Good fortune? The fact is

The more that you practise,

The harder you sweat,

The luckier you get.

Ideas? We’ve had ’em

Since Eve mated Adam,

But take it from me

Execution’s the key.

The money? Just pester

A likely investor.

To get what you need

You toady to greed.

The talent? Go sign it!

But first, wine and dine it.

It’s tedious work

With a talented jerk.

Good timing? To win it

You gotta be in it.

Just never be late

To quit or cut bait.

Expansion? It’s vanity!

Profit is sanity.

Overhead begs

To walk on two legs.

The first step? Just do it

And bluff your way thru’ it.

Remember to duck!

God speed...

and good luck!

What is rich?

Wealth Scale (measured by Total Assets):

Category   Millions of Dollars

The comfortably poor   2 – 4

The comfortably off   4 – 10

The comfortably wealthy   10 – 30

The lesser rich 30 – 80

The comfortably rich   80 – 150

The rich   150 – 200

The seriously rich   200 – 400

The truly rich   400 – 800

The filthy rich   800 – 999

The super-rich Over 999

No task is a long on but the task on which on dare not start. It becomes a nightmare. – Charles Baudelaire

Conventional wisdom is usually right. Bet when its wrong, it can offer quite extraordinary opportunities for those too suborn or inexperienced to pay attention to well-meaning naysayers.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

And the only way to deal with fear is to cosy up to it. To look it in the eye and pump its hand. To translate its negative energy into adrenaline. To harness it. To laugh with it, rather at it.

Lastly, in any list of reasons not to get rich, we must come to philosophy and the benefits of hindsight. If I had my time again, knowing what I know today, I would dedicate myself to making just enough to live comfortably (say £30 or £40 million), as quickly as I could – hopefully by the time I was thirty-five years old. I would then cash out immediately and retire to write poetry and plant trees.

Its no excuse, but making money is a drug. Not the money itself. The making of the money. This sounds like so much hoopla, but its true, all the same. Nobody believed that exercise could prove addictive until science stepped in and discovered “endorphins” or whatever the damn things are called. And making money, I assure you, is a hell of a lot more of a rush then jogging.

I would use, instead: “Once begun – the job’s half done.” Because taking that first, irrevocable step has proven to be the most difficult part of nearly every venture I have been involved in. In the memorable words of the American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emmerson: No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken.

“A committee is a group of the unwilling, chosen from the unfit to do the unnecessary.”

It is for this reason that committees are discouraged on the battlefield. A commander may be proven wrong. He may be proven right. But prompt decisions and orders, right or wrong, are far healthier than endless debate and prevarication. This applies equally to a debate within one’s own mind. Fretting is counter-productive at any level.

Knowing isn’t doing what you need to do, my son;

Telling me you know is only bluffing one the run;

Knowing isn’t doing;

Doing isn’t knowing;

Nothing but the knowing and the doing gets it done.

To sum up then, if you wish to be rich, you must grow a carapace. A mental armour. Not so thick as to blind you to well-constructed criticism and advice, especially from those you trust. Nor so thick as to cut you off from friends and family.

But thick enough to shrug off the inevitable sniggering and malicious mockery that will follow your inevitable failures, not to mention the poorly hidden envy that will accompany your eventual success. Few things in life are certain except death and being taxed. But sniggering and mockery prior to any attempt to better yourself financially, followed by envy later, or gloating during your initial failures – these are three certainties in life. It hurts. It’s mindless. And it doesn’t mean anything. But it will happen. Be prepared to shrug it off.

After a lifetime of making money and observing better men and women than I fall by the wayside, I am convinced that fear of failing in the eyes of the world is the single biggest impediment to amassing wealth. Trust me on this.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy; the chance to draw back; always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and reaction. There is one elemental truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one commits oneself, Providence moves all. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no one could have dream would come his or her way. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Which leads us to a note of caution. Those who can never be rich may not want you to become rich. That's an ugly thing to say, but unless you realise and accept that you cannot be 'one of the boys', that your bosses and you are not 'in this thing together', that only those who refuse to be conned by the idea of 'team spirit' in the workplace can succeed - unless you come to fully comprehend and understand all this, then you will only make other people rich. You will receive their heartfelt thanks and maybe a gold watch when you retire. But you will not get the money! It's the same with close friends and family members. Consciously and outwardly they may want you to succeed beyond your wildest dreams. But subconsciously, often without being aware of it themselves, they might be far happier if you failed or only succeeded to a limited degree.

While you may not necessarily want to be in a glamorous sector of any market, and they are often very crowded sectors, it helps to be in

one. Swimming with the ride rather than against it, so to speak. A swelling tide raises all boats, including yours.

The laws of supply and demand are absolute – and they apply not only to commodities, but to people. Too many people want to make a blockbuster movie and live in Beverly Hills. Not enough people want to dig holes.

Capitalism demands that whoever takes the most financial risk calls the piper's tune. The biggest rewards go not to those individuals who came up with the idea, nor to those individuals who built the empire. They go to those entities or individuals who funded the enterprise and own the most stock. Always bear this in mind during the Search.

Whoever controls a business can force its sale. Whoever controls a business can implement a merger. Whoever controls a business can fire you. Whoever controls a business, even by a pitiful 1 per cent, is likely to take a great deal more money out of it than the minority shareholders. Remember, too, that in both private and public companies, not all shares are necessarily equal, either in voting power or financial value. Choosing a growing industry, or growing sector of a static industry, can free you from such financial control freaks.

'Luck is preparation multiplied by opportunity.' Seneca

'The harder I practised, the luckier I got.' Gary Player

'Luck is a dividend of sweat.' Ray Kroc

The more alert you are, the more chance you have of spotting them. The more preparation you have done, the more chance you have of succeeding. The more bold you are, the better chance you have of getting in on the ground floor and confounding the odds. The more self-belief you can muster, the more certain will be your aim and your timing. And the less you care what the neighbours think, the more likely you are to take the plunge and exploit an opportunity.

The lesson is clear. Despite the words of the old rock 'n' roll song, the original is not the greatest. Not always. If you want to be rich, then watch your rivals closely and never be ashamed to emulate a winning strategy. They may josh you a little for doing it, but that's a price well worth paying.

Apple's products were innovative, slick, cool and far, far superior in every-way to any other personal computer available at that time. In fact, they were so cool their users often spent a great deal of time proselytising for the Apple cause. Users like me, for instance. So why is Apple such a small part of the personal computer market today? The answer is Steve Jobs. Steve comes up with or encourages brilliant ideas. He has the guts to back them and to see them through. He is smart, passionate and a great man. But he will not admit he is wrong and he would, apparently, rather go broke than make such an admission.

If you never have a single great idea in your life, but become skilled in executing the great ideas of others, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Seek them out and make them work. They do not have to be your ideas. Execution is all in this regard. If, on the other hand, you spend your days thinking up and developing in your mind this great idea or that, you are unlikely to get rich. Although you are likely to make many others rich. That is usually the way of it. Ideas don't make you rich. The correct execution of ideas does.

I would use, instead: “Once begun – the job’s half done.” Because taking that first, irrevocable step has proven to be the most difficult part of nearly every venture I have been involved in. In the memorable words of the American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emmerson: No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken.

Better to labour as a wage slave than as a beast of burden to a loan shark.

One last word on obtaining capital. It's the worst part of the whole business of getting rich. Nothing is more humiliating or debilitating than trudging the rounds with your hand out, no matter how good your project or fierce your determination. Everyone has to do it and everyone hates it. Fora self-made man or woman there is no avoiding it. Beware of anyone who tells you that there are short cuts to obtaining even a small amount of capital. Outside of family and friends, there are none that I ever heard of. Look on the bright side. Those lazy bastards who turn away from this odious task are going to be your employees. They are going to make you rich.

In a sense, this exhausting and miserable search is what separates the wannabes from the gonnabes. The only way through it is to keep trudging. 'When going through, hell,' Winston Churchill once remarked, 'keep going.'

“Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never, never - in nothing great or small, large or petty. Never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense.”

That was the secret ingredient. I would not be a wage slave. I would not take 'no' for an answer. I would not give in. I was going to be rich. Somehow. Some way. Someday soon. And I would not retreat to the safety of a decent job until I was starved out of house and home.

There is absolutely nothing more likely to dampen the prospects of becoming rich than a nice, fat, regular salary cheque.

That is what it is like in the beginning. Always. It is desperate and it is humiliating. As you will find, in your own way, unless you were born with a rich mummy or daddy or uncle. For the rest of us, if you want to be rich, then you must walk a narrow, lonely road to get the capital to make it so.

You must choose. Life is comfortable enough in the Western world for most people. In most parts of Europe there are the safety nets of the social services and of government-subsidised medical care. There are decent jobs at decent salaries with decent colleagues and a decent retirement; and all with-out the heart-stopping fear of bankruptcy, of years of risk amid fears of ignominious failure. Why make handstands on the rim of hell? Why bother to punish yourself in such a way? Nobody else does it - why should you? Go on, make every-one around you happy. Why not give in? If you are merely a wannabe, then the siren voices will prevail, and they will be right to prevail. If you are a gonnabe, then they will not prevail. Like Odysseus you will stop your ears with wax or bind yourself to the mast. You will learn to walk your narrow, lonely road - and to hell with the siren voices. You will not give in.

And you will be rich.

'Assumption is the mother of all f***-ups'.

Wishing for or desiring something is futile without an inner compulsion to achieve it. Such lack of compulsion, if not frankly acknowledged, can lead to great personal unhappiness. We have all met deeply unhappy souls muddling along in professions or careers for which they are patently unsuited.

It is my hope that this book will cause you to consider very carefully whether you are truly driven by inner demons to be rich. If you are not, then my earnest and heartfelt advice to you is: do not on any account make the attempt. What are riches anyway, compared to health or the peace of mind that even a modicum of contentment brings in its wake? In and of itself, great wealth very rarely, if ever, breeds contentment. Believe me, I know. I am both an entrepreneur and a poet.

Isn't cash flow a bean-counter topic? The concern of accountants? The answer is that not only does lack of cash. How eventually doom any enterprise, it just as surely prises control of any entity from its owner or majority shareholder. And it is control and ownership of a business entity which brings with it the promise of future wealth. Lose control of a business by running out of cash and you are relegated to the status of minority investor or salaried employee. Once you lose control of a business, then no bank, white knight, investor or new owner is likely to permit you to gain control again, if for no other reason than that of your original sin, your overoptimism concerning the venture's cash flow in the first place.

If, like me, you have no head for figures whatever, then this is no cause for concern. You simply employ somebody who does and listen to them care-fully. Lord knows, there are enough qualified bean-counters in the world and forecasting cash flow is hardly rocket science.

If cash flow is good, then no matter how badly run or poorly managed a company is, there is always a decent chance of turning its fortunes around. At the very least, there is time enough to be able to do so. But if a business's cash flow is weak or failing, then the chances are that it must shutdown or be sold in the not-too-distant future and its assets disposed of to satisfy creditors.

What I am sure of is that the bank appeared more impressed with my ability to control cash flow than they were with my company's 'growth'.

You can improve cash flow by observing the following suggestions in a start-up's early days:

• Keep payroll down to an absolute minimum. Overhead walks on two legs.
• Never sign long-term rent agreements or take upmarket office space.
• Never indulge in fancy office or reception furniture, unless your particular business demands that you make such an impression on clients.
• Never buy a business meal if the other side offers to. You can show off later.
• Pay yourself just enough to eat.
• Do not be shy to call customers who owe you money personally. It works.
• In a city, walk everywhere you can. It's healthy and sets a good example.
• Check all staff travel and entertainment claims with an eagle eye.
• If you're going to be late paying, call the vendor's boss. Give a date. Stick to it.
• Always meet payroll, even at the expense of starving yourself that week.
• Issuing staff credit cards, company mobile phones or cars is the road to ruin.
• Leaving lights, computers, printers and copiers on overnight is just stupid.
• A vase of beautiful flowers in reception every week creates a better impression than £100,000 worth of fancy Italian furniture.
• Get used to grovelling. Grovelling is an effective tool in a start-up's cashflow.
• They want your business. Play one supplier off against another. Ruthlessly.
• Only enter a factoring deal in absolute extremity. Exit it fast.
• Keep your chin up. It could he worse. You could be working for them.

Reinforcing failure sounds so easy to avoid. If something fails, stop doing it and start doing something else, right? Er, right. Except, just when do you decide that you have a 'failure' on your hands? Too late, is the answer - always too late.

In short, I fell in love with the project. I did not listen to my financial advisors or my long-time partners in other companies. I just stuck in there and got myself killed for my pains.

Thinking big. That's the secret.

But the corollary of thinking big is to act small. Just because you have a success or two under your belt doesn't mean you have it made. 'Success is never permanent; failure is never fatal. The only thing that really counts is to never, never, never give up.'

Once you begin to believe that you are infallible, that success will automatically lead to more success, and that you have 'got it made', reality will be sure to give you a rude wake-up call. Believing your own bullshit is always a perilous activity, but never more fatal than for the owner of a start-up venture. By acting small, I mean remaining in touch. Remaining flexible. Constantly examining how your company could do better. Keeping a sense of proportion and humility. Not throwing your weight around playing the great 'I Am'. Remembering that much of your success so far has been achieved by dumb luck.

Acting small in the early days of your business sets an example to those around you. If staff see you indulging in long lunch hours and purchasing yourself a fancy company car, then they are either going to resent it or they are going to emulate you. This is not a good thing. You can do all that stuff later, when you've made your first fifty million. Most of the worst errors I have made in my life came from forgetting to act small. It's hard to do when you're rolling around in coin and every thing is going your way. But acting big leads to complacency, and complacency is the reason that many successful start-ups falter. Every day you have to hit the ground running, putting in more hours than even your most dedicated member of staff. You have to stay flexible. You have to be willing to listen and to learn and to emulate success elsewhere. If you don't, if you think you have already made the cut, if you're thinking 'game over: time to party', then bad stuff begins to happen very quickly.

I know all this because in the late 1980s and early 1990s I forgot to remember to act small. I spent millions of dollars on drinking, taking drugs and running around with whores. I lost all respect for money and for the blood, sweat and treasure I had expended to acquire it. I was acting big. In a single decade I got through more than a hundred million dollars living high on the hog. At one time, there were no less than fourteen' mistresses' depending on a regular stipend from my personal bank account. A single evening's entertainment could come to thirty or forty thousand in the Big Apple, London or Hong Kong. There was nothing I could not do -I was king of the world. Acting big. Even though I was not so foolish as to use company money for this idiocy, my business still suffered and my health suffered. Some good people trusted stopped working with me. It was absolutely the stupidest thing I have ever done. And it very nearly killed me. Eventually, I was hospitalised. When the doctors there heard how much cocaine and booze I had been imbibing over the past few years, they went ballistic. In brutal words of one syllable at a time, they warned me that either I was through with drugs and booze or they were through with me. One of them, a young doctor with a stutter, summed it all up: 'M-M-Mr Dennis, you are ac-ac-acting as if you ha-ha-have a one-way ticket to ga-ga-gaol or the mo-mor-morgue. Wh-wh-which do you wa-wa-want it to be?' He'd got that right. Acting big. Eventually I wised up and began to straighten out my life. I escaped bythe skin of my teeth from the consequences of acting big. Almost as if by magic, the business began to make progress again. I hurled myself back into the fray, gave up all narcotics (probably the hardest thing I have ever done), stuck to wine as far as the booze went and told the whores to take a hike. And I have been a far, far happier man ever since. And probably a nicer man. The scars are still there and the damage is done, no getting away from that. But with every passing year it all feels like it happened to someone else. Think big, act small. It's a recipe that never goes out of style. While especially important for start-ups, it will serve you faithfully long after you have established yourself as a serious player. A successful and naturally modest entrepreneur is an object of reverence and respect in the business world. Even if such a fabulous beast is rarer than hens' teeth. And all ill all, it's a lot more fun than strutting around like some obnoxious mini-mogul. Even today, I blush at the thought of the loot I wasted and the shenanigans I got up to when I forgot to act small. Never again, brothers and sisters. Never again. End of sermon.

If you are determined to be rich, there is only one talent you require. Can you think what it is before your eyes skim down to the next paragraph? Right. You need the talent to identify, hire and nurture others with talent. 'There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all the virtues are of no avail'.

My advice on this subject was contained in the second paragraph of this section. You must identify talent. Then you must move heaven and earth to hire it. You must nurture it, reward it property and protect it from being poached. If necessary, dream up a new project. Better still, get the talent to dream it up. Youth is a further factor. By the time talent is in its mid-to-late forties or early fifties, it will have become very, very expensive. Young talent can be found and underpaid for a short while, providing the work is challenging enough. Then it will be paid at the market rate. Finally, it will reach a stage where it is being paid based on past reputation alone. That is when you must part company with it.

Anybody wishing to become rich cannot do so without talent. Either their own, or far more likely, on the back of the talent of others. Talent is indispensable, although it is always replaceable. Just remember the simple rules concerning talent: identify it, hire it, nurture it, reward it, protect it. And, when the time comes, fire it. If you can do all these things with talent in the context of building your own company, I would be truly astonished if you did not become rich. Because the truth is, talent does most of the work for you. Just as it has done since the beginning of recorded history. After all, who built the pyramids? The pharaohs or the engineers?

Think about it. Then go hire some talent - just like they did.

“If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.”

'Never give in' is a useful catchphrase. But don't take it too literally. We must all surrender at some time, to love or desire or death. You will be forced into the last of these, and a fool if you never surrender to the first. But never give in easily. If you can, attempt one step further along the road than appears sensible before giving in.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Eleanor Roosevelt

This is the core of it. Persistence is not quite as important as self-belief. I have known people who believed in themselves, who acted on that belief, got lucky quickly and got rich. Persistence merely offers a second or third bite at the cherry. Your belief in yourself brought you to the cherry bowl in the first place. Self-belief is a priceless asset. We may detest arrogance, yet isn't it true that we admire it a little, too? Even though arrogance is a poor, shabby thing compared with rooted self-belief. It is an imitation of the real thing. Why do we covertly admire such attributes? Because such people often have what the ancients called 'the look of eagles' about them, which has little to do with their appearance. Single-handedly, individuals with ingrained self-belief (and, usually, a dollop of arrogance) have changed the destiny of nations.

If you will not believe in yourself, then why should anyone else? Without self-belief nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible. It is as brutal and as black and white as that.

Trust your instincts. Do not be a slave to them, but when your instincts are screaming, Go! Go! Go! then it's time for you to decide whether you really want to be rich or not. You cannot do this in a deliberate, considered manner. You can't get rich painting by numbers. You can only do it by becoming a predator, by waiting patiently, by remaining alert and constantly sniffing the air and by bringing massive, murderous force to bear upon your prey when you pounce. You can share the kill later, by all means. But if you want to get rich, trust your own judgement when it calls - and leave those whose job it is to manage your business to pick up the pieces. They can have the scraggy bits. But the heart and liver are yours.

Just remember that this advice is not designed for your start-up phase. During the start-up, you concentrate on that one basket as if your life (and the life of your first-born) depends upon it. But once you have something that's working and making some money, start looking around quickly for another opportunity. The more baskets the better.

One of the problems with being a start-up entrepreneur is that you tend to think of what you have created as some kind of surrogate child. It becomes your 'baby', if you're not careful. This is dangerous and counter-productive. You are not in the egg-laying and basket-weaving or baby business. You are in the business of getting rich.

But when you stop listening, you stop learning. And if you stop learning, it's time to get out of the kitchen and let someone else do the cooking. Listening is the most powerful weapon after self-belief and persistence you can bring into play as an entrepreneur. And yet I'm familiar with numerous senior executives running large companies who might spend two or three weeks in between listening to a 'stranger' - or a 'minion'.

If you have experience, a little investment cash and will make the time, then the world will bring to your door an amazing collection of visionaries, con artists, madmen and budding entrepreneurs. They all have something to say. Most of your time will be wasted. But what is not wasted will make you richer. Much richer.

My advice, based on thousands of such meetings over the years, is to keep them short - unless your gut tells you that you have stumbled upon a winner. Set the meeting for twenty minutes. Have somebody interrupt you after twenty-five minutes and usher the caller swiftly from your room. It's usually better to leave no doubt in your visitor's mind if you're not interested in their project or idea. In a way, it's kinder, as well. While the temptation is to say, 'I'll confer with my colleagues and get back to you,' this will eventually come back to haunt you and waste more of your most valuable resource. Time.

Lesson No. 1: Never make your finance director or CFO the MD or president of anything!

Lesson No. 2: Never go on vacation when a deal is going down.

Lesson No. 3: When you change accounting systems (or accountants, for that matter), have the numbers checked over and over again. I'll eat my hat if errors are not discovered in the next iteration.

Lesson No. 4: Never personally underwrite business loans for your company unless you absolutely, positively, are forced to. Even then, set limits in the agreement so that, as the loan figure is reduced over time, you are released from your undertakings commensurately.

Lesson No. 5: Listen to people who are good with money and always invest in property with a good address - providing you can pay cash for it and will not need to sell it for a few years.

Luck is preparation multiplied by opportunity.

Preparation is the key. Be prepared. Do the heavy lifting and the homework in advance. Get on with the job, but remain alert enough to spot an opportunity when it arrives. Then hammer it.

This 'flight not fight' behavioural trait is the sign of a prey animal, not a predator. Despite what you will read in many self-improvement tomes, 'partnering' and 'symbiotic evolution' are no way to get rich. They may be a way to a better world. They may make you a happier person and a better manager. But they will not make you rich - except, perhaps, in spirit. To become rich you must behave as a predator. I will go further, you must become a predator. Albert is not a predator. By moving so adroitly and so swiftly from one thing to the next, Albert does not place himself in the way of luck. He does not draw luck to him. He does not make his own luck. He is much too much in love with the green, green grass just over the next hill. Then again, Albert is more intelligent than I am. He had a grand education and read all the right books at university. He is not a self-taught scholar, as I am. But there is a downside to all this intelligence and imagination. He thinks a little too much before he acts. He weighs the options too carefully. He is capable of imagining defeat.

While he is fair, and sometimes more than fair, with his staff, they don't love him. They don't love him because they do not get the chance to grow, and if there is one good thing about a well-managed company in a capitalist society, it is the opportunity to groom talent and encourage it to grow. Apart from the money, it's the best thing about getting rich.

• Prepare yourself for luck, but don't seek her out. Let her come to you.
• Make your own luck.
• Don't whine or ever describe yourself as 'unlucky'. (You're alive, aren't you?)
• Be bold. Be brave. Don't thank your lucky stars. The stars can't hear you.
• Stay the course. Stop looking for the green grass over the hill.
• Don't try to do it all yourself. Delegate and teach others to delegate.
• Remember that most predators are lucky most of their lives, unlike their prey.
• Whiners and cowards die a hundred times a day. Be a hero to yourself.
• If being a hero isn't your style, then fake it. Reality will catch up eventually.
• Just do it. It is much easier to apologise than to obtain permission.
• Never take the quest for wealth seriously. It's just a game, chum.
• Next time you bump into Lady Luck, giver her a whack on the rump from me.
• Be lucky. Get rich. Then give it all away. (We'll get to that bit later.)
• Most of us are rather poor negotiators.
• Most negotiations are unnecessary.
• 'The other side’ is often just as smart (or stupid) as you are.
• In the end, 'the balance of weakness' almost always decides the issue.
• In Greed vs. Need, the former usually 'wins'.
• Remember that few of us are any good at detailed negotiations. That includes your opponent, by the way.
• If you are a poor negotiator, like me, then set a limit on what you will pay or accept and on any conditions attached. Do not deviate. Your first thought is your best thought.
• Most negotiations are unnecessary. Don't enter into them. Remember that 'the fortress that parleys is already half taken'. Save serious negotiations for serious occasions.
• Do your homework. And do it rigorously. What you don't know or haven't bothered to find out can kill you in any type of serious negotiation.
• Despite my jungle book examples above, the devil really is in the detailing serious negotiations. Get all the professional help you can trust. But do not surrender control of the negotiations or the agenda to such professionals. They are not the ones who will have to live with the consequences - you are. Professional advisors are there to explain and advise not to decide.
• If your advisors are leading you down a path you don't approve of during your negotiations, call a 'time out' and tell them privately that if they continue down that path you will get yourself some new advisors. The world is full of them.
• Never fall in love with the deal. A deal is just a deal. There will always be other deals and other opportunities.
• Avoid auctions in business like the plague - unless you are selling some-thing, that is. You will nearly always pay more than was wise if you are the 'winner' of an auction process.
• The negotiator opposite you is not your new best friend. He is not your partner. He is not your confidant. You have no obligation, outside of ordinary courtesy, to please him or satisfy his demands. He is the enemy. If you do not understand that real winners and real losers emerge from serious negotiations then you will be robbed, whatever the circumstances.
• Take no notice of management manuals that tell you to leave passion and emotion out of the negotiating room. If you are emotional or passionate about something, then let it show. But leaven emotion with courtesy, and, if possible, with wit. If you're not the witty type, then flattery and self-deprecation are good substitutes.
• Listen when engaged in serious negotiations. Then listen some more. You are in no hurry. Nobody ever got poor listening. Also, use silence as a weapon. Silences are disconcerting. People tend to fill silences with jabber, often weakening their bargaining position as they do so.
• Choose a rogue element to your advantage and bring it into the negotiation at a late stage. You'll be amazed at how often this tactic produces results.
• The British created the largest geophysical empire in the world with one tactic: divide and rule. It always works. It never fails if you can get to exploit it. Get to know the other side. There may be slight differences in the individual approaches of their senior managers and, possibly, in their goals. Drive a wedge and keep hammering.
• Permit no such weaknesses in your own camp, I have often banned senior executives from taking part in negotiations simply to avoid this trap. Better you are in there on your own, outgunned, outflanked and outmanoeuvred, than to have two or three of you silently squabbling.
• Everyone thinks they are a great negotiator, but most of us simply are not. If it's your company, then, for better or worse, you are the final arbiter. That remains true whether you are a good negotiator or a had one.
• If you suspect you perform badly on such occasions, do not attend, even if you are the 100 per cent owner. Get someone else to do it after setting out your response to every conceivable option that might arise. This tactic can be devastating to the other side, and Peter, Bob and I have used it on many occasions in the past. You have to completely trust your nominee, though.
• Above all, establish where the balance of weakness lies in any serious negotiation. Most strengths are self-evident, especially strengths like cash and infrastructure. Weaknesses are usually hidden. Ferret them out, hold them up to the fight and make a battle plan.
• Whatever you agree to during a negotiation, fulfil the bargain. Nobody wants to do business with a weasel or a chisler. Written in the Zoroastrian Scriptures two-and-a-half thousand years ago was this: 'Never break a covenant, whether you make it with a false man or a just man of good conscience. The covenant holds for both, the false and the just alike.'

The fortress that parleys is already half taken. - RUSSIAN PROVERB

The only 'style' I assume you're interested in developing is an efficient money-making machine which is also a great place to work. That's a wise and laudable aim, but however necessary, however laudable, such aims are, they belong in the realm of senior- and middle-management problem-solving. Please remember: you are not reading this book to become a successful manager. Managers rarely become rich. Most managers are lieutenants. You, on the other hand, have to keep your eye on another ball - several other balls, in fact.

You may well have to masquerade as a manager (for a short while) on the way to becoming rich, and you should strive to be a good manager while the role is forced upon you. But even if you discover that you truly have a talent for the minutiae that management: demands, it's best to abandon the role just as soon as you can afford to hire appropriate personnel.

You just will not have the time to choose who gets to work in which office, where the Christmas party should be held or what company policy should be regarding the provision of in-house tea and coffee facilities. If, as the owner, you do find you have the time to involve yourself in such decisions, then I have news for you. Your organisation is in deep trouble.

Personally, I don't think I was a very good managing director or CEO of any of my companies, so my advice concerning your choice of middle management is limited to the following: the world is full of aspiring lieutenants. Most people seek job security, job satisfaction and power over others far more than they seek wealth. And thank goodness for that. If all the great managers in the world were dead set on becoming rich, and willing to take the necessary risks to do so, there would be little hope for the likes of you and me.

Management efficiency really does count, of course: loyalty counts, fair-ness counts, a steady disposition counts, a sense of appropriate compromise counts. An organisation will fail without managers who apply such virtues consistently. But they are not necessarily attributes you should invite in to the room during a series of tough negotiations when the big money is on the table and your future is on the line. They are the attributes of first-class managers. Not negotiators. Serious negotiations are very different from day-to-day bargaining and should be approached differently. They imply a weakness in the position of at least one of the parties involved in the negotiations, unlike day-to-day bargaining, where no such weakness need exist. The first thing to be done, perhaps the most vital thing, is to establish exactly where those weaknesses lie.

A FEW TIPS ON NEGOTIATING

• Remember that few of us are any good at detailed negotiations. That includes your opponent, by the way.
• If you are a poor negotiator, like me, then set a limit on what you will pay or accept and on any conditions attached. Do not deviate. Your first thought is your best thought.
• Most negotiations are unnecessary. Don't enter into them. Remember that 'the fortress that parleys is already half taken'. Save serious negotiations for serious occasions.
• Do your homework. And do it rigorously. What you don't know or haven't bothered to find out can kill you in any type of serious negotiation.
• Despite my jungle book examples above, the devil really is in the detailing serious negotiations. Get all the professional help you can trust. But do not surrender control of the negotiations or the agenda to such professionals. They are not the ones who will have to live with the consequences - you are. Professional advisors are there to explain and advise not to decide.
• If your advisors are leading you down a path you don't approve of during your negotiations, call a 'time out' and tell them privately that if they continue down that path you will get yourself some new advisors. The world is full of them.
• Never fall in love with the deal. A deal is just a deal. There will always be other deals and other opportunities.
• Avoid auctions in business like the plague - unless you are selling some-thing, that is. You will nearly always pay more than was wise if you are the 'winner' of an auction process.
• The negotiator opposite you is not your new best friend. He is not your partner. He is not your confidant. You have no obligation, outside of ordinary courtesy, to please him or satisfy his demands. He is the enemy. If you do not understand that real winners and real losers emerge from serious negotiations then you will be robbed, whatever the circumstances.
• Take no notice of management manuals that tell you to leave passion and emotion out of the negotiating room. If you are emotional or passionate about something, then let it show. But leaven emotion with courtesy, and, if possible, with wit. If you're not the witty type, then flattery and self-deprecation are good substitutes.
• Listen when engaged in serious negotiations. Then listen some more. You are in no hurry. Nobody ever got poor listening. Also, use silence as a weapon. Silences are disconcerting. People tend to fill silences with jabber, often weakening their bargaining position as they do so.
• Choose a rogue element to your advantage and bring it into the negotiation at a late stage. You'll be amazed at how often this tactic produces results.
• The British created the largest geophysical empire in the world with one tactic: divide and rule. It always works. It never fails if you can get to exploit it. Get to know the other side. There may be slight differences in the individual approaches of their senior managers and, possibly, in their goals. Drive a wedge and keep hammering.
• Permit no such weaknesses in your own camp, I have often banned senior executives from taking part in negotiations simply to avoid this trap. Better you are in there on your own, outgunned, outflanked and outmanoeuvred, than to have two or three of you silently squabbling.
• Everyone thinks they are a great negotiator, but most of us simply are not. If it's your company, then, for better or worse, you are the final arbiter. That remains true whether you are a good negotiator or a had one.
• If you suspect you perform badly on such occasions, do not attend, even if you are the 100 per cent owner. Get someone else to do it after setting out your response to every conceivable option that might arise. This tactic can be devastating to the other side, and Peter, Bob and I have used it on many occasions in the past. You have to completely trust your nominee, though.
• Above all, establish where the balance of weakness lies in any serious negotiation. Most strengths are self-evident, especially strengths like cash and infrastructure. Weaknesses are usually hidden. Ferret them out, hold them up to the fight and make a battle plan.
• Whatever you agree to during a negotiation, fulfil the bargain. Nobody wants to do business with a weasel or a chisler. Written in the Zoroastrian Scriptures two-and-a-half thousand years ago was this: 'Never break a covenant, whether you make it with a false man or a just man of good conscience. The covenant holds for both, the false and the just alike.'

To become rich you must be an owner. And you must try to own it all. You must strive with every fibre of your being, while recognising the idiocy of your behaviour, to own and retain control of as near to 100 per cent of any company as you can. If that is not possible, in a public company, for example, then you must be prepared to make yourself hated by those around you who are also trying to be rich. That is the dirty, rotten little secret of it all, my friend. Just like Gollum, it is your Precious and they are all 'filthy little thieves'.

Never, never, never, never hand over a single share of anything you have acquired or created if you can help it. Nothing. Not one share. To no one. No matter what the reason - unless you genuinely have to.

Please think about this if you want to be rich. Ownership is not the most important thing. IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT COUNTS.

Years ago, in the early days of my company, four of my colleagues got together and had a long talk, I assume in a pub, although I cannot be sure of that. One was a senior manager, one was a publisher, one was a designer and the other an editor. Together, they hatched a small conspiracy. Knowing how important they were to my little company, they confronted me and demanded a share. They bearded the lion in his lair. They were polite and civilised about it. They pointed out that I owned 100 per cent of the company and could easily afford to share out, say, 20 percent between them. It wouldn't cost me anything and it was only fair. Those were the words they used. They were working just as many hours (10-12 hours on a good day) as I was and they were committed to making the company a huge success. They were even willing to discuss a slight reduction in their salaries in return. In addition, they went on, I should remember that such a 'dispersal' (I remember they actually used that word, too) would incentivise them mightily. Such a gesture would never be forgotten. And my remaining 80 per cent of the company would ensure that I was still the boss. However, should I not 'disperse' these shares among them, they intended to leave. And leave immediately, virtually without notice. They would have no option but to do so, although they didn't want to. The company would suffer dreadfully - and might even fail altogether. They had already agreed the name of their new company, in case I wouldn't play ball, and had even registered it. They would set up as rivals. They were serious and they meant business. All of this unpleasantness could be avoided if I would just hand over a pitiful 20 per cent to them, perhaps based on future performance? Both as friends and colleagues, they earnestly advised me to consider their demands dispassionately and honestly. In my heart, they argued, I knew they were right. It was only fair. I fired them on the spot. Or they walked away. I can't remember which- it didn't matter then and it doesn't matter now. What mattered is that I held on to every single share in my company. I would run the entire bloody company myself, write the articles, design the pages, answer the phone and sell the ads if I had to. But I would not part with a single, solitary share. Not for love. Nor for fairness. Not for loyalty. Not for anything. And certainly not for moral blackmail.

Over the next thirty years, I estimate that their suggested 20 per cent, had I handed it over, would have earned those four gentlemen around $80,000,000 - say it again - eighty million dollars, in current asset value and past dividends. This is the problem with sharing ownership. The laws of simple mathematics are relentless and obdurate.

And if I had given 20 per cent to those four employees, should I not have had to do so with many others as they joined the company and worked hard to make it a success? Where would it all end? I'm not a bloody charity. I'm an entrepreneur trying to make a small fortune, not the Salvation Army. I pay people to get a job done. And I pay them well. I try to make it as much fun as I can along the way. I reward senior managers with bloody huge bonuses based on performance and results. Millions of dollars have been paid out in such bonuses over the years.

'Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.'

If you want to get rich, then learn to delegate. Don't learn to pretend to delegate. Delegation is not only a powerful tool, it is the only way to maximise and truly incentive your most precious asset - the people who work for you. Real delegation can help make you rich. But only if you work at it.

Use the annual profits of a company to grow the business by all means. One of the ways of making it grow is to carefully craft bonuses for those who work for you to achieve margin, cost and revenue targets. This is a great idea even if you are going short at the time yourself and your sales manager is earning more than you are that year. Sounds crazy? Well, it worked for me!

Handing over a substantial portion of the proceeds from the sale of an asset to employees makes no logical sense. Almost certainly the people now working for an asset sold by you will continue in their employment under a new owner. If not, they will be compensated - the law, not to mention common decency, ensures it. Why then would you want to hand them a windfall? You're not responsible for motivating them anymore. The new owner is.

There is also a truth that is antithetical to the tenor of this book. For whatever reason, a surprising number of first-class employees (managers or otherwise) are not overly motivated by money. They want security, or respect, or the chance to learn or the opportunity to shine. Often they require little more than a decent salary in a company where they feel motivated and valued. You and I, on the other hand, for the purposes of this book, are greedy little sods solely bent on the pursuit of wealth. We must be very careful not to load our own sins on the shoulders of the innocents described in the last paragraph. They are what the English call 'the salt of the earth'. You won't get far if you attempt to financially 'incentivise' the salt of the earth. Praise, the ability to discern when a good job has been done and the courtesy to say so, fairness, integrity and camaraderie should be employed instead. It takes more trouble than mere bribery, but it produces wonderful results.

If you wish to become rich, look carefully about you at the prevailing industries where wealth appears to be gravitating. THEN GO TO WHERE THEMONEY IS! That is where you should focus your efforts. On the ball marked 'The Money is Here.'

Here are a few discoveries I have made over the years about staying focused when choosing employees or suppliers.

• Never choose an important employee or a key supplier alone.
• Go further than reading a person's references.
• Make notes. Speak little.
• Pay employees well. Bonus better.
• Only hire winners.

A desire to shine in the world is worth more than a university degree.

Ownership Shall Re Half of the Law; Doing an Outstanding Job Shall Be The Other Half.

Listen closely to your bean-counters and accountants. Or seek one out you trust when the whiff of failure is in the air and get advice.

THE QUESTFOR WEALTH: A HEALTH WARNING

//Das ganze Kapitel (ab Seite 282) ist fantastisch.

It does indeed. Wealth makes many demands and, by the time you have acquired it, you will be prey to certain habits. You will fear to lose it and must spend a great deal more time to defend it.

Happiness? Do not make me laugh. The rich are not happy. I have yet to meet a single really rich happy man or woman - and I have met many rich people. The demands from others to share their wealth become so tire some, and so insistent, they nearly always decide they must insulate themselves. Insulation breeds paranoia and arrogance. And loneliness. And rage that you have only so many years left to enjoy rolling in the sand you have piled up.

Now you must cut yourself loose from naysayers and negative influences: the Jeremiahs. These wretches cover the face of the earth. They will tell you, if you listen, about the impossibility (not the foolishness) of trying to make yourself wealthy. In doing so, they drain confidence and optimism from you. Such people often include your parents, your lover, your husband or your wife, and your 'friends'. Which is not surprising. It's not that they do not care about you. They may well do so, in their own way.

Do not despise these people. Seek to calm them. Or hide from them what you are about for as long as you can.

Done that? OK, now we're rockin' and rollin'. The first question to answer is where is the goddamn money? Let's imagine it is in a mine in a mountain. Fine. Which mountain? The mountain that is already making a lot of other people rich would be a good bet. Gold rushes don't happen in old mines. There will be people making a good living out of old mines, but they won't be too keen to let you muscle in on their stake, Look for new mountains where gold is being mined; or will be mined soon. Let us speak plainly. This is not the time to begin a chain of car dealer-ships. Car dealerships are great, but it's an old mine. Don't go there unless you have a brand new angle. Making and distributing beer is an old mine. Unless you have a new angle (like 'real ale'), then that's a mountain to avoid. Of course, if you're really imaginative, you can often come up with such an angle.

You see, you have to choose a new mine where you suspect there is money, or an old mine with a different angle to get rich. The right mountain. A great new mine right now is in telecommunications, or the internet, or legalised gambling. Property is always good. (You can start small in property and you can get lucky quickly. It's a crowded market, though, for that very reason.)

It's vital you choose a mountain which produces money that has your name on it. Your instinct should come into play here. Everything depends, just for once, on what you feel drawn towards and what repels you. I have always hated watching television. Paradoxically, I have always fancied being a producer or director of mindless garbage. I think I missed a trick by not going into television earlier - although one of my companies in Beverly Hills is busy at it right now.

One thing is for sure, you must avoid the trap of going into what you think will make you money if you have no empathy or feeling for what you are about to do. There's no future in that. I know an editor and writer. He's a great editor and writer. But he feel she has to be a publisher and do all the stuff that publishers do - like wear suits, write cheques and hire and fire people. He's crazy. He will never be rich because he will not use his vast writing and editing talent to the full. He's always too busy being a lousy businessman. Avoid that trap. Don't do anything because you feel you have to. Go for what attracts you. Go for something that exploits your natural talents.

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

If you want to be rich you must make a pact with yourself about fear of anything. You cannot banish fear, but you can face it down, stomp on it, crush it, bury it, padlock it into the deepest recesses of your heart and soul and leave it there to rot. Just try. Try for just a single day, a whole day when you refuse toack nowledge fear of failure, fear of making yourself look like an idiot, fear of losing your lover, fear of losing your job, fear of your boss, fear of anything and of any kind. Fear will creep back, usually at three in the morning. Laugh at it and tell it to take a hike. Smash it in the teeth. Spit on it. Put your arms round it and make nicey-nicey. Then slip a sharp blade into its stinking throat just as you're French-kissing it. Go on. I dare you. If you can do it, this will transform your life. Not for the better. I didn't promise you that. But you will instantly perceive (among many other things) just how much money there is in the world and how pitifully easy it is to obtain it. Money that already has your name on it.

If you wish to get rich, there are no reasons why you should not get rich. None at all. For they are not 'reasons'; they are excuses. For the most part they are pitiful alibis, half-truths and self-serving evasions you have erected to spare yourself from the quiet terror of taking your own financial life in your hands and making your dreams concrete reality. They are the children of fear and the parents of a thousand 'if onlys'.

THE UPSIDE-DOWN PYRAMID FOR GETTING RICH

1. Commit or don't commit. No half-measures.
2. Cut loose from all negative influences.
3. Choose the right mountain.
4. Fear nothing.
5. Start now.
6. Go!

So is it true that 'Whoever Dies with the Most Toys Wins'? Naaah. That's rubbish. It's like 'Greed is Good', which came later. Greed ain't good. And toys are the last thing on your mind, lying on a bed of ice and fire white nonchalant young ticks in white coats pull a face like they're sucking a lemon before pronouncing your doom. You won't be worrying about toys and gadgets then, except perhaps the respirator.

Never loan it to friends. If you loan money to a friend, you will lose your friend as well as your money. Give them whatever you feel like giving. Then forget it. Ditto with relatives. If you diligently follow this one piece of advice, you will be saved a sackful of misery. Trust me. Broadcast your policy loudly. This will spare you from many embarrassing demands that will other-wise vex you.

No deal is a total make-or-break deal. Not one. If you cannot get the terms you know make sense, then walkaway.

THE EIGHT SECRETS TO GETTING RICH

1. Analyse your need. Desire is insufficient. Compulsion is mandatory.
2. Cut loose from negative influences. Never give in. Stay the course.
3. Ignore 'great ideas'. Concentrate on great execution.
4. Focus. Keep your eye on the ball marked 'The Money Is Here'.
5. Hire talent smarter than you. Delegate. Share the annual pie.
6. Ownership is the real 'secret'. Hold on to every percentage point you can.
7. Sell before you need to, or when bored. Empty your mind when negotiating.
8. Fear nothing and no one. Get rich. Remember to give it all away.

Good luck on your quest if you decide to undertake it. And remember the words of Benjamin Jowett: 'Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.'

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