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It’s a good thing that we all know not to judge a book by its cover, or I may never have opened Rich Like Them by Ryan D’Agostino.  The cover pictured an opulent mansion.  To correlate such excess with being rich is exactly the type of sentiment that makes those of us in the personal finance realm cringe.  Often, such lavish housing accommodations indicate poor money management, rife with waste rather than financial acumen.  I’d rather hear from the owner of a modest home with no outstanding mortgage than a mansion dweller with mortgage debt larger than their faux marble foyers.

Reading the introduction, I quickly learned that the title was somewhat misleading.  The premise of the book was to uncover how it was that the inhabitants of impressive looking houses came to live there.  I suppose “Living in a Mansion Like Them” wouldn’t have been as catchy a title.  Even though the obvious continuation of the premise was that people living in such large houses might reveal previously undisclosed secrets of wealth, I was willing to overlook the potential flaw in that logic.

To realize his project, D’Agostino compiled a list of the 100 wealthiest zip codes in the US and then simply began knocking on doors in some of those locations.  More than five hundred houses later, he had met enough people to compile his project into Rich Like Them.

The most poignant takeaway from the book occurred in the first few pages.  Summarizing what he had learned from the people he met, D’Agostino reported that “Mostly, I learned how to think.”  This is a critical lesson often missed by readers of personal finance books.  The point is that hearing how someone else made their money isn’t going to to give you a recipe for success.  An individual’s success path might not be right for you.  That’s the trouble with many wealth building seminars too.  They try to get you to do what the founder of the seminar did, even if it isn’t right for you.  By looking at some of the common trends between the people introduced in the book (i.e. how they think) you can better understand the  process of building wealth, rather than a specific method to make it so.  The difference can be shown by considering Larry Page and Sergey Brin.  You could look at the success of Google and take away one of two lessons for your own success:  first, you could go out and try to create a great search engine.  (what they actually did)  Or, you could go out and serve a need in a far superior way to current solutions in a field that interests you (also what they did).  The difference between the two paths is obvious: recreating the process will more likely lead to success than trying to recreate the actual events.

Rich Like Them was divided into five main sections that are briefly summarized below:

Open Your Eyes
Idea and opportunities are all around us.  By preparing yourself to recognize such occurrences, you’ll be ready to take the next step (action) when you see ones that fit your personality and skills.

Luck Doesn’t Exist
People with the most luck are the ones that have worked the hardest to put themselves in the position for good things to happen.  Perseverance and patience seem to be the true attributes behind those mistakenly labeled “lucky.”

The Economics of Obsession
Obsession is a powerful driver, often critical to success.  Negative connotations aside, the intense focus on the single thing that you desire or problem you hope to solve makes obsession a worthy characteristic.

The Myth of Risk
Successful people tend to take more risks, but they also define risk differently.  To them, risk taking isn’t about acting recklessly, but rather exploring opportunities with many possible outcomes and working hard before and after taking action to steer towards the seemingly improbable outcome they desire.

Humility
A constant drive towards improvement and lack of complacency was a common trait of those profiled.  Though proud of what had been accomplished, humility keeps successful people doing those things that brought them success in the first place.

Rich Like Them is well written and entertaining, though few new insights into the wealthy were actually revealed.  It could be described as an interesting book to read with the side effect that you may learn a little something along the way.  It won’t teach you how to become rich or generate the income necessary to live in a big house, but you probably already knew such answers wouldn’t be found in a single book.  It is a nice compliment for people who have already read The Millionaire Next Door and the recent release, The Richest Man in Town.  Those two books set a solid foundation which can be expanded by the lessons from Rich Like Them.

Rich Like Them was published by Little, Brown and Company in January and is widely available at major book retailers.