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.
Did you enjoy this article? Please subscribe to my feed either RSS Feed or Email to receive all the FREE updates!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
many thanks for the thoughtful reply. : )
anyway, hope many more would think this way…
most people tend to live for money only..
hence the corruption we read and see everyday…
Hey BeeBee,
Thanks for your comments. However, there are something I’d like to clarify.
The saying, “money is the root of all evil” is wrong. The actual one should be, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” 1 Timothy 6:10 Money in and of itself is just well, money. It is neither evil or good. It is the person who is having the money that’ll determine whether it’ll be put to good or evil use. Just like power, money, or the lack of it does bring out the core character of a person.
Orphanages need money, charities need money, countries in famine need money (to get food), etc. Money can really be put to good use.
And by the way, money and happiness are not related at all. One can choose to be happy with or without money. And between being rich and unhappy, and poor and unhappy, I’d choose the former anytime.
neat thoughts.
if making money involves ramping over family life & great friendship; then the saying ‘money is the root of all evil’ is justified.
I think risk should be moderated. Agree with Janet getting rich isn’t that important. You can never have enough of money but definitely you can get better if you are richer with a group of really nice people.
I want to be well off. But I do not want to ruin my life by losing all to money.
Hi Melvin,
Great post and I really agree with many of the points there. I’m not where I want to be financially yet, but I have adopted the philosophy that really makes things happen and I’m already seeing some results in my life.
It’s all about production. If we produce and create abundance of products, articles, ideas and inspiration for other people to benefit from then we have a pretty good chance of getting rich. Making production our #1 goal is the key – this means 24/7 type of work – but genuine heart driven production is fun and very rewarding, so why not?
Nice to know that you are with Agel as well
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.