the richest man in babylon for 2day!

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You Must Want toBe Better Off

It is part of the cure to wish to be cured.

SENECA

John and Mary were discouraged abouttheir financial situation—and for good reason.They had been married for seven years and hadtwo children. John worked at a factory and Maryworked at a law office. Both made reasonable sala-ries, but they had little to show for their efforts.

They made enough to pay most bills, butwere behind on their credit cards. They went tothe lake for a week each summer. They had occa-sional nights out, but often they were too tired to

go out. Renting movies andbuying pizza was about it.

It was starting tolook as if nothing wouldever change. John and

Are you running

hard but getting

nowhere?

2 THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON FOR TODAY

POO

R

THE R

ICH

Too many hardworkingpeople have little to showfor it.

Mary felt a bit likehamsters running in awheel. They keptrunning but didn’tget anywhere. This is

the situation of many average hardworkingpeople. They make payments for their housing,for their cars, for health insurance, life insur-ance, credit cards, and more. They work hardbut have little to look forward to. This is a prob-lem in all countries.

John and Mary wanted to get ahead, but theydidn’t know how to direct their efforts.

On a philosophical level,this type of situation is a prob-lem for the capitalist system.Despite an unequal distribution

of wealth, however, the capitalist system hasproved to be better than any al-ternative. Some people,like Bill Gates, makemore money than any-body could spend.Others, like John andMary, make less thanthey need to live fulllives. Fortunately, you can

Free enterpriseis uneven.

YOU MUST WANT TO BE BETTER OFF 3

attain financial success without inventing the“next great thing.”

Back to John and MaryWhen they had too much month left at the

end of the money, John and Mary would stretchout paying bills and would use their credit cardsfor groceries and gas. Nobody went hungry, andthey had a big-screen TV, a high-speed Internet con-nection, two cars, and a nice stereo. They weren’tbad off, but there was always money pressure.

John was a traditionalguy and felt responsible fordoing something about theirfinancial situation. But hedidn’t know what to do. He

was a good worker but wasn’t likely to start hisown business. He might be able to get an extrapart-time job, but it wouldn’t pay that much.Mary was willing to do her part by working andtaking care of the house, but she didn’t knowanything about handling money either. And she’dlike to spend more time at home while the kidswere still young.

John and Mary didn’t have to go far to seepeople like themselves, struggling to make ends

How do youlearn aboutmoney?


meet, in the neighboring tracthouses. In fact, complaintsabout money were commonat the bowling alley and thelocal restaurants where theyoccasionally went with their friends.

Enter RobertoIt was the next day after work, when John was

having a beer with Roberto, that the topic of moneycame up again.

Roberto said, “You know, John, we’re alwayscomplaining about not having enough money, butwhen are we going to do something about it?”

“What do you expect me to do?” asked John.“Those ads on the Internet are scams, and I don’twant to start selling vitamins or some other prod-uct to my friends. Sure, some people make moneythat way, but that’s not for me.”

If We’re So Smart, Why Aren’tWe Rich?

“The closest I’ve come to big money wasin a dream,” said John. “In the dream, I hadmoney in the bank and could afford to take my


wife out to fancy restaurants whenever it wasmy turn to cook. We took a cruise to Europe andtraveled around to fancy places for a month. Thekids were taken care of by our live-in help. I wentto society charity parties and gave my churchenough for the new addition. We were as happyas newlyweds.”

“So why are you so grumpy? In fact, I coulduse a dream like that myself. I’m so far down, I

don’t even dream richanymore,” said Roberto.

“I’m grumpy be-cause when I woke up, Ifelt even poorer by con-

trast. It’s time we did something about money.We’ve known each other since we were kids. Weplayed on the team together in high school. Wedrink together. We work together. We’re as smartas most of the people we know and smarter than alot of them.”

Act on Your Desire to Succeed“We’ve put in the hours and have been good

workers,” said John. “We make decent salaries.We live in the richest country in the world, yet wehave nothing to show for it. We’re almost middle-

Disappointment canmotivate you tochange.


Dreams are a dime a dozen . . .

it’s their execution that counts.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT


aged and don’t have $100 in our pockets to splurgewith!”

“I agree, John, but I don’t like to be remindedof it. I don’t see my kids much since the divorce,but I worry about them. Not only would I like themto be able to go to college, I’d like them to do bet-ter than we have. But I don’t see what good talkingabout it does.”

“I’ve avoided thinking about it too. Butenough’s enough. I’ve drifted for too long!”

“Look John, I know the feeling. In the backof my mind, maybe I figured that good people gettheir rewards. Of course, I of all people am notparticularly virtuous, but I guess I was hoping thatsomething would happen to me. Like maybe you’dwin the lottery and share it with me!”

Tr y Something New“You know, Roberto,” said John, “we’ve

never talked about this. Maybe we can encourageeach other to do something different. You knowthat old saying, ‘If you keep doing what you’vealways done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve al-ways got.’”


It’s okay tomake money.

“Well,” said Roberto,“the way I heard it wasthat Einstein said the defi-nition of insanity is doingthe same thing over andover and expecting a newresult.”

“Same thing. The point is that we need to trysomething different if we want things to be better.”

“John, sometimes I feel a little guilty aboutthe idea of making money. My mother’s relativeswere all in unions and they used to say that anyrich guy was a crook.”

“I know the feeling,” said John. “And someof those guys are crooks, pay-ing themselves big salarieseven when their companieslose money, while they’re

asking for job and salary cuts from the workers.Look at all the bankrupt companies and CEOs whohad ‘golden parachutes’ in the last few years.

“Maybe the first thing we need to do is de-cide it’s all right to have more money. That’s oneway we can help each other. And another waywould be to spend more time with people whohave money. We only hang out with guys like uswho never get ahead.”

If you keep doingwhat you’ve alwaysdone, you’ll keepgetting what you’vealways got.


“You know, John, I justsaw Bob Kozlowski. He’s theone guy from our neighborhoodwho’s made it big. He has hisown company and he’s a

friendly guy. Why don’t we ask his advice?”“Great idea, Roberto. He’s supposed to be

the richest guy in town. He’s even on some gov-ernment economic advisory panel. We need anew approach. Maybe he can help us if he hasthe time.”

“I wonder if the reason we’ve never had anymoney is that we’ve never really tried to get it.

Many people think that for one person toget rich, another has to be poor (a “zero-sum game”). That’s not true. The moreproductive we all are, the more there isavailable for us all to share. The stockmarket is an example. Stocks can keepgoing up as the companies produce moreand make more money. No one has to losemoney over the long term.

Use a buddysystem formotivation.


Find skilledadvisers.

The secret of getting ahead is

just getting started.

MARK TWAIN

We’ve succeeded at our jobs be-cause we wanted to. Maybe wecan succeed with money by focus-ing on it. And asking for advice

from people who have already succeeded is a goodstart. Let’s make an appointment with Bob.”

the richest man in babylon for 2day!

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