How To Get Rich- Book Summary

“Knowledge learned the hard way combined with the avoidance of error, whenever and wherever possible, is the soundest basis for success in any endeavor.”

The people who become rich are just like me and you, but their mindset have shifted from “want to be rich” to “need to be rich” they are determined to do whatever it takes to be rich.

Whatever qualities the rich may have, they can be acquired by anyone with the tenacity to become rich. The key, I think, is confidence. Confidence and an unshakable belief it can be done and that you are the one to do it.

Tunnel vision helps. A thick skin helps. Stamina is crucial, as is a capacity to work so hard that your best friends mock you, your lovers despair and the rest of your acquaintances watch furtively from the sidelines, half in awe and a half in contempt. Luck helps – but only if you don’t seek it.

It is a myth to think people get rich accidentally that is a poor man’s observation, to be rich you have to be intentional and a hard worker. 

Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex. You thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it, and thought of other things if you did.

Money is color-blind, race-blind, sex-blind, degree-blind, and couldn’t care less who brought you up or in what circumstances. Money is one of the most neutral substances on earth.  If you truly believe that your race, sex, or upbringing can keep you from becoming rich, then you had best give up here.

You stand by far the best chance of becoming as rich as you please. You have almost nothing. And therefore you have almost nothing to lose.

Not knowing that something cannot be done, you are likely to waltz into uncharted minefields where angels before you have feared to dance, and you might be fortunate enough to succeed.

Trusting conventional wisdom will hinder you from getting rich. Conventional wisdom daunts initiative and offers far too many convenient reasons for inaction, especially for those with a great deal to lose. Luckily for you, you have nothing to lose take the chance.

As a young person, you have the stamina, the secret weapon that is required for long grinding hours needed to be rich, ambition, fearlessness, self-belief, a degree of callousness, a willingness to learn, and technological knowledge are the weapons that give you an edge over old people. 

To be wealthier you must not be afraid of taking risks, failing and learning from your mistakes is the key.

“Fear is the little death, death by a thousand cuts,” Japanese saying. 

Fear impedes wealth accumulation, and so is recklessness. Work on your fears.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Whom you marry can hinder you from getting rich, ergo choose who you marry with care. It’s your best chance to get rich.

Dare not is one thing. Cannot is another. Not everyone can be rich. But anyone can dare to. Somebody has to.

Making money is an addictive drug, not money itself. Money is fun, but going overboard in that money-making direction is dangerous. Avoid such mistakes and don’t allow financial success leads to catastrophe. 

Real winners are people who know their limits and respect them.

HARNESSING THE FEAR OF FAILURE

• The step from knowing to doing is rarely taken.
• Knowing isn’t doing, Doing isn’t knowing; Nothing but the knowing and the doing gets it done.
• If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand very little chance of ever getting rich.
• If you care what the neighbors think, you will never get rich.
• If you cannot bear the thought of causing worry to your family, spouse, or lover while you plough a lonely, dangerous road rather than taking the safe option of a regular job, you will never get rich.
• If you are not prepared to work longer hours than almost anyone you know, despite the jibes of colleagues and friends, you are unlikely to get rich.
• If you cannot convince yourself that you are ‘good enough’ to be rich, you will never get rich. If you cannot treat your quest to get rich as a game, you will never be rich.
• Getting rich is not a calling for faint-hearted it requires sacrifices. You must get used to that, or give up the quest. 

Felix Dennis suggests one should think of this fear not as the King Kong of bogeymen, but as a mare. A nightmare. A mare, after all, is a horse. A horse can be tamed, bridled, saddled, harnessed and (eventually) ridden. Harnessing the power of such a creature adds mightily to your own. Thus the nightmare of prospective failure provides you with the very opportunity you are seeking. Not only does it restrain smarter people than yourself from becoming rich – and there can only be so many rich people in the world – it affords you the chance of increasing your confidence, both when you confront it and when you master it.

Fear, you either get over it, go round it, go at it, mount it, duck under it or cosy up to it. But you cannot surrender to it. That way lies paralysis, prevarication, ignominy, and defeat. Fear of failing in the eyes of the world is the single biggest impediment to amassing wealth. Trust me on this.