The perfect long-flight read
Timeless Wealth Lessons from History
20 true stories of fortunes won and lost, and how to build wealth that lasts.
Free on Kindle Unlimited
Pre-Flight, page oneYou're on a plane. Right now, for the next several hours, no one can reach you.
Think about how rarely that actually happens.
Why this book exists
Advice evaporates. Stories don't.
You have already heard the advice. Spend less than you earn. Buy the index fund. Be patient. You have heard all of it, and you will forget most of it by next week.
But you won't forget Isaac Newton, widely regarded as the greatest scientific mind England ever produced, losing roughly four million dollars in today's money in a single market bubble, then reportedly saying he could calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.
You won't forget Mansa Musa, the wealthiest individual in recorded human history, destabilizing Egypt's economy for over a decade simply by being too generous on his pilgrimage to Mecca.
That is the whole method here. Twenty fortunes, real ones, across two thousand years and five continents. Each chapter is one story, and each story ends with the principle underneath it and what it means for you. No spreadsheets. No jargon. Nothing you need a signal for.
Contents
Four parts. Twenty fortunes.
The order matters. Money has to come in before it can be kept, kept before it can compound, and compound before the question of what it is actually for is worth asking.
- 01The Man Who Owned the Fires of Rome
- 02The Family That Invented Banking
- 03The Trade That Made the Rothschilds
- 04The Father of Indian Industry
- 05The Patient Eyes of Sam Walton
- 06The Empire That Drowned in Silver
- 07The Tulip and the Madness of Crowds
- 08The Smartest Man in England Loses Everything
- 09The Scotsman Who Bankrupted France
- 10The Samurai's Three Wallets
- 11Five Sons in Five Cities
- 12The Witch of Wall Street
- 13The Steel King Who Gave It All Away
- 14The Brazilian Brothers Who Built an Empire in Steel
- 15The Eighty-Year Patience of Warren Buffett
- 16The Trap of More
- 17Seneca, the Stoic Millionaire
- 18The Quiet Honesty of the Quakers
- 19The Tata Trusts
- 20The Philosopher Who Asked a King to Step Aside
Chapter One
The Man Who Owned the Fires of Rome
Imagine you are a homeowner in ancient Rome. Your house is on fire.
The flames are spreading from the upper floor. Your family is in the street. Your neighbors are panicking. You have no idea what to do. There is no city fire department. There is no number to call. There is no insurance. If your house burns down, you lose everything.
Then a man arrives with a team of trained workers, water buckets, and ladders. He can put out the fire. He is the only person in Rome who can.
But before he does, he wants to have a word with you.
• • •
His name was Marcus Licinius Crassus, and the deal he offered has survived two thousand years, not because he was admirable, but because the principle underneath it is one of the most enduring truths about how money gets made.
Airplane Mode Books
Written for the hours no one can reach you.
Books built for a flight, a train, a waiting room, or any stretch of time that belongs entirely to you. Start to finish, no signal required.
Free on Kindle Unlimited