The Richest Man in Babylon: Our Entrepreneurial Book of the Week
Our entrepreneurial recommended must read book of the week is The Richest Man in Babylon by George Samuel Clason. The book was first published in 1926, it is only about 144 pages. The Richest Man in Babylon despite being set thousands of years ago in the historical city of Babylon, the stories and principles seem just as applicable today as they did in ancient times.
The book 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. There are tales of how Arkad, the richest man of Babylon, achieved his wealth.The story sprang from the characters Bansir who was a chariot builder and Kobbi who was a musician. The two had become the best at their craft but yet had no money and were poor. They went out to seek the advice of their childhood friend Arkad who in contrast had grown very rich and amassed fortunes.
The lessons that Arkad provided for his friends was the premise of the book and they are lessons of wealth building habits that I believe every rich person had followed to accumulate their wealth. Below are lessons in this book that has helped many others become financially stable and wealthy and I believe these lessons will help all of us build a firm financial foundation on our way to becoming the richest person we can become.
Ahead of any person lies their future with ambitions and dreams. To fulfill those ambitions and realize those dreams, people need to learn how to be successful with money.
The book taught us that the basic principles of effective money management are:
1. Save at least 10-percent of all that you earn for an investment fund for the future.
2. Learn to live on 90-percent or less of your income.
3. Invest your accumulated capital into projects that will provide a safe, steady income, taking full advantage of compounding of the interest received.
4. Invest only in areas in which you have expertise or with people who are experienced.
5. Buy the house in which you live so you don’t waste any money on rent. 6. Have a realistic insurance program (Protect your wealth)
7. Always keep working at various ways and means of increasing your income.
The book left us a parting word of advise as regards principles of ‘Good luck’ The person of action, who is able to jump at whatever business propositions are presented, is in a stronger position to attract good luck than the type of person who sits back and waits for everything to be presented on a plate.
A person must not procrastinate but must strike while the opportunity is ripe. “Good luck can be enticed by accepting opportunity. (Good luck can be earned when one is aware of opportunity, and prepared for them.) Men of action are favored by the Goddess of Good Luck.”
Kindly ensure you read this book and learn more for your self.
