This is a synopsis and book review of
“THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON”
by George S. Clason
IF YOU FIND THIS BOOK REVIEW HELPFUL — PLEASE PURCHASE THIS BOOK FOR YOUR REFERENCE LIBRARY – MANY IMPORTANT DETAILS, HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS, AND BUSINESS INSIDER KNOWLEDGE IS TO BE FOUND ONLY WITHIN THE TEXT OF THE BOOK ITSELF.
“THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON” was published in 1955 by Hawthorn Books, New York, New York and is now republished by many publishing houses worldwide.
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The (Richest Man in Babylon) is a compilation of pamphlets dealing with personal finance, written as parables set in ancient Babylon. The book is based on the adage “A lean purse is easier to cure than to endure.”
Friends of Arkad approached him saying:
“You, Arkad, are more fortunate than we. You have become the richest man in Babylon while we struggle for existence.” Now these men had all been taught by the same teacher and had played the same games in their youth. They noted that Arkad had not out-performed them in either schooling or the games. So, how could his riches be explained?
Arkad answered his friends: “If you have not acquired more than a bare existence in the years since we were youths, it is because vou either have failed to learn the laws that govern the building of wealth, or else you do not observe them.” He then revealed how he had recognized early that if he was to achieve his youthful desire to accumulate wealth and put it to good use, two things – time and study – would be required.
“As for time, all men have it in abundance. You, each of you, have let slip by sufficient time to have made yourselves wealthy. “Arkad said. “As for study, did not our wise teacher teach us that learning was of two kinds: the one kind being the things we learned and knew, and the other being the training that taught us how to find out what we did not know?”
Arkad went on to share with his friends his story:
As a young man, he had found work inscribing clay tablets in the hall of records.
One day Algamish, the money lender, ordered a copy of a law that must be made ready within a very short time. “Algamish, you are a very rich man,” said Arkad. “Tell me how I may also become rich, and all night I will carve upon the clay, and when the sun rises it shall be completed.” Algamish smiled and replied, “We will call it a bargain.” Arkad worked through the night and fulfilled the task.
Algamish told 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.” By faithfully following this principle, Arkad eventually became the richest man in all Babylon.
Seven Cures for a Lean Purse
After many years of prosperity, Babylon found itself in sore straits. Few people in the city had sufficient money to provide for their families.
That which one man knows can be taught to others.
One hundred teachers assembled in the Temple of Learning, where Arkad instructed them in the seven cures for a lean purse.
The First Cure – Start thy purse to fattening:
“For every ten coins thou placest within thy purse take out for use but nine. Thy purse will start to fatten … and bring satisfaction to thy soul.”
Arkad ended the first class by declaring:
“Which desirest thou the most? Is it the gratification of thy desires of each day? Or is it for substantial belongings? The coins thou takest from thy purse bring the first. The coins thou leavest within it will bring the latter.”
The Second Cure – Control thy expenditures:
“That which each of us calls our ‘necessary expenses’ will always grow equal to our income unless we protest to the contrary.” The key is to institute and observe a budget. “The purpose of a budget is to help thy purse to fatten.
The Third Cure – Make thy gold multiply:
“Put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce it’s kind even as the flocks of the field and bring a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into thy purse.”
The Fourth Cure – Guard thy treasures from loss:
The first rule for sound investing is “security for thy principal.” Study investments wisely before parting with hard-earned money.
The Fifth Cure – Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment:
By owning your home you can invest a portion of the nine-tenths of your money that you live on, and make your worth grow more rapidly.
The Sixth Cure – Insure a future income:
Plan and save now for the time when you do not have the capacity to earn.
The Seventh Cure – Increase thy ability to earn:
“The more… we know, the more we may yearn. That man who seeks to learn more of his craft shall be richly rewarded.”
Along with these cures, Arkad continually advised against “overstraining” (trying to save too much) and becoming afraid to spend.” He suggested hard work, compassion to those less fortunate, and making life “rich with things worthwhile and things to enjoy.”
He also counseled:
Desires must be simple and definite. They defeat their own purpose should they be too many, be confusing, or be beyond a man’s training to accomplish.
Meet the Goddess of Good Luck
In ancient Babylon, those who sought greater understanding would meet in the Temple of Learning. There, rich and poor alike questioned one another and debated many Issues.
On one evening, Arkad presided in the Temple of Learning over a discussion on how a person could attract the Goddess of Good Luck. The men mourned their lack of success – at finding unclaimed valuables, at the gaming tables, and at the race tracks – finding that none of these had made their fortune.
The group then observed those among them who had found good fortune in their professions, and concluded that “good luck can be enticed by accepting opportunity”. In other words, “luck” is created by taking action and overcoming procrastination.
The Laws of Gold
A bag heavy with gold or a clay tablet carved with words of wisdom:
if thou hadst thy choice, which wouldst thou choose?
This question Kalabab asked of his servants. When they all responded that they would take the gold, Kalabab told them the story of Nomasir, Arkad’s son.
The father called his son Nomasir to stand before him and stated that he would be required to prove himself in order to inherit Arkad’s estate. He gave Nomasir a bag of gold and a tablet which had carved upon it the five laws of gold.
Nomasir traveled to Ninevah to prove himself to his father.
He had terrible experiences with the gold, spending it foolishly and without thought. Soon he had no money.
At that point, he turned to the tablets and studied…
The Five Laws of Gold.
Here he read his father’s wisdom about reserving one-tenth of all earnings and making your gold multiply, and here he also found new wisdom:
Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
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.
When Nomasir discerned and applied the Five Laws of Gold, he was able to increase that which his father had given him many times over.
The Gold Lender of Babylon
Rodan had just received a tribute from the king: fifty pieces of gold.
He retired to the gold lender to discuss the desires of family members to borrow some of that money. The gold lender advised Rodan that if his desire was to help his friends and family, he should do it in a way that would not bring their burdens upon him and the lender illustrated this concept in this parable:
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A farmer, who could understand what the animals said to each other, did linger in the farmyard each evening just to listen to their words. One evening he did hear the ox bemoaning to the ass the hardness of his lot: “I do labor pulling the plow from morning until night …. But you are a creature of leisure. You are trapped with a colorful blanket and do nothing more than carry our master about where he wishes to go. When he goes nowhere you do rest and eat the green grass all day.
The ass replied, My good friend, you do work very hard and should ease your lot. Therefore, in the morning, when the slave comes to fetch you to plow, be upon the ground and bellow much that he may say you are sick and cannot work.
The ox did as the ass had suggested, whereupon the farmer commanded, “Hitch the ass to the plow–for the plowing must go on. All that day the ass, who had only intended to help his friend, found himself compelled to do the ox’s task.”
A man should not be “swayed by the fantastic plans of impractical men.”
Every time a man allows a gold piece to leave his purse, he must be satisfied that, in time, he can reclaim it with a profit.
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The Camel Trader of Babylon
When a person is in debt he loses the soul of a free man and becomes a slave. But if he has the determination to regain his soul, a way can be found.
Recently five clay tablets, Babylonian in origin, were sent to Professor Caldwell to be translated. The tablets were records of a camel trader of Babylon and contained the camel trader’s plan to get out of debt.
He had resolved to put away ten percent of his income, live on seventy percent, and pay twenty percent to his creditors. Most of his creditors found this acceptable because they were sure to ultimately be paid in full.
Professor Caldwell and his wife were themselves in financial debt and decided to try this approach. They found that the ancient plan, which had worked for a humble Babylonian camel trader long ago, worked just as well for them… today!
