Review: Safely Prosperous or Really Rich
This book is a marketing plan cleverly executed,
and I fell into it, dear reader!
I first heard about it in John Mauldin's newsletter, and would not
have purchased it if not for Mr Mauldin recommendation.
In hindsight, it looks to me like 'Howard Ruff' is
a valuable brand (chronicles say this guy sold three million copies
of the other book 'How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years'), worth
exploiting further. With this book I fear the brand has been a little
bit overstretched.
Someone said that the strategies outlined in it are excellent... True, and here is why I give it a low rate: Beginners and experienced readers as well will find other, better, earlier books that tell the American tale on how to become safely prosperous o really rich (examples include: The Millionaire Next Door; Getting Rich in America and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Rich). Then, if this book contains nothing new, what's its purpose? What's its value?
How's written this book? There are many repetitions; Ruff tells many times here and there the same stories (How he helped the crash of the Iron Curtain; why you have to have a six-month supply of food; how his newsletter, The Ruff Times, was the biggest, most influential newsletter in the known universe; and more...), which is annoying indeed, gentle reader!
Sometimes I wondered whether I bought a book or a catalogue
disguised as a book.
There are several references to businesses owned by Mr Ruff himself
or his relatives or his friends (sometimes he discloses he has a financial
interest, sometimes he discloses he hasn't. Well, my wife is a lawyer,
just in case you need one. I have no financial interest in her business.).
The book keeps leading the reader to this or that product. Boy, this
is 'cross-selling'! This is 'leverage'!
I recalled the tale of the fish: Give a man a fish
and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for
a lifetime. When I got the book I hoped I was going to learn something
new on how to fish. And teachings are there, I'm not diminishing in
any way the virtue of many suggestions (get out of debt, start saving...)
written in this book. There's plenty of fish for sale in this book
(this metaphor helps make my point, so let's not be too critical here);
alas, not many new teachings.
Here's a quote from the book:
"Do not run out and execute the market recommendations in this book
as soon as you read it. We have a very dynamic economy, and time can
change things. Some recommendations may be good ideas for which the
right time has come and gone or the propitious time has not yet arrived
(...) The best way to keep up with things is to subscribe to 'The
Ruff Times', which is written every three weeks, as I track all these
recommendations very closely"
(You can sign up for one year for $139, or for two years for $230, if you ask).
If I have to subscribe to "The Ruff Times" to know
what to buy and when to buy it in order to make money, what's the
practical use of this book after all? What's its purpose? What's its
value?
(Giancarlo Nicoli)
