To illustrate the sense of humor that runs through this book, the picture above has the following caption: “Edward VII, one of the great polygynists of the Victorian era, advertised his prowess with a manly pose.” |
If you've got friends (that are interested in social commentary, class consciousness, or even just finance in general) that you still need gifts for, let me recommend The Natural History of the Rich… I picked it up as light reading and it's turned out to be really fun. Basically it's a long series of anecdotes about rich people (both historical and modern, and both “self-made” rich and dynasties) which illustrate how they achieve success. It's very funny, and, in the words of the New York Sun*, “droll and delightful”.
"Wealth is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some sort of god, the creator of everything... but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out."
- George Soros
There are six hundred thousand petamillionaires (people with $5 million or more in assets) in the US. At this point “real” wealth is generally considered to start at a worth at an utter minimum of $5 million, and many would argue that $50 million would be a better number. If I am to believe the megasurvey data, then there are probably between 20 and 50 millionaires on IAM. Statistically there should be about 300 to illustrate just how common millionaires are (there are less on IAM of course because it's youth oriented)… Of course, there are an equal number of people with massive debt!
Anyway, I know that a lot of you reading this are either successfully self-employed in a field that you've helped define, or you're on your way to doing so, whether you've hit the jackpot or not. I thought those of you would enjoy the following quote:
"Almost all successful alpha personalities display a single-minded determination to impose their vision on the world, an irrational belief in unreasonable goals, bordering at times on lunacy. A blindness to consequences characterizes many dominant personalities. They don't see obstacles. They may not bother or even be capable of seeing other peoples' point of view. This blindness is what makes them, with equal sense, outlaws and heroes."
- Richard Conniff
I see that in a lot of the people I've gotten to meet over the past decade!
Anyway, I do recommend this book. It's very funny, and, if getting richer is your thing, it probably is even quite full of good advice. The book's been out for some time now (published last year), so if you don't want to believe me, there are plenty of glowing reviews at the Amazon link above.
* Yeah, I know it's not the New York Times.
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