How to Become Wealthy

Because of inflation and the constantly growing average standard of living, wealth cannot be reliably and permanently defined in dollar terms or in terms of the number of cars, houses, size of houses, the number of refrigerators, and other assets. There are only two enduring characteristics of being wealthy: {1} relativity, that is, owning hundreds of times more stuff or money than average people do, regardless of what this average value is, and {2} exclusivity, i.e., being a part of a tiny fraction of the population (for example, the top 0.02%).

This text explains why wealth requires luck and why the only way to get rich is to get lucky. Because luck is beyond anyone's control, 99.98% of people won't become wealthy no matter how hard they try. For example, a moderate and limited correlation exists between IQ and income, but there is no correlation between IQ and net worth. These data suggest that wealth is either a result of pure luck or has to do with mental abilities unrelated to IQ (for instance, an entrepreneurial talent). The latter explanation also involves luck because a person can neither learn nor earn a talent. The correlation between hard work and income is weak and limited. Higher net worth correlates with fewer hours worked per year.

For this reason, it's a bad idea to prepay for advice on how to get rich because this kind of advice is always useless. If you knew how to make a million dollars easily and quickly, would you let somebody else have this pile of money in exchange for 20 bucks? Careful analysis shows that for someone who has an excellent business idea, it is much more profitable to hire you as an employee than to sell you the info on how to start the biz. Therefore, it's unwise to pay in advance for the information on how to start a successful business. The text also discusses several other disadvantageous ways to invest your money. In addition, this ebook discusses some low-risk approaches to starting a business and to building wealth, but this information does not guarantee anything thanks to Lady Luck.