Felix Dennis Quotes

22 Sourced Quotes

Very, very few entrepreneurs who accept a 51 percent partner in a new venture will get rich if they are also expected to run it. Control is mandatory.

Felix Dennis
If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly and even catastrophically, you will never be rich.

Felix Dennis
Fear not. For fear itself is fed by fear, and all fears pass. Did no one tell you so? Come take my hand, my friend, and we will peer into this fear's abyss. And jump! And know.

Felix Dennis
Knowing isn't doing; doing isn't knowing. Nothing but the knowing and the doing gets it done.

Felix Dennis
Overhead will eat you alive if not constantly viewed as a parasite to be exterminated. Never mind the bleating of those you employ. Hold out until mutiny is imminent before employing even a single additional member of staff. More startups are wrecked by overstaffing than by any other cause, bar failure to monitor cash flow.

Felix Dennis
As with the onset of sudden celebrity, for the newly rich, the world often becomes a darker, narrower, less generous place; a paradox that elicits scant sympathy, but is nonetheless true.

Felix Dennis
The bottom line is that if I did it, you can do it. I got rich without the benefit of a college education or a penny of capital but making many errors along the way. I went from being a pauper.. a hippie dropout on the dole, living in a crummy room without the proverbial pot to piss in, without even the money to pay the rent, without a clue as to what to do next.. to being rich..

Felix Dennis
Rich people always have a certain degree of debt. Apparently it helps to reduce taxes. I'm not so hot on the bean-counting side.

Felix Dennis
People who grow rich almost always improve their sex life. More people want to have sex with them. That's just the way human beings work. Money is power. Power is an aphrodisiac. Money did not make me happy. But it definitely improved my sex life.

Felix Dennis
If the influence of luck is a delusion, then all I can say is that the delusion is virtually universal.

Felix Dennis
Good ideas are like Nike sports shoes. They may facilitate success for an athlete who possesses them, but on their own they are nothing but an overpriced pair of sneakers. Sports shoes don't win races. Athletes do.

Felix Dennis
Whatever qualities the rich may have, they can be acquired by anyone with the tenacity to become rich.

Felix Dennis
Sometimes, to ensure that a talented individual will work for you, or will stay working with you, you need to be flexible. Money is not always the great motivator here. Talented people want a good salary, of course, but surprisingly often they are more attracted to new opportunities and challenges.

Felix Dennis
The belief that you have a great idea is not worth cuckoo spit. Ideas are ten a penny while the ability to execute counts for a great deal more.

Felix Dennis
For a start, the salary begins to have an attraction and addictiveness all of its own. A regular paycheck and crack cocaine have that in common. In addition, and more to the point, working too long for other people can blunt your desire to take risks. This last factor is crucial, because the ability to live with and embrace risk is what sets apart the financial winners and losers in the world.

Felix Dennis
My rule is, if it flies, floats, or fornicates, rent it. It's cheaper in the long run.

Felix Dennis
Talent is indispensable, although it is 'always' replaceable. Just remember the simple rules concerning talent:
Identify It,
Hire It,
Nurture It,
Reward It,
Protect It.
And when the time comes, Fire It.

Felix Dennis
Believing your own bullshit is always a perilous activity, but never more fatal than for the owner of a start-up venture.

Felix Dennis
Without self belief nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible.

Felix Dennis
When you come across real talent, it is sometimes worth allowing them to create the structure in which they choose to labor. In nine cases out of ten, by inviting them to take responsibility and control for a new venture, you will motivate them to do great things.

Felix Dennis