Interview with New York Times Bestselling Author,
Ken Fisher

Q: How can this book help those who fear the current economic problems paint a dismal future without opportunity?

A: By getting them to see that isn't how those who get super rich think—they never really fret current conditions. They know long term future will be better than the past—but they choose not to wait, because that would only put them another year farther from their goal. And they know today is transitory anyway. The sooner you figure out the right road for you, the sooner your journey begins toward where you want to get to.

The beauty of these 10 roads is that they work no matter what the economic condition. Plenty of the folks profiled built their wealth through the 1970s recession, stagflation and the 1980s hyperinflation. They survived the tech crash. They've seen it all: booms, busts, bankruptcies, crashes, recession. With the right strategy, you can weather future storms. Think about Phil Knight, profiled in the book. He started Nike in the 1970s in a terrific headwind! What if he had said, "I can't do it now. It's too hard"?

The book isn't about getting rich quick. It's about getting mega-rich in ways that probably work over time. If you cop to excuses, your journey goes nowhere.

Q: So, what makes you an expert on the roads to riches?

A: As founder and CEO of Fisher Investments, a firm managing high net worth individuals and institutions, I've interacted with high-net-worth clients my entire 36-year career. I've written on high-net worth topics in Forbes for 24 years. I've written about the Forbes 400 list and been on it myself for years. I've spent decades observing the world's wealthiest folks. I've seen how they've made their big wealth, made it bigger, and sometimes unfortunately lost it. And from all that observation, I can tell you that to get wealthy, you must travel one of these ten roads. And I can tell you how to increase your chances of getting down the roads while decreasing your error rate.

Q: This is quite a departure from your former books. Was that intentional?

A: Indeed! My prior books were mostly about capital markets and, or history. But those books, like my 2006 bestseller, The Only Three Questions That Count, don't tell you how to become mega-wealthy. They just assume you already have enough investable money to have interest in capital markets and how they work.

This book was also my way of giving back. Some people give to the opera or ballet. Others become Boy Scout leaders. Not my thing. My way of giving back is telling people that getting really rich in their lifetime is possible and attainable and then showing them how to do it.

Q: Is it realistic to say anyone can start a business? Or become a CEO?

A: No. The CEO road isn't for everyone. But it could be for a lot more people. But folks don't try because they think it's too hard or ridiculous. Or they're afraid of failing, but successful folks fail all the time! You pretty much have to fail a few times to be a good CEO. If people realized that in their bones, they'd be less fearful of failure and more apt to take risks. I've made so many mistakes in my career and failed at things so often I've come to become perfectly comfortable with failings. A basic rule of mine is that if you're not wrong about 30% of the time you're not doing enough. But being right 70% of the time is more than enough on The Ten Roads to Riches.

The fact is, there's a road for everyone—which is why there are ten roads and not two that don't appeal to most folks. In the book, I give examples of some famous people who've succeeded on each road, but also many not so famous people. The folks who succeed on these roads, most of them, don't have any special advantage—they just knew the road they wanted and stuck to it