Alpha Ideas

The Book ‘Instant Millionaires’ is written by Max Gunther who wrote the very popular ‘The Zurich Axioms‘ and ‘How to get Lucky‘

Everyone knows that its not easy nor quick to become rich.It’s a long hard slog of working,saving and investing to become a Millionaire.

This Book wonders if there is an alternative to that…is it possible to become rich instantly – other than winning a lottery ticket,marrying money or by being born into a rich family.

The Book then looks at various fields where people became very rich instantly…or atleast in a few (3/4) years.

The Book was originally published in 1973.So it does not cover ESOPs and our Silicon Valley kind of millionaires.

It covers areas like glamour,inventions,business etc where people went from penury to riches in a matter of years.

There is a lot of hindsight bias in the examples…it’s just that some people got lucky while others who were equally talented did not do so.

I was interested in this Book by the success of the employees and investors in Paytm…its incredible how they became “instantly rich” and got the kind of returns that otherwise takes decades to achieve.

Alas, the Book did not offer any insights on how to identify and exploit such opportunities…other than the common-sensical  “Be at the right place at the right time and do the right thing”

I would recommend this Book only for die-hard Max Gunther fans.