The question that everyone asks… how do I get rich? We have the answer!
Starting as a college dropout with no family money, Felix Dennis created a publishing empire, founded Maxim magazine, made himself one of the richest people in the UK, and had a ton of fun in the process. How to Get Rich isn’t selling snake oil, investment tips, or motivational claptrap. Dennis wants to help people embrace entrepreneurship and 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.”
Remember, with each episode, we will provide a helpful Deep-Dive infographic where we break down the entire book on to 1 page! And we finally have a link for you to find all of them! Visit invictusmultifamily.com/notes to find all of the sophisticated investor notes!
Here are our top 10 takeaways:
- Cringe
- Delegation
- Fear Of Failure
- Focus
- Don’t Let Pride Stop You
- Timing
- The Right Environment
- Don’t Sell Yourself BS
- Stay Rich
- Just Read The Book
Tweetable Quotes:
“You just have to get through that curve of it sucking and eventually you’re gonna get competent.”  – Anthony Vicino
“The biggest thing that is keeping people from being, I don’t even wanna say wealthy, just wildly successful at whatever it is they wanna do, is they’re scared of failing.”  – Dan Krueger
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** Transcripts
How To Get Rich
[00:00:00] Anthony: Hello and welcome to multi-family investing made simple. This is the podcast. It’s all about taking the complexity out of real estate investing so that you can take action today. I am your host, Anthony of Invictus capital joined as per usual by. Dan. I have my notes in front of me. Kruger
[00:00:33] Dan: robust, robust notes.
That’s two pages. That’s a two page book report, two page. I just copy and pasted the first two pages of the book and I’m just gonna read them. Okay.
[00:00:44] Anthony: okay. So for listeners at home, welcome to this week’s episode, we’re doing a book deep dive into I’m so excited when you suggested this one. And I think I maybe initially suggested it in a list mm-hmm okay.
And then you pulled it off the. And I was like, yes, I love this book. I love this book, so [00:01:00] dang much. And then there’s another book that he, the same author wrote that I love equally as much. Um, I was really, really excited. So. I think this episode, really, instead of us trying to give you takeaways and breakdowns and stuff, I think we’re just going to read you guys the book.
So buckle up. It’s a nine hour episode. We’re gonna we’re I’m I’m gonna bust open some whiskey back here. and about, about into chapter two, we’re gonna get slurry. Yeah. Um, and some of the , some of the value is gonna drop prohibit. But I’m so excited still because even if we’re drunk and reading this book, people like, you’re gonna get so much value out of it.
Cause this book is like seriously.
[00:01:40] Dan: Awesome. It is great.
[00:01:41] Anthony: Okay. Um, before you tell us the book, well, ah, dang, I forget that you guys coming into this, you probably clicked on the podcast title or the YouTube title that probably had the book title in it. It’s the yard. You. It makes it really hard for me to bury the lead, but on the off chance that, you know, this episode just started [00:02:00] playing on your podcast player or on your, your playlist on YouTube.
And you have no idea what it is. Let’s just, let’s just pause real quick and just wanna build the suspense a little bit longer. Why don’t you tell us what’s the purpose of this week’s episode? Like the, the book deep dive and, and. Break it down for me.
[00:02:17] Dan: Yeah. So the book deep dive that we do, uh, once a week now, uh, is I guess basically our solution to not being able to find a a consistent book book club, uh, cause we love book clubs, but they all fizzle and we realize that reading takes time.
Uh, we love it. And because we’re such nice guys, we’re gonna go ahead and do all that work for you. We’re gonna read the best books that are out there and curate what are called sophisticated investor notes, uh, which we’ve been sharing via a brand new link. Yeah. Do you remember the link? Uh, right.
Invictus multifamily dot slash notes.
[00:02:56] Anthony: Notes. Yep. Notes. So go to Invictus, multifamily.com/. [00:03:00] and what are these sophisticated
[00:03:01] Dan: investor notes? Yeah, these are our top, uh, five takeaways, a piece. So I pull out five takeaways from whatever book it is that we’re reading that week. And Anthony pulls out his five as well.
Not gonna lie sometimes there’s a little overlap. So yeah, we say there’s 10 there, but there might be a couple repeats, not gonna lie because we want to kind of go in and do our own work, pull out our own takeaways. And it’s always kind of fun to see where we, we overlap because if we do that means.
Probably a pretty solid takeaway. So if you want to get the gist of all these great books that we love and, um, you know, save yourself some time and cruise through these investor notes in probably 15 minutes at the most, um, you don’t have to read the whole book. Here still should too
[00:03:39] Anthony: guys. Uh, Reid does a pretty cool job of putting these notes together.
They’re really beautiful infographics. They’re just nice. Um, it’s a nice little library library, and I think there’s probably over 15, uh, investor notes. We’ve done 15 book reviews at this point. It’s completely free. You don’t even have to like give us your email or anything. It’s just a Dropbox folder that we’re linking to, but go to the website.
It’s gonna take you there for free. Like [00:04:00] seriously, we get nothing out of this and that’s actually bad market. Um, so I don’t know how long that will be true for. So if you’re listening to this episode into the future and we’ve gotten our act together and we’ve decided, um, Hey, you know what, this is too much value.
We need at least get something out of it. Mm-hmm uh, so, but while you can go get your free notes, go get it. Mm-hmm
[00:04:19] Dan: get while the GIS. Good. All right.
[00:04:21] Anthony: So enough enough, uh, talk about the, the notes. Let’s get to the book. Let’s talk about this book and why I’m so excited about it. The book is called how to get rich by Felix, Dennis.
[00:04:33] Dan: Felix, who. Felix looks Dennis, uh, publishing mogul, uh, before reading this book, I had no idea who he was, uh, but I consumed a lot of his content. I mean, I grew up, I was born in 86. I grew up late nineties, early two thousands, reading, maximum magazine as most young men did. Uh, and that’s one of his magazines.
That’s what probably a lot of young, uh, men in America will know him for. Uh, but he had a con. [00:05:00] Of of different, um, uh, publishing arms. And so he is producing all sorts of things, but, uh, yeah, basically a publishing mogul who successfully, uh, achieved some pretty impressive wealth. I wanna say he’s got up to, uh, he passed, right?
Yeah, he did.
[00:05:15] Anthony: But I, I don’t know
[00:05:15] Dan: if he ever passed a billion. He got up to like seven 50, I think is what I was seeing. Seven 50
[00:05:20] Anthony: million quote, a really great quote in the book, which is he’s like, listen, when people tell you like what their net worth is, he’s like after a certain point. It takes a whole fleet of accountants yeah.
To calculate all your assets and everything. Like at a certain point, if you, and then he does a really cool job of breaking down, what’s it mean to be like, um, affluent to be doing well, to be rich, ultra rich, crazy rich. He like breaks these down. He’s like 10 to 20. Is this 50? You have to be like 50 million plus to be like considered rich in his book.
Um, I found that really interesting. He’s like, listen, anybody, like that tells you they’re worth a billion dollars or like $2 billion. Like they’re guessing they don’t really know. Um, [00:06:00] and he’s like, I think I’m worth somewhere around 700, maybe 800 million who knows it could be, he’s like, it could be 300, it could be billion who knows.
Um, yeah, but it gets really complicated. So I, I thought that was really
[00:06:09] Dan: interesting. It doesn’t even matter after a certain point, like what’s the difference between 750 million and a billion like, uh, omega yet.
[00:06:18] Anthony: I mean, that was one of his points. He’s like, after all that he’s, this is a really crazy number.
He is like after a hundred million, it’s all, it’s like, what’s the point. Yeah. It’s
[00:06:26] Dan: just ego at that point.
[00:06:27] Anthony: So, so here’s, here’s why I love this book. The, the title is super cringy, how to get rich. And I was thinking about this is actually the very first thing I thought about this morning when I woke up, which was, why is this title cringy?
And. The reason titles, like how to get rich or how to get rich without getting lucky Neal’s tweet storm. The reason these are so cringy, I think is because generally the people making these click baby titles have no clue. Yeah. How to actually get rich. They’re talking about like they’re [00:07:00] making their money off of you buying their service, their product charletons yeah.
And they might be, they might be a millionaire or five millionaire or 10, or like, whatever, but let’s not like that’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a level of wealth that Felix Dennis in this would say is like, you’re comfortable. But he wouldn’t call you wealth. He wouldn’t call you rich. And so what I find really interesting about this book is it’s coming from a guy and you don’t get this very often.
So why? I think Neal’s tweet storm resonates so deeply is it’s coming from a guy who’s been there, done that mm-hmm and he is played at the highest, highest levels. And he is like, listen, this is what’s worked for me. And this is what I’ve seen work for others who are in a similar situation to me. And it’s just a breath of fresh air when you get access to somebody at that.
Sharing their secrets or their insights.
[00:07:43] Dan: Yeah. And I wanna say the most important part about that is that generally speaking, most of the stuff that’s out there that has these kinds of cringy titles, how to get rich, how to go through whatever nine times outta 10, the person who’s producing, that thing is getting rich themselves by selling you that thing.
[00:08:00] And he did his, uh, he made his wealth in the publishing. And then he wrote a book later, which is basically just his core philosophy when he’s, uh, he wrote it then, uh, 99% of the time, the books out there that are, that had this kind of title, uh, the way, the way those people are getting rich is by selling you how to get rich books.
That’s usually the case. So it’s very rare that somebody actually has the acumen, uh, to give you some, um, quality, I mean, signing really advice. It’s like philosophical guidance. It’s like best practices, things like that. It’s very rare that those types actually take the time to publicly philosophize for other people’s benefit, 99% of the time.
It’s just someone trying to sell you something. Yep.
[00:08:43] Anthony: And, and that was actually my number one takeaway. It’s actually not a takeaway from the book, but a takeaway around the book, which is like, why is the name so cringing? What’s so cool. Is that it’s coming from a guy and he talks about this. He talks about how his advice is different because it’s coming from somebody who has played the game at that level.
And he [00:09:00] gives no
[00:09:00] Dan: Fs and he doesn’t, he doesn’t have anything to
[00:09:02] Anthony: prove as a result. He is not trying to sell you anything. And so then the content hits differently. Um, you’re able to take it and consume it with a, a level of certainty and trust and not to say that it’s always gonna work for everybody, but at least it’s a accurate depiction of what worked for him.
And. I, I, I just think the way that he writes it’s super irreverent, but it’s also clear and concise. It’s a very, he’s a very good storyteller, which makes the book just a lot of fun. Mm-hmm to read through, but he has something else in there which like when you’re reading a book, how to get rich, or when you go to the cocktail party and people are like, so what are you reading right now?
You’re you’re probably gonna be like, I’m reading the Odyssey. Yeah. Or, you know, I’m reading some Twain. You’re probably not to be, you’re not gonna tell people like in public generally, uh, I’m reading a book, how to get rich and that’s. And he has a quote in here, which, which is something about, like to first in order to get rich, you have to be comfortable.
You have to be [00:10:00] comfortable and crazy enough with the idea of wanting to get rich mm-hmm right. Like it can’t be this dark taboo thing that you’re ashamed about because I think a lot of people feel ashamed saying like, when I, I personally would feel very awkward. Uh, going to a dinner party and somebody that asks, like, what are you reading this book though?
I would be like, listen, I’m reading this book called to get how to get rich. And it’s really good. Mm-hmm, , it’s entertaining. It’s a lot of fun. And there’s a lot of wisdom in here. Yeah. But generally I think there’s a lot of bad feelings people have around making money and like making that a, a stated goal, which is a shame because everybody has a desire, I think, deep inside, whether you’ll ex acknowledge it or not.
And it might be different for all people, like what that level is, but everybody would like to have more. Because money doesn’t solve all your problems, but it solves all your money problems. Yeah.
[00:10:47] Dan: There’s money problems can suck. Yeah. There there’s. I feel like there always has been and probably always will be to some degree, a stigma attached to, uh, the accumulation of wealth.
And so, you know, for, [00:11:00] for that reason, it’s, it’s. Tough to be able to talk about this concept openly and not have it be weird unless you’re, you know, in good company where, you know, somebody has similar goals, but, you know, as we kind of dive into these takeaways, make no mistake that Felix’s goal from day one was to be wildly wealthy.
And so while we’re talking about all these philosophies or, or at least while I’m talking about these philosophies that I pulled out, a lot of ’em are coming from the perspective of somebody who’s trying to get really wealthy. So there’s gonna be a few that I dive into here where I think it’s worth reminding you that his goal is to get wealthy.
That is the, the bottom line. So, um, not applicable in this first one necessarily, but, uh, the first one that I pulled out for my takeaway. Uh, D delegation and this one is just so apropo with where we’re at in our, uh, our growth as a business and where I’m at as, uh, an owner, uh, co-owner of this business. Um, it’s incredibly apropo.
And I, I love hearing about how other [00:12:00] people have, have crossed that bridge from, you know, starting out a little venture where it’s just you and then maybe you and a partner, and then you with a little tiny team, you know, all the way up to the point where you get to, uh, his level of just being. Uh, an owner, uh, not in the operations.
Uh, the businesses are being completely run by other very well qualified people. Uh, but he still gets his fix. He still gets to make some decisions, oversee a couple things, but, um, I’m always fascinated by how people kind of bridge that gap. And he made a point in here that, uh, delegation is a, a virtuous circle, uh, because you effectively get to, um, Get rich, like I said, that’s his goal here.
Um, you get to get rich while helping others achieve their goals and, and develop, uh, which is fantastic. Um, so if you can kind of remind yourself that yes, delegating is needed in order to achieve your goals, whether it’s to get rich, just build a big business. Um, but don’t forget the fact that you’re actually helping other people.
Um, so [00:13:00] delegating, although it might appear to be a little bit more work for you on the front end. It provides opportunities for other people. And that at least for me helps me, uh, rationalize why doing a little bit of extra work in the short term to get something off my plate onto someone else’s is worth that extra work, because it provides opportunities for other people, which is, which is fantastic.
Because that’s typically what happens is you might feel like you are completely maxed out with your current operations and in order to effectively delegate something, you’ve actually gotta do a little bit more work because you’ve actually gotta teach somebody how to do something and make sure that body of work transitions effectively before you get to finally actually have less on your pull.
Right. Um, he made a, um, a point in here also about, uh, senior managers. Uh, it’s not uncommon for senior managers in an organization. So these could be people you’re working with people you’re working under in a company, or if you’re an owner, people that work for you, it’s not uncommon for people in that, [00:14:00] um, area of a business to be reluctant to delegate, mainly because they enjoy having power and bossing people around.
and they’re reluctant to delegate because they enjoy the power dynamic and they fear the person that they delegate to might Excel and don’t shine them. And I’ve seen this personally, uh, in our company with, uh, individuals in the past, and it’s quite frustrating to deal with. So you need to be aware that that is a thing.
Uh, whether it’s you delegating and that’s your own issue you need to unpack. Or if you see this in an organization, there’s other people that. Resistant to delegate for some version of that reason, you need to be very aware of it and address it very quickly. Cause like I said, we’ve experienced it. It’s a very frustrating thing.
Uh, another point that, uh, Felix made was about how he transitioned, uh, because what he was doing was he was working, uh, like a workhorse, basically, uh, working all the time. He was always exhausted. He was always grumpy because he wasn’t delegating effect. [00:15:00] he was stressed. He was just unpleasant to be around, but he’d go on vacation for a week or two at a time.
And the employees in his company would just forcefully, delegate things off his plate onto theirs because he wasn’t around to do them. And then when he got back, they would just keep them. And so after a few instances of instances of that, he ended up effectively, uh, being forced to delegate and then started to embrace it.
He said he went through this period for about three years or so. And then in retrospect, he wished he had started doing it way sooner, but it’s a tough bandaid to rip off for any business owner. Um, any, anyone who’s currently doing the operations themselves, but it is a definite prerequisite to being ridiculously wealthy.
You cannot do all the things yourself.
[00:15:40] Anthony: There’s um, delegating is really hard. I suck at it. I’ve historically sucked at it. I don’t know if I’ve even over the years if I’ve even marginally improved, but I think about it a lot. Like when you’re adopting a new software or new technology, would you, you see it in, usually let’s say like a sauna or notion these are softwares that we [00:16:00] use now.
But I remember when we first started using them, when I first started using ’em, they were very overwhelming and I saw somebody else use ’em at a very high level. And that inspired me to go, oh, I want to use that. And then when you go into it, you’re like, oh, I don’t know where to start. There’s just so much.
Mm-hmm . And the time that you have to invest to get competent at the thing is quite substantial. And then there comes a point when you’re a couple hours into it and you’re like, ah, this isn’t worth it. And you kind of stop mm-hmm because you didn’t make it over the hump of, okay. We just gotta get a basic level of competency before this becomes very valuable.
And so you give up to you soon and it’s the same with delegation. It is like this. You have to learn how to get over it so that you can effectively train and, um, set expectations for the other person that they can run. Because quite often, when I delegate it’s with too little information, too little expectation, it comes back.
It’s too slow. It’s not what I wanted. It’s not up to the quality it has. And it’s all these things. I’m like, ah, I just would’ve been quicker if I’d done it myself. Mm-hmm . And when you do that, you deny, so you just go back to using your pencil and paper and not using the software. And it’s like, no, no, the [00:17:00] software is gonna help you.
You just have to get through that curve of like it sucking and eventually you’re gonna get competent. So mm-hmm, good luck with that. If you guys have any resources for how you got good at delegating, uh, share it with us because this is a thing that we still
[00:17:13] Dan: struggle with. I think we just need to go on vacation more.
Oh, is that? That’s what I took away. Okay. Go on vacation more. Uh, everyone will just get everything done for you. Oh, sweet. Sounds easy enough. I’m outta
[00:17:23] Anthony: here. Uh, we’re gonna leave this the rest, the rest of this to you. All right. So here’s my number. my number two takeaway is the biggest impediment to growing wealth is fear of failure in the eyes of the world.
He, he wrote it a little bit differently, but it goes back to what I was talking about before, about like, when you go to the dinner party, you don’t really talk about what you’re reading, how to get rich. Like the whole concept is kind of, kind of cringy for a lot of people. Um, I do believe deep down, most people want to be wealthy, but they are not afraid.
Putting themselves out there and doing the things necessary that would allow them to become wealthy. And that includes reading and learning, listening to the podcast about [00:18:00] wealth and like the finance game, or starting to, you know, try to build a business, which you could then take and pour the proceeds into real estate.
Let’s say like starting to acquire assets, putting yourself out there in the way of talking to friends and family about what they’re doing in their financial world. And like having the awkward moments in life that all of us are like, ah, I don’t really want to do that. Um, if you, if you’re not willing to do that, then you’ll never be able to generate wealth.
And I think that’s where a lot of people, they, they dream about being a millionaire or multi-millionaire or a billionaire or whatever it is, but then they’ll never actually get outta the gate because they’re not afraid. They’re, they’re too afraid of looking stupid or being awkward that they never try.
And that’s a shame because it does second. I, I will admit like a decade ago when I started on this path in my own personal world, it was like super awkward and horrible. But what I found is. Over time talking about it more, even in like social media. I remember when I first started talking about this stuff on social media, it was so uncomfortable.
Cuz friends would reach out and they’re like, what are you doing? What’s like real
[00:18:59] Dan: estate [00:19:00] entrepreneurial
[00:19:00] Anthony: stuff, real estate entrepreneurship. Even the idea of like making money or like just the concept of like financial freedom. Right. And like a lot of friends were like, this is stupid. Like who are you talking to?
And it. Oh, clearly not you. Yeah. That’s okay. Like there’s gonna be people that resonate and people that don’t. Um, but I’ll tell you that if I hadn’t started on that journey and started having those conversations and doing the things that would allow me to level up and be in better rooms, like I would not be where I am now.
which is still very far behind Felix.
[00:19:29] Dan: Yeah, no, I think, I think he hit it on the nail of, I think he hit the nail on the head with this one, because that is, I think the biggest thing that is keeping people from being, I don’t even wanna say wealthy, just wildly successful at whatever it is they wanna do, because they’re scared of failing.
The, the fear of failure is greater than the perceived pleasure of achieving whatever it is they’re trying to achieve. And, uh, he made another point kind. Related to that concept, that those people who are young and completely broke actually have a, a really [00:20:00] valuable situation there because they have like nothing to.
Um, so even though you might be at the very start of your professional life and you might be looking and saying, Hey, how am I gonna do all these things? I have no money. I have no experience. I have nothing. Um, you know, one angle to look at that from is that, Hey, that’s actually a benefit because you could completely fail at everything.
And you’d be exactly where you’re at right now. It’s a different story for somebody. Who’s got a family with dependence, they’ve got a job with a salary, you know, they could lose all those things. If they try to pursue those dreams and that’s a much more significant loss. So, you know, you could look at it if you’re, you know, very early in your life and your career as, as actually being a blessing, having nothing to lose.
[00:20:40] Anthony: So I will, I wanna touch on that because it’s, it’s super true for me a decade ago or so is like when I started on this journey. Of like personal development, wealth management and all these things was I was living in the back of the van. It was like, my fiance just kicked me outta the house. So it was poor.
I was $80,000 in debt. And that was this point, this inflection point in my life [00:21:00] where it was like a buddy came and said, Hey, do you wanna build a business? And I was like, I got literally nothing to lose. And when it’s a good spot to be, when you operate from that position, you’ll do things. And you’re not, you don’t care if you look like an idiot, because like, I was already living in the back of a van, like things didn’t look great.
And then from there, like I had success in that business and then the next business. But even during that time, when I moved out of the van, I moved in with my best friend’s mom and lived with her for like two years. So you would say like, that’s still really embarrassing, but like, again, in my eyes, I was like, I don’t care.
I got nothing to lose. Yeah. And that’s much easier to, it’s much easier to stage a comeback story from that place than I was making $80,000 a year as like a middle manager at this company that, and that, and I, it was sucking my soul, but it, like, I had respect from my friends and my peers, and like, you’re dying inside, but you, you can’t break away from those handcuffs.
That’s
[00:21:54] Dan: a tough place to be. I think, I think Felix called, uh, Uh, a w two salary crack cocaine or something [00:22:00] in the book somewhere. Yeah. I think you refer to it. It’s almost like a drug having that consistent biweekly paycheck. Um, but, uh, but yeah, I think that’s a, that’s a great one. My number two takeaway is on focus.
Um, Felix did not get into publishing because he loved it. He got into it because he had some early success. and
[00:22:20] Anthony: oh, that’s super funny. Yeah. Oh, this, okay. I got something circle here. I’m sorry.
[00:22:25] Dan: Okay. This is cool. And this actually prevented him. Uh, he’s speaking, you know, in, in retrospect, you know, looking back this actually prevented him from finding other great ways, uh, to increase his wealth while he toiled away in the publishing business.
Um, now again, I’m gonna remind you, his goal is to get wealthy. That is his goal. Publishing happened to be the thing. Settled on because he had some early success. Uh, but he suggests that you take a look. If your goal is to get wealthy, like hiss, Felix suggests that you take a look at other industries that appear to have wealth gravitating towards them.
Uh, because there’s a lot of other industries that, that would’ve [00:23:00] been a lot easier for him to generate wealth in. Now, the publishing business is a very mature business. Even back when he started, it was rather mature in these days. It’s even more mature. Um, And luckily he damn near created a monopoly, so it actually ended up working out well, he did, uh, accumulate massive amounts of, uh, of wealth from this industry, uh, because he basically created almost a monopoly, but that was kind of luck.
Uh, if your goal is to be. You know, the, the point of this section of the book was to focus on your goal. And for him, his goal was to become wildly wealthy. And in retrospect, some better businesses that he could’ve looked at that would’ve had a lot less friction and would’ve been a lot easier ride to becoming wildly wealthy.
Would’ve been software tech, startups, uh, cable, satellite television, real estate. Ding, ding, ding, uh, environmental cleanup and alternative energy. And so he said, okay, if you’re, you know, figure out exactly what your goal is, if it’s becoming wildly wealthy, that’s fine. Uh, he doesn’t put a stigma on it. Um, but don’t get too caught up [00:24:00] in what you might just happen to have some early success in if your goal is to get really rich focus on the industries, where that has the least amount of.
I thought that was interesting, cuz not many people would, would tell you that most people will say, do what you love and the money should follow. I think that’s kind of the, the more typical soundbite theme I gotta, you gotta chase your
[00:24:18] Anthony: passions. I think he does talk a lot about like market selection and trends and like making sure that you’re on this wave.
If you’re riding wave it’s way easier to get to shore than if you’re just. Swimming against the current. And the, the reason this was interesting is cuz you said he didn’t love publishing, but he, you know, he did it anyway. He had some success there and he was in eventually had some wild success. And to just today, um, I tweeted the, the thing that I love to say, which is like, I hate writing, but I love having written.
I hate working out, but I love having worked out. I hate eating healthy, but I love having eaten healthy. Yeah. And the takeaway was you don’t always have to love what you do, do it anyway. And it’s, it’s a. [00:25:00] There is that message. I think Steve jobs at his, um, commitment commencement speech, a number of years ago, really set us up on this path of like chase your passion, like work.
If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life, that type of thing. And I don’t think that was true even for Steve jobs. I think he’s looking through rose tinted glasses. I think you, you have to do a thing long enough to get good at the thing. And then you start liking the thing because you’re good at the thing, which then led you to doing the thing more.
And if, if you do it a lot and you like. And you get good at it. Then eventually over time you’ll have success. Like it’s just a virtuous cycle, but it’s not necessarily just find what you’re passionate about. Cause like, I’ll tell you guys, like I thought when I came outta high school, I, I snowboarded professionally for a little bit and I was like, I thought this would be the, the dream.
And I immediately hated it. I was like, I chased my passion. I hated it. I didn’t like turning it into a job. So yeah.
[00:25:51] Dan: Um, I think it’s really common when people get into a career that is their passion, even if they did love it, when it becomes your fulltime job and you have to do [00:26:00] it, um, I think inevitably you, you start to lose your love for it because it’s not something you’re doing because you woke up in the morning.
You’re like, man, I just really wanna snowboard. You get up and you go snowboarding because it’s your job. You’ve got sponsors who are expecting you to do X, Y, and Z. And now it’s, it’s different. It’s a job it’s
[00:26:18] Anthony: it’s in early days. Like when you’re doing a thing that you love, you have motivation, so you don’t need discipline.
Right? And as soon as you turn into a job, you start to lose that motivation, but you don’t have the discipline. In place and now you resent it because now you have to discipline yourself to get to continue forward. Mm-hmm and that’s not the thing that got you into it. Right? Whereas if you start from a position of establishing discipline and saying, I’m gonna do this thing, eventually you will formulate motivation because you start to see the fruits of that labor.
And it’s much easier to operate. Towards success from a position of discipline to motivation, not the other way around. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. All right. So my number three takeaway is if you want to be rich, watch your rivals closely, and don’t be afraid to [00:27:00] emulate a winning strategy. Mm-hmm I, I call this don’t let prides stand in the way of progress.
Mm-hmm and this is a big one for us at this moment, just in the last two weeks. Like there’s this group out there. We’ve observed for a number of years. They’ve had some, you could say wild success. I’m gonna put air quotes in that because I think it’s debatable. Um, we don’t really like how this group has presented themselves in a lot of ways.
However, very recently we decided, you know what, instead of being salty about it and looking and getting angry every time we see this group and what they’re doing, we’re gonna learn from. What’s working for them, cuz obviously something is working. What’s the, what’s the opportunity, what that we could take away from this.
And that’s really hard. It’s really, it’s so much easier to say, Hey, look at what your competitors are doing or your enemy is doing. And then we’ll say enemy, that’s a harsh word, but like your rival, it’s much easier to say like, look at what they’re doing and then emulate it. But. Your pride really wants to stand in the way of looking objectively at what somebody else like a [00:28:00] arrival is doing and say, and to honestly give kudos and say like, they’re doing something right.
Like it’s just, it’s human nature. And so to get over that hurdle and not let pride stand in the way of progress to, to Felix’s point, I think is necessary. Not just to be, if you wanna be wildly wealthy, if you wanna have success in business or just success in. And like, try to be the best version of yourself, cuz even like this, this might get some like real don’t hate on me.
Don’t don’t ha don’t at me people, but I’m sure even Hitler had some admirable qualities. The dude probably had some really good like, um, project management skills or some time management skills. And I’m not saying like we should go emulate him at all, but I’m just saying like, even in that case, He was a pretty good communicator.
If he was able to, you wanna get a crowd riled
[00:28:46] Dan: up, he he’s getting
[00:28:47] Anthony: people motivated towards the thing. So what could we learn from that? Not to say that we should go and put that person on a pedestal by any means, but hopefully I don’t get any hate mail
[00:28:58] Dan: for that one. You probably [00:29:00] will. But, um, I think, I think it’s, it’s such a good point because, you know, if you just do the typical hater thing, you see somebody that you’re maybe competing with doing.
You know what appears to be? Well, it’s easy to try to find ways to just write ’em off and say, oh, their success is due to X, Y, and Z. And for that reason, we can disqualify them as someone that I should be compared to because of whatever reason. Um, but that eliminates any kinda learning possibility. So there’s zero positive outcome from that.
Uh, you don’t get any better, you just kind of write them off and you probably, you know, emotionally just create some stress for yourself. Whereas if. Get, you know, leave the ego at the door and take a look at what they’re doing and saying, Hey, maybe I don’t like this aspect of what they’re doing or this part about ’em or maybe they’re just liars.
Um, maybe there’s something in part of the execution that they’re doing, that we could learn something from then there’s value that comes out of it. Mm-hmm but yeah, there’s not much value that comes out from just being a straight a painter. Nope, even though it’s fun. Sometimes time is [00:30:00] fun.
[00:30:00] Anthony: It’s cathartic
[00:30:01] Dan: feels great.
Um, that’s a good one. There was another book we did, I think within the last couple weeks here that had a very similar takeaway. Can, was it psychology or money? No. What was it? There’s something else. Oh, can you remember which book that was? I liked how I always try to connect the dots between various.
Yeah,
[00:30:17] Anthony: we did talk about this in. Last, I don’t remember what it was. Honestly, I’m looking at the last couple that we did here in my notebook. I’m not seeing it, but we have talked about this concept in the last couple of podcasts. Yeah. Because it’s been app proposed, but on top of mind for us, and we’ve caught ourselves in that cycle of pointing and saying like, oh, they have ski Z marketing tactics, or they’re willing to do X, Y, and Z.
And we’re not willing to do that. And therefore we’re, that’s why we’re better. Like, it’s, it’s the difference between being righteous versus being. Yeah, it’s so easy to get on your high horse and say I’m righteous. Ha ha ha. Um, but it, if the goal is to be right to be correct, and these things are not mutually exclusive necessarily.
Yeah.
[00:30:59] Dan: [00:31:00] Uh, my number three is, uh, timing. Um, so Felix wrote a biography of Bruce Lee with, uh, Don a how do, how do you say it? CHLE Don ch. No, that’s incorrect.
[00:31:17] Anthony: do you know, do you know,
[00:31:18] Dan: you know, Don TLE? Yeah. He was in oceans 11. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He was in adventures as well. Yeah. He’s in a lot stuff. Uh, he had nothing to do with his book.
Uh, it was Don ATT at Tao, I believe a T U Y E O Tayo. I don’t know that guy. Um, anyways, they wrote a biography on Bruce Lee. Um, and so the concept, the, the takeaway here was, was the, the nuance of timing. And, uh, while they were working this biography, first off, there were. Biographies about Bruce Lee at this time when they started doing it and they were working on this biography, uh, getting all their work done and midway, I think probably near the end of when they were getting, getting done with it in 1973, Bruce Lee died.
[00:32:00] and, uh, they were, they were currently working on the only BI for him biography for him when he died. And in that moment, when he died, he became this kind of worldwide sensation. And he was a, you know, obviously a very famous martial artist and actor before that. But once he died, it was just like Bruce Lee, uh, fever took over and Felix and Don, uh, were not great writers per Felix.
Um, They made a ton of money, uh, due to good timing on this. Uh, but it was largely luck, right? They followed their instincts and added acted with extraordinary speed when putting this biography together, meaning, um, they felt like this was a good thing to do. And they executed really quickly, which is important.
And the takeaway here for me was, uh, you know, make decisions. And then move quick and focus, get things done. Now, Felix could have doubled down on this, um, but he lost his focus. He went back to publishing the [00:33:00] magazines, all that stuff. There was a rape opportunity there to write another book. And to really lean in, uh, to this, uh, traction that they had with their initial bio and Bruce Lee, they didn’t do it.
He went back to his core business thinking that I’m a publisher, this is what I gotta be doing. Um, but this kind of ties back to the focus, uh, point that I made before. In this instance, he lacked focus. He saw himself as a publisher and moved over to this other, uh, and, and focused more on that as opposed to looking at, I think he, he phrased it as.
a cow full of milk, ready for milking that he just walked away from. I think he, he used some example of a cow there. Um, but he lacked focus. His focus should have been on his goal, which was to get wildly wealthy. But instead he was, um, at this point, his life focused on being a publisher, cuz that’s what he was identifying himself as, but he.
He missed an opportunity. He got lucky with the timing of that book. Um, and so that’s, that’s an important nuance here, uh, but you’ve also gotta be focused on what is your core goal. And for him, it was, [00:34:00] um, to be wildly wealthy and he missed an opportunity because he, he lost focus there. So, um, so mine on this one was just the timing nuance.
Sometimes that stuff can happen. It’s just luck. Uh, but you’ve gotta be ready to pivot from whatever your initial perception of what your, your trajectory should be. And make sure that that, that goal is always clear. If your goal is to be wicked rich, then maybe you’re doing something a little bit different than you initially thought you’d be doing to get there.
The.
[00:34:29] Anthony: The thing that’s interesting about this book is that he talks a lot about luck and timing, and just like being in the right place and doing a lot of things and hoping that you’re in the way of, of lady luck and how you can maximize. I think he even had a quote from Seneca in there, which was like, luck is when me when opportunity meets preparation.
Right? And so you can put yourself in the way of luck by preparing and. I think one of the best ways that you can prepare for luck is tied to my fourth takeaway, which is very intimately tied with yours here. [00:35:00] And it’s, it’s this idea that, um, ideas don’t make you rich execution does. And. I love this concept.
It ties into something that I say all the time, which is that like the difference between a million dollar idea and $1 million is exactly $1 million of execution. Like everybody has a million dollar idea they’re worthless, unless you can execute. And again, and again, and again, the thing that I come to realize in this world of business or an entrepreneurship or investing, is that the way that you maximize your luck is through good execut.
And repeated execution. You just keep doing the thing over and over and over and over. And the more at bats you take at that thing. And if you keep improving with, you know, slight adjustments with each iteration, then the likelihood that you will eventually find success is, is quite high. It’s almost like an inevitability, but to that point about his book and having this ripe opportunity with the cow that you could have milk, you could wrote the next book.
It’s like, if you lose focus and you don’t execute on the idea, [00:36:00] Then it’s all for not, and it’s interesting because Felix went and he executed on a different idea, which was publishing in the short term. You would say that was the wrong decision, right? Like the book probably would’ve made more if he had done the follow up, but in the long term, it did end up being that that was probably had more legs underneath of it.
Like the Bruce Lee doing a sequel probably. Yeah. You could capitalize on and get some short term gains, but in the long term, And the magazine might have been in the way. So either way, whatever you’re gonna do, execute it really well. He could have done the book. He would’ve executed it. Well, he would’ve made money, ended up done the magazine executed it really well.
At the end of the day, the ideas are relevant. If you have great execution,
[00:36:38] Dan: I think he did. He seemed to do all right. He did. Okay.
[00:36:41] Anthony: Somewhere between 300 and a billion dollars, 300 million and a billion who knows his accountants can tell you. All right,
[00:36:49] Dan: what’s your. Uh, didn’t I just do one, are we on your fourth or is that my fourth?
When you start, uh, your fourth next then I’m fourth.
[00:36:56] Anthony: Okay. So I did my fourth, so I only got one left. I got number five, which [00:37:00] means you’re on number five. So if we skipped
[00:37:02] Dan: one, if you’re listening to this, I think you did. I think you kind of snuck one in early. So my
[00:37:06] Anthony: number one was, why is the name so cringy?
Yeah. So had nothing to do
[00:37:10] Dan: with the book. It sounded kinda like an intro. So I think we kind of, that’s like, yeah, I got two. Oh, you have two left. Yeah. Yeah. That’s what I just said. What’s your number four. Okay. Uh all right. Focus on creating the right environment. Um, you can’t get rich.
Um, that was my main takeaway from this one. So you cannot do it alone. You, if you didn’t gather that from the delegation piece, it’s, it’s definitely a team sport, no matter what industry you’re in, if you have the goal of getting wildly wealthy like Felix did, you’re not gonna do it by yourself in a silo.
Absolutely impossible. Human capital is the most important part of the environ. And, uh, there are many people who are smarter than you. Now, this might seem like it’s not realistic, but there’s a lot of people [00:38:00] who are smarter than you, who would be more than willing to work for you. Now you might be saying, why the heck would they wanna come work for me?
If they’re smarter, wouldn’t they be able to go out and do their own thing way better. The vast majority of people are fairly risk averse. Like Anthony mentioned before. most people are not going to go out and do the thing that you’re doing because they have a fear of failure, which is perfectly fine.
Not everybody needs to be out, uh, becoming a publishing mogul like Felix, or doing whatever it is that you’re doing. Um, but you are able to get, uh, some incredibly smart people who are way smarter than you. Uh, working with you on whatever it is that you’re doing. And the tough part is separating the people, uh, the great people from the not so great people.
That’s the tough part. You’ve gotta have a good filtering mechanism, uh, to make sure you get that you get the right people in your organization to get that right environment so that you can do whatever’s. You’re trying to do, maybe get wildly. We. One thing you’d mentioned here was do never choose an important employee alone.
Get more than one person to interview. [00:39:00] Uh, you wanna have multiple perspectives, um, when you’re making a, a substantial hire, uh, number two, you wanna go further than just reading the references for somebody that comes in. You don’t wanna just see that they’ve got references. Give ’em a quick phone call.
You wanna do a deep dive. Now this is for high level employees. These are for big positions. Uh, so this might be going and actually meeting in person. Uh, the previous employers or previous partners that this person worked with. Um, another point he makes here is to pay employees, well, keep the salary appropriate, but bonus better, and really have that, that meat of the compensation, the bonus be tied to performance.
So don’t just throw a big salary out there, uh, from the get, go, make it appropriate so they can get the talent, but then have a really, really healthy bonus C. And lastly promote from within when you can. Um, he was advised, I can’t remember who told him this, but he mentioned the book that somebody had advised him that an external candidate for a position would have to be at least 30% better [00:40:00] than an internal candidate, uh, largely because you already know the shortcomings of the internal candidate.
Right. You’ve worked them for some time. You’ve seen them fail. You’ve seen their, um, you know, the, the, the not so great parts of their personality. You already know all of that, which is incredibly. a fresh candidate coming in externally. You don’t know any of that stuff. So they’ve gotta be substantially head and shoulders above any internal candidate, uh, to compensate for that risk that, uh, you don’t know what you’re getting.
They might look great on paper, but you don’t know who’s gonna be, uh, sitting next to you at the desk. Uh, months later could be a different person. So make sure that if you’re hiring externally, they need to be substantially better than an internal person, because those internal people come with substantially less.
You already know ’em um, but yeah, main takeaway here, you can’t do it alone. You need to build a team. And those were kind of some of the main takeaways on how to effectively build, uh, a rockstar team around you.
[00:40:54] Anthony: The, uh, like once a quarter, we have our staff get together, read the same book. It’s like a book club.
And then we [00:41:00] talk about that book. And the last quarter we sat down, everybody read the, uh, the Almanac of Naval Ravikant, which talks a lot about like, um, his tweet storm, how to get rich without getting lucky. And to your point about how there there’s smart people out there who will come and work for you and you ask yourself, like, why would they do that?
They’re smarter than me. Why don’t they just go do this thing if they’re capable of it. And it’s was fascinating in that conversation with our, with our staff, um, We were, we were the minority in terms of like, we love that book. We love the message and everything about it. And everybody else at the table, everybody without fail was like, this book kind of sucked.
Like they did not enjoy it. Did not like it at all. And we were, I was so flabbergasted. I was like, what? This is like one of the, not just from like how to get rich, cuz that’s really not what it’s about. It’s about like the mindset and the, the like the, the philosophies, but it just. Just reinforce that like you’re in the minority.
If you’re listening to this podcast, if you’re interested in how to get rich, if you’re listening about investing or business or [00:42:00] anything like that, then you’re, you’re in the minority. Most people don’t want that. Um, and that was just a good stark reminder of that thing for me. So, yeah.
[00:42:06] Dan: Which is fine. It’s fine.
[00:42:08] Anthony: Different strokes. I mean, just means more opportunity for you as a business person. Right. I guess maybe I think, um, okay. So my last takeaway is an interesting one because it’s a little. there’s two sides to it. And they kind of conflict on the one hand, he says that believing your own bullshit is always a perilous activity, especially when you’re a startup founder.
However, he also talks at great lengths about how self-belief is a prerequisite. Like you have to believe in yourself a hundred percent that you have the ability to succeed in this thing, because most people in your life will not believe in you. They will not think that you can do this because. you’re in the minority.
Most people think that this is a crazy lunatic, um, engagement. What are you doing? Why are you going after this goal of like building a business, getting rich or whatever. And so you have to believe in yourself, but you also then have to find the balance that you aren’t [00:43:00] just buying into your own bullshit and that you see it all the time, where people, they have some success.
And then they start to think that they float on water and they can do no wrong. This is around themselves with yes, men. Next thing you. Everything. They, they work so hard to build has collapsed. And so I just found that to be really interesting is that it is not like this, um, dichotomy to be solved, but to be managed as Hermo would say is like, it’s a spectrum of like belief and also disbelief in yourself.
So, uh, don’t go, don’t go getting high on your own supply, but also, um, don’t be afraid to. Take a to, from your own supply every now and then, I guess ,
[00:43:41] Dan: I dunno, the day here is I like that. I guess the way I’d interpret that is like, have, um, have a lot of confidence in yourself, like a lot in your abilities, but then also have some sort of, uh, balancing component in your business, whether it’s a partner [00:44:00] or an employee or somebody who can help challenge you and make sure that, um, You know, your, your, your feet are still on the ground and you’re in reality, um, because this does happen.
And this I’m gonna talk a little bit about this, um, in my next one here, but it’s almost inevitable that when you have some success that at some point, and this number’s different for everybody, maybe it’s when you make your first million, maybe it’s when you make it first 10 million, or maybe it’s not until you make your first a hundred million.
That you start to think that you’re a genius and you can get a little loose and think that, okay, I’ve mastered this thing. I’m just a rock star. I can go over here and do this completely different thing equally as well, because I’m the smartest person ever. Um, from what I’ve heard, you know, reading a lot of these types of books from people who have been there and done that, that’s kind of an inevitable part of the process.
So in my, uh, last takeaway here, um, I’m gonna touch on that a little bit. Um, but there was a great little, I think it might have been the last chapter. or one of the last chapters that was called how to stay rich. [00:45:00] And he just goes through this list of, um, Little sound bites or, or, or pieces of advice on how to effectively stay rich.
And so I’m just gonna read a bunch of ’em off here. If any of ’em jump outta you that you wanna comment on, feel free, but, uh, I think I’ve got a total of eight here, so I’m gonna try to fly through ’em really quick. You have to fly. All right. Number one, I got, I got
[00:45:21] Anthony: time thing coming up here quickly,
[00:45:22] Dan: so, okay.
Number one, the faster you give it away, the more money it will flow back to you. Uh, this is not due to karma, uh, but it basically, it it’s because it frees up your time from having to manage your money to, uh, and not have to think about, uh, not have to think about guarding it. Uh, so you can focus on making more of it.
Give give, give, uh, number two, as soon as you have spent it gifted it loaned it, invested it, forget it. Uh, the mental burden of thinking about money that is left is unproductive. Right? Um, so not much to say on that one, uh, never loan to friends. Uh, you will lose your friend and your [00:46:00] money. Just give them money.
If there’s a friend that needs money, just give it to ’em. Don’t even don’t loan to friends. Um, number four, this one kind of touches on that concept. We were just chatting about. Uh, give, give first blush barminess barminess and this is British slang for basically saying, uh, let me, let me say it first here.
Give, get first blush barminess out of your system as fast as possible, and that’s basically just British speak for, um, You know that early money spending that what I was kind of talking about there, where you go a little crazy when you get your first taste of money, uh, this could be going out, buying big houses, big cars.
If you’re Felix, get some drugs and some ladies, uh, he did all that. Get that outta your system as quick as possible, because that, from what he says is an inevitable phase that will kick in at some point on your road to riches. Um, so it’s best just to get it outta your way for quickly get outta your system and.
your old friends are your only friends. Uh, you may feel separated from people that you’ve known your entire life [00:47:00] as the wealth gap develops, uh, between you. Uh, but very often these old friends will call you on your BS. Kinda like you were just talking about Anthony, having some kind of sounding board to keep you, uh, in touch with reality.
Those could be your, your old childhood friends, uh, develop a passion outside of making money. This will help you get past that. Uh barminess uh, which is that crazy behavior. When you start to make money, you know, give yourself a hobby for Felix it’s, planting trees and writing poetry, uh, but find something to do that serves you outside of your main thing for making money that provides some kind of value.
It’ll keep you off drugs and doing all sorts of sketchy stuff. Um, Get your own private advisors. Uh, there is no substitute for first class lawyer tax advisor, accountant auditor, real estate manager, I’m sorry, estate manager and business advisor, and never stop looking for talent and promoting talent. As you pull out of the day to day operations and move from an operator to just an owner, you want to continue to lean into the ability to influence the [00:48:00] talent in your companies.
And because this is the lifeblood of your company’s future. so I just pulled out, you know, a handful of little tidbits from his, how to stay rich, um, uh, section, which I thought was important because everything else is how to get there. But as we’ve seen, it’s not uncommon for people to get there and then lose it all.
[00:48:20] Anthony: I have to point out that you just gave eight takeaways plus, or previous four. So you gave us 12 takeaways. So.
[00:48:29] Dan: That was one macro takeaway. this is subheaders
[00:48:32] Anthony: our, our goal is to keep it condensed, but there’s so
[00:48:35] Dan: much in this book. So you guys so much here,
[00:48:37] Anthony: I, I think the takeaway here is you should go read the book, uh, how to get rich by Felix dentist.
It’s super good. He has a, um, it. He tells he gives all these tidbits of wisdom and philosophy through the power of story. And you can imagine that a guy who built a, a magazine monopoly is probably a pretty good storyteller and you would be right. Like his, his stories are really [00:49:00] fantastic. Really interesting.
He’s lived a crazy life. He’s got another book. I can’t remember what it’s called. It’s like the road beneath or the road between or something like that. It’s it is a very similar concept book also. Very good. I would really recommend it because again, it goes back to the very beginning. The reason I love this book so much is the voice, the stories, all of that, but it’s, it’s the credibility of the source.
It’s the person telling it. And you just don’t get stories firsthand from the mouth of the. Um, that often, usually it’s somebody else writing about that person and you can, you never really know, like how accurate is that really? Like, how is that really? What happened is it, is that the advice they would really give?
And so I think that’s why like Warren buffet, Charlie Munger, Howard marks, and these guys who put out like tons of free memos, that’s why I think there’s such national treasures or like international treasures or whatever it’s because. They’re they’re sharing their thoughts in real time. And I think that’s just an amazing thing.
So this is the book, how to get rich by Felix, Dennis. I, [00:50:00] uh, 1000000% recommend it. If you guys want the notes, the sophisticated investor notes, remember go to Invictus, multifamily.com/notes. You can download them all for free. And then, uh, you never have to read another book in your life. You’re welcome. So, uh, don’t forget to go leave a review on iTunes.
Oh no, no, no. If you just turned us off. You’re not, you’re not listening to this anymore. So like they’re gone. Okay. So, but did you haven’t turn this off, just know that those people who did turn us off at that moment, when I asked for the review, they suck, we don’t love them anymore, but you you’re still listening to this.
We love you the most mommy and daddy, you are our favorite, uh, if you wanna win some bonus points with us and you wanna have ice cream for dessert tonight, go leave a review on iTunes or Google, Spotify, wherever you’re listening to this. Say how much you enjoyed the episode or, you know what you didn’t like if there was any takeaways seriously, like the reviews help a lot.
Uh, just, you gotta
[00:50:50] Dan: buy your own ice cream though. We’re not gonna send that to you. No, no, we’ll let you eat it, but
[00:50:54] Anthony: we’re gonna give you permission to, uh, but we’re not gonna give it to you. So. Uh, do that, go leave the review and then, uh,
[00:50:59] Dan: [00:51:00] join us in the next episode.
