Felix Dennis, a hedonist and media magnate, died on June 22nd aged 67
economist.com
economist.com
I can't say I espouse all of Felix's approach to wealth-building, but it certainly was an interesting read. I recommend it to any entrepreneur.
I've been recommending it to everyone as a counterpoint to the Lean Startup stuff. It's hard to make a real decision if you've only got one voice in your ear.
Probably my favourite book I read this year. Well worth the time.
There's a great story in there about how they survived a cashflow crisis. Very dodgy, but fantastic to read about, and it's good to see some honesty about those tactics.
I've personally made lots of notes through Chapter 5, and Chapter 9 where he talks about the darker moments when he nearly threw it all in.
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_mn_at_ano_tseft__galileo...
"Inch by inch, share by share, the nerds diluted to gain capital to expand and survive. Eventually, the majority of them lost control of their tiny companies. Many became salaried employees of the company they had helped to found."
It seems like he had no great interest in computers, like Branson, enabling the talents of others to do the work for him brought success.
His personality seems to have informed the style of PC Zone - one of the many places Charlie Brooker cut his teeth.
I wouldn't characterise Branson in that way. A lot of his ventures seem like passion projects, in particular Records and Galactic.
Branson's management style is supposed to be quite hands off, you'd have to think Dennis was also hands off.
Should you find yourself unable to measure up to at-least one of the following below, you will never be rich.
1. If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand little chance of ever getting rich.
2. If you care what the neighbours think, you will never get rich.
3. If you cannot bear the thought of causing worry to your family, spouse or lover while you plough a lonely, dangerous road rather than taking the safe option of a regular job, you will never get rich.
4. If you have artistic inclinations and fear that the search for wealth will coarsen such talents, you will never get rich. (Because your fear, in this instance, is well justified.)
5. If you are not prepared to work longer hours than almost anyone you know, despite the jibes of colleagues and friends, you are unlikely to get rich.
6. If you cannot convince yourself that you are “good enough” to be rich, you will never get rich.
7. If you cannot treat your quest to get rich as a game, you will never be rich.
I'm taking a different route to entrepreneurship and riches than he did (lower goal, far less struggle) but much of what he wrote rang true for my situation, too.
Throughout "how to get rich" he mentioned his poetry, which is what he devoted his life too after he gave up booze, drugs and mistresses. I've never got into poetry, but wanted to. So I picked up a book.
It was good. I picked up another book, and enjoyed that too. And what's more, now I get more enjoyment out of other poems. I'm still learning, but he's changed how I appreciate a major branch of literature.
And now he's dead. I can never thank him for any of that. I had intended to write him. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. That was a lesson hard learned for him, pervasive in his book and poetry. It's trite, but it's so very true. We all have so little time.
This poem fells apropos. I suspect that, though he died fairly young, he is glad to have avoided this fate:
http://www.felixdennis.com/poetry/dementia/
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How to get rich: http://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Rich-Greatest-Entrepreneurs/dp...
The first of his poetry books I read:
http://www.amazon.com/Tales-From-Woods-audio-CD/dp/009193767...