This book would have been better if it were 30% shorter, but it still offers plenty of insights from the rare perspective of a self-made billionaire. Even without a hundred dollars to his name, I bet Felix Dennnis would be a fun and fascinating person to speak with.
The cover reads “Hint: You’ll never grow rich working for your boss.”
Excerpts:
p 32 – “…the two components of fear of failure … letting others or yourself down and the consequent financial calamity … (Deep down, do you) fear the embarrassment of failure more than the possible financial penalty.”
p 66 – “(So many people heading start-ups) become obsessed with proving their idea is ‘right’ rather than obsessed with making money.” He follows with interesting praise and criticism of Apple’s Steve Jobs.
p 67, 70 – “But an idea is not enough. It is never enough … Ideas don’t make you rich. The correct execution of those ideas does.”
p 84 – “There is absolutely nothing more likely to dampen the rospects of becoming rich than a nice, fat, regular salary check.”
p 86 – “The next day I went straight back to knocking on doors and punishing the phone, pestering people for capital … No way was I going to spend my life making other people rich .. I would not give in … (the beginning) it is desperate and humiliating … (Unless you were born into wealth) if you want to be rich, you must walk a narrow, lonely road to get the capital to make it so.”
p 95, 96 – great advice about cash flow, including “Regular, even obsessive monitoring is the key.”
p 210-214 – “Make annual bonuses generous … keep costs down … make senior level managers collectively responsible for their bonuses” Also, fire dead weight, malingerers and glory hounds.
No time to write all of these down, but here are other pages with especially good points: 100, 118, 128, 140, 164, 198, 210-214, 218, 222, 228, 240, 262, 264, 266, 284
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