The first time I interacted with this book was when I heard a bit of its narration in 2017. I didn’t like it because the narrator’s voice did not appeal to me. In his voice, there was no ‘gold’.
Fast forward to 2018, I have listened to the audiobook half a dozen times yet it is the first month of the year. What changed, you may ask. Why the sudden obsession?
The Man Who Desired Gold
The book starts in a rather poor setting; a thoughtful Bansir the chariot builder is introduced. Working from his workshop just about his house, he is thoughtfully discouraged at the leanness of his purse.
His wife appeared at the door and serves a reminder that he needs to keep working in order to afford the days meal.
He is returned to normalcy by the appearance of his best friend Kobbi, the musician. The two men talk about their state of ‘lack’ and how they wish to fatten their lean purses with gold.
We will seek the advice of Arkad, The Richest Man In Babylon.
Profound Results, Simple Methods.
This book is gold; it contains simple lessons about how to create and maintain wealth. Important lessons are drawn from ancient Babylon. However old they seem, they hold true today.
How then does one cure a lean purse?
- Start thy purse to fatten by paying yourself. A part of what you earn is yours to keep. Ten per cent to be precise.
- Control thy expenditure, draw up a budget that will support you. ‘Necessary expenses’ will always grow to equal one’s income unless one protests. It is enough to live upon the nine parts left.
- Make thy gold multiply, learn how to invest it.
- Guard thy treasure against loss, be careful about the investment schemes you get into.
- Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment, you can now save and your gold is multiplying; go ahead and get a home for yourself to cut back on paying rent.
- Ensure a future to come, our days are numbered and one knows not when they will die. Have a form of insurance to protect those you will leave behind.
- Increase thy ability to earn, it is not enough to complain about tough economic times yet you are not doing anything to change the situation. Take up a second and third job, turn your passion into profit and see how great things will turn out.
Five Laws Of Gold
- Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
- When invested wisely, gold laboureth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
- Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
- Should a man invest in businesses or scheme he is not familiar with, gold will slip away from him.
- Gold flees a man who would force it to impossible earnings or who follows the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.
In ancient Babylon, men were the providers in a home and women were the homemakers, caregivers and caretakers.
The wisdom in this book was directed to the men of old Babylon whose purses were ever lean. Today, it will apply to us all, men and women with lean purses. Tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Pick up this book today and get out of survival mode.
“Thriving. That’s fighting… Surviving is barely getting by.”
― Jillian Michaels
