Back in the days, Felix Dennis was offered to sell his business to Ziff Publishing and to, together conquer, the European Market.

Felix declined the offer, teamed up with VNU to fight Ziff back, it took them everything, 2 years of profit were burned in making sure Ziff’s venture was a failure. Ziff finally gave up after losing millions of dollars.

Looking back, does Felix thinks it was worth it?

No. Absolutely not. It was stupid. Glorious, but stupid.

I would have listened more closely to Phil and Bill. I would have negotiated my balss off. I would have become “the enemy”, and I would have led the charge to rip the limbs from any bastard who stood in the way of Ziff Davis Dennis in Europe.

Remember that you’re in the business of getting rich, not in the magazine business, put the ego aside for a sec.

-How to get rich, p. 208