The Money Formula I Used To Actually Get Rich
In a Nutshell
Sell to the rich (top 10% holding 69% of US wealth) using Pareto principle: 20% of high-value customers drive 80%+ of profits, so build top-down with 5-10x pricing tiers (e.g., $10/mo base to $5k-135k top) to concentrate revenue at the high end. Start high for stronger branding, easier operations, and massive profit leverage—e.g., one $10k sale equals 400x $50 sales—while qualifying leads, anchoring prices boldly, and raising if close rates exceed 30-40%. Sell to rich long enough, and they make you one of them; free 10-stage $100M+ roadmap at acquisition.com/roadmap.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Alex Ramoszi runs a portfolio of companies at acquisition.com generating over $250 million per year. He did a book launch 12 weeks ago that generated $16 million in sales in a weekend, breaking a Guinness World Record for the fastest selling non-fiction book of all time. The core shift: understanding how getting money works and why the rich get richer, with the math behind it and how to gain access.
First reason: selling to people who don't have the money. US income: top 10% earn 40% of income. US household net worth last year: $163 trillion. Scaled to $100 across 100 people representing percentiles:
- Bottom 50%: $2.50
- Next 40%: $28
- Next 9%: $38
- Top 1%: $32 (more than bottom 90% combined)
69% of wealth in top 10%. Implication: sell to the rich, they pay better. People compete for the bottom $2 because everyone they know is poor, believing no one would pay high prices.
Big companies go where the money is. Pareto principle: Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed 20% of customers create 80% of revenue. In business:
- 20% of customers: 80% of profits
- Within that 80%, 64% of profit from 4% of customers (4 out of 100)
- Within that 64%, 51% of profit from top 1%
This mirrors wealth distribution (power law). Profit from high-value customers costs little more to serve than 99 others. Condition: business model must allow them to pay more.
The only thing worse than offering a $1,000 thing to somebody who's got a $100 budget is offering a $100 thing to somebody who's got a $1,000 budget. In the first, you lose $100. In the second, you lose $900.
Expect 99/100 not top 1%, so most say no to expensive offers, but pursue the whales.
Exact 10-stage roadmap from zero to $100 million+, completed multiple times across software, physical products, service businesses, brick-and-mortar. Breaks down by 8 business functions, constraints/symptoms, and steps to graduate. Free at acquisition.com/roadmap.
Build from top down: start high, work down. Tesla example: started with $250,000 Roadster (limited production, high profitability), then Model S, Model 3/Y. Anchors high for branding: expensive car first, then affordable version makes sense. Reverse (budget to luxury) doesn't. Operationally easier: low volume high-price before scaling to masses.
Masses require razor-thin margins, extraordinary volume, capital to scale.
Rule: each new tier 5-10x price, expect 20% to take it.
Example with 10 customers:
- 8 at $10/month: $80 revenue
- 2 at $50/month: $100 revenue
Doubles revenue. If bottom covers overhead, top $100 contributes ~$80-90 profit (vs. prior $10 profit), 5-8x profit increase.
Four tiers example with 1,000 base customers:
- 800 at $10/month: $8,000
- 160 at $100/month (20%): $16,000
- 32 at $1,000/month (20%): $32,000
- 6 at $5,000-10,000/month (20%): $30,000-60,000
Reflects spending power differences (e.g., 14x wealth from bottom 50% to next 40%). Don't need to serve everyone; start high.
Acquisition.com advisory tiers:
- School: $10/month (hobby)
- $100/month (pro)
- L1: $5,000
- L2: $35,000
- L3: $135,000
5-10x jumps. Built over years, add tiers one at a time. Start high: stronger branding (Rolls-Royce light easier than Honda luxury), unscalable easier (rich less demanding as % of net worth: $100k is 1% of $10M vs. $100 is 10% of $1,000). Serving 1 at $100k easier than 1,000 at $100.
Profit concentrates at top, like wealth.
To serve poor masses: automate at low price via volume (hard, capital-intensive; Tesla/Netflix/Spotify nearly bankrupt, propped by outside capital). 78-80% US businesses are service-based without automation, so serve best customers at highest price.
Mispricing: $1,000 core to $1,500 next doesn't work; next is $5k-10k.
- Stop selling from your own wallet; assume everyone is rich. Top 10% Americans have $1M+ net worth (1 in 10).
- You're often too cheap for them to believe you're good (example: health company raised price 50%, close rates went up).
- Don't listen to broke friends/family on pricing.
- For upsells: 5-10x price, deliver what justifies it (high margin often).
- Expect 1/5 to 1/10 yeses (sweet spot is most money, not most yeses).
If you sell to rich people long enough, they will make you one of them.
Anchor high: even if few buy, boosts sales of lower tiers.
$10,000 sale (cost $2,000) = 400 at $50 (cost $25). Power of few high-price sales.
Rich behaviors: avoid low-leverage opportunities, skewed toward high returns (e.g., management consulting, private equity, investment banking).
In Baltimore, a rich person was a doctor. The speaker's dad is a doctor with a business and two secretaries; they always had food but retained an immigrant mentality of frugality, like not using paper towels because they're expensive. At Vanderbilt, the speaker felt poor compared to New York and California money.
You have to hit above your weight class. The belief that high prices lead to rejection was broken when the speaker made their first high-ticket sale by quoting a number they expected to be rejected.
Leila and the speaker started with gym launches, selling memberships through gyms, collecting money, and flying around the country. Issues with that model led Leila to sell weight loss directly via her brand Queen Transformation with $500 online training packages over the phone.
The speaker had eight gyms lined up but decided to cancel. On the first call to a referral gym owner, despite being beat down and refusing to fly out, the owner insisted. The speaker said, "I'll show you what I do, but I'm not flying out if you can't close." Previously, they did everything: fronted money, bought tables, printed contracts, ran ads, worked leads, and sold in-gym.
Expecting rejection, the speaker quoted $6,000—12x their usual $500 16-week packages requiring 3x weekly attendance. The owner said, "Done." The speaker floated out of their body, realizing $6,000 from one call without even having the product built.
Next call: $8,000, done—now at $14,000 in a morning. Continued: $10,000, scaling up, ending the day with $60,000 collected from eight gyms. Leila returned from $500 sales shocked; the speaker realized they were still doing gym launches but wrong.
That was the moment where I elevated. That was the moment where my life really changed.
Price point to start is relative to consumers or businesses.
-
Consumers:
- Impulse purchase: $500-$600
- Higher ticket (services): $3,000-$10,000
-
Businesses (varies by size):
- Small business/Main Street (some poor): cheaper $400-$800/month, mid-tier $2,000-$3,000/month
- Large like Disney: up to billions
Poor people think in cost; rich think return: cost vs. value.
Hey, my thing is $20,000. Poor: "That's expensive." Rich: "For what?"
Examples: $20,000 for Class A Berkshire Hathaway share ($800,000 value) = deal of the century; $20,000 Lamborghini = great deal.
Speaker choked on zeros emotionally from background.
- In person: Write price on paper/calculator, turn/slide it to them.
- Pricing hack: Before quoting, say, "Hey, before I tell you the price, it's super expensive."
- Rich think of their "expensive," say your number, think "Ah, fine."
- Poor brace for big number, so braced when you deliver.
- Creates emotional anchor fitting prospect's buying power; gives breather.
Check if underpriced via close rates tiers:
| Close Rate | Pricing Opportunity |
|---|---|
| 60-80% | 2-3x |
| 50-60% | 1.5-2x |
| 40-50% | 1.25-1.5x |
| 30-40% | Appropriately priced |
| <30% | Improve selling/offer/customers |
At 80% close (8/10), raise 3-4x: may drop to 35% but 35% of 4x revenue = 140% prior revenue.
Qualify leads (lead scoring): Talk only to ideal customers (e.g., million-dollar+ business owners) for higher close rates on high-ticket.
Can't sell same thing as cheaper competitors ("brokies selling to brokies")—sell different category. Price high to make incomparable; prospects analyze independently.
Rich want fast, easy, guaranteed. Pre-do work: pre-choose food, scout locations, deliver to door (costs you $10, they pay $100).
Advanced service businesses charge more: more demand than supply → raise price to equilibrium. Virtuous cycle:
- Higher price → higher margins
- Higher margins → better talent
- Better talent → better service
- Better service → better reputation → more demand → higher price
Pricing signals value to marketplace; customers self-select. Higher price often = better (good rule of thumb).
Rich shop high-to-low: want best value, skip lines, faster, higher quality ingredients, noteworthy makers.
Sell to the rich—they pay better. Better to sell fewer expensive customers than many broke ones. Sell to rich long enough, they make you one of them.
This book (offers book) details it.
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