Skip to Content

27 Best J. Paul Getty Quotes and Advice for Creating Wealth

Today, I will share with you some famous business quotes of Billionaire Oil Baron; Jean Paul Getty. But before I do that, let’s take a quick review of J. Paul Getty’s bio. J. Paul Getty was a billionaire Oil Baron. He founded and controlled Getty Oil Company and two hundred other related companies. J. Paul Getty is best known for his risk bearing capacity and his many failed marriages.

J. Paul Getty is not on our list of school drop out billionaires because he holds a degree. He died leaving some of his wealth to the Getty Foundation; a foundation he created while alive. Before his death, he authored a book “How to be rich” and left behind some strategies for acquiring wealth. Below are some of J. Paul Getty’s quotes and strategies for acquiring wealth.

J. Paul Getty Quotes and Advice for Creating Wealth

1. “Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.”

2. “Buy when everyone else is selling and hold when everyone else is buying. This is not merely a catchy slogan. It is the very essence of successful investments.”

3. “My formula for success? Rise early, work late, strike oil.”

4. “I have no complex about wealth. I have worked very hard for my money; producing things people need.”

5. “To build wealth today, you must be in your own business.”

“You must take risks, both with your own money or with borrowed money. Risk taking is essential to business growth.”

“Seek advice on risk from the wealthy who still take risks, not friends who dare nothing more than a football bet.”

8. “You must not only learn to live with tension, you must seek it out. You must learn to thrive on stress.”

9. “Men of means look at making money as a game which they love to play.”

10. “Build wealth as a by product of your business success. If wealth is your only objective in business, you will probably fail.”

11. “Wealth is only a benefit of the game of money. If you win, the money will be there.”

12. “I’d rather have one percent of the efforts of 100 people than 100 percent of my own efforts.”

13. “A billion dollar is not what it used to be.”

“Patience; this is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves.”

15. “Once you have made it, you will understand that any business is limited in the challenges it offers. You will want and need other games to play, so you will look for other ventures to hold your interest.”

16. “Books like proverbs receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of all the ages through which they have passed.”

17. “I hate to be a failure. I hate and regret the failure of my marriages. I would gladly give all my millions for just one last marital success.”

18. “If you can count your millions, you are not a billionaire.”

“If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.”

“In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.”

21. “Oil is like a wild animal, whoever captures it has it.”

22. “No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or “get rich” in business by being a conformist.”

24. “The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.”

25. “The man who comes up with a means of doing or producing almost anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his finger tips.”

26. “The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.”

27. “To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all that is possible to know about that business.”

“Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine and eminently unsatisfying.”