The Devil's Advocate

Introduction

This book does not have the answers. It will not make you a millionaire. It will not get you laid.

That’s because, in truth, there are no simple answers.

If the rules of success were that simple they could be copied out like a cookbook. There would be a serious shortage of business authors and we’d all be sitting in the Bahamas sipping Martinis instead!

While a particular lesson might have delivered a profit in the past, there’s no guarantee it will in the future. In economic theory, profit is a signal to others to move into an industry and copy like crazy until the excess profits evaporate. Any company that manages to make huge profits, doing the same thing year in, year out, is not evidence of genius. It’s evidence of a broken ...