Becoming Rich: The Wealth-Building Secrets of the World's Master Investors Buffett, Icahn, Soros (Hardcover)

by Mark Tier (Author) "WARREN BUFFETT AND GEORGE SOROS are the world's most successful investors..." (more)
Key Phrases: Master Investor, Warren Buffett, George Soros (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The world is full of get-rich-quick schemes, but this definitely isn't one of them. Instead, Tier, founder of World Money Analyst, a newsletter with subscribers in 119 countries, teaches readers to invest smartly by delving into the skills, philosophies and investment strategies of some of the world's richest self-made men-Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.), Carl Icahn (Ichan & Co.) and George Soros (Quantum Fund) among them. An Australian who lives in Hong Kong, Tier has written other books about finance, including Understanding Inflation and The Nature of Market Cycles, but here it's all about analyzing and replicating the habits of his idols, whom he calls "Master Investors." Part biography and part self-help, the book will appeal most to serious investors for whom investing is a near full-time job. For those enthusiasts, chapters like "The Seven Deadly Investment Sins" and "You Call That A Position" will be entertaining, and "The 23 Winning Investment Habits" in Appendix I will likely become a mantra. But even casual investors can glean some good tips from this well-organized book, which points out that the Losing Investor always aims "to make a lot of money" while the Master Investor always keeps preservation of capital as "priority No. 1."
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Product Description

Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, and George Soros all started with nothing---and made billion-dollar fortunes solely by investing. But their investment strategies are so widely divergent, what could they possibly have in common?

As Mark Tier demonstrates in this insightful book, the secrets that made Buffet, Icahn, and Soros the world's three richest investors are the same mental habits and strategies they all practice religiously. However, these are mental habits and strategies that fly in the face of Wall Street's conventional mindset. For example:

-Buffett, Icahn, and Soros do not diversify. When they buy, they buy as much as they can.

-They're not focused on the profits they expect to make. Going in, they're not investing for the money at all.

-They don't believe that big profits involve big risks. In fact, they're far more focused on not losing money than making it.

-Wall Street research reports? They never read them. They're not interested in what other people think. Indeed, Buffett says he only reads analyst reports when he needs a laugh.

In Becoming Rich you can discover how the mental habits that guided your last investment decision stack up against those of Buffett, Icahn, and Soros. Then learn exactly how you can apply the wealth-building secrets of the world's richest investors to transform your own investment results.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (March 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312339860
• ISBN-13: 978-0312339869
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #345,658 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Becoming Rich: The Wealth-Building Secrets of The World's Master Investors Buffett, Icahn, Soros, February 22, 2006

By	Daniel Ferris "Editor, Extreme Value" (West Coast) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I write financial newsletters for a living. I'm constantly being asked by my publisher's book subisidary to submit ideas for an investment title. I've bought every investment book with the name Buffett in the title. I've read most of them, although I've finished few of them. The best ones are The Warren Buffett Way, by Hagstrom, The Buffettology books, and Greenwald, et al's Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond. Becoming Rich, is half a notch below these, but this is the book I wish I'd written, not any of those other three.

The best thing about Becoming Rich is that Tier, a veteran newsletter writer, always SHOWS you. He never merely tells you what his point is. This book has page after page of anecdotes and examples, including material I don't remember reading elsewhere about Buffett. For example, there's a great couple of paragraphs explaining what happened to Coke before Goizueta took over, and how Goizueta dug into the business, sold of all the garbage assets previous management had bought, and introduced Diet Coke, which became an instant smash hit.

Tier does a better job of summing up Soros's style than any of the Soros books. I can't get through Alchemy of Finance, but I really enjoyed reading about Soros in Becoming Rich. Icahn material is scarce, and Becoming Rich has material I haven't seen elsewhere, although Tier did tell me by e-mail that some of it came from the now out-of-print biography, King Icahn.

If you're an individual investor, you should read this book. If you're an educated financial professional, you've probably swallowed a fair amount of pure garbage as a part of your formal education. This book can help you discard it.

If you enjoy reading stories and anecdotes about business and great investors, you'll love this book. It doesn't hurt that, along the way, Tier calls out the principles that Buffett, Icahn and Soros used to get rich.

So...it's a useful book, a unique though simple approach to the topic, loaded with ultra-specific examples, delivered with a sense of urgency, fun and story-telling throughout.

~ Dan Ferris, Editor, Extreme Value
(www.stansberryresearch.com)

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winning title from Mark Tier, June 22, 2005

By	Henry Newrick (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In 1969, as a youthful 23 year old I invested in Australian mineral stocks which were then running hot. Poseidon was the leader and others were in hot pursuit. 6 weeks later the market came crashing down and I virtualy lost my entire investment. For the next 36 years I never bought another stock.

Mark Tier's book has changed all that. In a little over 200 pages of well written and thoroughly reasoned text he has provided a succinct analysis of the strategies behind such successful investors as Warren Buffet and George Soros. He has converted me back to equities, and given me the encouragement to invest again. My only regret is that the book wasn't available 20 years ago.

I'd thoroughly recommend this book to anyone wanting to adopt a relatively cautious but nevertheless winning strategy for investing in the stock market. Thanks Mark, it's never too late to start over. Warren Buffet, here I come!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Books on Investing and Trading, July 14, 2006

By	Moominoid "moominoid" (Upstate NY United States) - See all my reviews

I don't agree with absolutely everything that Mark Tier writes in this book - but the points I disagree on at least get me to think. I think there are more differences between Soros and Buffett than Tier would like. Some of the rules are relatively but not absolutely true - for example the don't diversify rule is relative. Buffett is in fact very diversified today across investments and operating businesses as a result of the pure size of Berkshire though insurance remains the primary business. Soros always diversified across individual stock investments but would take large futures positions. But the insights in the book far outweigh any of my criticisms. For the guy who says the book is worthless - the book is not very useful to someone with no experience in trading and investing. You need to come to this book with a lot of experience and maybe limited success and it will open your eyes. Having previously read biographies of Soros and Buffett and their own writings will help put things in context too. This is very much an advanced level text :)