Are you dreaming of becoming wealthy? Do you have what it takes to turn that dream into reality?
In his book How to Get Rich, Felix Dennis lets loose with his unconventional insights on building a fortune. A self-made millionaire, Dennis shares his advice on starting a business, avoiding common pitfalls, and living a fulfilling life as a wealthy individual.
Keep reading to get a candid look at the challenges, sacrifices, and skills needed to achieve substantial wealth.
Overview of How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis
Just about everyone dreams of wealth, but why do so few people turn that dream into reality? How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis is designed to teach you the mindset and the skills you need to start a business and build a fortune—and to explain why so many fail at doing so.
Felix Dennis (1947-2014) was a British entrepreneur, poet, and publishing mogul who was born into poverty and built a fortune estimated at over $750 million before his death. He first became known in the 1960s as an editor for Oz Magazine. He then went on to found Dennis Publishing in 1973 and began printing Kung-Fu Monthly, which quickly became popular. From there, Dennis grew his company into a media empire that published dozens of magazines—including Maxim—both in print and online. In 2021, Dennis Publishing and its remaining titles were absorbed by publishing company Future PLC.
In this overview, we’ll start with Dennis’s warnings about how difficult it really is to get rich and what you might lose in the pursuit of wealth. From there, we’ll discuss how to start your own business and some crucial skills you’ll need to make that business as profitable as possible. Finally, we’ll examine Dennis’s advice about how to live a healthy, happy, and satisfying life with your newfound riches.
Introduction: Warnings About Wealth
Dennis begins in an unconventional way by warning you about just how hard it is to get rich: If you weren’t born into wealth, your odds of ever becoming wealthy are extremely low. The only way to overcome those odds is to have an overwhelming passion for making money, and to get lucky besides.
The author also says if you’re not sure that you want to dedicate your life to getting rich, then this endeavor will be a waste of time. Instead, he urges you to spend your time doing something you are passionate about.
Dennis specifies that, for him, being rich means having a total personal value (counting both money and assets) of $30 million to $80 million. At around $80 million you would be somewhere near the bottom of the list of the 1,000 richest people in the UK, where Dennis lived.
First, we’ll discuss what you may have to sacrifice in order to get rich. We’ll then address several ways that people—even those who are fully dedicated to becoming wealthy—self-sabotage their already slim chances of getting rich.
What Wealth Could Cost You
Dennis warns that most people don’t have the necessary passion to devote their lives to earning money, nor the will to take the necessary risks. Getting rich requires the fearless mindset a soldier should have while marching to war: the willingness to go through great hardship and sacrifice everything in the name of your cause. While you’re not likely to lose your life by going into business, you run the risk of losing nearly everything else, like your relationships, your dignity, and your mental health.
First of all, devoting so much time to making money can damage your relationships with family members, including your spouse and your children. Therefore, if you want to get rich in order to give your family better lives, recognize that they may not thank you for it—they probably won’t understand your motivations and will only remember all the times when you seemed to think your work was more important than them.
Second, the author adds that most people who become rich are the ones who are willing to ignore conventional wisdom and take chances that others consider foolish. Therefore, to get rich, you must be willing to fail catastrophically and publicly. He also advises cultivating the ability to shrug off mockery and envy from others, since you’ll inevitably face plenty of both.
Finally, Dennis challenges the notion that wealth leads to independence and happiness. On the contrary, wealthy people often become paranoid, arrogant, and lonely. Many of them believe that everyone else is after their money and feel like they must constantly defend their fortune.
Beware of Self-Sabotage
If, after reading this far, you’re still sure that getting rich is what you want to do with your life, Dennis says you should start by recognizing and rejecting the urge to self-sabotage. To help you do this, he gives examples of common excuses people make at various stages of their lives—reasons why they tell themselves it’s not the right time to try to become rich.
Many young people believe that their lack of experience and capital doom them to decades of working for others. This is especially true of people from low-income families.
However, the author counters this notion by highlighting the advantages of youth, such as stamina, fearlessness, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. He argues that these qualities position the young and inexperienced as having the best chance of becoming wealthy, since they have nothing to lose and are unencumbered by conventional wisdom or preconceived ideas of what is possible.
For those who are slightly better off and on their way up the career ladder, Dennis recognizes their hesitation to risk what they’ve already achieved. He empathizes with this fear of failure but encourages them to seize the opportunity to strike out on their own, as their experience and industry knowledge could uncover untapped market niches.
As for senior managers or professionals, Dennis acknowledges their extensive knowledge and understanding of their companies and industries. However, he notes that very few in this demographic actually take the leap and start their own ventures, often citing responsibilities such as mortgages, children’s education, and the comfort of their current positions as reasons. Dennis dismisses these as mere excuses, challenging them to confront the truth that they’ll likely never become truly wealthy if they do not take risks.
Part 1: Getting Started
Now that you’re aware of the risks that come with trying to get rich, let’s explore Dennis’s process of becoming wealthy.
First of all, Dennis writes that the only way to earn the kind of money he’s talking about is to become an entrepreneur. He argues that you’ll never get rich because most of a company’s profits go to its owner and executives, not to its regular employees. Therefore, all of the advice from this point onward assumes that you’re trying to start and run your own business.
Finding Your Market
To start a new business, Dennis says that you’ll need to identify your greatest talents and interests. Naturally, leveraging those will give you the best chance of building a successful business. For this step, the author suggests seeking honest feedback from mentors or trusted advisers—though he also acknowledges that you’ll probably go through a good deal of trial and error while finding your niche.
As well as considering your own skills and interests, think about what markets you’ll have the best chance of getting into. While highly profitable sectors like real estate may be appealing, they’re often overcrowded. Instead, he recommends that you look for up-and-coming industries. Examples are green energy or industries with relatively low start-up costs such as consulting or bookkeeping services.
Getting Starting Capital
Starting any kind of new venture costs money, and Dennis acknowledges that seeking capital is often the most unpleasant part of starting a business.
When starting out, entrepreneurs frequently have to ask others for loans or donations, which feels uncomfortably like begging. However, Dennis describes this process as a necessary evil, saying that the willingness to go through this embarrassment separates serious entrepreneurs from people who merely dream of wealth.
With that said, Dennis argues that human nature inclines people to be helpful, especially toward people who are young and inexperienced. Therefore, many successful businesspeople are willing to offer assistance to those who are just starting out.
Dennis also emphasizes the importance of loyalty and reciprocity. Maintaining relationships with the people who help you early on—and returning the favors when you’re in a position to do so—will help you maintain a strong support network for your business and any of your future endeavors.
Tip: Ask Friends and Family
While there are numerous ways to get your starting money, Dennis advocates leveraging personal connections and small favors from friends, family, and acquaintances. He prefers this approach because it allows you to retain full ownership of your company, and people you know will most likely wait longer for returns on their investments than banks or venture capitalists will be willing to.
The author warns against using high-interest credit cards or dealing with loan sharks. It’s often difficult for small businesses to secure reasonable loans, and punitive interest rates can cripple your business before it even gets off the ground.
Borrowing from venture capitalists is equally risky: They’re eager to invest in new businesses, but often demand large equity stakes and quick returns. This means that, while venture capital can lead to rapid growth, it often requires you to give up control of your business.
Spending Resources Wisely
Getting the resources to start your business may be the most difficult hurdle, but it’s not the only one. Dennis also says that inexperienced entrepreneurs often handle those resources poorly, leading to financial losses and failed companies.
One often-fatal mistake that Dennis discusses is being overoptimistic about your business’s cash flow. He stresses the critical importance of earning profits right from the start. Don’t operate at a loss and assume that you’ll be able to make up for the expenses later.
Dennis explains that poor cash flow management can cause you to lose your company. This is because you’ll have to borrow more and more money to stay afloat. Then, if you’re not able to pay off those debts, your lenders could seize control of your business. That exact process has relegated countless founders to minority investors or salaried employees of the companies they started.
The second mistake that Dennis discusses is also related to money: unwise spending. Entrepreneurs—particularly inexperienced ones—are often tempted to keep pouring resources into a failed project, thinking that they can still rescue it and turn a profit. However, any money you spend on an endeavor that’s already doomed could be used more productively elsewhere.
Part 2: Getting Rich
Now that you’ve got the right mindset and the groundwork for a new business, let’s discuss how you can use that business to get rich.
Dennis reiterates the importance of staying focused on the primary goal of getting rich and cautions against becoming overly attached to any particular industry or business. Instead, be ready to recognize and seize opportunities when they arise, regardless of whether they relate to your area of expertise.
Remember: Your mission isn’t to make one specific business successful; it’s to become wealthy however you can.
However, Dennis adds that, whatever you’re doing, you should make sure to do it well. A good reputation in your chosen field attracts talented workers and makes investors more likely to work with you; a bad reputation will do the opposite. Therefore, striving to be the best in your industry should be a point of pride as well as a source of financial gain for you.
Along with those overarching principles of flexibility and excellence, Dennis focuses on two crucial skills that you’ll need in order to get rich: negotiation and delegation.
Skill #1: Negotiation
Dennis discusses the art of negotiation and how it can make or break your chance at wealth. This is because negotiating well can get you a lot of money if you’re selling something, or the means to greatly boost your profits if you’re buying a new product or service. Conversely, negotiating badly could lead to spending more than your business can afford, or accepting deals for much less money than you should be asking for.
The author says that most people are poor negotiators, and that most likely includes you. He therefore suggests that, prior to even beginning negotiations, you set firm limits on what you’re willing to accept or pay during this deal. Your opponent will try to sway you, but stick to those limits no matter what they say. Doing so will ensure that you aren’t giving up more than you can afford and that you’re not accepting a bad offer just for the sake of closing a deal.
Tip: Find and Exploit Your Opponent’s Needs
Dennis says each side’s respective weaknesses are the critical factors in most negotiations. Whoever is able to find and exploit the other side’s weakness will get the better end of the deal. Therefore, before entering any negotiation, it’s crucial to research your opponent and create your plan of attack—hiring professional advisers to help with your preparation is often invaluable.
To illustrate this idea, imagine you own a business that needs a steady supply of a particular product (say, straws for a restaurant), and you’ve entered negotiations with a supplier who sells what you need. If you learn that the supplier is struggling due to an up-and-coming competitor pushing into their market, they’ll be desperate to get you as a customer. You can exploit that weakness to get the supplies you need at a lower price, and Dennis strongly encourages you to do just that.
However, this principle can also work against you. Therefore, if possible, identify your own weaknesses and hide them from the other party.
Continuing the previous example, suppose there’s only one supplier who sells the specific type of straws you need. This puts you in a very weak position: You need what this supplier sells, and there’s nowhere else for you to get it. If the supplier discovers those weaknesses, they could charge practically anything they want for their product and you’d have no choice but to pay it. To hide this weakness, you might bluff by pretending that you’re not especially interested in those particular straws and that you’re prepared to use a different product if you can get it at a better price.
Skill #2: Delegation
The second entrepreneurial skill Dennis discusses is delegation. The more effectively you delegate tasks, the more efficiently your business will run. Therefore, this is a crucial skill for anyone seeking to become wealthy.
Dennis stresses that proper delegation means identifying talented individuals and providing them with opportunities to use their talents. For instance, if you notice that one of your employees is particularly skilled at bookkeeping, you might promote them to store manager so they can use those skills to keep track of the store’s orders, sales, and profits.
In fact, Dennis writes that many entrepreneurs only stay minimally involved in their companies long-term. He recommends getting your business to a point where your managers can handle daily operations without you, but also establishing clear guidelines for which decisions need your personal approval. This mostly-hands-off approach will allow you to ensure the success of your business and pursue other opportunities at the same time.
Part 3: Living the Rich Lifestyle
Up until now we’ve been discussing how to become rich. We’ll explore how to live well after you’ve accomplished that goal. Dennis offers advice about how to maintain your health, wealth, and happiness.
We’ll explore Dennis’s suggestions about how to manage your relationships after becoming rich and how to move past the urge to overindulge yourself. Finally, we’ll discuss why Dennis believes that retirement isn’t for everyone and most entrepreneurs are better off continuing to pursue new business opportunities.
Managing Your Relationships
Dennis says that, once you’ve achieved your goal and become rich, you’ll need to carefully manage your relationships in order to stay close to your genuine friends while avoiding people who are only trying to get something from you.
First of all, the author stresses the significance of maintaining your oldest friendships. Anyone who was friends with you before you got rich—and who stuck with you through the demanding process of becoming rich—will be an invaluable source of support as you navigate your newly wealthy lifestyle.
Furthermore, old friends are often the only ones who will provide you with honest feedback and advice. Those who have only known you as a rich person are likely to either be intimidated by you, or try to ingratiate themselves with you; either way, they’ll only tell you what they think you want to hear.
Dennis adds that you’ll probably find yourself with a lot of new “friends” who are hoping you’ll share your wealth with them. Therefore, Dennis suggests limiting people’s access to you so you don’t get overwhelmed by their demands on your time and money. He also urges you to hire personal security for yourself and your family members—this is a necessary expense, because there are dangerous people in the world who might try to get your money by threatening you or your loved ones.
Gifting Money to Others
Naturally, you’ll need to protect your wealth from strangers and scammers, but what about your loved ones?
Dennis says that you absolutely should give money to friends and family members—not just for their benefit, but for your own as well. Although it might sound crass, regularly giving money to friends and family is a great way to maintain your relationships with them. He also emphasizes that these should be gifts, not loans; don’t burden your loved ones with any obligation to pay you back, or you may harm your relationships instead of strengthening them.
Dennis adds that regularly giving money away will motivate you to keep creating more wealth, rather than becoming preoccupied with defending the wealth you already have. This will help prevent you from becoming isolated and paranoid and will also ensure that you’ve always got interesting projects to keep you busy.
Quickly Moving Through the Self-Indulgence Phase
Dennis gives a warning about the initial phase of wealth, noting that many newly rich people go through a period of excessive spending. This initial overspending phase may be inevitable; it’s hard to resist indulging your whims when, for perhaps the first time, you have the money to do so. For instance, it’s common for professional athletes to make enormous salaries then spend their money as quickly as they earn it and go broke shortly after retirement.
This period can also endanger your health if you spend that money on drugs and partying, which are also all-too-common pitfalls for the newly rich.
Dennis says it’s important to get through this period as quickly as possible. Use your newfound wealth to spoil yourself for a little while, but recognize when those indulgences aren’t making you happy anymore, and then refocus on maintaining your wealth and health.
One effective way to move past this phase of mindless self-indulgence is to find a passion other than making money. This is because, once you’ve become rich, continuing to make money is likely to be very easy for you (and therefore boring). A creative outlet or a new hobby will give you something to occupy yourself besides shopping and partying, thereby avoiding boredom and the self-destructive behaviors that may come with it.
Tip: Keep Looking for Opportunities
Once you become wealthy enough, it’s easy to stop working and simply live off of passive income. However, Dennis suggests that you avoid retiring and instead keep looking for interesting new ventures to pursue. He explains that most entrepreneurs find retirement unfulfilling—without work to occupy them, they become bored and lose their sense of purpose in life. You’re likely to find this is true for you as well.
Instead of retiring, many rich people become “professional entrepreneurs,” repeatedly founding new companies, growing those businesses until they’re profitable, then selling them. When they start losing their passion for one of their businesses, they sell it and focus on a new project. This is an effective way to keep growing your wealth and simultaneously make sure you stay happy and fulfilled throughout your life.
