Rich Like Them, a new book by Ryan D’Agostino, is subtitled My Door-to-Door Search for the Secrets of Wealth in America’s Richest Neighborhoods. For research, he knocked on 500 doors in 19 of the most affluent towns in America, in 11 states, and interviewed 50 “regular” (though very rich) men and women who built their wealth in 50 different ways.
Among the proven “wealth secrets” he picked up were these:
• Look for undiscovered territory.
• Don’t get greedy or over-extend yourself. Take the profit from your first successful project, put it in the bank, and go on to the next project.
• The dollar you spend today is the dollar you don’t have tomorrow.
• Is what you’re buying a need or a want?
• Don’t allow someone else’s actions to dictate your life.
• Buy the cheapest house in the coolest neighborhood, fix it up, and sell it.
• Invent (or perhaps import) a machine to replace a specific kind of hand labor, then lease it (not sell it) to enjoy a steady monthly income.
• Realize that the essence of any business is serving your customers well.
• You need more than passion. You need an intensity that will scare people.
• It’s not enough to identify the things you want to do. You must also identify the things you don’t want to do.
• Become so good at what you do that everyone wants to buy your services. Then you need to publicize and promote yourself so that everyone thinks you’re the best.
• If you sell things quickly, you get rich. But if you hold on to them, you get wealthy.
