How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn’t)
Joseph S. Moore
HarperBusiness (April 2026)

To get ahead, GO AHEAD. That has never been easier than it is today.

This is not the book I expected it to be when I began to read it.

I assumed that Joseph Moore had done extensive research on several centuries of financial advice throughout the history of what became the United States of America, then had written a book in which he shares what he had learned.  That is generally true. He does cite and discuss several real-world examples of men and women throughout U.S. history who have become rich. Of much greater interest and value to me, he obliterates conventional wisdom and general misconceptions about capitalism.

For example, consider his comments about financial advisors. “They’re called gurus, a famous investor said, because ‘charlatan’ is so hard to spell. The best gurus, and there are good ones, help you identify where you are, where you can go, see traps to avoid, and offer faith that you, too, can Go Ahead. They’re selling you a map that usually works, and most plans are superior to running around with your eyes closed.”

“Are some gurus just sleazy hucksters? Absolutely; the worst was the first: meet Napoleon Hill.”

FYI, Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is one of the top-selling books of all-time. It is allegedly based on more than 500 interviews of the world’s most successful business executives — over twenty-five years — that began with Andrew Carnegie. What are the secrets to growing rich? The answer: Have “an unshakeable belief in future wealth, repeating success phrases daily, cutting out the word ‘impossible’ from the family dictionary, and harnessing the energy from your sex drive to dominate business. Thus calibrated, the mind established a mystical pull that brought ambition and destiny together.

“Only Hill never actually spoke to any of those people…All were long dead. They lived and died without any idea who Hill was.”

“The author himself was broke, living with his in-laws, and on the run from the law for securities fraud. He nonetheless made a fortune through believing he would. He was a world-class imposter pulling off an amazingly crafted con.”

* * *

Here are other comments by Moore that also caught my eye:

o For our ancestors, “GetAhead meant move, NOW, specifically to a better place than [where] you began…It meant RICH in the way everyday people mean it today — to rise from always needing more to having more than you’ve ever needed. People worked, read, and dreamed about how to Get Ahead for 300 years.” (Page 2)

o “Most of the strategies in history [about how to get rich] that worked are Slow Time strategies that paid off in Fast Time. The idea is ancient: there is sowing and weeping, but the reaping part often comes suddenly. Fast time comes for us all, but it rarely comes when we expect it. It rewards the prepared.” (24)

o “Don’t look to financial advice to predict your future. A common aphorism on Wall Street is that there are only two types of commentators: those who don’t know, and those who don’t know that they don’t know.” (42)

o “Net worth matters in only three moments of life: when you die (who gets what), when you borrow (can you pay us back?), and when men feel the need to compare with one another (whose is bigger?) That’s it. There is no other time when net worth is a relevant stat.”  (55)

o “Want to be rich? Add value.” (79)

o “If you live here [in the U.S.A.], you probably don’t feel the need to strive quite that hard. But if  getting rich is your goal, it helps to have an immigrant mentality — no matter where you are from.”(179)

o “There are wise optimists who know that wealth isn’t in their inbox. Getting ahead doesn’t happen to you. You happen to it.” (190)

o “The government isn’t your enemy any more than it is your friend.  Find a way to win inside the system, pay the taxes, and be grateful you live where getting ahead is possible. For much of human history, the rules didn’t allow that.” (223)

o “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found, to everyone’s surprise,  that income was slightly NEGATIVELY correlated to financial well-being. The strongest indicator was ‘a positive attitude’ and ‘the habit of saving.” In a follow-up study, behavior (again, greater than income) was the greatest predictor of well-being. If you say this in learned circles, you are ‘poor shaming’ — blaming failure on the individuals when it is the system’s fault.” – (275)

o “Sure, optimism needs its guardrails. But do not confuse cynicism with wisdom. They are not the same.” (296)

I congratulate Joseph Moore on creating How to Get Rich in American History. He stresses what people need to know, not what they may prefer to hear. Yes, many of the assertions are his opinions, but based on his rigorous analysis of more than 300 years of financial advice that worked…or didn’t.

An observation by Francis of Assisi provides an appropriate conclusion to my brief commentary: “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”