J Paul Getty

J Paul Getty

Postby winston » Thu May 03, 2012 8:52 pm

The Door to America's Millionaire Club Is Not Locked By Mark Ford

"Contrary to popular modern belief, it is still quite possible for the successful individual to make his million – and more."

J. Paul Getty wrote these words in 1960, in his book, How to Be Rich. It's as true now as it was then… and Getty shows his readers that anyone with the right mentality can get rich by developing a handful of habits.

Getty was a very rich man. I've heard it said that in today's dollars, his wealth was greater than Bill Gates' and Warren Buffett's put together.

Getty made his fortune by buying up oil businesses at bargain prices just after the depression. A small portion of the book is devoted to telling this story. The rest of it presents his thesis: that anyone with the right mentality can get rich by developing a handful of habits.

How to Be Rich is very easy to read. Written as a series of essays for Playboy magazine, it feels like a casual conversation with a very rich friend.

"Although there are no sure-fire formulas for achieving success in business," Getty says, "there are some fundamental rules to the game, which, if followed, tip the odds of success very much in the business man's favor."

Those rules include:
• The best way to make a fortune is to own your own business.
• The central aim of every business is to produce more and better goods (or more and better services) to more people at a lower cost.
• A sense of thrift is essential for success in business.
• Legitimate opportunities for expansion should not be overlooked.
• The business owner must run his own business. He cannot expect employees to run it for him.
• The business owner must be constantly alert for new ways to improve his products and services and increase his production and sales.
• Nothing builds confidence and volume faster than a reputation for standing behind one's product.

The book is loaded with practical advice for business owners and employees who want to share in the profits of their businesses.

How to Be Rich also has a chapter devoted to passive investing. Most people don't realize it, but Getty's record as a buyer of stocks was stellar. What was his strategy? To buy great companies with distinct competitive advantages when their shares are cheap.

Sound familiar?

Another chapter talks about real estate. Getty was a big believer in real estate as a secondary investment and made millions that way. He also talks about investing in fine art.

In the course of his business life, Getty acquired one of the greatest private collections of art in his time. He left much of that collection to various museums, including the Getty Museum in Malibu, California.

What I like about this book – besides the fact that Getty has come to the same conclusions on wealth-building that I have – is that it is extremely motivational. There is something about the way he writes that feels authentic. (As opposed to Donald Trump, for example.) When you have the world's richest man giving you advice on getting rich, you want to listen.

That said, a few of his ideas might be surprising to some readers. For example, Getty is famous for pinching pennies… But he believed in paying his employees well and letting his best employees get wealthy by sharing in the profits. He was not condescending to his employees. He treated them like partners.

The most successful business people I know share this view.

Another contrarian idea: Getty disputes the idea that the business owners should think big and take big chances. His success, he says, came from "thinking small" (i.e. paying attention to details) and avoiding risk at every juncture.

If you have ambitions of being truly rich one day, you should read How to Be Rich. If you have already read it once, you should read it again and again.


Source: Daily Wealth
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"
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Paul Gety

Postby winston » Sun May 27, 2012 8:08 pm

Here’s my take on Getty’s life lessons and how they can be applied to become a more successful investor and businessperson.

Be stealthy – Getty won his first oil property in a competitive bid for only $500 by using a bank as his proxy, thereby scaring away independent competitors.

Separate fact from opinion – Getty always tried to dig deep for facts and challenge “expert” opinions. He was one of the few wildcatters who studied and used geological data to help him make decisions.

Be independent – Getty loved being an independent wildcatter outwitting the big boys. It’s hard to imagine him sitting in a cubicle, or any office, for that matter.

Look ahead and learn from mistakes – Getty was way ahead of his time in seeing great growth opportunities in international markets. Half a dozen times in his book, he literally kicks the reader to look beyond America’s borders.

And Getty doesn’t pass the buck, but admits his blunders. One beauty was to pass on a bargain-basement opportunity to gain a foothold in the oil-rich Middle East in the 1930s only to pay $12 million for a Saudi concession in 1946. (Still a great move.)

Be patient, but take risks in down markets by finding quality values – Getty was a master in taking advantage of great stock values in depressed and crisis markets. Much of his great fortune can be traced back to the 1930s when he scooped up resource stocks and properties at bargain prices.

Finally, Getty chose his targets carefully and had the courage of conviction to jump in when others were scared to death. He put it this way:

”The big profits go to the intelligent, careful and patient investor, not to the restless and overeager speculator… The seasoned investor buys stocks when they are low, holds them for the long-pull rise and takes in between dips and slumps in his stride.”

http://www.investmentu.com/2012/May/how ... getty.html
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"
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Re: Paul Getty

Postby winston » Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:51 pm

"Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine and eminently unsatisfying."

-- J. Paul Getty, industrialist
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"
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Re: J Paul Getty

Postby winston » Thu Jun 26, 2014 7:39 am

"Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine and eminently unsatisfying."

- J. Paul Getty, industrialist
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"
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winston
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