Felix Dennis How to Get Rich

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.Mark it with a bookmark and write today's day upon it.Come back to itin twenty or thirty years, when new books printed on paper will be rareobjects.Then cast your mind back to a time when you were young, and youfirst read this book, and to the thoughts of a fool, a rich poet, long dead,who once typed these words sitting in one of the most beautiful houses onearth, staring at a turquoise sea, sipping a glass of slightly chilled Chateaud'Yquem.That will be enough for me.Enough! Let's get on with getting rich!CUT LOOSEWhen all the world is young, lad,And all the trees are green;And every goose a swan, lad,And every lass a queen;Then hey for boot and horse, lad,And round the world away;Young blood must have its course, lad,And every dog his day.CHARLES KlNGSLEY, FROM THE WATER BABIESYou have to cut loose to get rich.There isn't any other way.Firstly, of course, you must break loose from your parents and familyhome.It's possible to get rich from your bedroom while your mother is iron-ing your shirt or blouse downstairs, I suppose.But it's unlikely.I read in my magazine The Week (shameless plug) that hundreds of thou-sands of young men in Japan are isolating themselves in their bedrooms formonths or even years at a time in a growing phenomenon known as hikiko-mori, or 'withdrawal'.How ineffably sad.Modern society is breeding a race of New Age younghermits.The article goes on to report that many parents can support suchchildren indefinitely, and they choose to do so.'Japanese parents tell theirchildren to fly,' one expert told The New York Times, 'while holding firmlyto their ankles.'Let's assume you have no wish to spend the next few years locked in yourbedroom.What then? Perhaps you are already working.Perhaps you areliving with someone, or are married, or have children.No matter.As long asyou have cut the parental knot, you are in good shape.Now you must cut yourself loose from naysayers and negative influences:the Jeremiahs.These wretches cover the face of the earth.They will tellyou,if you listen, about the impossibility (not the foolishness) of trying to makeyourself wealthy.In doing so, they drain confidence and optimism from you.Such people often include your parents, your lover, your husband or yourwife, and your 'friends'.Which is not surprising.It's not that they do notcare about you.They may well do so, in their own way.But two cardinalfearsrule their concern.Firstly, they fear that you are placing yourself in harm's way and, tothem, that cannot be a good thing.Secondly, they fear that if you shouldsucceed, you will expose their own timidity to the light of day.The order in the 'pack' from which you spring, the family grouping, willbe shattered.Should you become rich you will become the number-one dogin the pack, and their own order will slip accordingly.Above all, they do notwish to be faced with the mess and chaos that accompanies strenuous effort.They want the familiarity and sense of false security that comes with thingsstaying as they are.Do not despise these people.Seek to calm them.Or hide from themwhat you are about for as long as you can.If that will not work, ignore themand move on.That is a hard thing to say and a harder thing to do, but it isnecessary.You cannot spend your life assuaging the fear of failure (andsuccess) that is the common lot of the risk averse.Should you have parents who are too ambitious for your future, then muchthe same advice applies.The stereotype for this in the twentieth century wasthe American Jewish mother, determined that her sons should becomedoctorsor lawyers.This is all very well, but it will not make you rich, because, in itsway, it is yet another attempt to slot you into a preordained path.You mustcutloose from it to become wealthy.Or to be happy, for that matter.Fear of failure is a subject about which I have already written in thisbook, probably to excess.I repeat that it is the main stumbling block togetting rich for most people.You simply have to face up to it, stare it in theeye and cut loose from such thoughts.Here is Robert Johnson, perhaps thegreatest blues guitarist who ever lived, singing about fear of failure:I got stones in my passway and my road seems dark at night [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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