7 ms·

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

74 points by dpapathanasiou 18y ago

bprater 18y ago
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 18y ago
  Guys like you are why guys that this have $100m bank accounts.
  - hhm 18y ago
    He already had $100m before writing the book.
    - josefresco 18y ago
      It's a joke, thanks for the karma hit.
      - hhm 18y ago
        I didn't downmod you, I only replied to your comment. Anyway, talking about karma is probably just noise here.
        josefresco 18y ago
        It is ;)
        gizmo 18y ago
        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.
        hhm 18y ago
        I completely agree. I didn't want to reply to karma stuff, but I did just as a personal message to the op. I thought my message was going to be scored negatively but anyway, who cares?
        derefr 18y ago
        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.
kirubakaran 18y ago
This is one of my most favorite books. It is highly probable that you (as a HN user) will like it too.
- davidw 18y ago
  Why don't you review/summarize it for Squeezed Books?:-)
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
FleursDuMal 18y ago
This is easily one of the most valuable business books I've ever read. It has an exceptionally honest personal perspective on success.
inovica 18y ago
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 18y ago
  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. :-)
  - kirubakaran 18y ago
    "If it flies, floats or fornicates, rent it. It is cheaper." :-D
  - inovica 18y ago
    whoops! Freudian slip I think!!!
    - groovyone 18y ago
      Haha. Your true colours are showing
hassy 18y ago
Here's an excerpt from the book: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1084093.ece?print=yes http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1084093.ece?pri... 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.
rokhayakebe 18y ago
"You cannot help yourself because you suck at whatever it is you need help with"
wyclif 18y ago
"I am convinced that fear of failing in the eyes of the world is the single biggest impediment to amassing wealth."
- known 18y ago
  True Scientists Celebrate Failures!
- ivankirigin 18y ago
  Fear of failure is a big motivator for me. That, and money
j2d2 18y ago
If you liked this, check out tom ashbrooks interview with Felix from NPR. http://archives.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/06/20080623_b_main.asp http://archives.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/06/20080623_b_ma...
- alexfarran 18y ago
  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.
Hexstream 18y ago
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 18y ago
  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.
gaborcselle 18y ago
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 18y ago
  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 18y ago
    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.
azharcs 18y ago
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 18y ago
  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 18y ago
    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.
maxklein 18y ago
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 18y ago
  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 18y ago
    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.
99Frogs 18y ago
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 18y ago
Woah! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Felix_Dennis_Portrait.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Felix_Dennis_P... I wonder if there is an e-version of the book somewhere, if you know what I mean.
zby 18y ago
What I am reading right now: http://www.happinesshypothesis.com/ http://www.happinesshypothesis.com/ . Why go this additional step of getting rich - if all you need is to be happy?
cellis 18y ago
Many paths lead to riches Few in sunlight, most in ditches.
alins 18y ago
Felix Dennis: ex-addict, poet - and murderer? http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/03/pressandpublishing http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/03/pressandpublishi...
- anaphoric 18y ago
  Plot thickens... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584076/Felix-Dennis-murder-claim-innocent-or-guilty.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584076/Felix-Dennis-...

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 18y ago
Guys like you are why guys that this have $100m bank accounts.
- hhm 18y ago
  He already had $100m before writing the book.
  - josefresco 18y ago
    It's a joke, thanks for the karma hit.
    - hhm 18y ago
      I didn't downmod you, I only replied to your comment. Anyway, talking about karma is probably just noise here.
      - josefresco 18y ago
        It is ;)
      - gizmo 18y ago
        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.
        hhm 18y ago
        I completely agree. I didn't want to reply to karma stuff, but I did just as a personal message to the op. I thought my message was going to be scored negatively but anyway, who cares?
        derefr 18y ago
        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.

kirubakaran 18y ago

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

davidw 18y ago
Why don't you review/summarize it for Squeezed Books?:-)
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]

FleursDuMal 18y ago

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

inovica 18y ago

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 18y ago
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. :-)
- kirubakaran 18y ago
  "If it flies, floats or fornicates, rent it. It is cheaper." :-D
- inovica 18y ago
  whoops! Freudian slip I think!!!
  - groovyone 18y ago
    Haha. Your true colours are showing

hassy 18y ago

Here's an excerpt from the book: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1084093.ece?print=yes http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1084093.ece?pri... 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.

rokhayakebe 18y ago

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

wyclif 18y ago

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

known 18y ago
True Scientists Celebrate Failures!
ivankirigin 18y ago
Fear of failure is a big motivator for me. That, and money

j2d2 18y ago

If you liked this, check out tom ashbrooks interview with Felix from NPR. http://archives.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/06/20080623_b_main.asp http://archives.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/06/20080623_b_ma...

alexfarran 18y ago
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.

Hexstream 18y ago

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 18y ago
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.

gaborcselle 18y ago

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 18y ago
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 18y ago
  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.

azharcs 18y ago

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 18y ago
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 18y ago
  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.

maxklein 18y ago

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 18y ago
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 18y ago
  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.

99Frogs 18y ago

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 18y ago

Woah! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Felix_Dennis_Portrait.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Felix_Dennis_P... I wonder if there is an e-version of the book somewhere, if you know what I mean.

zby 18y ago

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

cellis 18y ago

Many paths lead to riches Few in sunlight, most in ditches.

alins 18y ago

Felix Dennis: ex-addict, poet - and murderer? http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/03/pressandpublishing http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/03/pressandpublishi...

anaphoric 18y ago
Plot thickens... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584076/Felix-Dennis-murder-claim-innocent-or-guilty.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584076/Felix-Dennis-...