Me, Inc.: Gene Simmons’ contrarian tips on success in life

Who? What? When?

Gene Simmons. Me, Inc.: Build an Army of One, Unleash Your Inner Rock God, Win in Life and Business, 2014.

Why is it controversial?

Business ViewsRacism/Racial IssuesSexism
All Controversial Themes

How was it received?

The most controversial part of Simmons’ book is his advice to immigrants to “learn to speak goddamn English.” Simmons was also criticized for telling women that they have to choose one: either a career or children. Other parts of the book were also seen as pandering to racial stereotypes, rather than challenge them in his advice to change your name, looks and the way you dress to conform to what is often a White male standard. He tells his readers he had to do just that.

On the inside of the front cover, we’re promised a book on “how to build a solid business strategy, harness the countless tools available in the digital age, educate yourself, and be the architect for the business entity that is you.” Well, that’s bullshit! However, the book contains tips on success that are worth attention, from a man who had incredible success. His success story starts with being at the helm of one of the most successful rock bands of all time.

Advice by Gene Simmons in his book ranges from sound (don’t buy a new car), to unrealistic (don’t buy a house unless you have 4 times its value), to controversial (choose career over family). He speaks with no compassion about immigrants, struggling working mothers, and those born and living in poverty. You might not agree with everything in his book, but you’ll be amused at how he goes against the current norms of political correctness.

The book itself reads like a conversation over beer. He dictated it to his iPhone and it seems like it was rushed to publishing before anyone cared to edit it. It’s full of repetitions and clichés. Here I’ve summarized it into the excerpts below.

Don’t buy a home, rent or live with your parents instead

Renting means that you can pick up and go, without great financial risk. And if you can’t afford the rent, or you lose your job, you can move to a cheaper apartment, until you get back on your feet and go back to building your fortune.
Don’t buy a home until you have amassed four times the value of the home in your net worth. If you’re worth $1 million after tax, go ahead and buy a $250,000 home. And try to minimize the length of your home mortgage. You will also be able to deduct certain monthly mortgage fees, and front-load the “decrease in value” of the home and other legal issues. ¹Gene Simmons, Me, Inc.: Build an Army of One, Unleash Your Inner Rock God, Win in Life and Business, (New York: Dey Street Books, 2014), 122.

Do not buy a home. Not when you’re starting out.
Live at your parents’ home if you have to, and until you can afford to move to a city (I’ll get to that shortly). Living at home will always be cheaper, and you’ll get home-cooked meals, too. But don’t be a mooch. Pitch in with household costs. Buy groceries. But limit your financial exposure. Translation: save on the rent while you invest in your future. I know, it’s not “cool” living at home. Try paying your rent with cool.
If you meet a girl you like a lot and you need some private time, rent a hotel room for a night. Make it romantic. Fill the room with music. Splurge on chocolates and roses. When you’re done, dump the hotel room, and continue not having to pay rent or a mortgage.
Save the money. ²Ibid.

Don’t buy a car until later in life, and if you must, get a secondhand one

Don’t buy a car. Certainly not a new one. You may not even need a car. Take public transportation if you can. If you must, buy a secondhand car. But pay cash, don’t take out a loan. Buy a rent-a-wreck type car for $1,000–3,000. If you have the cash, pay cash. If you don’t have cash, don’t buy it.
Buying a new car, even a cheaper model, when you’re in your early twenties and don’t have a good-paying job or career, doesn’t make sense. Even if the car costs $20,000, by the time you’re done paying off your car loan several years later, it will end up really costing you $50,000 or more. And that’s after-tax money. Which means you’ll have to earn even more. And then there’s insurance.
And repairs. And what if your car gets stolen?
Save the money. ³Ibid, 123.

Change your name if you have to

Gene Simmons was born Chaim Witz in Israel. He changed his name in 1971 to launch his colorful musical career.

When it looked like I was going to be in a rock band, it became crystal clear to me that Jewish-sounding names simply didn’t resonate for the masses in America, or in the rest of the world for that matter.
I’m not here to say whether it’s right or wrong, or whether it shouldn’t matter what your name sounds like or if it’s easy to spell. But it does matter, whether you like it or not.
I didn’t take it personally. I recognized the facts. I realized that Robert Zimmerman had turned himself into Bob Dylan. That Marc Bolan from T. Rex had been born Mark Feld. And that Leslie West from Mountain had originally been known as Leslie Weinstein. They all reinvented themselves, changing their names, and their images along the way.
It was clear I needed to finish creating myself. Honestly, I can’t remember where the name Simmons came from but it sounded American to me, and I wanted to be American. ⁴Ibid, 40-41.

He gives an example of how changing one’s name could help in business:

Your name is Victoria Fitzgerald. You’re divorced, but your maiden (last) name is too Eastern European for most people to pronounce easily, so you decide to keep your ex-husband’s name. Smart move. Less of a hurdle for someone to remember or try to pronounce your maiden name: Wyrzykowski.
Victoria Fitzgerald Apps. There. You just started a new company. ⁵Ibid, 175.

Change your looks if you have to

Simmons was criticized for the following passage and others on this page on the subject of appearance. He was accused of accepting racial stereotypes and covert racism as facts of life, rather than challenge them.

I also didn’t look like I was in a rock band. Rock bands looked like they came from England, and were mostly white. I’m not here to give you the socioeconomic reasons; I’m just telling you that that’s the way it was. And that’s the way it still is, for the most part. In life and in business, it’s always important to recognize what the predominant pattern is. That’s just good market research. Remember, we’re not just talking about recording artists; I’m talking about rock stars.
In the modern rock era (from 1962 onward), the vast majority of rock stars were young and white. There were virtually no African-American rock stars. There are barely any still, depending on how you define “rock star.” One of the few exceptions was Jimi Hendrix, although it bears noting both his bandmates were white and British.
There were never any Asian rock stars with the same worldwide appeal—not from India, Japan, China, or anywhere in Asia. There were never any Hasidic rock stars. And aside from perhaps Janis Joplin, there were never female rock stars of the magnitude of the Beatles and Elvis.
The few Jewish rock stars there were changed their names and/or downplayed the fact that they were born Jewish. They understood the masses didn’t care, and that waving the Jewish flag was a turnoff. The masses just wanted rock stars.
We’re talking rock here, mind you. Not pop or disco or new wave or any other form of music. R-O-C-K.
You needed to be a band. You needed to write songs and play your own instruments. You needed to have guitars, bass, and drums. And you needed to be young, white (there, I said it) men. I’m not here to make a value judgment on this fact—it might be a terrible result of whitewashing media, or some awful, unfair acts of subtle racism in pop culture. Whatever the cause—I wanted to succeed. If they wouldn’t bow to me as I was, I would become something else. I would beat them at their own game.
R&B, meanwhile, was black. The Temptations, the O’Jays, and many others, all gloriously black.
The Beatles, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, and the rest of the rock stars at the time were all young white males and had a certain aesthetic. I didn’t have that look. I wasn’t quite “white.” Not in the way the Brits were. So I did the best with what I had. I grew my hair. I learned to straighten it and blow-dry it, and used lots of hair spray. I still do. I started wearing loud clothes and taught myself how to write songs and how to play guitar and bass. ⁶Ibid, 41-42.

Move to the big city, that’s where the jobs are

If you live outside or far from a large city, it’s time to move to where the big dogs play. The simple fact is that you will substantially increase your chances of climbing the ladder of success in a big city.
If you don’t live in a big city, move to one now.
Period.
There are more job opportunities in a big city than there are in a small town. A small town can become a ghost town overnight when the steel mill goes bankrupt, if that town depends on the mill as its main source of jobs. And the diners and clothing stores and supermarkets all depend on those workers having the money to spend on life’s necessities. So if the steel mill goes out of business, the rest of the town’s pieces fall like dominoes.
Big cities have more people. Millions of them. Therefore, there is more money. Big cities have more job opportunities. Many more. Service jobs for the millions of inhabitants. Construction jobs for the big buildings. It’s almost endless. ⁷Ibid, 124.

Start a business, don’t work for others

You can decide you just want to work for a living: pick up your paycheck every week, and have the union protect you (and your health care, your paid vacation, etc.) against the evil employer.
Or you can decide to become an entrepreneur. YOU will become the corporation. YOU will become the boss. YOU stand to make the big bucks. ⁸Ibid, 101-102.

In America, starting a business comes with no or little risk:

[Y]ou cannot fail. Yes, you heard me right. YOU CANNOT FAIL.
You have everything to gain, and little or nothing to lose, by throwing yourself headfirst into your entrepreneurial endeavor. If your business fails and you cannot pay off your debts, under current business laws you can declare Chapter 7 or Chapter 11, which means that with a decent lawyer, you will be forgiven all your debts and you can start all over again. ⁹Ibid, 90-91.

Hire consultants or contract employees, rather than permanent ones

I highly recommend consultants or short-term employees. If you hire someone, it also means that you may need to fire them, and that can get difficult. In present-day America, unions can still go on strike and shut you down.
[…]
There is also the idea that the employer has a responsibility to make sure you go on vacation two weeks every year and still get paid full wages, and that if you work overtime, the employer will have to pay you double and sometimes triple time per hour. The employer also has to pay for your health care, and your maternity leave. . . .
If you want to build a business in America using the old business model—that is, dealing with lots of employees, labor unions, etc.—the hurdles are nearly insurmountable. Instead, you can work with consultants, who get paid for the work they do, and can be fired or let go at any time, for just about any reason. Or set up your business in a “right to work” state—where unions don’t hold sway, and where you are allowed to negotiate for your own wages without interference. ¹⁰Ibid, 101.

Don’t take vacations! That’s for losers!

If you add [the days we have off work] up, most of us spend relatively little time working, or focusing on our careers at all. We may even have more time off than actual workdays.
In previous centuries, workdays often lasted ten or twelve hours, and there were often six or seven such days in a workweek. Wages were a few dollars a week. Vacations were only for the rich.
So here you are, with lots of free time on your hands. And you’ve certainly gotten used to it. And perhaps expect it. ¹¹Ibid, 113.

DON’T TAKE VACATIONS.
There’s no reason for you to take a vacation if you’re a young person. You can define what young means for yourself. Start at eighteen years of age and go until your thirties.
I have never taken a vacation. I consider work a privilege, not a birthright or means to an end. You actually don’t have a God-given right to have a job or to work. If you can earn a dollar, then thank America and its people for giving you the opportunity to work for it.
There are many countries in the world where you would have no opportunity, regardless of your work ethic. In America, where there is all the opportunity you could ever imagine, there are no excuses for goofing off.
[…]
Out of each working week, you get two days off. Multiply that by 52 weeks, and you’ve got 104 days per year in which you’re not working to build your career. Take another two weeks off for vacation, that’s another 14 days of doing nothing. You also take off holidays, religious and otherwise.
To me, all of that spells “loser.”
You can and should use all of the time you have to further yourself. To educate yourself. To dream big. And do big.
Don’t quit your day job, and do work on your time off.
Do something every day to advance your career.
Ladies, you’ll still have evenings free to put on your little black dress and go to the clubs. Guys, you can still go out to a ball game, but don’t waste the entire day doing nothing. But even these things can be business—networking is business. Bouncing your ideas off of people is business. Gathering contacts is business.
If you’re at home on a day off, don’t just spend the day in front of your TV like a lump of clay.
Work. Plan. Network. ¹²Ibid, 115-116.

Save your money (and health) from alcohol, drugs and smoking

There’s nothing in drugs or booze that will make your schmeckle bigger, make you smarter, or make you run faster. Also, it costs a fortune to feed your hunger. And you may get fired when they find out you’re a loser. And you may wind up in jail. And you’ll lose your money. Your date will not be impressed by you throwing up on her brand-new shoes, as you spout poetic babblings that are meaningful only to you.
If you drink enough, your God-given member won’t even work, and the next day you’ll feel as if a truck had run you over. You may not even remember what you did, where you were, or who you were there with. Bottom line: if you get hooked on drugs or booze, you’re fucked.
[…]
Also, don’t smoke. You’ll stink like an ashtray, and you’ll be playing Russian roulette with cancer. If you lose, you’ll die a slow, miserable death.
All of that, because you want to look “cool.” It’s a waste of your time.
Of course, on the side of the cigarette pack, it says something like “Hey, moron, this stuff might give you cancer or some other disease.” In Canada, cigarette packages actually have pictures of what cancer does to smokers.
In most public spaces in the United States, smoking is no longer permitted. So if you’re a smoker, you end up looking like an addict, sucking on your cancer sticks outside your place of work, or outside of bars, clubs, and restaurants.
There was actually once a brand of cigarettes called Death cigarettes. Not surprising, it was successful.
If you choose to become a smoker, you are an idiot, and you may lack the discipline and intelligence to be a successful entrepreneur. On the other hand, if you have the strength of character to recognize your mistake and kick the habit, then you may have what it takes. ¹³Ibid, 119-120.

Dump your slacker friends, keep only the high achievers

It’s up to you to make friends with people who are more successful than you are. Respectfully, get rid of your chip-dippin’, TV-watchin’, happy-with-my-life, don’t-wanna-do-anything-else friends. They won’t help you. Surround yourself with people who are more successful than yourself. ¹⁴Ibid, 88.

Do not settle for “a comfortable life,” aim for the big money!

Unless you have incredible luck and win the lottery, you will not obtain riches with an “I just want enough to be comfortable” mind-set. Even if you do win the lottery, you will probably not know what to do with the money, and will soon be back where you started from, just like many lottery winners. They won big fortunes, and in a short time went bankrupt. Some got divorced, left their families, and even committed suicide. Google it if you don’t believe me. ¹⁵Ibid, 93.

Immigrants: Learn to speak English

Another sensitive issue which the writer considers critical to one’s financial success:

There’s nothing wrong with being proud to be Spanish or African-American or Albanian, but that in itself won’t help you amass a fortune in America. And bluntly speaking, English language skills can. Anywhere in the world. Speak English in Zimbabwe, and you can get a job. Speak one of the hundreds of Zimbabwe dialects in America, and it won’t help you in the least. ¹⁶Ibid, 153.

In 1958, when my mother and I legally immigrated to America, I couldn’t speak a word of English. Neither could my mother. We spoke Hungarian and Hebrew, and my mother knew halting German. I also picked up (and have since forgotten) some Spanish and some Turkish.
[…]

One of the first things I remember hearing when I was eight and a half years old was “What’re you, stupid? Can’t you even speak English?” I would never forget that. It was unkind and harsh, yes. But it was an uncensored reflection of how native-born Americans might consider you if you aren’t able to communicate in English. The less ability you had to speak English, the more stupid most people thought you sounded.
It was true then, and it’s true now. And it will be true tomorrow, as well, to varying degrees. We can strive to change it—to make positive social change is a worthy endeavor. But if you want to be a businessman, you have to contend with the way the world is right now, not the way you would like it to be.
Sorry. That’s life. You can’t force everybody to think the way you do. ¹⁷Ibid, 155.

[N]ot speaking English at all will buy you an express ticket to the bottom of the barrel.
It’s YOUR responsibility to learn to speak English properly.
Nobody will tell you this, because it’s supposed to be unkind. It’s politically incorrect. It will hurt the feelings of immigrants.
So, I will.
SPEAK ENGLISH!!!
I had to do it.
You can, too. ¹⁸Ibid, 158.

To go further in life, speak English in a mid-Atlantic accent

Speaking with a very heavy accent will usually not help you make more money. There are always exceptions, of course, but why take the chance?
A heavy French accent for a maître d’ in a French restaurant? Sure. Fine.
A heavy French accent for an American TV newscaster? Not so fine.
[…]
I wrote some of this book dictating into my iPhone. Siri takes pretty good dictation. Siri and I get along great. She understands every word I say. That’s because I speak very good mid-Atlantic American English.
Siri becomes less and less reliable the heavier your accent is. She may have other language settings—but people don’t.
[…] If Siri doesn’t understand you, then you’re in trouble. ¹⁹Ibid, 158-159.

And lest you think they’re picking on you just because you come from someplace else, consider this: that same sentiment is held by Americans about each other. For instance, if your accent is too “southern”-sounding, many Americans might assume you to be, uh, less than sophisticated.
It would be difficult for most Americans to take Professor Billy Bob Fitz seriously, if his first direction in Shakespearian studies at the university was “For tonight’s assignment, y’all consider the dilemma Othello had to live with, mmkay?”
I won’t apologize for the parody, or my crudeness—this is a crude, unaccommodating world you are going to step into. Grow a thick skin and adapt. Be a Darwinian apex predator—whatever your environment, adapt to it, and conquer it. It just so happens that the business world in the United States is an English speaking environment.
It also bears noting that, in the southern United States, TV broadcasters rarely sound southern. They all speak in perfect “mid-Atlantic” American English, even if they were born in the South, love the South, and eat grits. They realize that the sound of their accent does not connect to the rest of the country.
Lest you southerners think I’m singling you out, you’re not the only ones.
A heavy New York accent, with its “deze” (these) and “doze” (those), is considered by many to be less than sophisticated. To be blunt—it makes you sound stupid.
I didn’t invent the rules.
Unless you’re sitting on a large oil deposit in your backyard in Texas, you will note that the large corporate giants and captains of industry, who are worth billions, like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg, all speak mid-Atlantic American English.
That’s no coincidence.
And lest you think I’m only talking about white people.
President Obama speaks mid-Atlantic.
Oprah Winfrey speaks mid-Atlantic.
Wendy Williams speaks mid-Atlantic.
YOU can learn to speak mid-Atlantic well. ²⁰Ibid, 156-157.

Immigrants: Assimilate into your host society to be successful (i.e. no ethnic clothing)

Let’s say you’re a Hasidic Jew (and I was one) and you want to be a TV newscaster in America. So you arrive with your yarmulke, beard, fur-covered hat, and long black jacket, and you interview for the job. Now let’s say the TV station actually takes a chance on you and puts you on the air. How many people do you think would actually watch the evening news if it were hosted by someone who looks like you? You might have substance and important things to say, but viewers will judge you by your appearance, which will be alien to most Americans and thus unwelcome. I contend that the masses listen with their eyes, rather than actually listening to what is being said. Which is why there has never been a Hasidic newscaster on American television. And there likely never will be.
Remember, I’m Jewish, so I’m not being anti-Semitic here. I’m just being pragmatic and pointing out that in the world we live in, your outward appearance is important, and that it’s particularly important if you plan on being a successful entrepreneur. Trees that don’t bend with the wind break in two.
Be flexible.
Get over yourself.
So when you’ve got that big job interview, or you’re ready to meet with that banker or potential investor to launch that great big entrepreneurial venture, leave the yarmulke or dashiki or turban at home. You can proudly express your ethnicity, culture, and religion at home. But in business situations, wear the costume that your colleagues and potential benefactors will like. This means a nice haircut and a suit and tie if you’re a man. And if you’re a lady, don’t show too much skin or wear too much makeup. For better or worse, banks and financial institutions are still a boys’ club, and you should promote yourself and your skills, not what you look like. Otherwise, you will not be treated seriously.
Again—this is a prescription for success in business, not life. At no point in this book will I contend that I have the authority to decide how much skin women should or shouldn’t show, or what they should dress and look like. That is none of my business, if it’s not business. But in the business world, there happens to be a dress code for success.
You wouldn’t wear loud, bright colors to a funeral, and you wouldn’t wear sexy clothes in a church, temple, or mosque. The same rules apply in business. If you own an auto repair shop or a tattoo parlor, or if you’re in a rock band, then you can ignore those rules. Otherwise, forget it. Maintain the proper appearance at the proper time, at the proper place, in front of the proper people.
[…]
The difference between myself and a lot of other people is that I decided long ago that I would adapt as best I could, and that I would conform, to the extent that I could, to the inferred rules of culture in these United States of America. Yes, you heard that right—I’m a conformist. ²¹Ibid, 149-151.

Women: Dress for success, that is, not sexy and not too casual

Don’t dress or act too sexy. Men don’t understand nuance and subtlety.
Really. The men will pay attention to your sexiness, not your brain or what you have to say. And that’s not what you want.
This is not to decide what you should and shouldn’t look like—if I see a man at the office wearing bicycle shorts, you better believe I’m going to tell him how to dress, too. He should be wearing the uniform of the position he wants. And so should you.
[…]
In the office, dress for the job you want, and dress to deliver a message: You are not here to be a sexual object, or to express yourself. You are here for a job, and you are here to defeat your competitors. Dress for that.
I’m being blunt. Because other books won’t.
Come into that meeting dressed like your boss.
That’s right, dress like your boss.
Women like Hillary Clinton understood that long ago. She has been wearing business suits for a long time. And she may have a chance of becoming president of the United States, if she decides to run. I’m not saying I would or wouldn’t vote for her. I’m simply saying she understands she must play by MALE RULES, until she can make them HER RULES. Beat us at our own game. Take the misogyny of our culture, make it yours, and after you’ve seized power, turn it against us. You can rewrite traditional gender stereotypes after you’ve conquered the system. Not before. ²²Ibid, 171-172.

Fake self-confidence if you have to

You must learn to be able to stand in front of strangers, who couldn’t care less about you, and convince them that what you have to offer is something they need and cannot do without. What you are offering is the greatest thing you could possibly have access to. What you are offering them is YOU! ²³Ibid, 94.

You want to be a rock star…

Look like a rock star, act like a rock star, and if you’re lucky, you might get to be a rock star. Fake it till you make it. ²⁴Ibid, 43.

It’s OK to love money

There’s a very old platitude that goes “the love of money is the root of all evil.” The person who came up with that statement was, in my view, severely misguided, and missing a large—perhaps the largest—source of crime in the world. The implication is that money, by its nature in having value at all, corrupts people simply by being valuable.

[…] If I didn’t have a dime, I might hold up a 7-Eleven for a loaf of bread, because I would be desperate enough to do so. But if I were worth $100 million, I would never think of doing that. The lack of money is why people hold up banks.
After you become successful, give it all away if you like—to your family, to your loved ones, to charity, whatever makes you happy. But before you have any money, you can’t do squat. ²⁵Ibid, 95-96.

Money could make you happy

And for those of you who might say, “Oh, but money can’t make you happy,” well, that’s patently untrue. If you’re a miserable son of a bitch, it’s still better to be a rich, miserable son of a bitch. ²⁶Ibid, 96.

But don’t work for money, work because you love to

But lest we dwell too much on money, I want to make it clear that it is the love of labor and not the love of money that will give you rewards. There is a big difference between going to work and loving to work. ²⁷Ibid, 97.

Work comes first, relationships after!

Career or family? Often, you can’t have it both ways.
Pick one. Choose wisely.
If he or she is demanding more of your time, and if that stops you from pursuing the opportunities you desire, you may have a life decision to make. That may mean you saying, “Right now, my career is the most important thing in my life.”
Ladies! Don’t let men talk down to you. Or demand more of your attention than you’re willing to give, if it interferes with your career goals.
I say career first, relationships second. ²⁸Ibid, 129.

Don’t get married until you’re mature and secure. If you have no money and no career, taking on the responsibility of supporting a spouse—and children and mortgages and car payments and taxes—just doesn’t make financial sense. It may make you HAPPY. But you will be happy and BROKE, and eventually likely DIVORCED, and then you’ll have to pay even more. ²⁹Ibid, 131.

Take a hint from the airline industry. If there is turbulence on your flight, the crew will tell you to take the life-sustaining oxygen mask that just fell in front of your face and put it on YOUR face first. Not your child’s face. On the surface, it sounds cruel, but it makes pragmatic sense, because if you can’t help yourself first, you will not be able to help anyone else. Not your child, not your family, not your friends, not anyone. ³⁰Ibid, 90.

Women: Walk away from your immature boy, marry instead a successful and mature man

Ladies, unless love overwhelms all logic, don’t marry your beloved in his twenties or thirties. He will let you down. He’s immature. He may look like a man, but—and believe me, I speak from experience here—at that age we’re still just horny little boys on the inside. We’re not as mature as you are. We don’t have the urge to raise children. We just have testosterone. And lots of it.
Ladies, if you must get married, marry a more mature man of means. The advantages are twofold: a comfortable and safe lifestyle financially, which could mean more freedom for you to pursue your own entrepreneurial goals, and a more mature man who might be emotionally ready for marriage and settling down. ³¹Ibid, 132.

Women: Don’t rush into having children and when you do, have only one or two

If you want to increase your chances of becoming a successful entrepreneur, if you want to climb the ladder of success, you cannot let anyone or anything get in your way. That includes your biological urges, and the social stigmas that enforce them.
Not until you’ve hit the big time!
You can’t pay enough attention to matters at home and at your career at the same time. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.
[…]
Don’t have a big family—especially if you can’t afford to have one.
Statistics also tell us that lower-income Hispanic, Italian, white, and African-American families tend to have kids at an early age, sometimes with a parent in their teens. This is lunacy, and it must stop.
For your children’s sake.
And for yours.
If you must have children at a young age, have one. Maybe two. That’s it.
Sorry, the rich are different. They can have as many kids as they like, because they’re rich. They can afford the extra cost of feeding, clothing, educating, and nurturing multiple people. A child is like anything else—you have to determine if you can afford to have one. If you can’t, then don’t have one.
[…]
STOP HAVING SO MANY CHILDREN.
NOW.
Generally speaking, women often have two choices in life, as a matter of sheer economic pragmatism: devote all of your time to your career, or have a family and children. There are scores of books debating whether it is feasible to do both, but personally, whether it is or not, I don’t think it’s worth the risk, most of the time. Better to play to win, and have a family after you’ve already accomplished something.
Men don’t have that option and don’t have that choice. They have to go to work. They can’t give birth and traditionally (as part of a social stigma that enforces a stereotype) don’t have the inclination to stay at home and raise the kids. This is changing all the time. Soon this may be irrelevant. However, I’m talking about the here and now—and these old fifties models still seem to apply to millions of people. ³²Ibid, 165-166.

Do not expect government handouts, be self-sufficient!

On this topic, he invoked Ayn Rand, the Russian-American philosopher…

Rand was opposed to the idea of the welfare state, and that’s putting it mildly. She believed that it took away people’s incentive to dig themselves out of the slums they were in. She believed that it is the responsibility of individuals to educate themselves and find jobs—and if no jobs are available where they live, then to move to places where they are available. […] I think it’s safe to say that the less you depend on government and the more self-sufficient you are, the better off you’ll be. ³³Ibid, 111.

The welfare system, in my estimation, should be based on simple tasks that would pay recipients for the work they do, instead of simply handing funds out for free. Clean up the graffiti in your neighborhood. Clean up the garbage in your neighborhood. Be a good neighbor. Report any suspicious, potential criminal activity in your neighborhood to the police. And get paid for it.
Not handouts.
Work.
Give a person dignity. Let them feel that they’ve earned the money they got. ³⁴Ibid, 81.

Help others but make sure they’ve done something to earn it

Speaking of African children he sponsors…

I feed and clothe them, and buy books for them, but only if they attend school. At the school, they’re fed decent, fresh, hot meals. ³⁵Ibid, 78.

The real-life lesson for me here is that, although I take great personal pride in dreaming big and achieving big, the biggest achievement of all is to be able to help another human being. I know this sounds like I’m trying to convince you how great I am. And usually, I do like talking about how great I am. But whether or not you like me, or think I’m a braggart, not everyone is fortunate enough to be born in America and enjoy the benefits it provides. I know that well. Children living in countries like Zambia typically don’t even own a pair of shoes, and sometimes eat nothing the entire day. The infrastructure in those countries is bare-bones, and the lack of health care is shocking. I’m not running for Miss America. I’m not asking you to think of me as charitable, or as a good person, and I’m not trying to bombard you with clichés. Pretend it’s not me telling you this—pretend it’s someone else. I’m being straight with you—if you have any success in this life, you don’t have the right not to help someone else. Dying with the most money will bring you a certain level of satisfaction—but you will forever be denied the full measure of your satisfaction as a successful human being if you do not embark on charitable ventures like this. Your empire of dirt won’t have any reason to stand. ³⁶Ibid, 79-80.

Save 25% to 50% of your income

I always made sure I saved anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of every dollar I made. I still do.
Remember, we all have to pay taxes, so that whittles the amount we earn down by as much as half before you decide whether to spend or save your money.
Always live below your means. ³⁷Ibid, 195.

Consider all the times you went to a bar or restaurant and treated your friends. Think about all the trips and vacations you’ve taken. Afterward, you may have wished that you hadn’t taken that trip or vacation. I would suggest that if you’d taken all the money that you spent on clothes/shoes/electronics/cars/houses (with after-tax dollars, remember), and invested it instead of spending it, you’d be a lot better off.
Remember, once you’ve spent money, you will never see it again.
But, if you invest money, you will probably see a profit, and pay tax only on the capital gain, meaning, the profit that you made on the money that you would have spent otherwise. See? ³⁸Ibid, 199.

Invest in the stock market and mutual funds

Take the remaining money and invest in the stock market. Get a financial adviser, and ask about mutual funds.

Mutual funds sprinkle your dollars across a few different investments. In the game of roulette, they tell you not to bet all of your chips on one number. It’s also known as not putting all of your eggs in one basket. The simple idea is that if something goes wrong with one investment—and it certainly can—you still have other investments that will hopefully make up for the loss and keep you in the profit margin. ³⁹Ibid, 197.

Treat everything as a business

I noticed early on that this thing that I had entered was never just called music. It was always called the music business. And show business. And the movie business.
Intrinsically, everything is a business.
Everything has, or should have, a balance sheet.
Everything has, or should have, a budget.
Everything has, or should try to have, a profit motive.
Work. Religion. Rock bands.
And YOU.
YOU are the business.
YOU should have a budget.
YOU should have a balance sheet.
YOU should have a profit motive.
I did then.
And I do now. ⁴⁰Ibid, 51.

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