Your First 100 Million by Dan Pena

[RazvanRogoz]

Dan Pena was what I considered a mentor and a role model for some time.

Now, I will share the good, the bad and the ugly about Pena.

The good: It works. His methods work. It's no BS.
The bad: It works for making money. You'll lose your friends, family, loved ones. You'll lose a life more or less.
The ugly: I used to respect this guy. But now, I don't anymore. His wife divorced him. His reply on a Facebook comment where I was asking for advice was more or less "buy my seminar and you'll sell". His outstanding business insight is not highly outdated.

You can make money "The Dan Pena way". But remember that you are trading your soul in exchange.

And most of the ideas found in the Fast Lane are also found in his seminars.

But the path to success is the same for everyone, so this doesn't surprise me.

Razvan

 

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[hrishikesh]

Just read this book. It is amazing.. worth every penny. I highly recommend this book.

 

[CyrusVirus]

Just read it as well, it's brimming with insights and some examples that you can refer to when the time is right. To each his own, he made a decision and he lived with the consequences.

I feel for him when I read that he was divorced by his wife. To get wealthy beyond recognition is one thing, to do so and eventually lose a partner in life; that's quite a blow. That's just what I think anyways.

Good read

 

[458]

Just read it as well, it's brimming with insights and some examples that you can refer to when the time is right. To each his own, he made a decision and he lived with the consequences.

I feel for him when I read that he was divorced by his wife. To get wealthy beyond recognition is one thing, to do so and eventually love a partner in life; that's quite a blow. That's just what I think anyways.

Good read

I think everyone should read the beginning of chapter 17 from "how to get rich" by Felix Dennis. It really lays down the truth about the bad side of getting rich and what MJ talks about a lot. Its one things to waste a couple of years and retire happy with 10 million and a nice family. Its a completely different thing to waste 20 years to get 100 million and be left with a very lonely existence.

 

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[CyrusVirus]

Its a completely different thing to waste 20 years to get 100 million and be left with a very lonely existence.

Well said, I know a few wealthy self-made individuals who are where I want to be in life; but I noticed a disturbing similarity among them, their relationship with their wives are not exactly great. Any thoughts on this?

 

[H. Palmer]

Well, something has to give.

By far most relationships are not designed to make a ton of money and be a happy couple at the same time. Think of the long hours, the differences in priorities, the time you spend with the children and with the in-laws, etc.

The only exceptions are the couples who are in business together. Just think of the Kiyosaki's. They set goals together, get rich together.

But of course, these are the exception to the norm. They demonstrate what is possible in principle. But in my experience most wives are totally unfit for a man who does business at a high level. What they want is comfort and that means the man provides and is around most of the time and does family stuff. Perhaps in theory they would want a pentamillionaire, but they don't want the life and the personality that comes with it.

 

[kahem89]

Just for the sake of it, I would like to add that I know allot of relationships that aren't going that well because of LACK of Wealth. I would also like to believe there are millionaires or even billionaires who lives in great relationships. But I do think you nead a partner that respects / are comfortable with what you do. So no reason to not share your :heartbeat::heartbeat::heartbeat::heartbeat:

 

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[911Carrera]

Lol at all the comments about the guy's wife divorcing him and holding it against him. You guys are sad. The divorce rate is something like 50%. Not dedicating yourself to being rich and spending most of your time with your wife and is not guaranteed to save your marriage. As a matter of fact, she might get BORED of you have to look elsewhere for something different.

There are lots of beautiful women out there. If a rich guy is lonely, it's most likely due to lack of game. I know more regular divorced people than I know married ones.

 

[Pete799p]

911carrera: Agreed I know upper middle class successful people who have been divorced 3 times+ its just the way things are these days.

I would like to purchase this book for his insight into building the "dream team" but cannot justify the cost yet. Are there any other similar resources out there like this.

 

[Michael W.]

Lol at all the comments about the guy's wife divorcing him and holding it against him. You guys are sad. The divorce rate is something like 50%. Not dedicating yourself to being rich and spending most of your time with your wife and is not guaranteed to save your marriage. As a matter of fact, she might get BORED of you have to look elsewhere for something different.

There are lots of beautiful women out there. If a rich guy is lonely, it's most likely due to lack of game. I know more regular divorced people than I know married ones.

LOL! Exactly what I was thinking. Lots of beta males in here apparently.

 

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[77startup]

I personally admired the guys work ethic. I think the relationship sacrifice is pretty necessarily to become successful. I love people, but I spend most of my time working on my business alone.

 

[lleone]

911Carrera is on the money. For some reason people seem to want to make hugh generalizations about becoming wealthy. It's the same old stereotypes and sayings. What it really amounts to is a lot of excuses.

You know the myths:
1. Money is the root of all evil
2. If you have money you will have to sacrifice your relationships with your family, kids, etc.
3. Money is dirty
and so on....

Money has nothing to do with your happiness, relationships or ethics. Money is the result of a process that in most cases will generate value. I know wealthy people who are happy and some who are miserable. Those that are nice and those that are assholes. You will find all types and can learn from them all good or bad. Don't use these stereotypes as an excuse as to why you aren't or don't want to be rich. You're just fooling yourself.

 

[458]

911Carrera is on the money. For some reason people seem to want to make hugh generalizations about becoming wealthy. It's the same old stereotypes and sayings. What it really amounts to is a lot of excuses.

You know the myths:
1. Money is the root of all evil
2. If you have money you will have to sacrifice your relationships with your family, kids, etc.
3. Money is dirty
and so on....

Money has nothing to do with your happiness, relationships or ethics. Money is the result of a process that in most cases will generate value. I know wealthy people who are happy and some who are miserable. Those that are nice and those that are assholes. You will find all types and can learn from them all good or bad. Don't use these stereotypes as an excuse as to why you aren't or don't want to be rich. You're just fooling yourself.

Whose generalizing? Did you read the first 1500 words of chapter 17? nope

Do you have almost a billion dollars in assets? nope

 

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[CyrusVirus]

It's every man for himself huh, I have friends who allow themselves to be held back by their girlfriends and wives. There's a part in Dan's book where he advised those planning on making the quantum leap dream to reconsider their relationship with their spouses on whether they will contribute or hold them down. Some filed for divorce after the seminar. Fair sacrifice.

Better growth vs comfort.

About the topic of beta males, this discussion alone can take up a whole new thread. Guys these days are... let's just say lads with a seemingly lost cause.

 

[HenryDicks]

I think everyone should read the beginning of chapter 17 from "how to get rich" by Felix Dennis. It really lays down the truth about the bad side of getting rich and what MJ talks about a lot.

That chapter is exceptional. It reminds me of something Steve Blank said in one of his talks, I'm paraphrasing from memory: "Take a bunch of normal people and tell them that 90% of them are gonna fail and most of them will quit right there. Now take a bunch of entrepreneurs and tell them that 90% of them are gonna fail and they look to each other and say 'Oh, I really feel sorry for you guys'".

You have to be somewhat crazy to pursue extreme wealth, imho. It's rarely any useful and comes at great costs of time and discipline, especially at youth, when time might be considered most valuable.

It's not an extremely rational decision, it just has to be something you love doing and in that case, it's probably worth it and others have to deal with it. I don't see a world class violinist going "Hey it's great and stuff, but my husband left me because I was practicing all day, so maybe I should've done something else".

 

[lleone]

I'll withhold judgement until I actually read the book, but just curious since the book has been out for over 3+ years, has anyone so in love with this guy ever used his techniques or is this just about the attitude the guy has?



P.S. He has a recession sale going on so the book's only $200 for those complaining about price.

 

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[superleggera]

What this guy preaches can be summed up into two words: Leveraged Buyout.

I'm a fan, admittedly.

 

[458]

Here you go.

Keep in mind that "rich" is defined in the book as 150 - 200 million in assets or 30-70 million in cash.

Wise words of Felix Dennis ch 17 of How To Get Rich:

"So what is your fortress? It is your inner core, your integrity, your belief in the worth of others and the love of those dear to you. Not to mention your own worth. It arises from belief in yourself. And, for a few, from belief in their own destiny.

Excessive idolatry of money will "take" all those. It will corrode both self-belief and love. It will stretch integrity on the rack. It will "take" the fortress; and it will not be a pretty sight.

Seeking substantial wealth is almost always a fool's game. The statistics show that very few people ever succeed. Most of them should never have made the attempt in the first place. They aren't suited to it, and if that sounds defeatist, then consider the fact that the search will take up a great deal of your waking life for many, many years.

You cannot get rich without "wasting" that time. Not unless you were born lucky-so lucky that luck has squatted on your shoulder virtually from birth. You would not need to get rich, then. You would already be rich, in one way or another.

Time is finite. Which is a fancy way of saying that you only have so much of it-then it will run out. When you are young, time seems to stretch into the distance for so far that surely it will always be on your side? When the young catch the old unawares, they may sometimes glimpse a look of naked envy, which is then instantly disguised.

And the old have reason to be envious. Truly, truly, they do.

Ask me what I will give you if you could wave a magic wand and give me my youth back. The answer would be everything I own and everything I will ever own. In the Odyssey we read:

And Achilles replied, "Do not speak soothingly to me of death glorious Odysseus. I would rather live on earth as a bondsman to the meanest peasant, than be king of all the shadows."

Homer, as always, is right.

If you are young and reading this then I ask you to remember just this: you are richer than anyone older than you, and far richer than those who are much older than you. But do not say you started the journey poor. If you are young you are infinitely richer than I can ever be again.

 

[458]

*continued*

Money is never owned. It is only in your custody for a while. Time is always running on, and the young have more of it in their pocket than the richest man or women alive. That is not sentimentality speaking. That is sober fact.

And yet you wish to waste your youth in the getting of money? Really? Think hard, my young cub, think hard and think long before you embark on such a quest. The time spend attempting to acquire wealth will mount up and cannot be reclaimed, whether you succeed or whether you fail.

Even should you succeed in becoming rich, unlikely as that is, what will you have achieved? Independence of a kind? The luxury to choose what you wish to do with the rest of your life? Happiness? No, no and no. You will not achieve any of those things. Not when you have too much money."

 

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[911Carrera]

Here you go.

Keep in mind that "rich" is defined in the book as 150 - 200 million in assets or 30-70 million in cash.

Wise words of Felix Dennis ch 17 of How To Get Rich:

"So what is your fortress? It is your inner core, your integrity, your belief in the worth of others and the love of those dear to you. Not to mention your own worth. It arises from belief in yourself. And, for a few, from belief in their own destiny.

Excessive idolatry of money will "take" all those. It will corrode both self-belief and love. It will stretch integrity on the rack. It will "take" the fortress; and it will not be a pretty sight.

Seeking substantial wealth is almost always a fool's game. The statistics show that very few people ever succeed. Most of them should never have made the attempt in the first place. They aren't suited to it, and if that sounds defeatist, then consider the fact that the search will take up a great deal of your waking life for many, many years.

You cannot get rich without "wasting" that time. Not unless you were born lucky-so lucky that luck has squatted on your shoulder virtually from birth. You would not need to get rich, then. You would already be rich, in one way or another.

Time is finite. Which is a fancy way of saying that you only have so much of it-then it will run out. When you are young, time seems to stretch into the distance for so far that surely it will always be on your side? When the young catch the old unawares, they may sometimes glimpse a look of naked envy, which is then instantly disguised.

And the old have reason to be envious. Truly, truly, they do.

Ask me what I will give you if you could wave a magic wand and give me my youth back. The answer would be everything I own and everything I will ever own. In the Odyssey we read:

And Achilles replied, "Do not speak soothingly to me of death glorious Odysseus. I would rather live on earth as a bondsman to the meanest peasant, than be king of all the shadows."

Homer, as always, is right.

If you are young and reading this then I ask you to remember just this: you are richer than anyone older than you, and far richer than those who are much older than you. But do not say you started the journey poor. If you are young you are infinitely richer than I can ever be again.

*continued*

Money is never owned. It is only in your custody for a while. Time is always running on, and the young have more of it in their pocket than the richest man or women alive. That is not sentimentality speaking. That is sober fact.

And yet you wish to waste your youth in the getting of money? Really? Think hard, my young cub, think hard and think long before you embark on such a quest. The time spend attempting to acquire wealth will mount up and cannot be reclaimed, whether you succeed or whether you fail.

Even should you succeed in becoming rich, unlikely as that is, what will you have achieved? Independence of a kind? The luxury to choose what you wish to do with the rest of your life? Happiness? No, no and no. You will not achieve any of those things. Not when you have too much money."

This takes the cake for the weakest shit I've read this year. Pessimistic crap, even weaker analogy. Thanks for posting, now I know to stay away from anything this Felix guy writes..

 

[458]

This takes the cake for the weakest shit I've read this year. Pessimistic crap, even weaker analogy. Thanks for posting, now I know to stay away from anything this Felix guy writes..

LOLOLOL

"this Felix guy" is my favorite part.

Maybe you should google Felix Dennis sir.

"For Dennis, a crucial observation was the emergence of personal computers. He set up Personal Computer World which he later sold to VNU, and MacUser which he sold to Ziff Davis Publishing in the mid-eighties. He also co-founded MicroWarehouse, a $2 billion computer mail order company which eventually went public on the NASDAQ and formed the bulk of his personal wealth.

In 2001, following a second life-threatening illness, Dennis took up poetry. Within a year, he wrote his first book of verse A Glass Half Full, published by Hutchinson in the UK. The launch of this book was accompanied by the first of Dennis's UK-wide poetry reading tours entitled “Did I Mention the Free Wine?†Audiences are offered fine French wine from Dennis’s cellar whilst watching Dennis perform his poetry on stage.

Within seven years, he has become one of the biggest selling poets of original verse in recent times, and his poetry has been featured on radio interviews, in the national press and the subject of two major television documentaries.

Dennis remains the owner of Dennis Publishing, a privately owned company with headquarters in both London and New York City. It has over 50 magazine titles, digital magazines, websites and mobile sites in the UK including The Week, Monkey, Auto Express, PC Pro and Viz. Its flagship brand The Week is also published in the US and Australia"

-wiki page

He also started Maxim and sold that a few years ago for 250 million.

 

[911Carrera]

LOLOLOL

"this Felix guy" is my favorite part.

Maybe you should google Felix Dennis sir.

"For Dennis, a crucial observation was the emergence of personal computers. He set up Personal Computer World which he later sold to VNU, and MacUser which he sold to Ziff Davis Publishing in the mid-eighties. He also co-founded MicroWarehouse, a $2 billion computer mail order company which eventually went public on the NASDAQ and formed the bulk of his personal wealth.

In 2001, following a second life-threatening illness, Dennis took up poetry. Within a year, he wrote his first book of verse A Glass Half Full, published by Hutchinson in the UK. The launch of this book was accompanied by the first of Dennis's UK-wide poetry reading tours entitled “Did I Mention the Free Wine?” Audiences are offered fine French wine from Dennis’s cellar whilst watching Dennis perform his poetry on stage.

Within seven years, he has become one of the biggest selling poets of original verse in recent times, and his poetry has been featured on radio interviews, in the national press and the subject of two major television documentaries.

Dennis remains the owner of Dennis Publishing, a privately owned company with headquarters in both London and New York City. It has over 50 magazine titles, digital magazines, websites and mobile sites in the UK including The Week, Monkey, Auto Express, PC Pro and Viz. Its flagship brand The Week is also published in the US and Australia"

-wiki page

He also started Maxim and sold that a few years ago for 250 million.

That doesn't change my opinion about those paragraphs of his. I will make sure to stay away from anything he writes like I said before. There are enough enough successful people to learn from that I can relate to better than this Felix guy. Just because a guy made millions doesn't mean everything he says is automatically right/correct. From those paragraphs you posted, he sounds like an out of touch old man.

Yeah, don't waste your youth trying to gain financial freedom while you can afford to take more risks, waste it in a safe 9-5 being a drone instead. Don't even attempt to get rich because the odds are against you.. You need $150 mil+ in assets to be considered rich, lol. Great logic..(sarcasm)

 

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[458]

That doesn't change my opinion about those paragraphs of his. I will make sure to stay away from anything he writes like I said before. There are enough enough successful people to learn from that I can relate to better than this Felix guy. Just because a guy made millions doesn't mean everything he says is automatically right/correct. From those paragraphs you posted, he sounds like an out of touch old man.

Yeah, don't waste your youth trying to gain financial freedom while you can afford to take more risks, waste it in a safe 9-5 being a drone instead. Don't even attempt to get rich because the odds are against you.. You need $150 mil+ in assets to be considered rich, lol. Great logic..(sarcasm)

Your comments are immature, especially about having no game causing the rich to be lonely. You honestly think its that easy to find a women that isnt there simply because of the money? Do you know how hard it is the find a woman you can trust when you have money? Im actually younger then you and find your childish talk quite sad honestly.

 

[911Carrera]

Your comments are immature, especially about having no game causing the rich to be lonely. You honestly think its that easy to find a women that isnt there simply because of the money? Do you know how hard it is the find a woman you can trust when you have money? Im actually younger then you and find your childish talk quite sad honestly.

Just like I suspected, you lack game. It isn't any easier to get a woman you can trust being an average Joe. Good thing you're still young, you can improve your game before it's too late.

 

[458]

Just like I suspected, you lack game. It isn't any easier to get a woman you can trust being an average Joe. Good thing you're still young, you can improve your game before it's too late.

Once again with the immature comments. Your only making yourself look worse but go right ahead. Your trying to convince us that you understand the words that i wrote out by Felix yet that would be like trying to understand someone that has cancer. You cant. You dont have cancer and you probably dont have much money. No one is advocating not going after money, im just advocating that its all about balance. You must have money and relationships in balance and when they are not, bad things happen.

 

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[HenryDicks]

Yeah, don't waste your youth trying to gain financial freedom while you can afford to take more risks, waste it in a safe 9-5 being a drone instead. Don't even attempt to get rich because the odds are against you.. You need $150 mil+ in assets to be considered rich, lol. Great logic..(sarcasm)

Nobody is proposing you spend your life in a 9-5 job, the book isn't about "Should I make two million and retire at 30 or not".
The definition of being rich might sound a bit strange, but as this thread is about wealth >$100M, Dennis' approach seems kinda relevant here. Once you've amassed a few million bucks, what's getting ten million more gonna do for you? Or hundred? Ultra-Wealth as a goal seems to have questionable value and Dennis ends up making a bunch of rational arguments against it.

 

[lleone]

I've read the book and it's actually very good. Especially read the chapter on ownership and how important it is. He's a pretty no nonsense guy and tries to tell the good and the bad about getting to where he is. He is giving specific advice and commentary based on his own experiences. I don't think he's just saying it to say it.

Since he is a fan of poetry, here's one for you...."I am not young enough to know everything"

 

[77startup]

Your comments are immature, especially about having no game causing the rich to be lonely. You honestly think its that easy to find a women that isnt there simply because of the money? Do you know how hard it is the find a woman you can trust when you have money? Im actually younger then you and find your childish talk quite sad honestly.

In his defense do you know how hard it is to find a woman you can trust at all =)

 

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[458]

In his defense do you know how hard it is to find a woman you can trust at all =)

lol. Yup... It is true.

This reminds me of the film Eddy Murphy did back in the day when he went to america to fake being poor so he could find a woman.

 

[lleone]

lol. Yup... It is true.

This reminds me of the film Eddy Murphy did back in the day when he went to america to fake being poor so he could find a woman.

It was called "Coming to America"....although I liked "Trading Places" better.