Seven Years to Seven Figures: The Fast-Track Plan to Becoming a Millionaire

AFTERWORD

Afterwords are not common features of books these days, and probably with good reason. They are a vestige of an earlier day in publishing, when some writers took a more leisurely approach and readers read at a more casual pace. Today, authors must compete with television and the Internet. We recognize that if we are lucky enough to find an audience, we must not try to hold on to them too long.

Also—to admit the truth—the Afterword was probably always a bad device. Having one indicates a certain weakness. Why hadn't the author said everything he or she meant to say in the previous chapters?

Still, I have always wanted to write an Afterword. And so I am writing this. But I will make it short. And I will justify it this way: if you read nothing else in this book, read this. In the next several paragraphs I will restate, succinctly, everything I have learned about building wealth quickly.

THE FIRST THING I KNOW ABOUT BUILDING WEALTH QUICKLY

It is tempting to believe that if you could put your savings into the right vehicle—stocks, commodities, limited partnerships—wealth would follow. But it is almost impossible to acquire a great deal of wealth in a very short time by investing your money passively.

The lure of this method of getting rich is enormous, because it appeals to one of our most fundamentally human instincts—laziness. Do one thing. Do it right. And then sit back and watch the money flow in.

I call laziness an instinct, rather than a fault, because it informs almost every ...