Dr Greg Reid has kindly compiled these short stories and anecdotes to show us readers that it is actually not that difficult to crack the code of getting rich – you just have to know where to look. The ideas shown in this book are simple and many times, right in front of us. The one thing many of us lack is that we do not slow down and reflect… what do the consumers need? Essentially, we are all human beings, what I lack is most likely what the market lacks as well.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through to make a purchase.
Some of the ideas demonstrated in this book, Wealth Made Easy can be reused by the man in the street to “get rich”. However, for some others, it serves as a good tale for us to learn from and know where to look. They serve as a way to train our line of thoughts.
The author has broken down the ideas into four sections, Big Ideas, Mogul Mindset, Making it Happen and Winning Wisdom, peppered with interviews done with the said entrepreneurs to show us it is not really that difficult to become one of them.
I would suggest pairing this book with an entrepreneurial know how book such as The Barefoot Executive or Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days as this book simply touches on “ideas” and does not show readers how to execute them.
Nonetheless, the author has done a great deal of interviewing and compiling these big ideas to make it into interesting short stories for the readers to digest.
I have summarized the book content as below to share with you readers.
READ: HOW TO READ BOOKS FOR FREE
Part 1: Big Ideas
1. Buy Dirt
Buy land in the suburbs and rent it out to farmers. As the town continues to expand, you can sell it to land developers and make a huge profit out of it.
This idea is not feasible in Singapore where it is a land scare city nation.The government owns the state land and land is usually sold to developers who have to bid for it.
2. Create a product, good or service that people will happily spend all their savings to obtain
Refer to Disney World where people readily hand over their money for a once in a lifetime experience.
3. Information sponge – bring ideas outside your industry into your business
Cross hack other industry’s ideas to your own industry to bring about innovation. Being innovative does not necessarily mean having to come up with new ideas. Borrowing ideas from another industry’s practice and applying it to your own industry can breathe a fresh life to your current industry too.
4. Build wealth by helping people
E.g Dr Dwight Damon who invented a better way to do braces
5. Find a need and fill it
Listen to your clients and give them what they ask for
6. Lead the receiver
Find the need then fill it. Anticipate the needs of consumers before they even ask for it.
7. Simplify everything
Identify a problem and solve the problem
8. Combine unrelated business ideas and make them your own
Create an entirely new business model by combining several unrelated ideas together
E.g Chuck E Cheese – food, family and amusement park
9. Double up and triple up
Think prepaid business model that involves revenue, charity and collectibles
10. Seek areas of deregulation
There is no restrictions from the government on how to conduct your business. You can do it the way you want it.
11. State it and create it
You need a really good idea, perfect execution and knowledge of what the customer wants before he or she does
12. To be great, authenticate
Authenticate (e.g certified) the product you are selling to increase the perceived value of the item.
13. Capitalize on something unused
Look for voids in your industry and take advantage of them
E.g unsold advertising space or TV airtime
14. Take advantage of obsolescence
Refashion old products into something new
15. Solve a ten billion dollar problem
16. Save lives
17. Sell something right under your feet
Be it in the attic or cellar
18. Drive the price with scarcity
Exclusive products and elite services warrant a high price tag
19. Offer convenience: sell convenience
E.g Amazon, Netflix
Does your product or service make life convenient for the customer?
Can you make the purchase as easy and as convenient as possible for the customer?
Part 2: Mogul Mindset
20. Retain your wealth by believing that you deserve it
Self fulfilling prophecy
21. To achieve something different, you must do something different
The main issues that plague people from getting wealthy: indecision, doubt and fear of what people criticism and worrying about what others think
The most successful people don’t care and tune out all of that noise.
22. Coin is king – so save your change
23. Be kind to your future self
24. Ask yourself, positive questions
25. Don’t hold onto your nut
Are you holding onto to beliefs about your business for no reason and getting trapped
Do you rigidly stick onto the same perceptions of what works and what doesn’t?
26. Invest twenty six times to land one success
You may only need to get it right once
27. Create a vision board
28. Plot your next move
Don’t rest on your laurels. Look for the next opportunity.
29. Visualize money and success
30. Take action
Don’t listen and don’t take action.
31. Accept what is given to you
There is no benefit to trying to go the distance alone and no shame in asking for assistance from experts. Pride can be one thing holding you back.
32. Treat your life as if it were your cell phone
Adopt a mindset that your life is always a brand new, fully charged and loaded mobile phone in mint condition.
33. Explain your why – not just your who and what
The why will provide an emotional context for the potential customers and partners for you.
34. Reverse mental conditioning
Consciously or unconsciously holding on to these mental images and feelings can hold us back from achieving abundance.
35. Reward yourself with achievement
Reward yourself by investing in something that gives back to you
Part 3: Making it Happen
36. Stick to your core: Outsource the rest
Master your strengths, outsource your weaknesses.
37. Tap into the power of a fulcrum
E.g the iPhone created a universe of accessories for consumers. Their product is directly at the center of the consumer frenzy, instead of the tagalongs such as the mobile accessories.
38. Save 50%; spend 50%
Do not over leverage.
39. Invest like a farmer
Know when to plant and when to harvest.
40. Know every aspect of your deal
Always dive deep into the details. Knowledge that is elusive to the average person and yet is valued by the customer.
41. Go against the grain – work with your competitors
42. Convert customers with words
What bothers the customer? Create a story line that is relatable to the customer and allows the customer to visualize the benefits of using your product
43. Hire a brain
Don’t be afraid to recruit experts and people smarter than you in specific areas. You will free up time and save yourself a lot of anguish and headaches.
44. Create a land of misfit toys
When hiring people, every member of the team must be positive at all times. Represent strength in different sectors and have connections.
45. Own your community
Offer your followers things no one else can, pay constant attention to them.
Frequency of posts = more engagements more eyeballs = higher rate of returns
46. Use the ARCS method to grab customers
A: ask a question
R: reveal you have been there
C: call out your discvoery
S: send them out to do something
47. Hire people with high EQ to babysit the people with high IQ
48. Leverage MIC
M: methodical
I: information
C: code
Gather the information methodically, and then acting on that information in a way that is positive and uplifting.
49. Hire the best – and cry only once
50. Speak at an Ivy League university
Speak at an Ivy League University to widen your business and brand by networking through the alumni associations. People will pay attention to you when you speak and will always regard you as the smartest, most qualified person in the room.
51. Amplify the customer’s request
Go the extra step for your customers. What is the unexpected thing can you do for your customers that totally wows them?
52. Get celebrities to be photographed with your product
Part 4: Winning Wisdom
54. Buy a gumball machine and make your money stick to more money
E.g Renting a vending machine to generate passive income or writing a best selling book and receive royalties forever. Or invent a product that receives dividends for generations. The key to residual income is to do something once and get paid for it over and over again.
READ: PASSIVE INCOME IDEAS FOR EVERYONE
55. Don’t be afraid to give to get
Try giving your product or service to an influencer for free to prove its value. Then others will be pounding on your door to have it.
56. It’s okay to be fashionably late
It is not about being the first to market – it is about being the first to get it right.
57. Remove egos from creative decision making
58. Dont pay retail
Ask the salesperson, is this be best you can do. You will be surprised at how every customer and sales representative has the power to lower the price when asked.
59. Don’t be afraid to part with something you love
Be open to letting go and freeing yourself up from your business you built so you can grab something you might eventually love more.
60. Drive one hammer with one nail
Don’t multitask or focus on too many at the same time
61. Clues, patterns, choices
Clue: observe
Pattern: is there a pattern that you see
Choice: its your choice whether to work with that person or choose to do business with someone else
62. Break through constraints
Never allow constraints to hold back your business.
63. Network outside your industry
64. Join a mastermind
Reach out to business titans in your area who may or may not be affiliated with your industry.
An example will be the Lean In network by Facebook Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg. She started this network to allow like minded women to join forces and mentor each other to bring out each and everyone’s potential after she notices how women are shortchanging themselves at work. She has also written a book, Lean In, on this and how society can work together to improve the gaps in salary and opportunities at work between men and women.
READ: Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg
65. Pivot
There is only one boss, the customer. Listen to what the customer wants.
66. Crush up your vitamins
Read as much as you can. Blogs, trending social media posts, audio-books, videos, podcasts and in person exchanges
67. Answer the phone
You never know when an unlikely connection can lead to a major business lead
68. Pay yourself first
The power of compound growth.
69. Create a euphoric sense of contributions
Give back to society
70. Make your money work for you
Invest in a rental property
Build an online course
Write a book
71. Do the opposite of what everyone tells you to do
Sometimes it pays off not to stick with the status quo.
72. Decide whether you want fame or fortune
Fame or fortune? If you strive towards achieving fame, the riches will come later. If you become rich, you can channel that wealth to become famous.
73. Debunk the relationship myth
Choose your life partner wisely. Spouses that stayed with them through thick and thin and became the sounding boards behind many of their major ideas and greatest accomplishments.
74. The true difference between the rich and the wealthy
Treat your business like a business and not a child. Make decisions based on good business practice and not feelings.
Do you agree with the example that Dr Greg Reid has provided? If yes, why? If no, I would love to hear from you too! I hope after reading his book (and the book summary here), you will be more motivated to start something today.
Visualizing money and success is another good advice for any of those who want to achieve something in life. Also, other tips are very helpful.
Yes, visualising and planning is good for planning ahead. Glad you found it useful.