YouSaid · the spoken record

Felix Dennis

lines on the record: 62
first: 2020-06-04
most recent: 2020-06-04
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Thousands of acres of land, art on the walls, and library stuffed with first editions. Less the debt, of course, I have around thirty million dollars of debt, rich people always seem to have a certain degree of debt. Apparently it helps to reduce taxes, but I'm not so hot on the bean counting side. In fact, I still haven't quite gotten the hang of a balance sheet. Amortization always floors me. But then I can't fly the jets or drive the Rolls-Royces or Bentleys either. I never had the time or the inclination to learn. My constant refrain when I was bumming rides from friends as a teenager was you don't understand. I was born to be driven. Both my friends and myself thought I was just smart Alec remark back then. Now I kind of wonder if I already knew or at least suspected. One or two more questions and then let's just move on.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Truthful and as complete as I can make it. I did not become rich. I did not become rich by writing manuals, telling other people how to get rich. I got rich my way. You might even say the old-fashioned way by making errors, lots of errors and learning from them. Much of what I intend to share with you concerns those errors rather than my successes. Another question, how rich are you anyway? I don't know. Neither does any rich person know. I haven't cashed in all my assets yet, and I'm not certain what they will fetch. Let's say between $400 million and $900 million of net worth before tax. I honestly cannot fix a number any closer to that. Five homes, three estates, fancy cars, private jets. The jets are always rented.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Another question What will I need to do apart from reading the book? All the usual stuff. The bottom line is that if I did it, you can do it too. I went from being a pauper, a hippie dropout on welfare, living in a crummy room without the proverbial pot to piss in, without even the money to pay the rent. And he's describing his life when he was around 25 years old, without a clue as to what to do next to being rich. And I am certainly no business genius as my rivals will happily and swiftly confirm. He asked another question. What's the difference between how to get rich and all the other books about becoming incredibly successful? Simple. I am not a charlatan and do not profess to be a miracle worker. How to get rich is being written for amusement, not just effect. And because I have little left to prove in the field of generating wealth, my book is as”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“His addiction to prostitutes, the fact that he blew $100 million in a decade and almost died, the fact that he's not really happy. This is not what, again, it's really, really surprising the difference between what's in the How to get rich sets to tell you out how I did it, how I got rich without the benefit of a college education or a penny of capital. It will expose the many errors I made along the way, which will contribute greatly to the length. Finally, it will suggest ways in which you can avoid such errors and start on getting rich.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“About something I feel I know about, and because I believe that almost anyone of reasonable intelligence can become rich given sufficient motivation and application. Another question he says, is this some kind of con job are you using a ghostwriter? Nope, and nope. How to get rich is not a con job. And it is not being ghostwritten. I am going to write every word myself in this book, Lord Help Me. It will contain no jargon or mumbo jumbo, and it's certainly not one of those messianic self-improvement manuals seeking to spawn a cottage industry of tapes, DVDs, and dubious hour long commercials on late night television. So that's exactly what I thought of when I saw the video. And what's really interesting is if you read reviews of this book online, he talks about, he's going to tell you how he got rich and then a lot is a philosophical question throughout the book is, is this really what you want? And so he's going to open up to us. He's going to talk about his drug addiction.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“and at a bottom we are cooperative animals. Many people are indulgent toward the young. After all, we were all once young ourselves. Those who wish to start a company and get rich cannot expect a free ride, but they might be surprised at the number of people in their particular pond willing to help them to some degree or another.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Persistence is a powerful tool in the hands of a hungry young hustler on the make. Thus it was that the first issue of cosmic comics was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. It barely made ascent, but it provided the framework for yet more publishing ventures. Within two years, I had sixty thousand pounds in the bank. That is the equivalent of a half a million pounds today. The printers were paid, the contributors were paid, the designers were paid, the landlord was paid, even Dick and I were paid. Above all, I retained control of the company, a company I still own a hundred percent of thirty five years later. Some will argue that what I did back in 1972 could not be emulated today, but human nature does not change.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Receive money when the comic came out. They made it sound, as a matter of common sense, that at least enough money was likely to be generated by the sales of the comic to pay the printer and paper bill. And they stress that their client, my little company, would only receive any money when and if the printer had been paid in full. This was the key. Business must have been slow because the printer agreed. I secretly suspect that he did so as much to keep me from constantly badgering him as anything else.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Somehow I had to persuade a printer to provide machine time and paper to produce the comic we were busy preparing in the gart. The bill would come to a few thousand pounds. I had written a great many record reviews when I worked for Oz. The record companies would send albums directly to my flat in the hope of soliciting a review and they never asked for the LPs back. I sorted out all the albums I could bear to part with and sold them to a local record shop. This brought in just sufficient funds to at least get a few printers to talk with me while Dick and I lived on ten pounds a week. But unless I could guarantee that the printers got paid, not one of them, very sensibly, would budge. Then I had an idea. I asked the owners of my potential distributors for the comic to write to a particular printer, promising that he would be the first”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A semi friendly, amused bank manager at Barclays Bank opened an account for the company, into which I deposited the mighty sum of fifty pounds. A magazine distributor with whom Oz had done business agreed to distribute my product, although I had nothing to show them.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In the West End. Perhaps we could move in there. Lemmy used to occasionally sleep under the Oz design table while recovering from excessive ingestion of alcohol and other substances. Lemmy was right about the empty flat. Three rooms at the top of the most rickety stairs I had ever climbed. The building had been badly damaged in the blitz and never properly rebuilt. The last tenants had been breeding puppies in there. It took a long time to get rid of the stink of puppy shit. Next, a close friend designed some smart headed note paper for us free of charge, suspecting, rightly, that we might be able to provide him with work if our venture succeeded. A small printer I had come to know while working for Oz magazine agreed to print this notepaper, knowing full well I could not pay him for it right then.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In 1972, I persuaded a jolly young lawyer I had met to do an act for me. I had no money to pay him, but perhaps my Hutzpah amused him. He helped me to register my hundred pound limited liability company and provided me with at least a fig leaf of respectability. I think I paid him twenty pounds for his services. The company was called Hunch Associates, and I intended to publish a series of comic books. Next I persuaded a close friend, Dick, to join me as co director and production manager. There wasn't much in the way of a salary. We liberated, meaning Stole, a few sticks of office furniture, two electric typewriters, and a floor camera from the offices of Oz Magazine, where Dick and I had met. Another friend, from the Metal Band Motorhead, mentioned that an acquaintance of his was vacating a garret.”
2020-06-04 · Founders · #129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source