Wealth Made Easy: Millionaires and Billionaires Help You Crack the Code to Getting Rich

by Greg Reid, Gary Krebs

Overview

For far too many of us, amassing wealth seems like a pipe dream. We assume that to become a "high net worth" individual—someone who has over $1 million in liquid assets—we'd need some mysterious combination of genius and luck.

But what if we could solve this mystery?

Long gone are the days when captains of industry like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie dominated the economic arena. Today, the world's richest individuals are a diverse group of idea-generators who maintain a lower profile, keeping their successes—and their strategies—hidden from the public eye.

What if you could speed-dial these entrepreneurs, inventors, investors, and industry pioneers and personally ask each of them to tell you the one gold nugget that made them so wealthy? 

Bestselling author Greg Reid did just that, traveling around the globe to meet with many of the world's most elusive, under-the-radar billionaires to crack the code of prosperity. At long last, you will have access to the wisdom of the world's wealthiest people—from entertainment pioneers to real estate tycoons—as they reveal how they built their wealth, held onto it, and continue to thrive in an ever-changing economy. 

Wealth Made Easy is filled with eye-opening, real-world strategies, tips, and stories that will forever redefine the way you gauge your own success … and set you on the path toward your wildest dreams. Inside, discover exclusive, personal advice from those living at the top tier of wealth, including: 

   • Dan Fleyshman, the youngest founder of a publicly traded company
   • Wayne Henuset, co-owner, chairman, and president of Energy Alberta Corporation and president of Willow Park Wines & Spirits 
   • Jules Haimovitz, entertainment executive best known for having created the Showtime, Lifetime, Sundance, and Smithsonian cable channels
   • Ron Klein, inventor of the magnetic strip on the credit card
   • Dr. Gene N. Landrum, founder of the Chuck E. Cheese concept of family entertainment
   • Tonino Lamborghini, founder of the Tonino Lamborghini Company and son of Ferruccio Lamborghini—creator of the world famous Lamborghini sports cars—and heir to the Lamborghini fortune 
   • Walter O'Brien, executive producer and writer for the ScorpionTV series
   • Brian Sidorsky, founder and CEO of Landsdowne Equity Ventures, a highly profitable family-owned real-estate business

And many more. 

In the tradition of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, Wealth Made Easy offers incisive, actionable advice with every flip of the page. Supplemented with useful sidebars and inspirational quotes, this book is your step-by-step guide to achieving everlasting abundance—directly from the minds of those who have already accomplished this feat.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948836180
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	04/09/2019
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	206
File size:	461 KB

About the Author

Greg S. Reid is an action-taking phenomenon; his strategies generate fast results, and relationships are deep and rich in the space he orbits. Published, coauthored, and featured in more than 50 books, 28 bestsellers in 45 countries, five motion pictures, and featured in countless magazines, Greg demonstrates that the most valuable lessons we learn are also the easiest ones to apply. Recently, Greg has been hand selected by The Napoleon Hill Foundation to help carry on the teaching found in the bible of personal achievement: Think and Grow Rich.

Gary M. Krebs, founder of GMK Writing and Editing, Inc., is a writer, literary agent, and longtime business book publisher. He is coauthor of Stephan Schiffman's Creating Sales Stars, and he recently completed his novel Little Miss of Darke County: The Secret Origins of Annie Oakley. He lives in suburban CT.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Wealth Hack #1

* * *

Buy dirt.

Time + Dirt = Wealth.

Canadian land mogul Brian Sidorsky shares a concept so powerful and easy to understand that it challenges your imagination.

When asked how he amassed a huge fortune in raw, undeveloped land, he sat back in his chair and grinned.

"Time plus dirt is wealth!" he exclaimed.

Sidorsky clarifies his concept as follows: "Find a town, anywhere in North America that is growing 20 to 25 percent a year. Pinpoint their 'Main Street' and draw a line out eight miles from that location and buy that land. That is the 'dirt.' Rent the soil to local farmers who will pay the rent that covers the costs so it's free — not to mention, you get great vegetables. As the town continues to expand, eventually it ends up on your property where you own the largest lot and, since you are already near Main Street, you can then sell that land to a big box store for one hundred times what you paid for it."

Boom!

The major fortunes in America have been made in land.

— John D. Rockefeller, oil magnate and industrialist

CHAPTER 2

Wealth Hack #2

* * *

Create a product, good, or service that people will happily spend all of their savings to obtain.

People don't save up all their money to buy things like scented candles or picture frames. However, they will save their entire fortunes to buy a Lamborghini luxury vehicle.

Leveraging his family's world-renowned brand name, Tonino Lamborghini opened up nightclubs and world-class resorts with the concept that people will eagerly spend their hard-earned cash to have the best experience of their lives.

You wouldn't spend a thousand dollars to stay in your own home, yet you would happily hand over that amount to experience the benefits of a world-class luxury hotel just once. You would automatically associate the Lamborghini brand name with luxury and be more than willing to splurge on staying at one of their resorts, knowing that your high expectations and gratification will be met.

Disney resorts also create that same level of perceived value through their branding. Customers desire the experience so much that they are eagerly willing to save up their hard-earned paychecks to vacation there.

Go over the top with what you offer to your customers like Lamborghini, Disney, and even certain universities, such as Harvard. If you can create a luxury "Lamborghini" product, good, or service in your industry, you will have discovered the secret to sustained abundance.

I don't design clothes, I design dreams.

— Ralph Lauren, fashion designer

CHAPTER 3

Wealth Hack #3

Info-sponge — bring ideas from outside your industry into your business.

A browning banana = An empty airplane seat = $$.

Say what?

Billionaire Jeff Hoffman watches trends and connects unrelated puzzle pieces over time that suddenly fit together as if they were always meant to be. He matches things like a browning banana with an empty airplane seat and makes a fortune.

Jeff refers to this as "info-sponging." You can find him in front of a newsstand perusing trade magazines covering other industries for ideas that he can adapt for his own business.

During one of these ten-minute sessions, Jeff found an article on how to handle distressed inventory.

Now, if you're in the business of manufacturing, selling, and warehousing products, distressed inventory is the bane of your existence. It means no one purchased what you had to sell, and the product is likely to be wasting away (i.e., browning bananas). Distressed inventory never returns once it's lost.

Years ago, supermarket chains either tossed their distressed inventory or donated it to food banks. Entrepreneurs saw dollar signs and created "salvage grocery stores" to buy these damaged items cheaply and then resell them right away before the clock ran out. It's win-win all around.

Jeff had a lightning flash: What if he were to create a virtual salvage grocery store — but for unsold airline seats?

From a financial standpoint, an unsold airplane seat is no different from that browning banana. Once the airplane takes off, the value of that seat is worthless.

Cake and Ice Cream with a Twist

There is no limit to the info-sponging concept. It can work with an endless variety of ideas that have been mixed and matched.

Here is an old one invented by confectioner Harry Burt:

Ice cream + Stick = Good Humor ice cream.

This is a newer one with the same twist:

Cake + Stick = Cake Pop (and now virtually every bakery seems to offer cake pops).

Info-sponge!

This is how Priceline.com — now a $70.5 billion business — was conceived. Priceline treats unsold airline seats as if they are distressed inventory, selling them at cheaper fares as the takeoffs become imminent. It's another win-win for everyone — and, for Jeff Hoffman, ten minutes at a newsstand that were well spent.

Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way.

— Tom Freston, entertainment executive

CHAPTER 4

Wealth Hack #4

* * *

Build wealth by helping people.

Here's a fact:

Helping people = mega $$.

That's not as crazy as it sounds. Many wealthy people understand that in order to make tons of money, you have to do some good and give back.

I'm not talking about charity (although that's perfectly fine, of course). I'm referring to creating a product or service — or investing in one — that solves a problem and makes a real difference in improving people's lives.

That may sound corny. But let's take a look at rich inventor Dr. Dwight Damon.

He recognized that everyone hated braces. They hurt like hell. The wires were tight and cut into the gums. They were hard to clean. They also looked pretty terrible ("railroad tracks") while being latched onto kids' teeth right smack in the middle of puberty.

Let's face it: Braces totally sucked.

Dr. Damon didn't understand why the industry used orthodontics that applied seven hundred times more pressure on teeth than was necessary. He used his expert skills with machinery to design braces that were more comfortable, less visible, and required less wear time.

He made a fortune on helping people improve their smiles while at the same time enabling millions of kids to get through it without nearly as much pain and suffering. Since then, he's filed 20,000 patents, which have helped millions of people worldwide.

One simple tweak can truly put a smile on your face.

To do more for the world than the world does for you, that is success.

— Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

CHAPTER 5

Wealth Hack #5

* * *

Find a need and fill it.

How does C. Reed Knight, Jr., owner of Knight's Armament, make a billion dollars in weapons manufacturing?

He listens to his clients and gives them exactly what they ask for.

As Reed describes, "I asked the military, 'What is your biggest challenge?' They answered, 'We can't hit our targets at night. It's too dark and we just can't see them.'"

"'Well,' we proposed, 'what if we used the same technology as the night-vision goggles to make a scope to help the soldiers see at night?'"

Sure enough, the military tested them out and they worked — so well, in fact, that the military offered the scopes to all their divisions.

By giving the clients exactly what they wanted and solving their challenge, Knight's Armament created a product that became an essential tool that everyone needed to have.

It is so important to experience what your customers are experiencing and listen to their suggestions.

— David Neeleman, entrepreneur and founder of four major airlines, including JetBlue Airways

CHAPTER 6

Wealth Hack #6

* * *

Lead the receiver.

In the last Wealth Hack, Reed Knight, Jr., explained how listening to customers and anticipating their needs drives his business. As you'll discover here, it's possible to anticipate a major opportunity without a customer even being part of the equation. All you need to do is keep your eyes open downfield and think and react like an NFL quarterback. Hang in there with this analogy, all will be revealed ...

There's a company in Canada — Superior Lodging Corp. — that spent $72 million to build extended-stay luxury-suite resorts in a desolate, empty field.

Was CEO Marc Staniloff crazy? Why spend such an enormous amount of money to build a resort in the middle of nowhere?

The answer was found in a location near the field, where you could see a construction site filled with all kinds of bulldozers, forklifts, excavators, and dump trucks.

What was being built there? The greatest long-term health-care facility in all of Canada.

Staniloff recognized that the executives affiliated with the healthcare facility would need a place to stay — and there was nothing else around. More important, he projected even further outward and realized that, once the facility was completed, recovering patients — as well as their visiting families and friends — would also be looking for lodging.

The Mouse That Didn't Roar — At First

Any time you feel impatient about your product or service taking too long to make money, keep in mind one name: Douglas Engelbart.

Who?

Engelbart should be way up there with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in the pantheon of technogeniuses. Yet few people know his name or his major contribution to computing: the invention of the mouse.

Believe it or not, the computer mouse was first patented in 1970. Engelbart's invention — originally dubbed the "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System" but then changed to the cuter word "mouse" because Engelbart thought the wire in the back looked like a rodent's tail — was way ahead of its time, and it took decades for the technology to catch up.

The lesson? Stick by your mouse, whatever it may be — you never know when the market might suddenly be ready for it.

In football, the quarterback never throws the ball where the wide receiver is standing. He throws it downfield and allows the receiver to catch up to it.

Touchdown!

Find the need and then fill it.

— Anonymous

CHAPTER 7

Wealth Hack #7

* * *

Simplify everything.

Some of the most brilliant and most useful business inventions weren't as basic as "finding a need and filling it." It's possible to question why an accepted process takes ten or twelve steps when it could be condensed into just one and save people a lot of time and effort. Some of these solutions are "invisible in plain sight," which means it requires ingenuity and resourcefulness to capitalize on them. In other words, one must develop the ability to notice where things can be simplified.

Years ago, when people used a credit card, the cashier had to look up and verify each and every customer's number in a giant book. It used to mean scores of people had to wait hours on line in stores until this laborious task was completed. Can you imagine that happening now?

Today, you just whip out your card and it's a lightning-fast swipe in the machine. (Or, if you have a chip, you slide the card in.)

None of this would have been possible if Ron Klein hadn't simplified things and invented the reading validation system for the magnetic strip on credit cards. Klein noticed that the cashier lines in Macy's department store were way too long because of the time it took to look up all of these credit card numbers. His goal was to add value by saving steps in this ridiculous process, which no one else had the presence of mind to question.

Klein, one of the great problem-solvers, invented a device that could mimic a reel-to-reel tape machine and copy numbers onto magnetic tape. In fact, he was the first person to make "humans a machine." He did this by having the customer slide the card through a device at the right pace that would enable it to pick up the numbers and verify the account on the spot.

These inventions — the magnetic strip on the credit card and the credit card validity checking system — also shifted the onus from the stores to the credit card companies to produce cards that could be scanned. They saved a ton of time for retailers and customers, dramatically cutting down the length of the cashier lines.

Now that is simplifying a problem.

A great problem-solver is usually open to new ideas, innately curious, and good at working with others.

— Richard Branson, entrepreneur, investor, author, philanthropist, founder of the Virgin Group

CHAPTER 8

Wealth Hack #8

* * *

Combine unrelated business ideas and make them your own.

Gene Landrum did something seemingly impossible when he founded Chuck E. Cheese's. He created an entirely new business model by combining several different ideas into one chain: food, family, and amusement park–type entertainment.

Food: Kids love pizza.

Amusement park–type entertainment: Kids love things like video games, whack-a-mole, and air hockey.

Combine pizza and amusement park entertainment and you have happy kids and happy parents. Why parents? Because they can sit at the table, take a breather, and eat while their kids are busy playing in the gaming area.

The hybrid pizza chain/entertainment center concept was revolutionary and broke the mold of old thinking that had kept dining and kids' entertainment separate. Bookstores that have coffee bars are working a similar idea.

What businesses can you combine to create something entirely new?

Wisdom from Dr. Gene Landrum

Dr. Gene Landrum is a sage who is loaded with pearls of wisdom. Here are just a few quick ones on some of the famous people he believes every entrepreneur should strive to emulate.

Be a titan like Alexander the Great. Be arrogant like architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Be mystical like fashion designer Coco Chanel. Be gutsy like FedEx founder Fred Smith. Follow your bliss like mythologist Joseph Campbell.

You can't learn new stuff unless you're willing to go down strange roads.

— Gene Landrum, founder of Chuck E. Cheese's

CHAPTER 9

Wealth Hack #9

* * *

Double up and triple up.

Remember prepaid phone cards? They took place in the years BCP (Before Cell Phones), also known as BMP (Before Mobile Phones). Take your pick of which acronym you prefer.

When you received a prepaid phone card, you could make as many phone calls as you wanted, up to the value of the card using a special number printed on it. During the BCP years, this had great value for business travelers, commuters, college kids, and anyone using a pay phone (remember those)?

Kevin Young, who codeveloped the first prepaid phone card platform and distribution company in the United States, made a killing on these cards. It was a brilliant business model: You could turn one minute of phone time into a guaranteed dollar while doing hardly anything except providing the card and a marginal payment to the phone company. It didn't involve any billing, and costs for manufacturing and shipping were minimal.

That's not the half of the profit. Kevin realized it was time to double up.

The real money wasn't in the cards per se, but in the ability to adapt them using icons and special brands as premium opportunities with business partners. The card was the reward for doing business and being a good customer. Kevin didn't mind that his company was second banana to the main product being offered because he made lots of money doing nothing. These are just a few examples of premiums:

• Buy a Disney vacation and get a prepaid phone card — with Mickey Mouse on it, of course.

• Buy a tin of Folgers coffee and get a free prepaid card.

• Buy a Happy Meal at McDonald's and get a free prepaid card.

• Buy a large pack of Post-it Notes with a free prepaid phone card inside.

In each case: What a deal!

You get the point with the above examples. The "free add-on" concept was so adaptable, it was applied to just about anything and everything. People felt they were getting something valuable for nothing.

Soon enough there were even Elvis and JFK cards, which turned into valuable collectibles after usage. As if that wasn't enough, the concept of prepaid phone cards became so accepted and widely trusted that they became a charitable vehicle as well in many cases, such as for Habitat for Humanity with Jimmy Carter. The organization would cover the expense of branding on the card, and the end user (the customer purchasing the card) would pay face value for it, a portion of which would go back to the charity.

Brainstorm the Next Vehicle for Premiums

Premiums, gifts, and complimentary giveaways have been around for a long time. Companies have been placing little toy surprises in Cracker Jack boxes for decades. Moisturizer and perfume samples have been inside magazines for many years.

Think about how the digital world has revolutionized the art of the premium for customers. Now it's as simple as going to a website and downloading an app with a bar code to scan. Although paper coupons still exist — and I'm sure many grandmothers still spend their Sundays clipping them — companies like Groupon have made a killing connecting customers and businesses by offering discounts and add-ons with purchase.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Wealth Made Easy"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Dr. Greg Reid.
Excerpted by permission of BenBella Books, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Shortcuts to Success 1

Who Are the Wealth Hackers? 9

Par 1 Big Ideas

Wealth Hack #1 Buy dirt 21

Wealth Hack #2 Create a product, good; or service that people will happily spend all of their savings to obtain 23

Wealth Hack #3 Info-sponge-bring ideas from outside your industry into your business 25

Wealth Hack #4 Build wealth by helping people 29

Wealth Hack #5 Find a need and fill it 31

Wealth Hack #6 Lead the receiver 33

Wealth Hack #7 Simplify everything 37

Wealth Hack #8 Combine unrelated business ideas and make them your own 39

Wealth Hack #9 Double up and triple up 41

Wealth Hack #10 Seek areas of deregulation 45

Wealth Hack #11 State it and create it 47

Wealth Hack #12 To be great, authenticate 49

Wealth Hack #13 Capitalize on something unused 53

Wealth Hack #14 Take advantage of obsolescence 55

Wealth Hack #15 Solve a ten-billion-dollar problem 57

Wealth Hack #16 Save lives 59

Wealth Hack #17 Sell something right under your feet 61

Wealth Hack: #18 Drive the price with scarcity 63

Wealth Hack #19 Offer convenience; sell convenience 67

Part 2 Mogul Mindset

Wealth Hack #20 Retain your wealth by believing that you deserve it 71

Wealth Hack #21 To achieve something different, you must DO something different 73

Wealth Hack #22 Coin is king-so save your change 75

Wealth Hack #23 Be kind to your future self 77

Wealth Hack #24 Ask yourself positive questions 79

Wealth Hack #25 Don't hold on to your nut 81

Wealth Hack #26 Invest twenty-six times to land one success 83

Wealth Hack #27 Create a vision board 85

Wealth Hack #28 Plot your next move 87

Wealth Hack #29 Visualize money and success 89

Wealth Hack #30 Take action 91

Wealth Hack #31 Accept what is given to you 93

Wealth Hack #32 Treat your life as if it were your cell phone 95

Wealth Hack #33 Explain your why-not just your who and what 97

Wealth Hack #34 Reverse mental conditioning 99

Wealth Hack #35 Reward yourself with achievement 103

Part 3 Making It Happen

Wealth Hack #36 Stick to your core; outsource the rest 107

Wealth hack #37 Tap into the power of a fulcrum 109

Wealth Hack #38 Save 50 percent; spend 50 percent 111

Wealth Hack #39 Invest like a farmer 113

Wealth Hack #40 Know every aspect of your deal 117

Wealth Hack #41 Go against the grain-work with your competitors 119

Wealth Hack #42 Convert customers with words 121

Wealth Hack #43 Hire a brain 123

Wealth Hack #44 Create a land of misfit toys 125

Wealth Hack #45 Own your community 129

Wealth Hack #46 Use the ARCS method to grab customers 133

Wealth Hack #47 Hire people with high EQ to babysit the people with high IQ 135

Wealth Hack #48 Leverage MIC 137

Wealth Hack #49 Hire the best-and cry only once 139

Wealth Hack #50 Speak at an Ivy League university 143

Wealth Hack #51 Amplify the customer's request 145

Wealth Hack #52 Get celebrities to be photographed with your product 147

Wealth Hack #53 Invest in precious metals 149

Part 4 Winning Wisdom

Wealth Hack #54 Buy a gumboil machine and make your money stick to more money 153

Wealth Hack #55 Don't be afraid to give to get 155

Wealth Hack #56 It's okay to be fashionably late 157

Wealth Hack #57 Remove egos from creative decision-making 159

Wealth Hack #58 Don't pay retail 161

Wealth Hack #59 Don't be afraid to part with something you love 163

Wealth Hack #60 Drive one hammer with, one nail 165

Wealth Hack #61 Clues, patterns, choices 167

Wealth Hack #62 Break through constraints 169

Wealth Hack #63 Network outside your industry 171

Wealth Hack #64 Join a mastermind 173

Wealth Hack #65 Pivot! 175

Wealth Hack #66 Crush up your vitamins 177

Wealth Hack #67 Answer the phone 179

Wealth Hack #68 Pay yourself first 181

Wealth Hack #69 Create a euphoric sense of contribution 183

Wealth Hack #70 Make your money work for you 185

Wealth Hack #71 Do the opposite of what everyone tells you to do 189

Wealth Hack #72 Decide whether you want fame or fortune 191

Wealth Hack #73 Debunk the relationship myth 193

Wealth Hack #74 The true difference between the rich and the wealthy 197

Parting Words 201

Acknowledgments 203

About the Authors 205

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Greg has made connections and gathered wealth creation advice from some of the world’s mega-money individuals. Follow his advice and watch what happens. Bingo! You win.”

—Bob Proctor, author of The ABCs of Success

“The most brilliant solutions are sometimes the most obvious. This book is amazing.”
—Brian Smith, founder of UGG

"Great book. I recommend it highly."

—David Meltzer, founder of Sports 1 Marketing

“If we do not learn from others, how are we to learn? Wealth Made Easy is your answer.”

—Don Green, CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation

“Greg Reid has upped his game with this treasure trove of hacks with which we can learn and apply. I've been underlining non-stop. This is the real deal.”

—David M. Corbin, author of Preventing BrandSlaughter

“Each page is filled with golden nuggets of prosperity.”
—Dr. Frank Shankwitz, creator and a founder of the Make-A-Wish Foundation

Editorial Reviews

"Greg has made connections and gathered wealth creation advice from some of the world's mega-money individuals. Follow his advice and watch what happens. Bingo! You win."

—Bob Proctor, author of The ABCs of Success

"The most brilliant solutions are sometimes the most obvious. This book is amazing." 
—Brian Smith, founder of UGG 

"Great book. I recommend it highly." 

—David Meltzer, founder of Sports 1 Marketing 

"If we do not learn from others, how are we to learn? Wealth Made Easy is your answer."

—Don Green, CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation

"Greg Reid has upped his game with this treasure trove of hacks with which we can learn and apply. I've been underlining non-stop. This is the real deal."

—David M. Corbin, author of Preventing BrandSlaughter

"Each page is filled with golden nuggets of prosperity."
—Dr. Frank Shankwitz, creator and a founder of the Make-A-Wish Foundation

From the Publisher