How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets Kindle Edition

Now that Mr. Dennis has died, I'll add my review. He spends the first two-thirds of the book telling you why you probably do NOT really want to get rich. He's quite convincing, and he convinced me of what I already sensed: I don't care enough about the benefits of riches to pay the price to be wealthy. I already have all I need. But I read the rest of the book anyway, because he's an entertaining writer.
He does tell you how to get rich, and warns you that it won't make you any happier or more content, but it will give you more choices. That's about it.
The only question left is, If Felix Dennis had known he would die so early, would he have spent those decades chasing wealth, or simply followed his desire to travel and write poetry, on a more modest budget?

This is an awesome book. It isn't a step by step book to riches but more of a common sense guide. Sometimes a little preachy but I loved how it covers a great deal of in depth details. My husband read the book years ago and kept recommending it to me. I'm an entrepreneur but my business seems to move slowly. This book helps you figure out for yourself where your weaknesses are. Maybe a little tough to read if you feel like you already know everything, but essential read if you expect to be successful.

How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis was recommended to me by an adviser that I trust. Since I grew up in my career in high tech at the same time as Mr. Dennis built his fortune I could relate to everything he explained about how his success with the first computer trade pubs and Maxim produced his rise to the ranks of the rich (and somewhat famous). This is a somewhat gritty tale told from a heavy British viewpoint but is nonetheless an accurate description of what's needed to become rich. I didn't say successful or happy, because these have nothing to do with getting rich as you will hear from Felix throughout.

Sprinkled with heavy doses of his poetry to savor a point or illustrate required thinking and action, this book isn't an easy or particularly fun read, I found myself wondering if I really wanted to finish it at several points only because of the colloquialisms he spouts while telling his tale which may require stopping to figure out what he actually meant. But, other than that, he does a great job laying out the steps to becoming rich which may surprise the get rich self-help reader who follows this topic, voraciously reading every popular book on the subject.

It may make you think again if that's your real goal - getting rich. Felix says that he can understand looking back why others chose different paths with raising a family, devoting themselves to a worthy cause or non-profit, because he himself really wonders if it was worth it...NOT! as it turns out, he's too used to his freedom and experiences of the finer things in life that money affords to change his fate now. He shares with you in the book what a real bummer or hassle that having money brings including a long list of needed advisers, financial advisers, tax advisers, supportive well wishers who seek hand-outs, charities, not to mention the minute details and fine print of the tax laws that you'll need to get extra very familiar with.

Dennis cautions what not to do if you want/hope to be rich, and he provides plenty of real life examples of what he experienced to help provide you a solid understanding of what the path looks like once you are on it and just experienced a windfall. He surmises as do many other rich people like him, not surprisingly, that most of the path to riches is paved by those who ACT. He shares that's something that fewer than 2% of the population do for the things that they WANT...and he thinks that most of you won't act and won't get rich.

That's why he feels that there's so much room for those who do and turn it to riches because (there is hardly any competition around anyone that's acting).

There are lots of ways of becoming or being rich which he outlines in the book, but the most powerful points he feels are: to clear your mind, set your feet firmly with determinism to get rich, laugh at your fears that only hold you back and then simply ACT -- you have to act! Oh, there's more to it than that of course, but you'll have to read for yourself.

I gave this a 4 star because it was a good tale of truth but it didn't say anything all that new or amazing. I liked the story because I could relate to the time period and to my own reactions to the experiences I personally had during that same time as I took my turn at becoming rich. It was accurate based on my experiences...every single thing he wrote. But the hardest part then becomes keeping it.

Felix Dennis makes many good observations in this unusual book about getting rich. It is unusual because unlike so many other books on the topic it is written by someone who actually got rich from businesses other than writing books about becoming rich. This book also does not talk about the law of attraction, unless it's his law of attraction where you work long and hard for many years on the right business and then the money is attracted to you.

Here are a few things I liked about this book. He speaks clearly about fear. Come on now, that is what stops most of us from really becoming rich and successful. Its tough to leave the security of a comfortable job and give it all up for the scary roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship. I know I personally would not be comfortable without a steady flow of money coming in. Could you get through a period of months without any cash flow? That's a huge fear.

A second topic I really like is the fallacy of the great idea. You do not need some great, original idea to be successful. Really all you need to do is take an existing idea and put a new spin on it. Do it better than anyone else. Combine two existing ideas that have not been combined so far. Take a look at Mcdonalds. They do not make the best hamburger in the world. They are not even close. But they do the whole process better than anyone else. The idea is not important, the proper execution of the idea is where the money lies.

Ownership. You must own your company and never give away or sell ownership. And if you must sell some ownership, never sell controlling interest.

To really achieve a high level at this game you will probably alienate many people in your life. Long hours at work tends to stress a marriage. Its tough to see the kids play soccer when you always arrive home long after darkness has arrived. You have to change the way you think, most people are uncomfortable being surrounded by people much smarter and more qualified than they are. But if you want to be rich, you have to hire great talent. Talent, that while very qualified has not overcome the fear associated with starting their own business. Which is great for us, because we can hire them.