Live Rich: Everything You Need to Know to Be Your Own Boss, Whoever You Work for (Hardcover)

by Stephen Pollan (Author), Mark Levine (Author) "Live rich. When you come down to it, isn't that what we all want?..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Mike O'Shea, Create Yourself (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
You've heard the career advice, "Do what you love and the money will follow." That's bad advice, according to Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine. The coauthors of the surprise bestseller Die Broke are back with another book of irreverent wisdom. Where Die Broke offered a fresh approach to dealing with money, Live Rich is full of equally original ideas about careers.

Pollan and Levine advocate a kind of enlightened selfishness. Their first rule: work for yourself, even if you are someone else's employee. Identify your own best interests and pursue them aggressively. Be mercenary. And don't sacrifice money for work you love. For love, get a dog. Less cynical than they might first appear, Pollan and Levine are the savvy uncles you wish you had, who share their hardheaded street smarts without telling you what to do. The bulk of Live Rich is a compendium of tips on everything from hiring an accountant to picking stationery. Readers should come away with at least a few good ideas and perhaps with a changed perspective on the relation of work and life. --Barry Mitzman

From Publishers Weekly
With the same format and approach as the bestselling Die Broke, financial adviser Pollan here focuses on earning money rather than spending it. "To live rich" (which, he assumes, is "what we all want"), "you need to abandon the pursuit of meaningful work." That's a grim but perhaps rational way to approach our Brave New Employment World, and the rules are simple: make money (don't worry about emotional gratification at work); don't grow, change (avoid putting down roots at work); and take charge. Entrepreneurs must ensure that their businesses serve them, and employees must be mercenaries. The bulk of the book, as in Die Broke (also a collaboration with Levine), consists of short takes on relevant topics, some limited to entrepreneurs. Those topics include advertising (too broad to be efficient, he says), call waiting (it inevitably insults someone), equipment (lease rather than buy) and time management (offer estimates rather than deadlines). Cutting out social and personal elements makes work more efficient, Pollan declares. Readers happily heading out to lunch with co-workers might disagree.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1st edition (September 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887309356
• ISBN-13: 978-0887309359
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,730,377 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Do it for Money and the Love Will Follow", October 1, 2000

By	Michael Mendenhall "september17th" (Monterey, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Live Rich: Everything You Need to Know To Be Your Own Boss (Paperback)

This book in a sense is the opposite of that book called "Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow" which was published several years ago. I really liked that book, and I like this one too. So many different ideas, and yet we can pick and choose what we want from them and use them for our benefit.

Make no mistake about it, this book is about money. That's perfectly okay. If money doesn't interest you, don't read it. Above all else, this book is about putting what you do for a living in its proper perspective. As a society we've come to the point where our jobs are an extension of our family. When we introduce ourselves we state what we do for a living. We're not people, we're schoolteachers, police officers, lawyers, mechanics, etc. This is what sets this book apart and makes it worth reading. If you want to live a rich and satisfying life, your work is for money. If you're looking for love, get it from your family.

Here is my favorite passage from the book:

"My clients have been taught that their value as human beings has nothing to do with their salaries. And yet if they're offered less than they expected as a salary or in payment for their services they take it as a personal affront to their worth as a human being. They say they think it's what's inside that counts and yet they - and everyone else - respond, positively or negatively, to how people look. Someone who's dressed in expensive clothes, driving an expensive car, gets treated better than someone who isn't. Perhaps most damaging of all, my clients have been taught they should pay more attention to the emotional and psychological elements of work than to the money. They money, they were told, would take care of itself. They'd automatically be rewarded for their hard work. They thought that if they did what they loved, the money would follow. Their pay would magically match their education, their emotional gratification, and their perception of their own worth. They were told to ignore money. In this case ignorance clearly was not bliss."

In one sense this book is an all out "look out for number one." We're told that there is no job security and that money is the sole focus of work. I agree, sort of. It's not about selfishness and obsession with money as much as it is putting perspective in our lives. Human beings have a real hangup with money. A person will move across the country for a better paying job, yet we claim "the money really isn't that important." It's the "job satisfaction" "the benefits" "the positive work environment." The author asserts that work is for money. He further claims there's nothing wrong with thinking like that. If work isn't for earning a living, then what is it for? Good question.

Should you buy this book? Well that depends. If you like your work because of the great people there and the company softball team, this book will certainly open your eyes. I found this book to be more eye opening and thought provoking than anything else. It claims to be a "how to" book of sorts, and there is a lot of "how to" in here. I would have to say that this book is to employees what "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber is to business owners. We're too tied up in what we do for a living to separate that from our personal identities. We define ourselves by what we do for a living.

I'm giving this book 4 stars. I think it's an important book and a good sequel to the author's previous book "Die Broke." The format of the book is the same as "Die Broke" in that part II is an alphabetical glossary of various subjects. I found this book's part II to be a big improvement over the part II in "Die Broke." I don't know, maybe I paid more attention this time. It's a good book, one that definitely puts things in their proper perspective. If you find yourself "overworked and underpaid" then perhaps you should read this book. There's some great advice in here.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Prosaic; Unequivocal, May 22, 2000

By	Michael L. Perla (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live Rich: Everything You Need to Know To Be Your Own Boss (Paperback)

I think Pollan and Levine have definitely tried to differentiate themselves. Like many authors and writers trying to separate from the pack, the aforementioned authors seem to clearly overemphasize their differences and underemphasize their similarities to the current self-help/enlightenment zeitgeist. This book seems to be the antithesis of "Do what you love and the money will follow," and other books of the like. The authors implore us to "Make Money" and be free-agent employees. And if you are working according to their model, you shouldn't have time to chat with your wife (husband) or other ancillary parties.

It's not that I don't agree with the authors on numerous points, I just feel that their idea of all work and then play is not realistic or the most productive. Bottom line, any cursory read of the work-curve literature, or a limited understanding of attention spans and our memory faculties, would reveal a different picture than what they try to paint. Witness the knowledge worker and their work environment for sustainable and creative growth.

Another one of their major points is the idea of "Don't grow, change." In today's dynamic work environment, and real-time learning necessities, I think this is a valuable idea. I think the idea of NOT becoming occupationally and intellectually stagnant is a valuable goal.

Part II of the book is an alphabetical examination (a page or so of writing) of ninety-one different topics related to earning money and entrepreneurship. As stated in my title for the review, the authors are quite direct in their opinions on the chosen topics (and throughout the book). This is not good or bad in its own right; it just comes across as somewhat know-it-all-ish and arrogant. Again, the authors are not coddling their readers, like many self-help books are purported to do. All in all, the book has some interesting points, and some good advice on employment contracts and other legal matters (Pollan has a law degree). My suggestion is to browse through the book at the library, and see if you want to pursue it further.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good advice, but a backwards-looking mindset, September 24, 1998

By A Customer

I heartily subscribe to the authors' philosophy that you "work for yourself," and that your career should be governed by putting your own self-interest first, not by blind loyalty to a company that has no corresponding loyalty to its employees. On the other hand, I have real problems with their idea that you should work for money and seek self-actualization and meaning from other things in your life. This is based on a number of assumptions that I believe are false: (1) "Jobs" are created by employers and/or the marketplace, not by the people who do them; (2) the way things are is the way things are going to stay; and (3) the satisfaction you get from, say, coaching your kid's soccer team is more "genuine" than what you can or should get from your work.
This is the 1950's suburban paradigm that I grew up with -- but the world of work is changing and the concept of "job" (let alone "company" and "industry") is shifting. If people detach themselves emotionally from their jobs now, they'll miss the opportunity to transform the work place into something more human-centered -- and I think we have a window of opportunity to do this now that may not last forever.
Also, just in practical terms, I think it's naive to believe that an activity that takes up at least 50 hours a week (when you count in lunch breaks with co-workers, commuting time, dressing and undressing, etc.) can be NOT meaningful to you! (This reminds me of Quentin Crisp's dictum: "It's no good running a pig farm badly for 30 years while saying 'Really, I was meant to be a ballet dancer.' After 30 years, pigs will be your style.")
My own approach to career selection would be to start by saying "What's most important to you in life?" Then I'd ask (1) Can you make a job out of it? If so, great; you're one of the lucky ones. (2) If not, can you find work that's related to it? If so, you're also lucky. (3) If not, what job can you take to make enough money to live on and still have enough time to do what's important to you? Pollan and Levine address #3 well -- but for those of us fortunate enough to have found #2 (as I did) or even #1, their advice is laughable.