christopher Hitchens. Good read, good content,
but one man's experience. Buffett's got a better personality.

Is this the UK equivalent of Fitty Cent?

------
eman
Woah!

[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Felix_Dennis_P...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Felix_Dennis_Portrait.jpg)

I wonder if there is an e-version of the book somewhere, if you know what I
mean.

------
zby
What I am reading right now: <http://www.happinesshypothesis.com/> . Why go
this additional step of getting rich - if all you need is to be happy?

------
cellis
Many paths lead to riches

Few in sunlight, most in ditches.

