Living Longer Column, February 11, 2010 (850 words)
How To Get Rich – A Book Review
by Art Kunkin
It might seem off-topic in this column about living longer to review the book by English multi-millionaire Felix Dennis titled “How To Get Rich.” However, I have come to realize that planning for longevity necessarily involves planning for one’s economic security in the desired additional years of life. In short, if one can live an energetic and healthy life for 200 or more years, as I believe is now becoming possible, why should one be poor? How will one survive when 150? Why not use your additional years of life to become comfortably rich and be able to afford anything you need and want? And this book definitely contains some of the best practical advice for creating a fortune that you will ever encounter. From raising the start-up capital necessary to begin a business and overcoming the fear of failure to avoiding the five most common errors of an entrepreneur, this is the book to read.
Felix Dennis is considered the 56th wealthiest man in the world with a personal fortune estimated at over 750 million dollars. He has homes in London, Stratford-upon Avon, New York City, Connecticut and the Caribbean island of Mustique. I must admit that I have a particular fascination with Dennis because I believe I met him in the late 1960’s. I was in England at that time purchasing a huge printing press for my own Los Angeles Free Press and, while in London, I visited alternative publications such as “Oz” magazine where Dennis worked.
22 years old in 1969, Dennis was far from rich. He was making a modest living selling copies of the alternative magazine on the street. Eventually Dennis became a co-editor of “Oz” along with a friend of mine in London, Richard Neville. In 1971 he, Neville and another editor, Jim Anderson, were briefly imprisoned by the British government after the longest conspiracy trial in British history about an issue of Oz where high school students were given complete editorial control and published a sexually explicit drawing of Rupert The Bear. (See Wikipedia on the internet for an account of this “School Kids Edition” trial). Dennis used his Oz editing experience and books about the famous martial artist, Bruce Lee, to eventually become the sole owner of a publishing empire consisting of more than 50 profitable mainstream publications such as Maxim, This Week and many computer magazines. In 2007, he reportedly sold the U.S. editions of Maxim, Stuff and the music magazine, Blender, for $250 million.
“How To Get Rich,” a bestseller in the United Kingdom, is different from any other book on the subject because Dennis isn’t selling snake oil, investment tips or motivational nonsense. He is rich enough that he doesn’t need to promote a DVD or sell a twelve-step seminar. When giving his excellent, practical and often humorous business advice, it is obvious that Dennis speaks from his heart with great compassion for other human beings. While he obviously has a strong ego that served him well in many negotiations, the several places in his book where he speaks sadly about how he would give up his entire fortune if he had his youthful health and energy again is not in the voice of a hustler but that of a sincere poet. I believe that he wrote this book not for money or for fame, both of which he already has in abundance, but because he genuinely wants to increase the chances of a determined person to become rich.
If you’re serious about making money, this book can be your witty and authoritative road map. And even if you’re not, it’s still a very good read.
Dennis reveals, for example, why a regular paycheck is as addictive as crack cocaine; why great ideas are vastly overrated; and why “ownership isn’t the important thing, it’s the only thing” (with certain exceptions). He also observes, “If it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it; it’s cheaper in the long run.”).
As one reviewer on Amazon.com stated about this book, “A true masterpiece. Absolutely brilliant, fun to read, beautifully written and full of ‘hard-knocks’ wisdom. Five Stars.” And this week Amazon in the U.S. has reduced the price of “How To Get Rich” from $25.95 to $6.54.
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Art Kunkin is the journalist who founded the alternative weekly newspaper, The Los Angeles Free Press, 1964 to 2010. Art’sbook, “Immortality: The Secret Finally Revealed” is available through his web site www.alchemyrevealed.com. A free introductory report about his own research into stopping aging published in the English magazine, Fortean Times, can be obtained at www.immortality-is-possible.com . If you are interested in attending a Wednesday, Feb. 17 evening class taught by Art in Joshua Tree including a discussion of “How To Be Rich,” the Felix Dennis book reviewed above, in the context of a brain-rewiring technique to develop will-power, plus a discussion about Art’s new organization, The Association for Living Longer (ALL), please contact him at artkunkin@gmail.com or by phoning 760-369-8921.