#129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. In 1972, I persuaded a jolly young lawyer I had met to do an act for me. I had no money to pay him, but perhaps my chutzpah amused him. He helped me to register my 100 pound limited liability company and provided me with at least a fig leaf of respectability. I think I paid him 20 pounds for his services. The company was called H Bunch Associates, and I intended to publish a series of comic books.
Next, I persuaded a close friend, Dick, to join me as co-director and production manager. There wasn't much in the way of a salary. We liberated, meaning stole, a few sticks of office furniture, two electric typewriters, and a floor camera from the offices of Oz Magazine, where Dick and I had met.
Another friend, Lemmy, from the Metal Band Motorhead, mentioned that an acquaintance of his was vacating a garret in the West End. Perhaps we could move in there. Lemmy used to occasionally sleep under the Oz Design Table while recovering from excessive ingestion of alcohol and other substances. Lemmy was right about the empty flat. Three rooms at the top of the most rickety stairs I had ever climbed. The building had been badly damaged in the Blitz and never properly rebuilt. The last tenants had been breeding puppies in there. It took a long time to get rid of the stink of puppy shit.
Next, a close friend designed some smart headed notepaper for us free of charge, suspecting, rightly, that we might be able to provide him with work if our venture succeeded.
A small printer I had come to know while working for Oz Magazine agreed to print this notepaper, knowing full well I could not pay him for it right then.
A semi-friendly, amused bank manager at Barclays Bank opened an account for the company, into which I deposited the mighty sum of 50 pounds.
A magazine distributor, with whom Oz had done business, agreed to distribute my product, although I had nothing to show them.
Somehow, I had to persuade a printer to provide machine time and paper to produce the comic we were busy preparing in the Garrett. The bill would come to a few thousand pounds.
I had written a great many record reviews when I worked for Oz. The record companies would send albums directly to my flat in the hope of soliciting a review, and they never asked for the LP's back. I sorted out all the albums I could bear it apart with and sold them to a local record shop. This brought in just sufficient funds to at least get a few printers to talk with me while Dick and I lived on 10 pounds a week. But unless I could guarantee that the printers got paid, not one of them, very sensibly, would budge.
Then I had an idea. I asked the owners of my potential distributors for the comic to write to a particular printer, promising that he would be the first to receive money when the comic came out. They made it sound, as a matter of common sense, that at least enough money was likely to be generated by the sales of the comic to pay the printer and paper bill. And they stressed that their client, my little company, would only receive any money when and if the printer had been paid in full. This was the key. Business must have been slow because the printer agreed.