At the beginning of each chapter, the main character appears as the narrator of the story and the creator of the rules comprising the plan to getting rich. He weighs in as an authority on amassing wealth, writing and reading stories, having contingency plans, debt management, the usefulness of glad-handing to cut through red tape, and more. When he switches to the narrative format of the book, he uses examples from his life to illustrate the principles he is teaching. However, at these points, he asks the reader to become him and switches to present tense, referring to himself as “you.” In this way, the reader—who is ostensibly following the rules on the path to riches—can step into his shoes and experience the same events as the narrator as he puts his plan for success into practice.

After being raised in a poor village, the narrator becomes a skilled salesman of expired food, then a water bottling entrepreneur, and finally, a truly wealthy water magnate. During the book, he dabbles in fundamentalism, becomes infatuated with the pretty girl, marries, fathers a son, and loses his wife. His mother dies when he is young and his father never recovers from the loss, putting the narrator in the position of supporting his father emotionally.