I was reading an excellent book, “How to Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets” by Felix Dennis and came across his 8 reasons why you will never get rich. I thought it was a real eye opener and would like to share it with you guys. Here goes:
- If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand very little chance of 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 loved ones while you plow a lonely, dangerous road rather than taking the safe option of a regular job, you will never get rich.
- If you have artistic inclinations and fear that the search for wealth will coarsen such talents or degrade them, you will never get rich. (Because your fear, in this instance, is well justified.)
- If you are not prepared to work longer hours than almost everyone 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.
- If you cannot face up to your fear of failure, you will never be rich.
Felix goes on to say that,
“The truth is that getting rich means sacrifice. And the worst of it is, it isn’t always you that’s doing the sacrificing. You must get used to that, or give up the quest. This is not a calling for the fainthearted.”
So, which reason(s) is(are) stopping you? Are they valid? Are the real? Or are they just excuses? Regrets for the things you’ve done can be tempered by time. But regrets for the things you haven’t done are forever regrets.
Do not be deceived by the simple title of this book. It’s written by someone who’s been there and done that. By a real person. Not some ghost writer. You can find this book in Amazon.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Clara,
According to Dennis, you fall under the category of people whose age has the highest chance of success and becoming rich! Go for it, girl!
May you achieve your dreams and aspirations in a big way. And may success continue to pursue you as you start being one! Remember, we’re called human ‘being’ not human ‘doing’.
To Melvin: Thanks for writing this brief summarization of the famous book, how to get rich by that old ( but respectable) guy Dennis.
I wanted to read that book really badly ( the Kindle fiasco made me push my plans to later…)
To everyone: I would also like to add that Dennis himself said ,” I cannot make you healthy, I cannot make you happy, but I can make you rich with this book.” I think this is more or less what he said.
The bottom line that I want to add is if you don’t plan to do what the book says, don’t buy it because it will not do what it is suppose to. Sometimes, a little dreaming and visualizing will help a lot…
I am not perfect but I try to be. I dream/visualize that one day I will be successful…I wish everyone the best.
G’night ppl!
Hey Janet,
Y’know, about the sacrificing. It all depends on how you term sacrificing. I can choose to stay at home and be a good spouse/parent; but as a result I don’t have the financial means to get them the things they’d always wanted, send my children to the places they want to go, or have to settle for something not as good. Would they be sacrificing? So I really believe we all have to sacrifice – it’s just a matter or when and how long. I like this saying, although I forgot it’s from who, “The price for success is only temporary. But the price for failure is permanent!”
I don’t know about getting rich. Is it that important? I would like to be rich-ER, undoubtedly, since it would make quite a number of things easier. However, it is a tough decision to make because you’re not the only one that’s doing the sacrificing. These are real gems though.