How to Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets by Felix Dennis (Wealth Creation Book Review)

"To become rich you must be an owner. And you must try to own it all. You must strive with every fiber of your being, while recognizing the idiocy of your behavior, to own and retain control of as near to 100 percent of any company as you can."

Besides having been on the list of the UK’s richest people, Mr. Dennis has also lived a colorful life – by his own admission he estimates having spent $100 million in just one decade on drugs, drink, prostitutes, and a decadent lifestyle.

His book, How to Get Rich, contains his frank, no-BS advice on how to get wealthy (tip: own as much equity as you can). He also shares handy pointers on starting up, improving your company’s cash flow, negotiations, managing people, and staying rich. Besides being a successful entrepreneur, Mr. Dennis was also a prominent poet, and it shows in the poems (both self-written and quoted) sprinkled throughout the text.

Read this book and learn how to progress from being part of the “comfortable poor” ($2 million to $4 million of assets) to rubbing shoulders with the super rich ($2 billion and over of assets), and be tickled by classic lines such as “If it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it. It’s cheaper in the long run.”

Key Takeaways

1. You will never get rich if you care what other people think, don’t work hard, are unwilling to fail, and lack self-belief.
2. To become rich you must own as much equity of a company as you can.
3. “If it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it. It’s cheaper in the long run.”
4. Becoming rich will not make you happy. It is a burden and will lead to greater isolation.

Book Highlights

"If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand very little chance of ever getting rich."

"To become rich you must be an owner. And you must try to own it all. You must strive with every fiber of your being, while recognizing the idiocy of your behavior, to own and retain control of as near to 100 percent of any company as you can."

"So focus on your business, whatever it is. It represents what you are. It should be a source of pride as well as a source of money. Being the best, or at least striving to be, will speed up the process of getting rich."

"Seeking substantial wealth is almost always a fool’s game. The statistics show that very few people ever succeed. Most of them should never have made the attempt in the first place."

"If it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it. It’s cheaper in the long run."

"Never have I met a self-made rich man or woman whose family or relationships were not plagued by the burden of creating a fortune, even a small fortune."