1. BE TENACIOUS:
“Anybody who can be a halfway, man but the one who rises above this class, is the one who keeps everlastingly pushing.”- J Ogden Armour.
More than any other , one lesson stands out from the books I have read: Never Give Up. If you have a goal or a dream, pursue it. If there is a cause that you truly believe in, then fight for it. That is not to say you should doggedly chase greed or gluttony, but that you should do your best to achieve those things that are important to you. Great men struggle through daunting obstacles to reach their destinations. In everything that you do, do your best. And remember, the road to wealth is paved with goals.
2. EXERCISE SELF-CONTROL:
“Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follows it”. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin famously attempted to codify his quest for self-control. Franklin committed himself to thirteen virtues and he developed a system for tracking how disciplined he was in his daily pursuit of these ideals. There is nothing wrong with an occasional indulgence. But when the indulgence become a habit or worse, a vice this can affect your life. Even destroy it. If you have habits that prevent you from fulfilling your potentials, find a way to boost your self-control.
3. DO THE RIGHT THING:
“To be truly rich, regardless of his fortune or lack of it, a man must live by his own values. If those values were not personally meaningful, then no amount of money gained can hide the emptiness of life without them”.-John Paul Getty
Have a code of honour and live by it. Your code of honour might come from your faith, or from your education or from your family. Whatever soured, live by these values. Life is filled with temptations. The more you accomplish, the more people will tempt you with offers for quick gains or passing pleasures. Many men succumb to these but those who rarely achieve what they might have if they had stuck to their principles. The books I have read are filled with stories of men who have resisted the urge to compromise and who believe that this has been a key to their success. Don’t cheat, be honest, work hard and embrace the golden rule.
4. EMBRACE THE GOLDEN RULE:
“Good will is one of the few really important assets of life. A determined man can win almost anything that he goes after but unless, in his getting, he gains good will he has not profited much”.- Henry Ford
Success could be measured by how a man treated others (James Penny). In his book, Fifty Years with the golden rule, he describes his life-long adherence to this maxim: “Do unto other as you would have then do unto you”. Other great men believed the same. They believed that their fortune came not from pursuing money itself, but by producing something of value to others. But this principle also holds true outside of business. In your dealings with your friends, your family and with a stranger, treat others as you would like to be treated. Doing so builds social capital, strengthening the fibre of the community.
5. PAY YOURSELF FIRST:
“Many a man is poor today, although he has worked like a slave, simply because he could not save”.- Orison Marden
Another common thread in most of these books and in personal-finance classics like the richest man in Babylon is the importance of saving. “Pay yourself first” the old adage goes and it’s a great advice. If you will set aside ten or twenty percent of all that you earn, your fortune will grow far beyond that of your peers. Some of these money should be invested in a manner that makes you comfortable. (You should be able to learn about the concept of asset allocation and diversification, if you haven’t already) some of your money should be set aside on a high-interest savings account to act as an emergency fund. When you save, when you pay yourself first, you are using the strength of your youth to insure your uncertain tomorrow.
6. AVOID DEBT:
“Be assured that it gives much more pain to the mind to be in debt than to do without any article whatever which we may seem to want”.- Thomas Jefferson
Debt is slavery. When you owe money to another man, you are obligated to work for his benefit, not yours. Many young men struggle with debt. I did so myself. But those who are not able to overcome their spending habits are likely to find themselves always poor. When you pay interest to some else, you cannot earn interest for yourself. When you’re in debt, your options are limited. You cannot choose, you cannot quit a job you hate. If you do, how will your bills get paid? To be sure, a certain amount of debt is useful in business but make it a policy in your life never to borrow for something that will decrease in value. And if you’re already behind, make it priority to get out of debt as soon as possible.
7. KEEP WELL:
“The foundation of success in life is good health: that is the substratum fortune; it is the basis of happiness. A person cannot accumulate a fortune very well when he is sick”.- P.T. Barnum
Your health is your greatest asset. If you lack health, you cannot work and cannot produce an income. Health allows you to engage in productive activities at work and at play. It allows you to enjoy the company of your friends and family. And it allows you to live with vigor. Guard your health. Do not neglect your body. Eat well. Exercise regularly. If you drink or smoke, do so in moderation. You will not live forever but with some care and foresight, you may get a little closer.
8. DO NOT COVET:
“By wishing to be what he calls up-to-date as his friends or boon companions, many a young man mortgages his future”.- Orison Marden
If never pays to compare yourself to others. For one, you can find yourself longing to own the same things they do. Your best friend buys a new ford mustang and suddenly you want one too. The guys from work go out for drinks on Friday night but your are broke, the temptation to join in, to have what others have can be unbearable. Focus on only yourself and how the things you own and do relate to your goals. Don’t be jealous of others. (This is one message in the famous essay, “Acres of Diamonds”: instead of looking elsewhere for wealth, look at your own life.)
9. LIVE MODESTLY:
“This, then is held to be the duty of the man of wealth… to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or arrogance”-Andrew Carnegie.
This is the flip side to “Do Not Covet”. Just as you should not allow the behavior of your friends to influence your spending decisions, so too, be conscious of your influence on them. If you have money don’t flaunt it. And if you don’t have money don’t pretend you do. It’s fine to buy quality products, but don’t be flashy. Live simply and well.
10. PRACTICE PATIENCE:
“No matter how great the talent or the effort, some things just take time: you can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant”- Warren Buffet.
Too many men want to “get rich quick.” They are on the lookout for fast money. They also want to lose weight now, to be great golfers now, to be in management now. This obsession with “now” is a problem. In his new book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell writes that the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is in 10,000 hours. That is, those who achieve mastery have patiently practiced their craft for at least 10,000 hours which is the equivalent of five years of full-time work. When people ask me why my personal finance blog is so successful, one of my responses is that I have worked at it 60+ hours a week for the past three years. Practice may not “make perfect” but it certainly breeds success.
11. GIVE GENEROUSLY:
“Thrift does not end with itself but extends its benefits to others it found hospitals, endows charities, establishes colleges and extends educational influences” – Samuel Smiles.
I was not raised in a culture of giving. Its only something I am beginning to learn in middle age. But as I read about the choices of men have come before me, it is clear that they have derived satisfaction (and done a lot of good) by giving generously not just money but also of time and knowledge. Do not hoard the things you have. Share them so that others might profit too.
12. LEARNING FROM THE AVERAGE JOE:
Over the past few months, I have enjoyed reading the real-life stories of how great men became great. But I have also found it enlightening to read about the experiences of the average day guy the fellows like you and me. One book I strongly recommend (especially considering the state of the economy) is Hard Times by Studs Terkel. Hard Times is an oral history of the Great Depression. Terkel interviewed scores of men and women about their experiences during the 1930s. their stories are amazing and they can offer great insight about how we can live better lives today.
Go forth my friends and do great things.
