Publishers Weekly
05/18/2015
This exhaustively researched, misleadingly titled tome by economics consultant Wilkin claims that nearly every enormous fortune is founded on a “wealth secret,” a slightly dodgy, if not actively illegal, strategy. The author aims to provide guidance to those who are interested not just in a “minor” increase in their fortunes, but in achieving private-island, personal-jet, “diamond-encrusted light fixtures” levels of wealth. Acquiring billions takes both smarts and luck, and all of the world’s living billionaires—there are over 1,600—had both. The author tells the stories of individuals, companies, and groups throughout history that attained astronomical wealth, including J.P. Morgan, John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Circuit City, and neoliberal-era Indian industrialists. What he offers are not so much secrets as lessons derived from well-documented success stories: “don’t be the best, be the only”; “bigger is still better”; own your own business; network like a fiend. While the history is intriguing, the tone and approach—presto-change-o magical thinking—are not. Readers looking for a shortcut to wealth are likely to be disappointed. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
"Want to become "obscenely" rich, as the subtitle of this illuminating book has it? Well, the best bet is to be born that way. The next best bet is to have a "wealth secret," the better-mousetrap sine qua non for building an empire. Economic forecaster Wilkin, head of business research at Oxford Economics, has good fun looking at how some fabulously rich people got to be that way.... Eye-opening."—Kirkus Reviews
"Wilkin is a knowledgeable guide to the world's greatest fortunes.... Thoughtful, playful prose."—Bryan Burrough, New York Times Book Review
"An amazing read... Get on to one of those [secrets] and you too can light your cigars with $100 bills.."—Marvin Zonis, Professor Emeritus, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
"Sam Wilkin combs history for a provocative and well-written account of the secrets of wealth formation. Just reading this book will make you richer."—Darrell M. West, Vice President of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and author of Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust
"So how do our billionaires make their billions? Business analyst Sam Wilkin offers up the real scoop.... Delicious and insight-packed."—Sam Pizzigati, Too Much
"Clever, entertaining.... Rich and poor will enjoy it equally, and if you have a modest entourage, I would consider getting copies for them too."—Marcus Berkmann, Daily Mail (UK)
"Pay attention.... What makes this book different is Sam Wilkin is an inside man."—Joe Shute, The Telegraph (UK)
A "highly entertaining and useful guide to the 'fascinating economic puzzle waiting to be solved' behind every billion-dollar fortune.... If you too would like to get your hands on today's equivalent of 250,000lb of fattened goose meat, Wilkin's book is a brilliant place to start."
—Julia Richardson, Daily Mail (UK)
"This is at heart a theoretical book, not an historical one. Its merit lies not in the stories it tells, but in the connections it draws between them."—Nick Wolven, Washington Independent Review of Books
"A great read.... Infused with a great sense of humor."—Life Elsewhere
Kirkus Reviews
2015-06-01
Of robber barons, monopsonists, and oligarchs, in which it's revealed that the free market is anything but free. Want to become "obscenely" rich, as the subtitle of this illuminating book has it? Well, the best bet is to be born that way. The next best bet is to have a "wealth secret," the better-mousetrap sine qua non for building an empire. Economic forecaster Wilkin, head of business research at Oxford Economics, has good fun looking at how some fabulously rich people got to be that way. Though he teases a bit with the thought that you and I can "exploit their wealth secrets to become fabulously rich" as well, in the end, his book becomes a subtle, between-the-lines indictment of capitalism as it is mostly practiced these days. For instance, as Wilkin notes, the aspiring wealthy person doesn't want a level playing field—far from it. Nor does he or she want competition, for competition is messy and tedious, and "when masters of wealth secrets compete, they do not compete in the market" but instead, the courtroom and other arenas where they can effectively destroy their enemies without having to face them on the shelves and divide the market. This was the way of the great 19th-century robber barons, too, as with John D. Rockefeller, "strangling his competitors with cartels," and his ilk, who regarded competition as "that oppressive force that prevents great men from achieving fortunes commensurate with their greatness." Thus it is in emerging markets, where Wilkin counsels would-be monopolists to head, since corrupt political systems favor creative and extralegal ways of securing the startup money necessary to become a tycoon. And besides, he writes, "it's good to go where no one else wants to go." Against this backdrop, so-called natural monopolies like Microsoft look benign. Eye-opening and sure to make libertarian heads explode.
