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If you want to die the richest man, then just stay sharp. Keep investing. Don't spend anything. Don't eat any capital. Don't have a good time. Don't get to know yourself. Don't give anything away. Keep it all. Die as rich as you can. But you know what? I heard an expression that puts it well: __There's no pocket on that last shirt.__ --Susie Tompkins Buell...

Following the incident, John regarded himself "ruined"; yet his net worth is still close to $1 million, which could be the envy of more than 99.9% of the inhabitants of our planet. Yet there is a difference between a wealth level reached from above and a wealth reached from below. The road from $16 million to $1 million is not as pleasant as the one from 0 to $1 million. In addition, John is full of shame; he still worries about running into old friends on the street.

The Salhis, and many others living in similar circumstances, have found a brilliant way to solve several problems at once. On Levels 2 and 3, families often do not have access to a bank to put their savings and cannot get a loan. So, to save up to improve their home, they must pile up money. Money, though, can be stolen or lose its value through inflation. So, instead, whenever they can afford them, the Salhis buy actual bricks, which won't lose their value. But there is no space inside to store the bricks and the bricks might get stolen if they are left in a pile outside. Better to add the bricks to the house as you buy them. Thieves can't steal them. Inflation won't change their value. No one needs to check your credit rating. And over 10 or 15 years you are slowly building your family a better home. Instead of assuming that the Salhis are lazy or disorganized, assume they are smart and ask yourself, How can this be such a smart solution?

the main factor that affects how people live is not their religion, their culture, or the country they live in, but their income.

Isn't it wonderful to have control? These were my options to create wealth. I had reasonable control over both variables, "unit profit" and "units sold," whereas in the Slowlane you're left pleading with the boss for a measly 3% salary raise.

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.'

We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable, and is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable partial redistribution. In this view all economic history is the slow heartbeat of the social organism, a vast systole and diastole of concentrating wealth and compulsive recirculation.

The Fastlane Is a Business System: The Slowlane Is a Job The Slowlane is a job: your hard work traded for your employer's cash. Azur's struggles resemble that of a Slowlaner; to get rich, you're told to get stronger (spend money, return to school, and earn more in the job market) so you can lift heavier stones. The Fastlane is about building a better system, a better contraption, a better product, or a better "something" that will leverage your work. In the Slowlane, you are the source of heavy lifting, while in the Fastlane, you construct a system that does it for you. On your wealth road trip, the Slowlane roadmap asks that you endure a long, tiresome walk to wealth. The toil of wealth is the process itself. In the Fastlane, wealth is driven in a business system you create--the toil is the creation and management of the system itself.

the combined wealth of the bottom half of the world's population (over 3.6 billion people) is the same as that of the world's eight richest people

The single most important thing you can do to be rich is to start early.

Business Your own business, self-employment, and entrepreneurship are centrist to the Fastlane, much like a job is to the Slowlane.

Wealth is not authored by material possessions, money, or "stuff," but by what I call the three fundamental "F's": family (relationships), fitness (health), and freedom (choice). Within this wealth trinity is where you will find true wealth and, yes, happiness.

"Money in a business is like gas in your car. You need to pay attention so you don't end up on the side of the road. But your trip is not a tour of gas stations."

the richest 1 per cent owns half the world's wealth. Even more alarmingly, the richest hundred people together own more than the poorest 4 billion.