The Ten Roads to Riches

1. Wealth Creation Benefits Society and Opportunity Still Exists

When you get rich in an appropriate way, you make the world a better place.

Wealth benefits society. The author argues that becoming rich, when done ethically, creates value not just for the individual but for society as a whole. Building a business employs people, creating better lives for them and their families. Creating new products or services can improve public health, education, or culture.

Opportunity persists. Despite popular narratives about rising inequality and declining social mobility, the author contends that the opportunity to get rich is just as real today as it was decades ago. Studies tracking actual people show income increases as individuals progress through their careers.

• Real median household income figures often ignore crucial factors like age, household size, and the number of earners.
• Intergenerational mobility remains comparable to levels seen 20 or 50 years ago.

Turnover among the rich. The Forbes 400 list sees significant turnover, with many self-made individuals replacing those who drop off. This demonstrates that wealth is not static or solely inherited, but actively created by new entrants.

• Fully 266 of the 2016 Forbes 400 were self-made.
• 157 people from the 2007 list had dropped off by 2016.

2. Founding Your Own Firm is the Richest Road, But Demands Grit

Founders are quitters—just do it.

Highest wealth potential. Starting a successful business is presented as the road with the greatest potential for generating massive wealth. Many of the world's richest individuals, like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, built their fortunes this way. Success is possible across industries, regardless of education or background.

Requires specific traits. This path is not for the faint-hearted, demanding courage, discipline, strategic vision, and the ability to lead and delegate. Successful founders are great at their core business, sales, marketing, and building a strong company culture.

• You must be able to change some part of the world, either by creating something new or improving something existing.
• Scalability is key – start small but envision massive growth potential.

Build to sell or last. Decide early if you want to build a business to sell for a significant payout or to create a lasting legacy. Building to sell is often easier and can yield millions, while building to last requires creating an enduring culture and often leads to mega-wealth over generations. Regardless of your goal, you must be tough, as success attracts attacks and lawsuits.

3. Becoming CEO Offers High Rewards and Requires True Leadership

The single most important CEO trait is leadership.

High pay, high risk. While not always reaching the billionaire status of founders, becoming CEO of an existing firm offers substantial financial rewards, with many making millions annually. However, it comes with immense pressure and career risk; failures are often blamed squarely on the CEO.

Leadership is key. Effective leadership is paramount and can be learned, even if not innate. The author emphasizes "leading from the front," being present, caring about employees at all levels, and being willing to make tough decisions.

• Show up early and leave late.
• Spend time with employees at every level, from managers to line workers.
• Don't ask employees to take risks you wouldn't take yourself.

Paths to the top. There are several ways to become a non-founder CEO: rising through the ranks (ride-along), buying a small firm and growing it, being tapped from a VC or consulting background, or getting recruited. The recruitment path, while potentially lucrative, can sometimes prioritize interviewing skills over actual leadership ability. Negotiating your compensation and exit package upfront is crucial given the career risk.

4. Riding Along Provides Significant Wealth Without the Top Pressure

Ride-alongs don’t score the most points, but they’re usually team MVP.

Wealth without the bullseye. This road allows individuals to achieve significant wealth and influence by hitching their wagon to a successful visionary or firm, without bearing the ultimate responsibility and public scrutiny faced by a CEO. Ride-alongs play critical roles and are highly respected within the organization.

Loyalty and flexibility. Successful ride-alongs are fiercely loyal, trustworthy, and willing to take on diverse roles ("will do" attitude vs. "can do"). They provide honest feedback to the leader, even if it means disagreeing, but always from a place of loyalty to the firm's vision.

• Find the right leader and firm – someone with vision you believe in.
• Stick with the firm long-term to build trust and demonstrate loyalty.
• Be willing to stretch beyond your comfort zone and take on any task needed for the firm's success.

Less public scrutiny. While not immune to the firm's challenges, ride-alongs are less likely to be the primary target of media attacks or lawsuits compared to the CEO. This can lead to a better lifestyle and more privacy, even while accumulating substantial wealth. Many ride-alongs make millions, and some, like Charlie Munger or Jeffrey Skoll, even reach billionaire status.

5. OPM (Other People's Money) is the Most Common Path to Mega-Riches

OPM is the commonest road for the ultrawealthy.

Most billionaires here. The financial industry, dealing with Other People's Money (OPM), is the most frequent source of mega-wealth among the Forbes 400. This includes money management, private equity, brokerage, banking, and insurance. Entry can be relatively easy, often prioritizing sales skills early on.

Fee-based is most valuable. While commission-based models (brokerage, insurance) can generate large revenues, fee-based models (money management, hedge funds) are generally valued much higher by the market relative to their sales.

• Fee-based firms (like mutual funds) are valued at 2-5x sales.
• Commission-based firms (like brokers) are often valued under 2x sales.
• Hedge funds and private equity use a "2 and 20" fee model (2% of assets + 20% of gains), offering huge upside for successful bets.

Key to success. Beyond sales and financial knowledge, success requires getting clients, keeping clients (through performance and service), and adhering strictly to ethical and legal standards.

• Learn to sell first, then deepen financial knowledge later.
• Focus on setting realistic client expectations and consistently exceeding them.
• Never, ever break the law; financial fraud leads to ruin, regardless of initial gains.

6. Legal Piracy (Plaintiffs' Law) Offers Huge Payouts, If You Can Stomach It

Most plaintiffs’ law is a perfectly legal twist on thievery and thuggery.

Legal stealing. This road involves becoming a plaintiffs' lawyer (PL), using the civil justice system to extract large settlements or verdicts, often framed as fighting for the little guy against big business. The author cynically views this primarily as legal extortion rather than genuine crusading.

How it works. PLs typically work on contingency, taking a large percentage (20-40%) of any payout. Success often hinges on finding sympathetic clients (sick kids, workers) and villainous-looking corporate targets (big pharma, tobacco, big business).

• Focus on confusing, murky legal areas or complex technical subjects that juries won't fully understand.
• Use media attention to damage the defendant's reputation and pressure them to settle.
• Exploit the fact that defense costs often exceed potential settlement amounts, making it cheaper for defendants to pay you to go away.

High rewards, low risk (for the PL). While defendants face massive costs and reputational damage, PLs have minimal costs and little to lose if they don't win. Even egregious errors by the PL rarely result in significant penalties against them. However, breaking the law, as seen with the Milberg Weiss partners, leads to prison time, even if they retain much of their wealth.

7. Inventing Income Means Monetizing Creations for Future Cash Flow

Here you make an annuity-like future cash flow from something you create, own, or patent that just keeps spewing cash.

Create enduring value. This road is about creating something – a gadget, song, book, movie, or even a marketing concept – and securing the rights to generate a continuous stream of income from its future use or sale. It's less about the initial creation and more about the ongoing monetization.

Monetization is key. True income inventors, like George Lucas (Star Wars merchandising) or JK Rowling (Harry Potter books, movies, theme parks, merchandise), figure out how to license and sell their creations repeatedly across different platforms.

• Songwriters earn royalties every time their song is played or used, often making more than the performers.
• Authors can earn significant income from movie/TV rights and merchandising, far exceeding book royalties.
• Ron Popeil invented the infomercial format itself, monetizing a marketing channel.

Politics as invented income. The author controversially includes politicians here, arguing they create a lifetime income stream (pensions, speaking fees, consulting) without necessarily contributing to GDP. This path requires getting elected, which the author cynically suggests involves mastering the art of telling people what they want to hear. Regardless of the source, the key is securing rights and finding ways to keep the cash flowing.

8. Trumpting the Land Barons Requires Leverage and Monetizing Space

Learn to love leverage. It super juices return.

Leverage is essential. Becoming a wealthy land baron is fundamentally about using debt (leverage) to amplify returns on real estate investments. While real estate appreciation alone may be modest, borrowing heavily on a property means a small price increase yields a massive return on your initial cash investment.

Monetize empty space. The core strategy is to buy properties that are undervalued, often due to vacancies or neglect, and increase their value by filling them with tenants or improving them. You create value by turning unused or underutilized space into a revenue-generating asset.

• Start small with properties like duplexes or small apartment buildings.
• Use the cash flow from filled units to finance the purchase and improvement of larger properties.
• Convince outside investors to fund down payments in exchange for a share of the profits, using a compelling pro forma (financial plan).

Avoid flipping. Land barons build wealth by holding and managing properties for long-term cash flow and appreciation, not by quickly buying and selling. Transaction costs and taxes make flipping a losing strategy in the long run.

Location and codes matter. Choose economically vibrant areas with low taxes and business-friendly environments, as these attract jobs and people (tenants). Understand local building codes and zoning regulations thoroughly, as they can significantly impact your ability to develop or monetize property.

9. Marrying Well is a Legitimate, Strategic Road to Wealth

Marrying rich is marvelous, but you must make sure it’s someone you will be good to and who will be good to you.

A viable path. Marrying someone wealthy is presented as a legitimate, albeit often stigmatized, road to riches. While love is paramount, the author suggests there's nothing wrong with seeking love among those who are financially well-off.

Strategy is key. Success requires a strategic approach, similar to other wealth-building endeavors.

• Location: Go where the wealthy congregate (states with high concentrations of rich individuals, specific cities, certain social/political events, investment seminars).
• Age: Be open to marrying someone older, as wealth accumulation often takes time.
• Legal Protection: Secure a prenuptial agreement, especially in common law states, to protect your interests in case of divorce. Community property states (where assets acquired during marriage are split 50/50) can be more favorable for the less wealthy spouse.

Know your worth. Demand a fair return for your time and affection in the prenup, learning from examples of high-profile divorces. While divorce is never the goal, it's a reality, and being prepared is crucial.

It works for men too. While the stereotype is a woman marrying a rich man, many men also marry wealthy women. The principles of location, strategy, and legal protection apply equally. Ultimately, finding someone you can love and respect who also happens to be wealthy is the ideal scenario.

10. The Road More Traveled: Save Diligently, Invest Wisely

The least sensational, but most reliable, road to riches is saving linked to good investment returns.

Accessible to all. This is the most common and predictable path to becoming a multimillionaire, achievable by anyone with a paycheck and discipline. It requires consistent saving and investing over a long period, leveraging the power of compound interest.

Earn more, save more. While frugality is essential, earning a higher income allows for greater savings potential. Choose a career in a relevant, well-paying field and continuously work to increase your earning power through skill development and self-promotion.

• Use resources like "What Color Is Your Parachute?" to find a fulfilling and well-paying career.
• Treat job hunting as a sales pitch and continuously network and sell yourself within your firm.

Discipline in saving. Calculate how much you need for retirement based on desired income and life expectancy. Then, determine how much you must save annually to reach that goal, assuming a reasonable investment return.

• Aim to save a significant portion of your income, leveraging tax-advantaged accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs.
• Even modest annual savings can grow substantially over decades due to compounding.

Invest wisely. Focus on getting "OK, but not phenomenal" investment returns. The stock market, despite volatility, offers the best long-term growth potential. A diversified portfolio and a long-term perspective are key.

• Understand that average returns are not typical year-to-year; extreme returns are common.
• To ensure your portfolio lasts, limit annual withdrawals to around 4% of the total value.

11. Rich and Famous: Mogul is More Reliable Than Talent

Most rich folks aren’t famous.

Fame vs. Fortune. While many dream of being both rich and famous, the author notes that most truly wealthy individuals are not famous. The "Rich and Famous" road has two distinct forks: Talent (actors, athletes, musicians) and Media Mogul.

Talent is high risk. Becoming a wealthy talent requires starting very young, immense dedication, and faces incredibly low odds of success. Even those who achieve stardom often have short careers, struggle with self-destructive lifestyles, and may not accumulate as much wealth as commonly perceived due to high expenses and poor financial management.

• Odds of going pro in sports or making a living as an actor are statistically very low.
• Many talents earn high incomes but fail to build lasting wealth.

Mogul is more reliable. Becoming a media mogul (owning studios, networks, labels, etc.) is presented as a more attainable and reliable path to wealth and celebrity. It requires business savvy, strategic acquisition, and diversification across media platforms.

• Moguls like Rupert Murdoch or Michael Bloomberg build empires that generate long-term wealth.
• Diversification is crucial, as concentrating in one area (like newspapers) can lead to decline.
• Hip-hop moguls like Jay-Z and Dr. Dre demonstrate success through diversified media empires (music, clothing, endorsements, tech).

Last updated: June 13, 2025