Get Out While You Can - Escape The Rat Race [Paperback]

 

 

Create your own review

Let me first warn you that I'm fairly certain most of the 5-star ratings on this book are fake. Take a closer look at them: They are very vague in describing the book's content, they all say more or less the same thing in the same style of marketing-lingo, and they never mention any of the inevitable problems that you will come across in trying to implement the (few) ideas presented therein.

The book consists primarily of filler and very little substance. He spends the first 20-25% of the book (about 120 pages in written form) telling you that you're wasting your life working a full-time job, and telling you that you will always be in debt, etc. It very quickly gets old and boring. The entire first quarter of the book reads like an advertisement that's about to sell you a Get-Rich-Quick scheme -- At this point warning flags should go up because a good book shouldn't have to work so hard to sell itself to you. He tells stories, makes comparisons to famous millionaires, makes pointless lists and arguments, and so on. For example, he devotes several pages describing computations for how rich you would at the end of the month if you started the month with £0.01 and doubled your money every day.

Ironically, in one of his anecdotes the author explains exactly what this book is: He describes that back in the mail-order days, he paid for a get-rich-quick scheme and instead received an envelope stuffed with junk. So he realized that he could make money by packaging junk to thousands of people.

So for 100+ pages, he describes why you're a loser in society for working a full-time job and selling your life for money, and promises a lifestyle of riches and millions, while leaving you free to do whatever you want. He explains that the result of every day of his work, results in £1 a day steady income for the rest of his life. Which is a nice concept if it would work; i.e. if he taught you how to quickly develop and launch a small business that makes £1 a day then the book would have been amazing.

However, he does not deliver.

Instead of plans and techniques, he describes various methods for scraping a few pennies from the internet. For example, scouring eBay for cheap items that you might be able to resell for higher prices. He suggests buying up internet domains in the hope that someone will buy them from you at a higher price later on. (Hardly a strategy to quit your day job for.) His main concept is setting up a number of small websites in the hope that people will click on ads. (His philosophy is "If you can't beat the internet giants like Amazon, join them by helping them sell products")

He fails to mention that you are competing with billions of literate people in the world, most of which are happy to work for £1-£2 an hour, in a market with almost no barrier to entry. He fails to mention that the accumulated overhead of running so many websites will soon reach a critical point where you will not have time to do anything else.

In fact, by describing how much time he wastes on pointless and fruitless efforts, he slips up and reveals the fact that he doesn't make nearly as much money as he says he does. I've known plenty of millionaires that hardly have time to go to the post office. I'm personally working in the City of London pulling in roughly £50 an hour. To me, most of the things he mentions doing make me cringe, because they are such blatant wastes of time. For instance, he describes how he entered a competition to sell 15 beanbags in the month before Christmas, and near the end he spent considerable time watching his seller's page: at one point refreshing it every 5 minutes for an hour. For what? The prize was a £90 beanbag. Anyone who's making serious money would value an hour of their time more than a potential free beanbag. If he wanted a beanbag why didn't he just buy one?

I almost feel guilty giving this pile of rubbish 2 stars instead of 1, but I want to be fair and the book does contain a basic introduction to domain trading, website building, ad revenue, and affiliate marketing, for those that are interested. If you take out the filler, the author could have made a decent 50-page book out of it. I also like the £1 a day concept. That is all you will get out of this book however, so if you read it, you're reading 400+ pages for a few bits and pieces tucked away in a huge pile of fluff.

At the end of the day you have to realize that if someone really figured out a working method to make millions from the internet, they would not be selling it to you for £5 or £10 or even £100.

I bought this book perhaps foolishly thinking that it would be different from the many emails I have received in the past promising riches from Internet Marketing with a. little money b.little knowledge and c.little or no effort.

The content of this book relies heavily on quotes, past stories of internet start-ups and famous people e.g. David Beckham. I had to read through over 100 pages of questioning work ethics and stories about David Beckham before getting to the meat of the sandwich. Once I got into the meat I was then confronted with too many pages on how to set-up a Word Press website - frustrating as if I wanted to know how to setup a Word Press or website I would either bought a book on that subject or searched for this information 'free' on the internet.

For someone who knows anything about Internet Marketing there is nothing new here. If you know very little or nothing about Internet Marketing this could be an okay book for you, however - most of this information is freely available on the internet, and you will still need considerable start-up capital, lots of knowledge and so much more time and effort than 1 hour a day.

Awful, waste of money. This book basically says that everyone should set up lots of websites with affiliate links in them, to earn commission selling goods without having to hold stock. No doubt the reviews on here are from some of these affiliate people. What the book fails to mention is Quidco and Topcashback, these days anyone switched on knows that as a customer they can earn the commission themselves by using one of these websites. The reality is that the market preached about in the book is dying a death, and the only way to make money out of it is to write a book telling people how to make money out of it. Do not believe anything in this book - do the opposite and go for Plan A - study hard, get a good job with good wage, and earn a salary every month without having to create a website earning 50p commission on every 'sea monkeys' set you sell. Beware of Amazon reviews, this is getting like TripAdvisor, too many fake reviews.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 171 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Out While You Can
This is probably one of the most exciting books I have read in a long time. It is presented in a simple to read fashion and easy to follow instructions. Read more

Published 3 days ago by Neil Mason

2.0 out of 5 stars Keep your money while you can!
The author tries to give the impression that making big money online is as easy as setting up a website, adding some content and affiliate links, and then basically sitting back... Read more

Published 5 days ago by ayrhead

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book!
I knew nothing about creating and hosting a website on the web before reading this book even though I worked in IT. Read more

Published 8 days ago by DreemUK

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational stuff
Where to start? For one, a very inspirational book. The author tells it exactly how it is - if we work for someone else we will always be a wage slave (a fact that nobody can... Read more

Published 10 days ago by MR G MILLER

5.0 out of 5 stars A serious alternative to the 9 to 5
At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that this is another one of those "rags to riches" books that will try to convince you that you too could be driving a Ferrari... Read more

Published 11 days ago by Rosebud

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice ideas, but Plan B won't work for many people
I've read the 4-5 star reviews and the 1-2 star reviews, and the book; and I can see how either opinion could be formed. Read more

Published 18 days ago by nik26

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant book
This book is a brilliant book and a must read for anyone wondering "is this really what life is about? Read more

Published 19 days ago by nar

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring
Fantastic read. This book was recommended to me and I am recommending it to you. If you want to make some extra cash or even earn a full time income from home (or anywhere with an... Read more

Published 20 days ago by S D HUTCHISON

4.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring read
This is certainly a book to get you thinking! George gives you his take on how to get out of the "rat race" and develop a better quality of life. Read more

Published 20 days ago by Anna

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and content rich
An excellent read from an entertainment point of view. Revolutoinary and full of ideas from a personal work point of view. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Patrick Hooper

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 171 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Search Listmania!