Ancient Wisdom From Babylon

Introduction

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Okay, I personally have stopped reading any book relating to finances or motivation for a while now. I have read a bunch of them before I discovered most of them are full of rehashed words of another books or they are kind of abstract or the scenarios painted regularly in those books did not apply to my situations or my location. Those books continues to use 'phrases' that have been passed down from many decades ago and are even not fifty percent fact or accurate. One of such is the advise of selling what people 'need' rather than what they 'want'. One only need to look around to figure people actually spend a lot of money on what don't need but want, things that will probably add no value to life after buying them but sometimes have negative effects on their lives. This is no issue of right or wrong as these businesses are legal. People spend mostly on impulse and emotions. That is a story for another day.

The Richest Man In Babylon by George S. George
is about the 'simple' laws of Gold.

Yea, simple because most people have come across those laws at one time or the other. They are too simple that their meanings and applications is lost on us. I don't think anyone can build a lasting wealth without applying those rules. For me, what made the book a good read is style and the real story or the parable the author presents each of the laws with. Okay, lets dive into it.

Babylon was one of the earliest and most developed civilization of that time, more like the London or New York of today. As discovered from different writings and artifacts gotten from the excavation of the site by different archaeologists, the city was well developed in term of infrastructure and human resources even for that age.

Babylon was full of brains in different sectors of life, from great businessmen to engineers among others. The city had no much rainfall but diverted water from its only water source, the Euphrates river, using dam and irrigation canal. It is most probably the first city ever recorded achieve that. The city had only water, from the Euphrates River and rich soil yet it is widely regarded as the richest city and most developed of that time. The city of Babylon's glamour was solely based on the use of great minds. But like the wealthy cities we can point to today, the gap between the rich and the poor was still wide.

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The Feeling of Rebellion - The first step on the road to riches

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The story started with a certain expert chariot builder in Babylon. Bansir was lost in thought instead of work. He looked at the around him at the wealthy Babylon and then to his little workshop, wondering how was so poor in the midst of riches. The thought clearly elevated his sadness. Then entered his best friend Kobbi, the musician who thought Basir must have made a lot of 'gold' for him to sit idle when he should be working hard as he normally does. Kobbi saw it as a good opportunity to borrow some - two shekels from his friend.
Basir complained to his friend about his own empty pocket, he poured out his heart about how worried he was about their life of lacks and how it would affect their children. Misery, they say loves company. The both agreed there must be some secrets to wealth they have not figured out yet as they were the best good at their jobs. They decided to consult their old friend, Arkad, regarded as the richest man in babylon. He certainly knew the road to riches.

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Summary of Arkad's teachings

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Like the most people today, Bansir and Kobbi considered Arkad as 'lucky' but Arkad reproofed their talk. Saying 'the goddess' has little to do with wealth as every man will have own share of good and bad fortunes in his lifetime. Everyone had or would experience abundance for a time. Arkad's shared his personal journey and experience with them in three laws as summarized below.

• At least one tenth of your income is yours to keep
  Most people already have the idea of how important saving is but they rarely do. Because they pay everybody first and rarely have anything to save after. In the present time, we pay the ISP, the cable company, the cloth seller, food seller and others till there is nothing left to pay ourselves.

  
  Arkad advised as he himself learned from Algamish, the money lender, pay yourself first and control your expenses to pay the rest. Put simply. Live on way less than you earn.

• Never take advise from a layman
  There is high chance of losing your savings investing it in business or opportunity you have no deep knowledge of, or entrusting your savings in the hand of someone who is no expert in the business. That was the first mistake 'the richest man in Babylon' made. He gave a brickmaker his life savings to purchase rare jewel for him to resell for high profit. As expected by his mentor, his savings was gone. Seek advise on an investment from those that are expert it, it reduces the risk.
  Invest your savings to multiply it but never invest in what you have no understanding. When it comes to investing, analyze things with caution to avoid regrets.

• Invest wisely and build yourself an army.
  Your first saving is your seed which you water and nourish with more saving and earnings from your investment.

  
  Arkad's second mistake was to be quick to merry with the children of his saving, he killed them before they could start working for him. Merriment can only start when you have an army of slaves (children of your savings) working nonstop for you. Having a rich banquet to early will set you back many months, if not years.

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Conclusion

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Like the wealthiest man in Babylon said, it is about setting your mind to the task and completing it. You become 'luckier' the more you apply the three laws, opportunity don't waste time on the unprepared.
Building wealth is a process. Rush it and you make it difficult and impractical, skip some steps and set yourself back few months or years. Arkad's recommended saying the sentence "A part of all i earned is mine to keep" every morning, noon and night, so you dont get lost in the simplicity.

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This post is motivated by the book "The Richest Man In Babylon" by George S. George. I may share other wisdoms from the book in subsequent post. If you found this interest, watch this space for more.

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Thank you for taking time to read.

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Images From Wikimedia and Pixabay 1,
2, 3, 4, 5