“How to get rich” by Felix Dennis

The author 🖋

Felix Dennis was one of Great Britain's best-known entrepreneurs, a prominent publisher, poet, philanthropist and best selling author.

He founded Dennis Publishing, which produced popular magazines such as Maxim and was one of the wealthiest individuals in the UK with a personal fortune estimated at over $750 million.

Key takeaways 🎓

1. It’s hard to save your way into wealth

There's a limit to how much we can save, but there’s no limit to how much we can earn.

While cutting costs can help, the real path to wealth lies in growing income streams.

This means taking risks, starting ventures, creating better products, expanding into new markets or finding innovative ways to increase sales.

2. Execution > ideas

Every idea has already been thought of.

They’re literally a dime a dozen and it’s not ideas that get people wealthy, execution does.

Dennis argues that even if we never have a single great idea in our life, but become skilled in executing the ideas of others, we can succeed beyond our wildest dreams.

3. Importance of ownership

Dennis advocates for ownership as a fundamental principle of becoming rich.

True wealth is built through the control of assets, rather than simply earning a high income.

Even a small percentage of ownership in a highly successful company can lead to substantial wealth.

Closing thoughts 🧠

The book is a candid, humorous and straightforward guide to building wealth from someone who's done it.

Dennis shares his own personal experiences and no-nonsense approach while dispelling many myths about what it takes to become wealthy.

It’s a super easy read because of his great sense of humor that’s well apparent in the only TED talk he gave in 2009.