Book Review - “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S Clason

Hello again,

I did mention to Hilary Dickinson during the week that I would have something special to write about in my book review this week. You see, I know that Hilary is very passionate about teaching children literary and numeracy and financial skills because we ALL KNOW that the so-called “education system” in our respective countries is failing to educate our children to any accpetable standard at all these days.

Parents like Hilary should be commended for taking this stance and I hope that everyone visits Hilary’s blog to add their comments on what she is doing. And well done to her daughter (Lizzie “the Lizzard”) too for being so keen to learn from her mum. If only all kids would do the same. But… most of them seem destined to make the SAME nincompoop mistakes that their parents have taken half a lifetime to learn from and correct…

… anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! Book review. Sometimes I just get so side-tracked.

Well, I am sitting here with my copy of “The Richest Man in Babylon” written by George S Clason and wondering what I can possibly say about this WONDERFUL book to inspire you to go and purchase a copy and READ it. No, not just read it - STUDY it!

You see, like my previous book review on “Psycho Cybernetics” (Maxwell Maltz) - which you can read at: http://motivationselfesteem.com/talk/914/book-review-psycho-cybernetics-by-maxwell-maltz.htm - if you missed it, “The Richest Man in Babylon” is another of my TOP TEN motivation, inspiration and information books of all time. Yes! It is that darn good.

In my massive library of 300-400 motivation, self-esteem, inspiration books this little baby is right up there. So, what is it all about?

Perhaps I could do no better than to repeat the “mandamus”-like inscription just inside the front cover:

Now, that all sounds VERY simple doesn’t it? So, why do most people completely stuff it up? Hmm, well we live in a very complex world now. People with VESTED interests make SIMPLE finance VERY difficult to understand. I am talking about bankers, stock-brokers, insurers, finance providers and the like. Oh, not to mention how all of those “industries” are now completely surrounded by massive legal teams completely devoted to enshrouding simple techniques with legal “protection” thereby making everything very, very complex and almost IMPOSSIBLE to understand.

The Richest Man in Babylon (sorry Nikki Stephens but yep, Babylon IS in the title and I know that “By the Rivers of Babylon” is not your favourite tune of all time and that this will further ensure that the words of that song will be bouncing around inside your head - SORRY!), as the name suggests (and the excerpt above) is written in biblical text.

DON’T LET THAT PUT YOU OFF!

George Classon wrote a MASTERPIECE here! Just a few comments about Classon…

George Classon was born in Louisiana Missouri on 7 November 1874. He was a publisher and in 1926 he issued the first of a series of pamphlets on thrift and financial success. These pamphlets were issued by banks and insurance companies in tens of thousands. People loved the information and from these pamphlets the Richest Man in Babylon was conceived. It went on to sell many millions of copies.

Using much of this information and adding a few twists of my own I wrote “How to Save 1000’s and Increase Your Personal Net Wealth” which you can see here: http://motivationselfesteem.com/wealth.html. The main addition to my book was the inclusion of a set of exercises to “slap” people into action by making them realise that:

1 - you probably are NOT doing anywhere near as well as you think you are and,
2 - you need to do something about that NOW!

Anyway, back to the Richest Man in Babylon by George Classon - get it, read it, study it and apply the timeless principles. The ISBN is 0:7343:0509:5 and my copy is published by Penguin books.

PS: Oh, one more thing… in 2002, I purchased a copy for each of my children… as a Christmas present. Can you imagine their faces when they opened those presents? Then me being me offered them a $50 note for a one page book review by way of a “promissory note.”

I warned them not to “fudge” me on that review either coz I would know (and I bloody-well would have too and they KNEW it!). I am pleased to inform that they both collected the $50 and both have made some very sound financial decisions ever since. They are both now at least $100,000 in front of where they would have been had they not absorbed the wisdom of this book.

Filed under: Add new tag • Book Review • Gary Simpson • Motivation & Inspiration • Richest Man in Babylon • finance • wealth

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