How to Get Rich

One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets

By: Felix Dennis

Narrated by: Roy McMillan

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Felix Dennis is an expert at proving people wrong. Starting as a college dropout with no family money, he created a publishing empire, founded Maxim magazine, made himself one of the richest people in the UK, and had a blast in the process. 

How to Get Rich is different from any other book on the subject because Dennis isn't selling snake oil, investment tips, or motivational claptrap. He merely wants to help people embrace entrepreneurship and to share lessons he learned the hard way. He reveals, for example, why a regular paycheck is like crack cocaine; why great ideas are vastly overrated; and why "ownership isn't the important thing, it's the only thing".

©2008 Felix Dennis (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"Well-founded advice based on hard-won experience." (Financial Times)

"Nothing if not entertaining, even inspiring." (Time)

 "An unexpected gem." (Forbes)

A picture is worth his 1,000 words

Look at the picture of the author on the cover. Now imagine what it might be like listening to that guy pontificate about, well, anything. This sums up the whole book. On and on he blathers, sharing his poems (that did not make him rich and never will add much of anything to his fortune), blah, blah, blah …. Blah, blah, blah, BLAH. He’s that one uncle, or past neighbor that could nailers himself your uncle, you remember from the family picnics who is nice enough, but everyone hates getting cornered by and stuck listening to. Minutes feel like hours. Hours feel like lifetimes. Escape from Uncle Blah Blah felt like being paroled from some kind of prison sentence.

It’s like that with Felix Dennis. Man, I suffered through about half of this book, hoping for something useful slipped in with all the blathering. He is rich and successful after all, so he must know something useful, right? Well, if he does it just be contained in the second 1/2 of the book that I couldn’t suffer to get to. This book is so hard to listen to I found myself, again and again, drifting off to my own totally unrelated thoughts and realizing that I had not even listening to a word of the audio book for 5, 10 minutes at a time.

After rewinding it for the umpteenth time and trying I focus and pick up some wisdom from Mr Dennis I finally decided it’s just not worth the time.

Why did this guy even write this book? I guess because as a rich guy he had a lot of free time on his hands and has the freedom to indulge wherever fantasy he chooses. He wrote a ton of crappy poetry apparently, so he decided to move on to writing his own success book. I guess. Who knows. It’s hard to tell what his goal was from what he wrote. . .

Something that should be read once a year.

Insightful, entertaining and a book I would recommend to those seeking to evaluate their own processes in the journey of getting rich.

Insight into the mind of a genius.

A very entertaining & insightful glimpse into the kind of a creative genius. This book will not actually teach you how to become rich, BUT it does provide a unique view into the mind & though-processes of a successful businessman. Sadly, much of his advice is highly narcissistic & self-aggrandizing. Nevertheless, it makes for an entertaining listen.

Wisdom without the hand holding BS

To be honest, I had never heard of Felix Dennis prior to a mentor recommending this book. I am an avid reader for this simple reason, I was always the dumbest one in every group growing up. I have read hundreds of books over the last few years in regards to psychology, philosophy, business acumen, etc.
Each book has contained nuggets of truth and wisdom, all of them however pushed fallacies onto the reader. The worst of which is “you too can do it”. Felix Dennis is not a hand holder, an uplifter or a Bulls-er. He doesn’t care about being nice and polite. He certainly does not care about telling you the things you WANT to hear.

Felix Dennis tells the truth, plain and simple. Getting rich is a hard business, your family, your relationships and your friendships become an anchor that weighs you down on the road to wealth. You have to develop a mindset of a predator playing a game. Never give away a single share of your company, not one. Even in failure look to see if your business/invention/product/services can be applied in a different way or in a different market.
This book, quite successfully, chipped away at many of my false beliefs, ideologies and flawed mental models. Execution is what counts on the road to wealth. You can read this book, you can quote its passages but unless you apply the lessons, change your mindset and execute greatly; you have wasted your most precious resource: your time.
Don’t waste your time if you’re looking for some mystical secrets to wealth or some shortcut to getting rich quick.
This is not a self help book, it’s a roadmap from a man that has traveled the road to wealth while making many mistakes along the way. He has left guideposts to help redirect you on your path. Find your mountain of gold and get t to executing your plan NOW! Quit making excuses or return the book and buy some useless feel good BS book to think happy thoughts and continue to live an aimless unfulfilled life.

This is a fun listen-

Even if you care nothing about business or money…This storyline and narration is extremely entertaining. Too many great books out there are terrible to listen to on audio. Not this one-

A Must!

I have read and listened to almost every management and entrepreneurship book. This one hits the mark without all the fluff. I have lived through many of the experiences and hold them to be true as the common denominators to becoming rich. The only knock is his assessment of Steve Jobs and Apple as this was written before Jobs death and Apple became the largest company in the world with 100b in cash. But otherwise all truth.

Still not rich

I enjoyed it and probably you will too.
you probably know most of it but you can consider this a confirmation of what you know or didn't know.

Wow! Amazing

What a great book, I cannot believe I haven’t read it before. Would highly recommend

Excellent book!

I really enjoyed Felix’s humorous but useful tips on money and life. This is by no means your typical “get rich quick” or “see it and achieve it” motivational book. It’s a practical book by one who attained great wealth from very humble beginnings. He warns the reader about the perils of wealth, and against the mistake of thinking that money can bring happiness. If that is not enough to dissuade you, he then delves into practical and actionable steps that one can take to get rich if the stars align. All this delivered in a light hearted style. After all, of you cannot view the acquisition of money as nothing but a game, you are unlikely to have the psychological make-up to be rich.

All in all it’s a motivating, practical and eye opening read. I am sure I will be returning to as I continue my own journey as an entrepreneur

Literally the best book I’ve ever listened to

It’s tempting to try to write a review as wittily as Felix Denis wrote this book but I couldn’t, no matter how hard I might try.

This book was a sheer joy to consume in every which way. The content is brilliant and the writing is good-natured and funny the whole way through. One of those rare, rare reads that leave you feeling a touch of dread as you near the end because you know you will miss its presence in your life once it’s gone. Like you’ve just met a good new friend but now you must say goodbye before you’re ready. S

The narrator’s performance is, again, hands-down the best I’ve ever heard in an audio book — and I’ve listened to about a hundred of them.

I actually purchased a hard copy of the book halfway through listening to it so that I can thumb through it for reference and reread some bits that were particularly salient. (It’s that kind of book — one you might want to turn to here or there for advice during a moment of uncertainty) but reading it on paper was and is a touch less joyful just because I’d grown so fond of the narrator.

Now that I’ve finished listening to it, I think I’ll go back and give it one more go!