The Art of Making Money

Reviewed by Diario de un Inversor · UpdatedJune 13, 2026

Our review

Mario Borghino proposes a thesis that diverges from the personal finance canon: wealth is not built primarily through saving or investing, but through developing the skills the market rewards disproportionately — leadership, negotiation, value creation, the ability to sell. The argument is that a person's greatest financial asset is not their investment portfolio but their earning potential, and that potential is amplified by competencies, not financial products. The book speaks more clearly to entrepreneurs and executives than to salaried employees, and for that segment the framing has real coherence. The most notable limitation is that Borghino writes with a Latin American context in mind — the regulatory, tax, and capital-access environment differs significantly from Spain or Europe. The "earn more before optimizing what you earn" thesis is also correct but incomplete: without spending discipline, income growth can coexist with net worth deterioration, a well-documented phenomenon. The style is direct and motivational, with occasional risk of drifting into generic self-help territory.

Key takeaways

• A person's earning potential is their most important financial asset, and it is expanded through competencies rather than products.
• Negotiation is a trainable technical skill with direct, quantifiable impact on career-long earnings.
• Creating tangible value for others — clients, employers, partners — is the most robust long-term wealth-building mechanism.
• Increasing income without managing spending does not produce wealth: financial discipline is the necessary complement to ambition.

Fact

Mario Borghino is a Mexican business consultant with over 30 years of experience advising executives and entrepreneurs across Latin America. The book was published in 2012.