Customer Reviews

The Incredible Secret Money Machine II

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was turned onto this book by my friend Charlie in the 80's, who had successfully and happily run his own technical and craft money machines for many years. Since the book was out of print at the time, I had to search very hard to find a copy.

Don, through this book, has helped me to understand that I didn't need to be an employee, nor employ others in order to do my own technical venture and make a comfortable living. The advice is timeless (i.e. avoid taking on "granfaloons" (the government or large corporations), spend less than what you make, get by on less, invest in yourself, etc.) and continues to translate well into the internet economy.

I have taken to re-reading the book every year or so, to help adjust what I'm doing to increase my happiness and control over the direction of my career/life.

I have found it helpful to interact with others who are into this same "money-machine" lifestyle, and continue to enjoy many of the philisophical and other bits of advice provided.

The book is easy to read, humorous, and captivating. I had previously read Don's TTL and CMOS books, and also found those to be invaluable. This book is so genuine and unique, that nothing that I've found (and I've looked) has inspired me so much in my quest to do my own thing and run a small business.

Thanks Don!

-Jonathan

jpletzke@TheTechCorp.com

This book is not about being a "player", as in starting a company with the intent to go public and cash out. Instead it reveals some important truths and doles out advice about using your experience, skills, and knowledge to create a satisfying and profitable micro-enterprise, and to live a lifestyle that leads to real freedom and happiness. The book is a bit dated in parts because it was written long before the dotcom boom/bust of the late '90s. However, in this age of outsourcing and corporate downsizing, Lancaster's book is still a useful resouce for older workers cut loose from the corporate fold, and for younger people who don't care to get stuck in a dead end career.

When I first started my life as an entrepreneur my brother gave me a copy of the Incredible Secret Money Machine. I read it many times and whenever I followed it's advice, I prospered, and whenever I tried to "make it" doing the conventional things it advised against, I failed.

This book is for the average person who want's to have a little independence and security making money with their own technical or craft talents. It's a must-read!

John Walker, cofounder and first CEO of Autodesk wrote in his Philosophy chapter of Information letter #1 in Jan 19, 1982 (before incorporation of Autodesk in April 1982:
"To those of you who know the esteem in which I hold Don Lancaster's book, The Incredible Secret Money Machine, some of the concepts you've seen here may seem alien or repugnant. My theme all along in this is ``the game has changed''. To be blunt, they're playing the ball game with real balls now. It's possible to follow the Don Lancaster route and earn a reasonable income for life while maintaining your own freedom and lifestyle, but you only generate income when you work, and you must resign yourself to seeing people with less merit in your eyes advance beyond you on the ladder of material success."
In footnote he added "Must read!" and then he made millions in Autodesk. So this book is definitely not only for craftsmen, if you read it properly you can build empires like Autodesk ($1.8B this year).

The only other bad review on here, at 3 stars, is 100% accurate.

Good person, but it's clear looking at current resources his plans didn't work out.
(The wikipedia page is heavily skewed and lacking information for such a prolific person)

On a less personal note, as a business major with interests in robotics, most of this book is awful advice, almost none of the companies he uses as successful examples haven't gone bankrupt.

Excellent advice for being a startup writer/photographer in the 70's,
otherwise heavy on personal buzzwords that would never catch on,
and dated language/lack of internet advice makes it a fun older pamphlet style book

(It feels VERY much like it's just a collection of his articles)

Don Lancaster is a long-time writer for hobby electronics publications who had his 15 minutes of fame with the publication of some moderately good introductory books on TTL and CMOS logic use, and a "TV Typewriter Cookbook" that detailed the use of the above to build a video ASCII device that could be easily adapted to be used as a terminal at the time that the S-100 hobby computer boom came about. Don was hailed as a great Guru and, unfortunately, he believed it. Still does, apparently.

Don went on to champion the Apple ][ computer and the 6502 architecture, and later such ideas as using PostScript laser printers as general purpose computers and composing and laying out text in raw PostScript. Indeed, he maintained that anything which could be done by computer was best done in raw PostScript. When this idea failed to catch on-and indeed PostScript vanished except for use on network printers in Unix environments (which must have rankled the Unix-hating Lancaster even further)-Don retreated from the tech writing fray and makes his living selling surplus electrojunk on eBay.

Don's technical writing and sociopolitical commentary can be amusing to read at times, along with that of such other cranks as Wayne Green and Ed Romney, but it should be kept firmly in mind that Don's methods, procedures, and attitudes have never made him any money to speak of, have never provided jobs for anyone, and have done little to influence the path of technology over the long haul (although arguably his TTL Cookbook speeded up the computer hobby-businesses that disrupted the mainframe and microcomputer world). I would never call Don an epsilon minus, but he's ofttimes not even wrong.