2022-10-25_The_Richest_Man_in_Babylon
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00:00:30.000 | In Old Babylon, there once lived a certain very rich man named Arkad.
00:00:36.000 | Far and wide, he was famed for his great wealth.
00:00:39.400 | Also, was he famed for his liberality.
00:00:43.000 | He was generous in his charities.
00:00:45.000 | He was generous with his family.
00:00:47.000 | He was liberal in his own expenses.
00:00:50.000 | But nevertheless, each year, his wealth increased more rapidly than he spent it.
00:00:55.000 | And there were certain friends of younger days who came to him and said,
00:00:58.000 | "You, Arkad, are more fortunate than we.
00:01:01.000 | You have become the richest man in all Babylon while we struggle for existence.
00:01:06.000 | You can wear the finest garments and you can enjoy the rarest foods,
00:01:10.000 | while we must be content if we can clothe our families in raiment that is presentable and feed them as best we can."
00:01:18.000 | Yet once, we were equal.
00:01:21.000 | We studied under the same master.
00:01:23.000 | We played in the same games.
00:01:25.000 | And in neither the studies nor the games did you outshine us.
00:01:28.000 | And in the years since, you have been no more an honorable citizen than we.
00:01:32.000 | Nor have you worked harder or more faithfully insofar as we can judge.
00:01:36.000 | Why then should a fickle fate single you out to enjoy all the good things of life
00:01:42.000 | and ignore us who are equally deserving?"
00:01:46.000 | Thereupon, Arkad remonstrated with them, saying,
00:01:50.000 | "If you have not acquired more than a bare existence in the years since we were youths,
00:01:55.000 | it is because you either have failed to learn the laws that govern the building of wealth,
00:01:59.000 | or else you do not observe them.
00:02:02.000 | Fickle fate is a vicious goddess who brings no permanent good to anyone.
00:02:07.000 | On the contrary, she brings ruin to almost every man upon whom she showers unearned gold.
00:02:13.000 | She makes wanton spenders who soon dissipate all they receive
00:02:19.000 | and are left beset by overwhelming appetites and desires they have not the ability to gratify.
00:02:25.000 | Yet others whom she favors become misers and hoard their wealth,
00:02:30.000 | fearing to spend what they have, knowing they do not possess the ability to replace it.
00:02:35.000 | They further are beset by fear of robbers
00:02:39.000 | and doom themselves to lives of emptiness and secret misery.
00:02:43.000 | Others there probably are, who can take unearned gold and add to it
00:02:48.000 | and continue to be happy and contented citizens.
00:02:51.000 | But so few are they, I know of them but by hearsay.
00:02:55.000 | Think you of the men who have inherited sudden wealth, and see if these things are not so."
00:03:01.000 | His friends admitted that, of the men they knew who had inherited wealth,
00:03:06.000 | these words were true, and they besought him to explain to them
00:03:10.000 | how he had become possessed of so much prosperity.
00:03:14.000 | So he continued,
00:03:16.000 | "As a youth I looked about me and saw all the good things there were to bring happiness and contentment,
00:03:22.000 | and I realized that wealth increased the potency of all these.
00:03:27.000 | Wealth is a power. With wealth many things are possible.
00:03:32.000 | One may ornament the home with the richest of furnishings,
00:03:36.000 | one may sail the distant seas, one may feast on the delicacies of far lands,
00:03:41.000 | one may buy the ornaments of the gold worker and the stone polisher,
00:03:45.000 | one may even build mighty temples for the gods,
00:03:48.000 | one may do all these things and many others in which there is delight for the senses and gratification for the soul.
00:03:55.000 | And when I realized all this, I decided to myself that I would claim my share of the good things of life.
00:04:01.000 | I would not be one of those who stand afar off, enviously watching others enjoy.
00:04:07.000 | I would not be content to clothe myself in the cheapest raiment that looked respectable.
00:04:12.000 | I would not be satisfied with the lot of a poor man.
00:04:15.000 | On the contrary, I would make myself a guest at this banquet of good things.
00:04:20.000 | Being, as you know, the son of a humble merchant, one of a large family with no hope of an inheritance,
00:04:27.000 | and not being endowed, as you have so frankly said, with superior powers or wisdom,
00:04:32.000 | I decided that if I was to achieve what I desired, time and study would be required.
00:04:38.000 | As for time, all men have it in abundance.
00:04:41.000 | You, each of you, have let slip by sufficient time to have made yourselves wealthy.
00:04:46.000 | Yet, you admit you have nothing to show except your good families of which you can be justly proud.
00:04:52.000 | As for study, did not our wise teacher teach us that learning was of two kinds,
00:04:58.000 | the one being the things we learned and knew,
00:05:01.000 | and the other being the training that taught us how to find out what we did not know?
00:05:06.000 | Therefore did I decide to find out how one might accumulate wealth,
00:05:11.000 | and when I had found out, to make this my task and do it well.
00:05:16.000 | For is it not wise that we should enjoy while we dwell in the brightness of the sunshine?
00:05:21.000 | For sorrows enough shall descend upon us when we depart for the darkness of the world of spirit.
00:05:26.000 | I found employment as a scribe in the hall of records,
00:05:29.000 | and long hours each day I labored upon the clay tablets.
00:05:33.000 | Week after week and month after month I labored, yet for my earnings I had not to show.
00:05:39.000 | Food and clothing and penance to the gods and other things of which I could remember not what,
00:05:44.000 | absorbed all my earnings, but my determination did not leave me.
00:05:49.000 | And one day Algamish, the moneylender, came to the house of the city master and ordered a copy of the ninth law,
00:05:55.000 | and he said to me, "I must have this in two days,
00:05:58.000 | and if the task is done by that time, two coppers will I give to thee."
00:06:02.000 | So I labored hard, but the law was long, and when Algamish returned, the task was unfinished.
00:06:09.000 | He was angry, and had I been his slave he would have beaten me.
00:06:13.000 | But, knowing the city master would not permit him to injure me, I was unafraid.
00:06:17.000 | So I said to him, "Algamish, you are a very rich man.
00:06:22.000 | Tell me how I may also become rich, and all night I will carve upon the clay,
00:06:28.000 | and when the sun rises, it shall be completed."
00:06:32.000 | He smiled at me and replied, "You are a forward knave, but we will call it a bargain."
00:06:38.000 | All that night I carved, though my back pained and the smell of the wick made my head ache until my eyes could hardly see.
00:06:47.000 | But when he returned at sunup, the tablets were complete.
00:06:51.000 | "Now," I said, "tell me what you promised."
00:06:54.000 | "You have fulfilled your part of our bargain, my son," he said to me kindly, "and I am ready to fulfill mine.
00:07:01.000 | I will tell you these things you wish to know, because I am becoming an old man, and an old tongue loves to wag.
00:07:08.000 | And when youth comes to age for advice, he receives the wisdom of years.
00:07:12.000 | But too often does youth think that age knows only the wisdom of days that are gone, and therefore profits not.
00:07:19.000 | But remember this, the sun that shines today is the sun that shone when thy father was born,
00:07:25.000 | and will still be shining when thy last grandchild shall pass into the darkness.
00:07:30.000 | The thoughts of youth," he continued, "are bright lights that shine forth like the meteors that oft make brilliant the sky.
00:07:39.000 | But the wisdom of age is like the fixed stars that shine so unchanged that the sailor may depend upon them to steer his course.
00:07:48.000 | Mark you well my words, for if you do not, you will fail to grasp the truth that I will tell you,
00:07:55.000 | and you will think that your night's work has been in vain."
00:07:59.000 | Then he looked at me shrewdly from under his shaggy brows and said in a low, forceful tone,
00:08:06.000 | "I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep,
00:08:16.000 | and so will you."
00:08:18.000 | Then he continued to look at me with a glance that I could feel pierce me, but said no more.
00:08:24.000 | "Is that all?" I asked.
00:08:27.000 | "That was sufficient to change the heart of a sheepherder into the heart of a moneylender," he replied.
00:08:33.000 | "But all I earn is mine to keep, is it not?" I demanded.
00:08:37.000 | "Far from it," he replied.
00:08:40.000 | "Do you not pay the garment-maker? Do you not pay the sandal-maker?
00:08:44.000 | Do you not pay for the things you eat? Can you live in Babylon without spending?
00:08:49.000 | What have you to show for your earnings of the past month? What for the past year?
00:08:54.000 | Fool, you pay to everyone but yourself. Dullard, you labor for others.
00:09:01.000 | As well be a slave and work for what your master gives you to eat and wear.
00:09:06.000 | If you did keep for yourself one-tenth of all you earn, how much would you have in ten years?"
00:09:12.000 | My knowledge of the numbers did not forsake me, and I answered, "As much as I earn in one year."
00:09:17.000 | "You speak but half the truth," he retorted.
00:09:20.000 | "Every gold piece you save is a slave to work for you.
00:09:25.000 | Every copper it earns is its child that can also earn for you.
00:09:29.000 | If you would become wealthy, then what you save must earn, and its children must earn,
00:09:35.000 | that all may help to give to you the abundance you crave.
00:09:40.000 | You think I cheat you for your long night's work," he continued,
00:09:44.000 | "but I am paying you a thousand times over, if you have the intelligence to grasp the truth I offer you.
00:09:50.000 | A part of all you earn is yours to keep.
00:09:54.000 | It should be not less than a tenth, no matter how little you earn.
00:09:58.000 | It can be as much more as you can afford. Pay yourself first.
00:10:03.000 | Do not buy from the clothes-maker and the sandal-maker more than you can pay out of the rest
00:10:08.000 | and still have enough for food and charity and penance to the gods.
00:10:12.000 | Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed.
00:10:16.000 | The first copper you save is the seed from which your tree of wealth shall grow.
00:10:21.000 | The sooner you plant that seed, the sooner shall the tree grow.
00:10:26.000 | And the more faithfully you nourish and water that tree with consistent savings,
00:10:31.000 | the sooner may you bask in contentment beneath its shade."
00:10:35.000 | So saying, he took his tablets and went away.
00:10:39.000 | I thought much about what he had said to me, and it seemed reasonable.
00:10:44.000 | So I decided that I would try it.
00:10:46.000 | Each time I was paid, I took one from each ten pieces of copper and hid it away.
00:10:51.000 | And strange as it may seem, I was no shorter of funds than before.
00:10:55.000 | I noticed little difference as I managed to get along without it.
00:10:59.000 | But often I was tempted as my hoard began to grow to spend it for some of the good things
00:11:03.000 | the merchants displayed, brought by camels and ships from the land of the Phoenicians.
00:11:08.000 | But I wisely refrained.
00:11:10.000 | A twelfth month after Algimish had gone, he again returned and said to me,
00:11:15.000 | "Son, have you paid to yourself not less than one-tenth of all you have earned for the past year?"
00:11:20.000 | I answered proudly, "Yes, Master, I have."
00:11:24.000 | "That is good," he answered, beaming upon me, "and what have you done with it?"
00:11:29.000 | "I have given it to Asmur, the brickmaker, who told me he was traveling over the far seas,
00:11:34.000 | and in Tyre he would buy for me the rare jewels of the Phoenicians.
00:11:38.000 | When he returns, we shall sell these at high prices and divide the earnings."
00:11:43.000 | "Every fool must learn," he growled.
00:11:47.000 | "But why trust the knowledge of a brickmaker about jewels?
00:11:50.000 | Would you go to the breadmaker to inquire about the stars?"
00:11:54.000 | "No, by my tunic, you would go to the astrologer if you had the power to think.
00:11:58.000 | Your savings are gone, youth. You have jerked your wealth tree up by the roots.
00:12:03.000 | But plant another. Try again.
00:12:06.000 | And next time, if you would have advice about jewels, go to the jewel merchant.
00:12:11.000 | If you would know the truth about sheep, go to the herdsman.
00:12:14.000 | Advice is one thing that is freely given away, but watch that you take only what is worth having.
00:12:21.000 | He who takes advice about his savings from one who is inexperienced in such matters
00:12:27.000 | shall pay with his savings for proving the falsity of their opinions."
00:12:31.000 | Saying this, he went away.
00:12:34.000 | And it was as he said.
00:12:37.000 | For the Phoenicians are scoundrels and sold to Asmer worthless bits of glass that looked like gems.
00:12:44.000 | But as Algamish had bid me, I again saved each tenth copper,
00:12:49.000 | for I now had formed the habit and it was no longer difficult.
00:12:53.000 | Again, twelve months later, Algamish came to the room of the scribes and addressed me.
00:12:58.000 | "What progress have you made since last I saw you?"
00:13:01.000 | "I have paid myself faithfully," I replied,
00:13:04.000 | "and my savings I have entrusted to Agur, the shield-maker, to buy bronze,
00:13:09.000 | and each fourth month he does pay me the rental."
00:13:12.000 | "That is good. And what do you do with the rental?"
00:13:15.000 | "I do have a great feast with honey and fine wine and spiced cake.
00:13:19.000 | Also, I have bought me a scarlet tunic,
00:13:22.000 | and some day I shall buy me a young ass upon which to ride."
00:13:26.000 | To which Algamish laughed,
00:13:28.000 | "You do eat the children of your savings.
00:13:31.000 | Then how do you expect them to work for you?
00:13:33.000 | And how can they have children that will also work for you?
00:13:36.000 | First, get thee an army of gold and slaves,
00:13:40.000 | and then many a rich banquet may you enjoy without regret."
00:13:44.000 | So saying, he again went away.
00:13:46.000 | Nor did I again see him for two years.
00:13:49.000 | When he once more returned, and his face was full of deep lines,
00:13:53.000 | and his eyes drooped, for he was becoming a very old man.
00:13:58.000 | And he said to me,
00:14:00.000 | "Arkad, hast thou yet achieved the wealth thou dreamed of?"
00:14:04.000 | And I answered, "Not yet all that I desire,
00:14:07.000 | but some I have, and it earns more, and its earnings earn more."
00:14:11.000 | "And do you still take the advice of brickmakers?"
00:14:14.000 | "About brickmaking they give good advice," I retorted.
00:14:18.000 | "Arkad," he continued, "you have learned your lessons well.
00:14:22.000 | You first learn to live upon less than you could earn.
00:14:25.000 | Next you learn to seek advice from those who are competent
00:14:28.000 | through their own experiences to give it.
00:14:30.000 | And lastly you have learned to make gold work for you.
00:14:33.000 | You have taught yourself how to acquire money,
00:14:36.000 | how to keep it, and how to use it.
00:14:38.000 | Therefore you are competent for a responsible position."
00:14:42.000 | I am becoming an old man.
00:14:44.000 | My sons think only of spending and give no thought to earning.
00:14:48.000 | My interests are great, and I fear too much for me to look after.
00:14:52.000 | If you will go to Nippur and look after my lands there,
00:14:56.000 | I shall make you my partner, and you shall share in my estate."
00:15:00.000 | So I went to Nippur and took charge of his holdings, which were large.
00:15:05.000 | And because I was full of ambition,
00:15:07.000 | and because I had mastered the three laws of successfully handling wealth,
00:15:11.000 | I was enabled to increase greatly the value of his properties.
00:15:15.000 | So I prospered much, and when the spirit of Algamish departed for the sphere of darkness,
00:15:20.000 | I did share in his estate as he had arranged under the law.
00:15:24.000 | So spake Arkad, and when he had finished his tale, one of his friends said,
00:15:29.000 | "You were indeed fortunate that Algamish made of you an heir."
00:15:33.000 | Fortunate only in that I had the desire to prosper before I first met him.
00:15:37.000 | For four years did I not prove my definiteness of purpose by keeping one-tenth of all I earned.
00:15:43.000 | Would you call a fisherman lucky, who for years so studied the habits of the fish,
00:15:47.000 | that with each changing wind he could cast his nets about them?
00:15:51.000 | Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared.
00:15:57.000 | "You had strong willpower to keep on after you lost your first year's savings.
00:16:02.000 | You are unusual in that way," spoke up another.
00:16:05.000 | "Willpower?" retorted Arkad. "What nonsense!
00:16:09.000 | Do you think willpower gives a man the strength to lift a burden the camel cannot carry,
00:16:14.000 | or to draw a load the oxen cannot budge?
00:16:17.000 | Willpower is but the unflinching purpose to carry a task you set for yourself to fulfillment.
00:16:23.000 | If I set for myself a task, be it ever so trifling, I shall see it through.
00:16:30.000 | How else shall I have confidence in myself to do important things?
00:16:34.000 | Should I say to myself, 'For a hundred days as I walk across the bridge into the city,
00:16:39.000 | I will pick from the road a pebble and cast it into the stream,' I would do it.
00:16:44.000 | If on the seventh day I passed by without remembering, I would not say to myself,
00:16:49.000 | 'Tomorrow I will cast two pebbles, which will do as well.'
00:16:52.000 | Instead, I would retrace my steps and cast the pebble.
00:16:56.000 | Nor on the twentieth day would I say to myself, 'Arkad, this is useless.
00:17:00.000 | What does it avail you to cast a pebble every day?
00:17:03.000 | Throw in a handful and be done with it.'
00:17:05.000 | No, I would not say that, nor do it.
00:17:09.000 | When I set a task for myself, I complete it.
00:17:12.000 | Therefore, I am careful not to start difficult and impractical tasks, because I love leisure."
00:17:19.000 | And then another friend spoke up and said,
00:17:21.000 | "If what you tell is true, and it does seem, as you have said, reasonable,
00:17:25.000 | then being so simple, if all men did it, there would not be enough wealth to go around."
00:17:31.000 | "Wealth grows wherever men exert energy," Arkad replied.
00:17:36.000 | "If a rich man builds him a new palace, is the gold he pays out gone?
00:17:41.000 | No, the brickmaker has part of it, and the laborer has part of it, and the artist has part of it,
00:17:46.000 | and everyone who labors upon the house has part of it.
00:17:49.000 | Yet, when the palace is completed, is it not worth all it costs?
00:17:53.000 | And is the ground upon which it stands not worth more because it is there?
00:17:58.000 | And is the ground that adjoins it not worth more because it is there?
00:18:02.000 | Wealth grows in magic ways. No man can prophesy the limit of it.
00:18:07.000 | Have not the Phoenicians built great cities on barren coasts
00:18:11.000 | with the wealth that comes from their ships of commerce on the seas?"
00:18:15.000 | "What then do you advise us to do that we also may become rich?"
00:18:19.000 | asked still another of his friends.
00:18:21.000 | "The years have passed by, and we are no longer young men, and we have nothing put by."
00:18:27.000 | "I advise that you take the wisdom of algemish and say to yourselves,
00:18:32.000 | 'A part of all I earn is mine to keep.'
00:18:37.000 | Say it in the morning when you first arise. Say it at noon. Say it at night.
00:18:41.000 | Say it each hour of every day.
00:18:44.000 | Say it to yourself until the words stand out like letters of fire across the sky.
00:18:49.000 | Impress yourself with the idea. Fill yourself with a thought.
00:18:54.000 | Then take whatever portion seems wise.
00:18:57.000 | Let it not be less than one-tenth, and lay it by.
00:19:02.000 | Arrange your other expenditures to do this if necessary, but lay by that portion first.
00:19:09.000 | Soon you will realize what a rich feeling it is to own a treasure upon which you alone have claim.
00:19:15.000 | As it grows, it will stimulate you. A new joy of life will thrill you.
00:19:21.000 | Greater efforts will come to you to earn more,
00:19:24.000 | for of your increased earnings will not the same percentage be also yours to keep?
00:19:29.000 | Then learn to make your treasure work for you.
00:19:32.000 | Make it your slave. Make its children and its children's children work for you.
00:19:37.000 | Insure an income for thy future.
00:19:40.000 | Look thou at the aged, and forget not that in the days to come thou also will be numbered among them.
00:19:47.000 | Therefore, invest thy treasure with greatest caution that it be not lost.
00:19:52.000 | Usurious rates of return are deceitful sirens that sing but to lure the unwary upon the rocks of loss and remorse.
00:20:00.000 | Provide also that thy family may not want, should the gods call thee to their realms.
00:20:05.000 | For such protection it is always possible to make provision with small payments at regular intervals.
00:20:10.000 | Therefore, the provident man delays not in expectation of a large sum becoming available for such a wise purpose.
00:20:18.000 | Counsel with wise men. Seek the advice of men whose daily work is handling money.
00:20:23.000 | Let them save you from such an error as I myself made in entrusting my money to the judgment of Asmur, the brickmaker.
00:20:31.000 | A small return and a safe one is far more desirable than risk.
00:20:36.000 | Enjoy life while you are here. Do not over-strain or try to save too much.
00:20:41.000 | If one-tenth of all you earn is as much as you can comfortably keep, be content to keep this portion.
00:20:47.000 | Live otherwise according to your income, and let not yourself get niggardly and afraid to spend.
00:20:53.000 | Life is good, and life is rich with things worthwhile and things to enjoy.
00:20:59.000 | His friends thanked him and went away.
00:21:02.000 | Some were silent because they had no imagination and could not understand.
00:21:07.000 | Some were sarcastic because they thought that one so rich should divide with old friends not so fortunate.
00:21:14.000 | But some had in their eyes a new light.
00:21:18.000 | They realized that Algamish had come back each time to the room of the scribes
00:21:24.000 | because he was watching a man work his way out of darkness into light.
00:21:30.000 | When that man had found the light, a place awaited him.
00:21:35.000 | No one could fill that place until he had for himself worked out his own understanding,
00:21:41.000 | until he was ready for opportunity.
00:21:44.000 | These latter were the ones who, in the following years, frequently revisited Arkad, who received them gladly.
00:21:52.000 | He counseled with them and gave them freely of his wisdom as men of broad experience are always glad to do,
00:21:58.000 | and he assisted them in so investing their savings that it would bring in a good interest with safety
00:22:04.000 | and would neither be lost nor entangled in investments that paid no dividends.
00:22:09.000 | The turning point in these men's lives came upon that day when they realized the truth that had come
00:22:17.000 | from Algamish to Arkad and from Arkad to them.
00:22:22.000 | A part of all you earn is yours to keep.
00:22:29.000 | The holidays start here at Ralph's with a variety of options to celebrate traditions old and new.
00:22:34.000 | Whether you're making a traditional roasted turkey or spicy turkey tacos,
00:22:39.000 | your go-to shrimp cocktail or your first Cajun risotto,
00:22:42.000 | Ralph's has all the freshest ingredients to embrace your traditions.
00:22:46.000 | Ralph's. Fresh for Everyone.
00:22:49.000 | We've locked in low prices to help you save big storewide.
00:22:52.000 | Look for the locked in low prices tags and enjoy extra savings throughout the store.
00:22:56.000 | Ralph's, fresh for everyone.