My summary of: The Richest Man In Babylon – written by George S. Clason

My summary of The Richest Man In Babylon – written by George S. Clason

The past couple of weeks I have been reading The Richest Man In Babylon. It’s been an enormously interesting and inspiring book. Really powerful to read all the pages and discover the 6000-year-old Babylonian knowledge. The best part is that all of it is still relevant and applicable today. This book describes the fundamental tools for creating wealth and mastering finances. I have learned a lot. This is a must read book! If you can’t wait or only want to know the golden nuggets, here’s my summary: 

The Man Who Desired Gold

• “It costs nothing to ask wise advice from a good friend.” find a mentor who can teach you his knowledge.
• “Income that is the thing. I wish an income that will keep flowing into my purse whether I sit upon the wall or travel to far lands.” find a constant flowing stream of passive residual income. Independent of space and time.
• “Thou makest me to realize the reason why we have never found any measure of wealth. We never sought it.” if you want wealth. Focus on obtaining it.

The Richest Man In Babylon 

• “Fickle Fate is a vicious goddess who brings no permanent good to anyone. On the contrary, she brings ruin to almost every man upon whom she showers unearned gold. She makes wanton spenders, who soon dissipate all they receive and are left beset by overwhelming appetites and desires they have not the ability to gratify. Yet others whom she favors become misers and hoard their wealth, gearing to spend what they have, knowing they do not possess the ability to replace it. They further are beset by fear of robbers and doom themselves to lives of emptiness and secret misery.” – Arkad
• “I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep. And so will you.” Pay yourself first!
• Pay yourself not less than one tenth of every coin you earn.
• “He who takes advice about his savings from one who is inexperienced in such matters, shall pay with his savings for proving the falsity of their opinions.” Only take advice from experts.
• Algamish’s three laws of successfully handling wealth:
  • First learn how to live upon less than you earn.
  • Next learn to seek advice from those who are competent through their own experience to give it.
  • Lastly, learn to make gold work for you.
  • How to acquire money. How to keep it. How to use it.
• A part of all I earn is mine to keep. Impress yourself with the idea. Fill yourself with the thought. Then take whatever portion seems wise. But let it be not less than one-tenth and lay it by. Soon you will realize what a rich feeling it is to own a treasure upon which you alone have claim. As it grows it will stimulate you. A new joy of life will thrill you. Greater efforts will come to you to earn more. For of your increased earnings, will not the same percentages be also yours to keep?

The Seven Cures For A Lean Purse

1. Start thy purse to fattening. “For each ten coins I put in, to spend but nine.” Which diserest thou most? Is it gratification of thy desire of each day, quick things gone and forgotten? Or is it substantial belongings, income-bringing investments?
2. Control thy expenditures. “Budget thy expenses that thou mayest have coins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments and to gratify thy worthwhile desires without spending more than nine-tenths of thy earnings.”
3. Make thy gold multiply. “To put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce its kind even as the flocks of the field and help bring to thee income, a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into thy purse.” Compound interest: “Each time I loaned to him, I loaned back also on the rental he paid to me. Therefore not only did my capital increase, but its earnings likewise increased.”
4. Guard thy treasures from lost. “Guard thy treasure from loss by investing only where thy principal is safe, where it may be reclaimed if desirable and with wise men. Secure the advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of gold. Let their wisdom protect thy treasure from unsafe investments.”
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment.” Own thy own home.”
6. Insure a future income. “Provide in advance for the needs of thy growing age and the protection of thy family.” No man can afford not to insure a treasure for his old age and the protection of his family, no matter how prosperous his business and his investments may be. Constantly save a small amount during the many years to come.
7. Increase thy ability to earn. “To cultivate thy own powers, to study and become wiser, to become more skillful, to so act as to respect thyself. Thereby shalt thou acquire confidence in thyself to achieve thy carefully considered desires.” Always do the affairs of man change and improve because keen-minded men seek greater skill that they may better solve those upon whose patronage they depend. Therefore, I urge all men to be in the front rank of progress and not to stand still, lest they be left behind.

“Go thou fort and practice these truths that thou mayest prosper and grow wealthy, as is thy right. Go thou fort and teach these truths that every honorable subject of his majesty may also share liberally in the ample wealth of our beloved city.”

Meet The Goddess Of Good Luck

• Good luck waits to come to that man who accepts opportunity.
• To attract good luck to oneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities.
• Good luck can be enticed by accepting opportunity.
• Those eager to grasp opportunities for their betterment, do attract the interest of the good goddess. She is ever anxious to aid those who please her. Men of action please her best. Action will lead thee forward to the successes thou dost desire.

The Five Laws Of Gold

1. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
2. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
3. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
4. Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in business or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep.
5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.

The Gold Lender Of Babylon 

• Gold bringeth unto its possessor responsibility and a changed position to his fellow men. It bringeth fear lest he lose it or be tricked away from him. It bringeth a feeling of power and ability to do good. Likewise, it bringeth opportunities whereby his very good intentions may bring him into difficulties.
• Moral of the ox’ and ass’ tale: “If you desire to help thy friend, do so in a way that will not bring thy friend’s burdens upon thyself.”
• Only lend to borrowers who can repay.
• Humans in the throes of great emotion are not safe risk for the lender.
  • 1 keep thy gold save. Gold slippeth away in unexpected ways from those unskilled guarding it. As well as let others lose it for thee.
  • 2. Earn more gold. Gold wisely lent may even double itself with its earnings.
• Better a little caution, then a great regret.

The Walls Of Babylon

Behind the impregnable walls of insurance, savings accounts and dependable investments, we can guard ourselves against the unexpected tragedies that may enter any door and seat themselves before any fireside. “We cannot afford to be without adequate protection.”

The Camel Trader Of Babylon 

• Do you have the soul of a slave or the soul of a free man? Free men face their problems and solve them!
• “The soul of a fee man looks at life as a series of problems to be solved and solved them, while the soul of a slave whines, ‘What can I do who am but a slave?’.”
• “Where the determination is, the way can be found.” –> law of attraction.

The clay tablets from Babylon

The tablets describe 3 purposes.

• First, one-tenth of all I earn shall be set aside as my own to keep.
• Second, seven-tenths of all I earn shall be used to provide a home, clothes to wear, and food to eat, with a bit extra to spend, that our lives be not lacking pleasure and enjoyment.
• Third, each time the moon is full, two-tenths of all I have earned provide that my debts shall be paid.

The luckiest man in Babylon

“Work attracted his many friends who admired his industry and the success it brought. Work brought him the honors he enjoyed so much in Damascus. Work brought him all those things I have approved. And I thought work was fit only for slaves.” “Life is rich with many pleasures for men to enjoy. Each has its place. I am glad that work is not reserved for slaves. Were that the case I would be deprived of my greatest pleasure. Many things do I enjoy but nothing takes the place of work.”

An Historical Sketch Of Babylon 

Babylon is an outstanding example of man’s ability to achieve great objectives, using whatever means are at his disposal.