#353 How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty

**David Senra** (0:00)
If you listened to last week's episode on J. Paul Getty's autobiography, you know that Getty placed a lot of time and energy and money into building relationships with other entrepreneurs, investors and executives. He knew that relationships between these types of people often produce non-linear returns. He knew that relationships run the world so much so that he bought a 72 room estate that served as what he called a liaison center. Essentially a place specifically created to build relationships. I have not bought an estate to help you build relationships with other founders, investors and executives, but I do rent out entire venues and I host founders events so you can build relationships with other founders, investors and executives that listen to this podcast. These events last for two days and they are all inclusive. That means all you have to do is get there and I take care of the rest. That means your ticket covers lodging, meals and access to every single event. If you want to come and hang out with me and other high value listeners of this podcast for two days, make sure you come to a founders event. There is one happening July 29th through the 31st in Scotts Valley, California. And you can sign up to attend by going to founderspodcast.com forward slash events. That is founderspodcast.com forward slash events. I hope to see you there. And I hope you enjoy this episode on How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty.
The book that I want to talk to you about today is How To Be Rich and is written by J. Paul Getty. It did not start out as a book, as a matter of fact. The book that I'm holding my hand was first published over 60 years ago. But it started out because the founder of Playboy Magazine, Hugh Hefner, approached J. Paul Getty in the 1960s. And he asked him to write a series of columns. So he wind up writing, J. Paul Getty wind up writing over five years, 19 different essays with the goal of transferring and educating, basically transferring his experience and the knowledge that J. Paul Getty had about building businesses to the next generation, to what he considered, what he called the younger businessmen of his day. Now keep in mind when he's writing these essays, he is 73 years old. So almost everybody else is younger than him. And as such, this book is very different from the autobiography of J. Paul Getty, which I covered last week. Really the way I would think about reading this book and what this podcast is gonna be is we just have one of, if not the richest person on the planet at the time he's writing this, and he is just telling us the lessons that he derived from 60 years, nearly 60 years of building businesses.
And so I wanna jump right into why this is a good use of our time, and then J. Paul Getty tells us why he's doing this. So the first is why this is a good use of our time. My entire adult life has been devoted to building and operating business enterprises, so he knows a thing or two. This is why he's doing this.
I and so many other successful businessmen have so frequently noted that many young people today enter upon their business careers without sufficient grounding and preparation. They fail to grasp the long range picture. They do not understand and appreciate the universally applicable fundamentals, the basic philosophies, the endless implications and ramifications, and the numberless responsibilities, which are the absolute essentials of business. And he just says right at the very beginning, and something he'll repeat throughout the essays in the book, I would like to convince young businessmen that there are no surefire, quick and easy formulas for success in business.
And so that is the first time that he mentions that, the fact that there's no surefire, quick and easy formula for success in business. But you'll see he repeats, he's got a handful of principles, and he's just gonna repeat them in different contexts throughout the book. So he does give us some background into his life. I'm gonna try not to overlap too much for what I covered on his autobiography. But I do wanna start out, because he starts the book with this essay called How I Made My First Billion, and the first part of that essay is this adulation, this respect, this love for his father.
His father was his hero. His father was the best man he ever knew. As we saw last week, he credits a lot of his success. He says over and over again in his autobiography, my seat at the table was set for me, and that seat was set by my father. Do not compare me to John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller is a eagle and I am but a sparrow is the line that he uses in the autobiography. He just has this deep respect for these self-made men. So he talks about this.