This Just In…
Thanks for tuning in! This week’s post features: The Richest Man In Babylon by George Clason (book), Nike’s New Massive Store by Jake Woolf (blog post), The Way We Think About Philanthropy by Dan Pallotta (ted talk) & more. Enjoy…
Book: The Richest Man In Babylon by George Clason (194 pgs)
Before anything, I want to point out that this book was first published in 1926. Before it was a book, it was originally a series of pamphlets that banks and insurance companies distributed to their clients. Needless to say, this book is old. It has a lot of thou’s and thy’s and other old English words making it a little hard to read at first. Don’t let this discourage you though, you will get used to it.
Now that we got past that, this book is considered a guide for financial understanding. However, it is not written in a way that’s self-helpy, rather it is written as a collection of stories set in the times of Babylon. Throughout the book the characters learn simple, yet profound lesson in wealth, teaching you how to make money, keep money, and use money to make more money. These lessons are seemingly common sense tactics but drastically under applied. The lessons are timeless, there’s a reason it sold over 2 million copies. Some of my favorite lessons from the book (in no particular order) are:
- Spend less than you earn and invest the rest.
- Necessary expenses will grow to equal our income unless we protest to the contrary. Simply said, luxuries will become necessities preventing you from actually acquiring more wealth unless you do something about it. Know this: gratitude will give you abundance while desires will give you scarcity.
- Success depends upon lifestyle changes. Our acts can be no wiser than our thoughts, our thinking can be no wiser than our understanding. The more wisdom one knows the more one may earn. The person that seeks to learn more about their craft shall be richly rewarded but to achieve what is desired (in this case money), time and study are required (A.K.A. hard work).
- Just because some has it all externally doesn’t mean they are happy on the inside. In other words, outer appearance is not indicative of inner state. Once we know this we can apply this to our own lives by noting that our worth is not dependent on external things.
Blog Post: Nike’s New Massive Store by Jake Woolf (5 mins)
Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a huge sneakerhead. I used to work as a sales associate at Finishline in the mall near my house, I used to buy every new Jordan release, I had a ton of shoes, and then I gave them all away and became a minimalist of sorts before coming to yeshiva. Now I stick to my Chuck Taylor’s, but I still get giddy about new shoes and I feel like it is my duty as a sneakerhead to remind you of the 1 year anniversary of Nike’s 5 story megastore in Soho, New York. As the article says this place is like Disneyland for sneakerheads. Sneakerhead or not this store is dope, it might be the most well-designed store on the planet and it might even make real-life shopping fun again. If you’re in New York you got to check this place out.
Ted Talk: The Way We Think About Charity by Dan Pallotta (18 mins 54 secs)
In last week’s post, we talked about how philanthropy no matter how big or small leaves an impact. But how come social problems still remain problems?
It’s because the way we treat non-profit organizations and the concept of philanthropy as a whole undermine the causes we are trying to support.
We believe that people involved in nonprofits shouldn’t make money, but people that aren’t helping others have the right to prosper. Is this not backward thinking? Should we not reward the people helping others more than the people that are only looking to help themselves? We believe that nonprofits shouldn’t spend money, but the fact of the matter is that in order to make money you have to spend money. We believe that nonprofits should be risk-averse, so how can we expect growth to incur when failure is prohibited thereby killing innovation and profits along with it? We believe nonprofits should make a difference immediately and if they don’t they should be shut down, yet this isn’t how the world works. For everything else in life, success takes time.
With all of these beliefs, we severally curtail the potential for nonprofits and philanthropic efforts. We have to stop holding these organizations to unfair standards, it is the only way for them to really thrive and for change to happen.
Bonus: Failure Is An Option by Muniba Mazari (6 mins 9 secs)
This video was shared with me by my Aunt Marcy a little bit ago and then it went viral. I’m sure you’ve seen it, regardless its a great talk and fitting for this page.
What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Would you ask out your coworker? Would you quit your job to work on a startup? Would you drop everything and go travel indefinitely? Being afraid is holding you back and there is nothing worse than this imaginary restraint. I believe there are only two ways to fail:
- Fearing failure in it of itself. Fear creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, bringing about the thing that you are afraid of.
- Giving up. If you never give up you can never fail, you will just find things that don’t work (to borrow from Thomas Edison).
We have already mentioned exposure therapy and dealing with your inner critic so you know that the more you do something the less afraid of it you will become. So, if you haven’t yet, go out and do what you are afraid of, face your fears and you will become liberated. In fact, just do what Steve Chapman does. Name your fear, get to know it, share it with the world, comment below what you are afraid of, and as soon as you do you will feel the weight of fear lifted off of your shoulders. Stop trying to be the perfect person, make the moment perfect for you. Live every moment without fear.
Now I’ll ask again: What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
Quote: “A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest” — Albert Einstein
If you haven’t heard, Einstein wrote this on a piece of paper as a tip to a bellboy in 1922. A few weeks ago this letter was auctioned off in Jerusalem for over $1.5 million Irony aside, it turned out to be one hell of a tip, the advice isn’t half bad either
Being in yeshiva it’s really easy to have a quiet and modest life, but keeping up with all of the yeshiva studies and this blog does put me in a mild state of stress. However this stress is good stress, it pushes me to work and grow. The same principle applies to weightlifting; unless there is stress the muscles won’t grow. I believe, an active life gives a person an opportunity to realize the value of hard work, while a “quiet and modest life” a gives a person an opportunity to realize the value in the world around them. Too easy of a life will lead to boredom, while too stressful of a life will lead to burnout. It’s all about balancing the two. Achieving balance is a constant practice; like actually balancing you have to be aware if you’re leaning too far to one side or the other and make corrections as necessary.
What was your favorite bullet in this post? If you had to pick only one bullet to keep in this post what would it be and why and if you had to get rid of one what would it be and why? Send a message or comment below.
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To your growth! Stay curious…
P.S. If you want my notes for the book above, send me an email with the subject “Notes for (insert book name)” and I will happily share.
