Wealth Secrets

by Sam Wilkin

Discover how the superwealthy made it to the top (and you can too!)

From the richest Romans to the robber barons to today's bankers and tech billionaires, Sam Wilkin offers Freakonomics-esque insights into what it really takes to make a fortune. These stories of larger-than-life characters, strategies, and sacrifices reveal how the wealthiest did it, usually by a passion for finding loopholes, working around bureaucratic systems, and creating obstacles to competitors.

Wealth Secrets of the One Percent gets at the heart of our feelings about the 1% of top income earners and the roughly 0.0001% who achieve billionaire we love to hate them, but we'd love to be them. Wilkin's insight into the sources of wealth is thought-provoking and rigorous, and he reveals that behind almost every great fortune is a "wealth secret" -- a moneymaking technique designed to defeat the forces of market competition.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Finance, Money, Economics, Politics, Personal Finance

433 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2015

Reviews

[Will Once · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that can only be classed as "Interesting, but flawed".

The subject matter is intriguing. Wilkins argues from economic theory that anyone who makes a fortune is likely to lose it as opponents and competitors learn how to counter or copy the original idea. This means that the only way to make an outrageously large fortune is to have an unfair advantage such as a monopoly.

And if that was written by someone like Malcolm Gladwell or Matthew Syed, we would have a perfectly good book on our hands.

The fly in the ointment, the sand in the Vaseline, is the way that this book is written. It takes Sam Wilkins ages to say anything. His examples drag on for pages without adding much to his argument. It feels as if he has included all of his research, whether it was strictly necessary or not. I felt myself shouting at the screen "okay, okay, I get it! Now tell me something new".

There's a good book in here, but you do wish he would get to the point a little quicker. And having made a point, that he didn't feel the need to back it up with lots of explanation.

There is a balance in books like these - we need just enough science and just enough real-world examples to illustrate the science. Too much science and it stops being popular science and turns into a text book. Conversely, spending too long on examples can be tedious.

Sort of recommended. Ish. If you twist my arm. But don't say I didn't warn you.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.). The title of this book is misleading. It should have been called something like "The History of Capitalism, Oligarchs, and Monopolists Through the Ages." It is NOT a how-to manual full of tips on how to become rich yourself. Don't get me wrong - it is a good book with many salient points and insights about economics and business but it doesn't offer a reader that much in the way of tangible money making or business tips for becoming part of the 1% if that is what you were hoping for. It's more a book of the economic history of the super rich and how they got there.

[Beth Deakin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for the work book club (the wealth secrets are basically regulatory failures). Enjoyable and interesting but feel like it all could have all been summed up a lot quicker.

[Wulan Suci Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like the most is the author style in starting the book with real life story from top 1% people before go to the 'how to' chapter. The author covers complete success story from Roman era, Robber Barons, Dhirubai Ambani, to Bill Gates that show the secrets to reach the top from time to time are similar : 'economy of scale' and 'monopoly' (to quote No.1 secret is "Be the only one not the best"). Both points combined will boost lucrative business potential to the maximum.
However, what I dislike is the author explains the story in overly detail which sometime too much that make me lose the essence. But overall recommended to read!

[MuuLee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read quite a number of financial related book, never I felt this bored reading this. I might be too critical here, but that is the reality

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that everyone who is interested in business should read. Informative, engaging, interesting, and explanatory!

[Read Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I am positive I would never be a "one percenter". Not that they all did anything illegal to get there, but my personal ethics just take me to a point where I am not going to change my lifestyle to fit within a bigger bank account balance. Nor would I manipulate others just to improve my personal situation. Sure it would be nice to have a bigger house or more stuff, but it doesn't necessarily make me a happier person.

The history portion of this book was most interesting to me. Just how did the truly rich become rich. You often hear old names associated with vast wealth, Pierpoint, Morgan, Rockefeller, etc. This is a fascinating telling of how some of the individual industry leaders came to create empires and fortunes. I needed some Buffet, Gates, or Zuckerberg thrown into this telling. Oh so few of us (well, no one that I personally know) can compare to the multibillionaires in the world. And you might learn how you could also join their ranks.

Have a GoodReads. And may good fortune and prosperity smile upon you.

[Rhubarb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dreadful name aside this is actually quite a fun and interesting little read. It's not the terrible "how to get rich" type book that you see shitting up many a bookstore shelf these days, more a collection of anecdotes about how incredibly wealthy people from history managed to accumulate their money - ranging from Marcus Crassus in the Roman Empire, to JP Morgan et al in the 19th century, through to Bill Gates and others present day. I certainly won't be in a rush to re-read it but still very decent for dipping in and out of on the commute to work.

[Omar Cruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gave it 3 stars over 5 because I felt that it took so long to arrive on those wealth secrets.

However, to give credit, I think he needed to go that route to establish his points clearly with back stories -- which are hard to dig anyway.

And, I'd like to thank the author that because this book, I started to have an greater appreciation with numbers.

Anyway, there so much angles to view the wealth-and the way people do to gain it... i say with a bit of disappointment that people do things (in the cases expounded in the book) out of greed---not so much about making a better world.

:)

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a how to get rich book, but it does highlight the parallels the authors sees among the world’s richest individuals. To become the elite of the elite, you must have a monopoly or some other way to game the system. It was very well written and worth taking the time to read it, even if I don’t think it will help me reach the Forbes billionaire list. I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was better than I anticipated. This book would be better branded as a deep dive into market inefficiencies and what happens to those few that are able to exploit those inefficiencies. This was a very good and detailed look at this often overlooked portion of the economy.

[Andrew Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good info, but for the most part these "secrets" aren't very secret.

[Bartley Sharkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a really interesting look at some of the people down through history who discovered ways to leverage their connections and positions of privilege to corner different markets and create monopoly or natural monopoly conditions, which turns out to be just about the only sustainable way to continually accumulate great wealth. The reason being that once competition enters the fray, not only does it reduce the opportunity for everyone but it causes any early leaders to fall backwards in an attempt to maintain their previously lucrative status quo. Basically, the message is that money is actually rather difficult to hoard in large quantities, and unless you find yourself in a position of power that you can abuse to gain an upper hand, there's little point in expecting vast wealth.

So now that that dream has been shattered, maybe we should focus more on trying to improve the collective good by living more sustainably and within our means. As I write this, we're in the midst of a global pandemic that has turned millions of peoples' lives upside down and yet practically everyday last week the US markets hit new all-time highs, in apparent disregard for both the enormous slowdown in economic activity caused by covid-19 and the basic laws of gravity. Yes, governments have been handing money out to those affected and yes, many people find they can suddenly save more with curbs on travel and normal social activities, but is that enough "new money" to go towards equities to totally negate the terrible consequences of this situation? I guess time will tell.

Back to the book. It's more of a history lesson then anything else, and I think by writing it like that, it's way more interesting than it may otherwise have been. Money and wealth is generally a very boring topic and I guess in an ideal world, it something that nobody would ever really need to think about. When does it come to the fore? When there's not enough, when the amount one has increases or decreases rapidly or when one is trying to make significant plans for the future. Ok, that last one is rather important, but on the whole, money is not something we should spend too long thinking about, while at the same time knowing enough to not let it "leak" away unnecessarily. This book is not about practical advice, but it does provide plenty of food for thought, in particular through it's look at the modern monopolists like Gate, Bezos and Zuck. Get it as a light read.

[S G · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title seemed interesting. After rading for about 20 pages, I quickly realized that the title was incredibly misleading. I value honesty over deception, so I would've chose a title like "A Case Study Of Businesses In The 20th Century". But that proably wouldn't sell as many books.

The title is incredibly misleading, and Im confident that it was chosen simply because it would sell more books (the cover also features a toilet paper roll made out of hundreds....keepin it classy!)

What I like about the book is the case studies of various businesses, and how they succeeded or failed based on market conditions, internal factors, etc. Great. Problem is, it just drags...on...it takes pages to make a salient point. I'm a voracious reader, and can tell when a book is stuffed with fluff. This is absolutely the case here.

Thank god I didnt pay any money for this book, as I would immediately demand a refund. I read about 20 pages before returning it back to the library in exchange for a better-written book. I wanted to give it a 1 star review out of spite, but it does have a few pages of useful information.

[Sebastian Skaiaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll have to agree with some of the top reviews.

I bought this book in late 2015 when it was reasonably new. However, I didn't finish it back then. After reading it now I come to acknowledge how tedious the book is. Which is probably the reason I didn't finish it. The initial topic of the book is interesting. However, Sam Wilkin drags his examples over too many pages, without actually making a solid argument or statement.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the chapter covering the fall of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM), even though I rather recommend reading When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein.

In total, I would give this book a three out of five stars. Mainly because Sam Wilkin gives us some historical perspectives of the Ancient Romans and the Robber Barons, which I found interesting.

[Cor · Rating 2 out of 5]

How to become exuberantly wealthy.....weaken democracy, undercut the customer, steal other's ideas, pay your workers less and less, create false scarcity....own literal slaves, etc.

This book could have been better written, it was more of a history book than actual tips to join the modern day 1% and my rating is based on that. It really lags and the details don't feel comprehensive enough to get lost in. I saw this book at the library and took it home on a whim. By the first quarter I started getting annoyed and bored all at the same time. If it was better written (maybe focusing on American wealth and its development or even diving deeply into the contemporary 1%) I would have really enjoyed that. But Wilkin takes forever writing anything.

[Tony Vu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must admit that I picked up this book from the library's shelf because of the title with low expectation. It looks like another one of many "How to get rich" books to me at first. However, when I started reading it, I actually enjoyed it a lot because of the author's excellent writing and his depth of knowledge about various topics. It covers the stories of how certain individuals in our history were able to accumulate so much wealth from the time of ancient Rome, robber baron's period to our modern day. I especially like the chapter on the wealth secrets of the finance/banking industry. It gives good insights into understanding the 2008 financial crisis.

[Josh Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I was halfway through I was planning to give this a 2 star because it was very slow and hard to get through the chapters that talked about banking. Definitely useful information there but it felt like I was reading a textbook. I enjoyed the chapters on robber barons and modern day billionaires the most by far. Finished the book feeing inspired to not settle for average. I realized how saturated every industry is and the only way to truly stand out is by finding a gap in the system that allows for progress without competition in order to dominate an entire market of any size, rather than a small piece of a big market.

[Gaetano Carrone · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very disappointed by this book and I was happy to finish it. I never felt this bored reading a book.

The book is excessively long and does not provide any interesting insight into becoming wealthy.

If anything it exposes how other people have become rich by gaming the system. These are not “secrets” on how to become rich and also are not the type of advantages I’d like to gain to grow my wealth.

I would definitely not recommend this book.

[Raymond Goss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was insightful, but provided almost no useful information for the average person. The history lesson on the early development of the robber barons and India's modern industries were educational. The main points to me seem to be: think and talk about being really rich when you are young, exploit holes in legislation, and eliminate all competition.

[Sai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engrossing book that covers monopolistic enterprises from Ancient Rome, to Rockefeller/JPMorgan fortunes from the late 1800s, to creation of modern day billionaires. Although the title is click-baity, the book is authored by, what seemed like a pretty reasonable (and sarcastic) academic.

If you enjoyed Outliers, then this book might be a fun read.

[Nancy⭐ · Rating 5 out of 5]

La tesis de este ensayo es que nadie llega a pertenecer al 1% con las manos limpias o de manera legal. Me encanta que el objetivo en ningún momento es motivar al lector a alcanzar ese objetivo. Después de este libro nadie puede volver a ver igual y admirar a Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, a Bill Gates, etc.

[Jason Orthman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting historical stories around wealth creation but not overly practical...e.g. based on exploiting political power or utilising dubious business practices that would now be considered improper.

[Mark B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting background on some of history’s mega rich, including some I’ve never heard of, but the title is very misleading. I would hardly call this a manual, more an inspirational guide on achieving a certain mindset to achieve wealth.

[Denny Troncoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. For entrepreneurs, weather builders and students of financial history. I never lost interest. Engaging. I enjoyed the authors style including recaps, discussion on Gates, wealth secrets and more. As an entrepreneur and wealth builder this is a must read and a book to study.

[Francis Ayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Uncovers the truth about capitalism and what it really is.

[Ana Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesante postura respecto a los monopolios

[Shannon Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book with interesting, need to know information. I came away with some tips to use in my own life.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find some of this books insights interesting. But over all I found it a bit dated.

[tariro nyamakanga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope it is good