The Richest Man In Babylon - Chapter 2 - The Richest Man In Babylon

Chapter two is the story of Arkad. Arkad was the average young man, born with no inherent physical advantage or silver spoon, who learned the secrets to becoming rich. Bansir and Kobbi from the inquire of Arkad as to his unsurpassed wealth.

"Wealth is a power. With wealth many things are possible... And, when I realized all this, I decided to myself that I would claim my share of the good things of life." - Arkad

I enjoyed the preceding quote because Arkad did not sound pretentious or arrogant. He talked about how with wealth one could build temples for the Gods and how it takes hard work to become wealthy.

Aha! moment #1

"I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep. And so will you" - Algamish (Arkad's mentor)

This is where the saying that you hear at financial workshops comes from, "Pay yourself first."
"Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed." - Algamish

Algamish was a rich man whom Arkad struck a deal with to be mentored by. Algamish mentored Arkad slowly with one principle at a time.

The three laws of successfully handling wealth:

1. Pay yourself first (save a minimum of 1/10th your income) and live on less than you earn
2. Seek advice from those who were competent through their own experience to give it
3. Make your gold work for you. Invest your savings wisely.

Aha moment #2

"Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared." - Arkad

"Enjoy life while you are here. Do not overstrain or try to save too much." - Arkad

Arkad understood the importance of moderation. Living in Southern California there seem to be more people to the extreme of not saving enough than the contrary but Arkad reminds us that 'Life is good and rich with things worthwhile and things to enjoy.'

The Richest Man In Babylon - Chapter 1 - The Man Who Desired Gold

Many summaries and reviews have been written on this timeless classic. I will not be doing an exhaustive book report, but more sharing of my favorite quotes and perhaps my thoughts on the principles taught.

The first chapter of The Richest Man In Babylon is entitled The Man Who Desired Gold. The characters in the chapter are:

Bansir - a chariot builder who finds himself unhappy, poor and longing for a better life.
Kobbi - a musician and Basir's good friend. Also broke and wishing for better circumstances.
Arkad - The richest man in Babylon. A childhood friend of Bansir and Kobbi who had no more than them in their youth.

Bansir and Kobbi reflect upon their financial misery and decide to ask advice from their friend Arkad who was wealthy beyond all else.

Favorite quotes:

"A Man's wealth is not in the purse he carries. A fat purse quickly empties if there be no golden stream to refill it." - Kobbi

"It costs nothing to ask wise advice from a good friend..." - Bansir

"Thou makest me to realize the reason why we have never found any measure of wealth. We never sought it... In thos things toward which we exerted our best endeavors we succeeded." - Kobbi

The Richest Man In Babylon - Intro

I am in the middle of reading The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. I have heard this book spoken of and recommended for years and recently came across a copy. I am deeply enjoying the simple yet sound principles of financial success.

The following two paragraphs are from freewld.

The Richest Man in Babylon is a book by George Samuel Clason which dispenses financial advice through a collection of parables set in ancient Babylon. Through their experiences in business and managing household finance, the characters in the parables learn simple lessons in financial wisdom. By basing these parables in ancient times, but involving situations that modern people can understand and identify with, the author presents these lessons as timeless wisdom that is as relevant today as it was back then.

The book began in 1926 as a series of informational pamphlets. Banks and insurance companies began to distribute these pamphlets, and the most famous ones were eventually compiled into this book.

Over the next few days I will share my notes and thoughts from each chapter. I am hoping that by writing out my thoughts and sharing the principles the book teaches that not only will I become more committed to the tenants but that others may learn of them also.

In today's job market - make yourself useful

I was thinking today about how depressing the unemployment numbers are. Almost as sad are the number of people that are under employed or who are working well below their potential. Most bosses, at least the ones worth working for, don't enjoy letting people go. They especially don't like letting good employees go. I'm a member of a network on Forbes.com and this poll was on the sidebar today. The question was asked to a forum of CEO's.

How does this information give you the edge in being the most useful and valuable employee? Could acting on this information effectively potentially save your job?

For the record, I agreed with the majority of voters. I hate red tape.

Choice

Life gives to all the choice. You can satisfy yourself with mediocrity if you wish. You can be common, ordinary, dull, colorless, or you can channel your life so that it will be clean, vibrant, useful, progressive, colorful, and rich."
— Spencer W. Kimball

Kimball's personal motto was 'Do It!' I guess the 'just' Nike added to it made it a bit more marketable.

Determination

I found this poem in a notebook I kept while I lived in South Africa. I googled it but could not find it online. Here it is as I transcribed it nearly 10 years ago.

Determination

While other may tire or quit in despair,
or feel as if failure is too hard to bear -
I will keep going. Put failures aside,
If I can't keep up, I'll lengthen my stride.
I've made up my mind, Set my mind on a quest,
though many have tried, few gave it their best.
Trying my hardest is what makes me great.
Desire and determination, not fortune and fate.
- Judy Beck

I'm not sure if the grammar is correct, but I really enjoyed the spirit of the poem.

I am the master of my fate, and I am determined to make it great.

Building vs Tearing Down

This poem came to mind as I was teaching a lesson at church this past Sunday. It seems to be a message that I needed perhaps more than the 25 or so men I was supposed to be teaching.

There are a few versions of this, but all with the same message.

I passed one day through a busy town,
and saw them tearing a building down.
With a “Ho, heave ho!” and a husky yell,
they swung a beam and a side wall fell.

I asked the foreman, “Are these men skilled?
The kind you’d hire if you had to build?”
“No,” he chuckled. “No indeed,
the common laborer is all I need.
I can easily destroy in a day or two,
what builders have taken weeks to do.”

I thought to myself as I went on my way,
which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care,
strengthening lives by rule and square,
shaping my peers to a well-made plan,
helping them do the best they can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,
content with the labor of tearing down?

- Author Unknown

I just read an article where a team had mapped out the most stressful counties in America. The results weren't surprising, but they were a bit disheartening. In some areas people are just stressed. I've been going through some business trials and have been more stressed than I'd like to admit in the recent past. As humans we tend to get short fused when we get stressed. Sadly, it is during these tough times when we should be pulling together as families, communities, congregations and the like that we find people allowing the stresses of life to allow them to feel ok with tearing others down.

I'm sharing this more as a 'note to self' than as somebody that has any authority to preach on the subject. A friend of mine shared a the first line of this quote with me while I was in South Africa:

You cannot lift another soul until you are standing on higher ground than he is. You cannot light a fire in another soul unless it is burning in your own soul. - Harold B Lee

So this is my goal, to grow and develop and stand on high ground. To have a fire burning so bright in my soul that I can share that fire with those I have the pleasure of meeting.

Be a builder.

Happy Halloween

This is one of my favorite family pictures we've taken so far. I love this time of year and I hope you have a great Fall.

Come What May, And Love It

Yesterday I shared some of the adversity I'm dealing with. I am very grateful for some words of encouragement that was shared by friends around the globe. Thank you. I was up late dealing with some of the business items that needed attention and decided to search the web for some encouragement and found this link. Youtube had part of this message on video, and I found it very inspirational.



This poem also comes to mind:


"When Things Go Wrong"

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but do not quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.

And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

anon

So, whatever it is that you are going through (because we all have our own challenges right now) stand tall and stick to the fight.

Finishing the race

I usually blog with good news, and this one will end that way too. It's been a tough season for me. A company that I had worked so hard to help build closed it's doors last month. It's never pleasant to see a company close, and it's hard when I had to talk to so many employees about the end of the road. These aren't the friendliest of job searching environments and I wish I could find jobs for each of the amazing people that worked with me. Additionally there is also the financial wake that is left behind to clean up when a company closes. My Father knows how hard its been on me and emailed me this today.



It's painful, but with the help from the Almighty and caring family and friends the race can still be finished.