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The $100 MBA Show
MBA2331 Must Read: How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis
00:11:04
Wealth isn't just about hitting a specific number. According to Felix Dennis, the author of "How to Get Rich", there isn't much difference in lifestyle beyond a particular number (listen to find out).
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- [00:00]
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying Big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try.
- [00:19]
Mint Mobile
@Mintmobile.Com Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra.
- [00:29]
Unknown Speaker
See full terms@mintmobile.com got a 7am meeting on a Monday expensing breakfast because it's in policy wasting all afternoon submitting an expense report for that breakfast. If your company used Ramp, you could submit expenses with just a text.
- [00:51]
Yay.
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Free your team from expense reports today. Switch your business to ramp.com.
- [01:12]
Omar Zenhom
Hey oh. Welcome to the $100 VA show, giving you what you need to build the business you want with our practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started back in 2014 and today's episode is a must read episode on our Must Read Episod. I share with you a book that I've read that has influenced me as an entrepreneur. I share with you its takeaways, its insights and why you should read it too. Today's must read is how to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. Now I know that the title of this book sounds cheesy, how to Get Rich, but this is honestly one of the most interesting and entertaining books on money, finance, business I've ever read. This is a gem of a book that I will read and reread for years to come. The author, Felix Dennis, is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and the founder of Dennis Publishing Publishing, some of the most popular magazines around the world. He also has a poet and he shares some of his very cool poems in the book as he starts the chapters. His net worth at the time of writing the book? Nearly half a billion dollars. So he knows a thing or two about how to get rich. In today's episode, I'm gonna break down what this book is all about. My favorite chapters, some things that will really change your mind when it comes to building wealth and of you should read this book as well. One of my favorite things about this book is that Felix talks to you directly through this book as if he's giving you personal advice. So interesting, so fun. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. How to get rich is not for the faint hearted or somebody who doesn't have a sense of humor. It's raw, it's honest. And this is why I love it so much. He shares with you his mistakes, his failures, his flaws, how he's made money, how he's lost a ton of money, and what it means to be rich in the first place. The book starts out by talking about the three myths about getting rich. And those myths are people get rich by accident, they get lucky. The second myth, people get rich with a great idea. And the third is that people used to be able to get rich, but not today. In the book, he breaks down why these myths are so false and how he's proven it wrong over and over in his career. What I like about this book is that he starts out by just breaking down the idea of being rich. What does rich really mean? And he actually has his own criteria. I like the fact that he doesn't just leave it to you and say, hey, rich is whatever you want it to be. But he says, no, this is what I believe rich is in terms of unit of value, dollars and cents. And he starts off with like people who have two to four million dollars of net worth. And he calls that comfortably poor. And then 4 to 10 million and so on and so forth. And here are some of the titles of these categories. Comfortably Off, Comfortably Wealthy, Lesser Rich, Comfortably Rich, the Rich, the Seriously Rich, the Truly Rich, the Filthy Rich, and the Super Rich, which is over $2 billion. Now, one of my favorite takeaways of this book is that he said if he could do it all over again, he would actually try to find a way to get to 20 to 30 million dollars as fast as possible and then retire and write poetry. He would not go beyond that because in his experience he says that life is not that much different beyond 30 million. There's not much you can do beyond 30 million that you can do before 30 million do. He says, yeah, you can own a jet, but it's not really smart to own a jet. It's actually better to charter one. It's smarter, it's more efficient, it's better for the environment. So his sweet spot's like if you can get to 20 to 30 million and just retire, your life is going to be grand. You're not going to want for anything and you're just rich enough for you to be able to have total freedom and to be left alone really. Beyond that, you're really on somebody's radar. He then goes into the book and says, I want to warn you, being rich does not guarantee happiness. Yes, money will solve your money problem, but they won't solve all your problems. One of the biggest problems that wealthy people have is protecting their wealth. Now that they have it, they are up all night stressing out about how not to lose it. When you don't have anything, you really have nothing to lose, and therefore you probably don't stress too much other than just paying your regular bills. There's also the guilt of figuring out what to do with this money. Should I give to charity? Should I invest in it? Should I make sure that somebody inherits it? It's a lot of responsibility because people on the outside see this as a huge waste of opportunity if you don't do it right. So even money itself has its own problems. And he admits these are all good problems to have, right? People that have these problems, they shouldn't complain. But even with these money problems, it doesn't solve all your problems. Your insecurities, your health, your wellness. There's a lot of people that die young that are rich. Your happiness, your relationships, your confidence, your inner peace and contentment, these are all things that are really hard to buy with money. One of the things I really loved about this book is he talks about how those who are curious, who are open minded, that are willing to try different things, these are the people that get rich. You can't be close minded, you can't be narrow minded. You got to be curious because that's where you're going to find the opportunities that are untapped. Then he really hits the jugular and says, being rich requires you to have thick skin. You got to be okay with failure. Not just any failure, public failure. He asks you personally in the book, he talks to you directly. He says, are you willing to fail publicly to succeed? And that's what is required. A lot of entrepreneurs fail miserably in public, in front of everybody, and yet we tend to forget about that. Are we willing to go through that? Whether it's Elon Musk seeing hundreds of millions of dollars blown up because the rocket blew up and was unsuccessful in SpaceX or Richard Branson where a third of his brands and companies don't really work out and fail. Do you care what your friends will say or colleagues in business or even your neighbors, if you failed so bad you had to move and downsize your home, you need to be willing to fail. And he goes on and on about what you need to be willing to do if you want to get rich.
- [07:21]
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
- [07:44]
Mint Mobile
Of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra.
- [07:50]
Unknown Speaker
See full terms@mintmobile.com got a 7am meeting on a Monday?
- [07:55]
Boo.
- [07:57]
Expensing breakfast because it's in policy.
- [07:59]
Yay.
- [08:01]
Wasting all afternoon submitting an expense report for that breakfast. If your company used Ramp, you could submit expenses with just a text.
- [08:12]
Yay.
- [08:15]
Free your team from expense reports today. Switch your business to ramp.com.
- [08:25]
Omar Zenhom
He goes on and explains that you will not get rich by working for other people. You have to build your own asset, your own business. Invest in a business, be a part of a business. Be a part of some sort of asset like real estate. You have to have money working for you while you're sleeping. It's too hard for you to just try to make money when you're awake. You'll have the advantage of compounding and passive income or the power of leverage. Leverage over time and labor and code and all the stuff we talked about before. He talks about the fallacy of a great idea. There are so many great ideas out there that don't mean anything. They're not worth anything. It's all about execution. It's all about how you execute an idea. In fact, he says a poor idea executed well will always be a great idea executed poorly. A great example of this is McDonald's. McDonald's don't make the best burgers or fries or shakes or anything like that. In fact, if you went home and made your own burger fries, you probably can make them better and they'll taste delicious and they'll be more healthy and all that kind of stuff. But it's their execution that makes them successful. The fact that it's fast and convenient and affordable. One of my favorite chapters in this book is when he talks about you got to know how to quit when something's not working. You can't be so stubborn where you just don't see the writing on the wall. Where you don't see that this business is just not making it happen. It's not helping you get rich. He talks about getting rich is a mission on its own. All the different businesses, the ideas, the products, the partnerships, all the things that you do is how you get rich. It's a means to an end. And if there's a business on your hands that you're working on right now that is kicking your butt, that you are not in control of, that is not profitable, that is not making you money, but you're digging in your heels because you fall in love with the idea and you really believe this is going to happen. But all the data proves that it's just not a good one. It's not a good business to hold on to. You are asking for trouble. You got to know when to quit and move on to something else because your time is your most precious asset. He talks about a business idea that he thought was brilliant. All the critics that were brilliant, the customers loved it, but it just didn't make business sense. And if he quit when he was supposed to quit, he would have saved about three to five million dollars. He imagines I could have had three to five million dollars in the bank extra right now. But I was stubborn and I fell in love with the idea. And that's dangerous when you're trying to be rich. Another concept I absolutely loved is think big, act small. Think big about your business. Try to go for the moon. Try to get that partnership that's going to blow up your business. Try to get that big client. Try to get that reach. Try to get published on a big newspaper or article online. But act small. Act like a small startup. Don't overspend. Be scrappy. Be as profitable as possible, be as lean as possible. And that's how you can grow quickly, by thinking big but acting small. There's so much in this book that I absolutely love. I will reread this book definitely because it's so entertaining. I highly recommend you pick up the audiobook. This is one of the best audio narrations I've ever heard. It's narrated by Roy McMillan. It's unbelievable. It's available on Audible if you want to check it out. That's where I get all my audiobooks. An absolute killer of a book. A must read for sure. Guys, thank you so much for listening to the $100 MBA. If you're looking for all the different books I recommend, you can just head on to 100- MBA-NET, our website and on the top of the navigation you'll see my book reviews. Over 140 book reviews. I've done must reads where I have all the books, there links to them, a little summary as well as an audio podcast episode Reviewing the book. So if you're always looking for a good read, just head on over to100nba.net, go to our book reviews up on top in the navigation I got your back. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Some books just hit you in the gut. This is one of those books that are a gut check. It's okay to feel a little pain when you're reading a book or listening to a book because it means it's resonating. It means that, hey, I gotta make a change. I gotta think differently. I gotta do differently. That's how you grow. They say no pain no gain. It's true. This book is filled with gut punches because he went through them and had gut punches and he's sharing with you and you're probably gonna have a few of your own just listening or reading what he has to say and say, man, I'm making these mistakes. I gotta stop doing that. That's okay. Embrace the pain. Understand that. Hey, that's just part of the journey. I can get better. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in. Wednesday's episode Q and A Wednesday. I'll see you then. Take care.
- [13:03]
Unknown Speaker
Foreign.
- [13:10]
Got a 7am meeting on a Monday expensing breakfast because it's in policy wasting all afternoon submitting an expense report for that breakfast. If your company used Ramp, you could submit expenses with just a text.
- [13:30]
Yay.
- [13:32]
Free your team from expense reports today. Switch your business to ramp.com.