Wealth Secret of the 1%

Sam Wilkin

2015

The Truth About Money, Markets and Multi-Millionaires

Chapter 2 - Ancient Romans – Crassus

In a free market, the way to the riches is not to play by the rules.

Chapter 3 - The Robber Barons

Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt all took advantage of a lack of regulation to forcefully build monopolies and extract extraordinarily high profits from them. They also often used manipulation and conflict-of-interest schemes to seize the initial capital required to build their monopolistic empires.

Chapter 4 - Today's 1%

Always be mindful of hidden issues if someone keeps raising a point or being silenced (directly or indirectly)

Chapter 5 - Dhirubhai's Reliance

Governmental impediments can be an excellent way to attain and maintain monopolistic power past the initial barrier. Any kind of barrier to entry is helpful to monopoly and scale.

Chapter 6 - Bill Gates's Microsoft

Bill Gates's genius was in successfully creating property rights for software and setting the standard on their legal enforcement.

His goal was not to create perfect products; he would focus on fast releases of 'common denominator' products to capitalise on networks effects and quickly reach a natural monopoly.

Because this monopoly is natural and enshrined in US and EU constitution via property rights, it is practically untouchable.

In this kind of markets, actors do not compete inside the market, but for the market as a whole.

Bill Gates was really really practical: 'How to make a buck?'.

Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures, 'non-practicing entities', wages a pure intellectual property war.

Chapter 7 - Seven Secrets of Spectacularly Rich People

• Don't be the best. Be the only.
• Bigger is still better.
• The worst place to do business is really the best.
• When lenders can't lose, you win.
• You've got to own it, baby, own it.
• Spin laws into gold.
• If you want to succeed in business, network, network, network.