Review: How to make money out of thin air

Name: How to make money out of thin air Author: Brian Sher Publishers: Penguin Books Misc: 212 pages, Rs 195 Highlights: Real life examples, statistically backed experiences, Decisive and authoritative narration My rating: 4 /5

One way of generating interest (read as: hype) around a book, is by giving it a catchy name – that generates enough curiosity, to convert those half-convinced into buying the book, and to grab attention of those, who might otherwise never have even cast their glance on it.

This book is FAR more than just that.

It isn’t any frivolous book on some quick rich scheme, or a bunch of rhetoric…as the name may suggest, on the face of it.

Brian Sher, an Australian, who is a specialist in marketing and business growth strategies, and has worked with hundreds of businesses, of various sizes, has delved into his decades of experience, to come out with this must read - atleast for those who ever had even a fleeting dream about starting his / her own enterprise. For most such people, it will well be a reality check about their ambitions.

The central theme of this book by Sher is the attitudinal shift, which he feels is very essential for every person who wants to become wealthy - from earning money to making money, from selling your time, and working for money, to making your money work for you.

He explains why, statistically, more than 90% of the start-up enterprises become failures - the common mistakes and follies, which lead them to their doom. He also gives valuable tips and insights, on how to go about building a business, which will be self-sustaining and saleable, and will keep improving its asset value, while making money for you, so that you don’t need to work for money! The secret, though, is not only to start a business, but to build a valuable asset that you can sell in the future for a profit, according to him. That’s the catch. You have to start with an exit plan in mind. That is, whatever you start, it needs to be of value to someone else.

The book consists of an unequivocal (and pretty comprehensive) list of the “twenty habits of the most / (and) least valuable businesses”, “twenty-eight habits of the world’s least successful business people”, forty-two habits of the world’s most successful business people, “how to make money out of (figuratively of course!!) thin air”, and finally, a checklist, which indicates “will you become a millionaire”.

This book will help you remove a lot of cobwebs of myths that your mind houses. But mind you, don’t try to take an intersection set of all that he suggests, coz you’ll invariably get a null set, and may feel that, you could never start your own business!!

Go for it!!

Excerpts from the book:

• “There is a big difference in being rich and being happy. Being rich is ‘Getting what you want’. Being happy is ‘Wanting what you get’.
• “Be daring… or be nothing at all…”
• Never build just a ‘business’. Build a valuable asset to sell.
• "For your business to become a saleable asset, it needs to be highly tradable, and for it to be tradable, it needs to be fully systemized – able to run without your personal effort – or, better yet, without you being needed at all.
• “We spend thirteen years at school and leave knowing how to do little more than survive financially. Since the majority of us become employed and have ‘jobs’, the majority of us will simply sell our time for the whole of our lives” (Familiar, eh??)
• The worst possible decision you could take to be financially independent, is to sell your time.
• People don’t succeed because they are lucky, or make all the right decisions at the right times. They realize one thing, that others don’t – that there’s nothing like a perfect decision – they take quick decisions, understanding the consequences of their decisions, and always have a back up plan, in case this decision does not give them the desired outcome.