Motivation logo

Book review: The richest man in Babylon, by George Samuel Clason

A classic on how to get rich, following the advice of the richest man in Babylon

By thepavsalfordPublished 3 years ago Updated 9 months ago 6 min read
Like

Did Babylon exist? Of course, it did, and it was the richest and most prosperous city that has ever been on Earth.

At least, this is what ancient historians say in their books, in which they describe the riches, advanced civilization, and highly-organized economic life of its citizens. The remaining monuments of this emblematic city of antiquity serve as evidence of its glorious past.

George Samuel Clason, in his book “The richest man in Babylon”, praises the financial wisdom of ancient Babylonians, and argues that it served as the cornerstone of its unparalleled glory.

According to the author, this book, which was published only three years before the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that immediately followed, offers specific financial advice to its readers, so that they can get rich with time. Unfortunately, the events of the great financial crisis that took place after just three years seem to defy this advice. Or, is it not the case?

First of all, Clason stresses the importance of investment security, if one is going to become truly and safely rich as a result of his or her own personal work and through honest methods. The so-called “investors” who chose to part with their money and buy stock, in order to become rich overnight, look like the thoughtless young men in the book’s parables, who “invested” their money in once-in-a-lifetime “opportunities”, as they had been advised by crooks who pretended to be their friends. In fact, it would be strange if they hadn’t lost their money and made a profit out of this “investment”, rather than experiencing the bitterness of getting ripped off.

If people had spent time to delve into the teachings of “The richest man in Babylon”, they would have known that one should be very careful in choosing how to invest their hard-earned cash, especially when they come across fake promises for profits that are too high to believe. It’s a typical case of “if it’s too good to be true, then it usually is”.

The best tip of financial advice offered in this book

“The richest man in Babylon” is full of good, and, more importantly, specific advice on how to become rich, like those wise men from Babylon did. While other get-rich-quick books fail to offer specific guidance, and just showcase generic, abstract, and vague information that could possibly help (or most possibly, not) rich wannabes amass wealth, this book provides the reader with laser-pointed information and advice. For example, the writer expressly states that the first and foremost rule on your way to riches is to start saving no less than one tenth, i.e. 10%, of what you earn; simple and precise.

However, instead of selecting a single “golden” piece of advice, the writer has opted to list a series of steps that make up the whole process of getting rich. Although you may have managed, through self-discipline, to follow reverently the rule of saving one tenth of your earnings for yourself, in order to have it available to invest when the opportunity arises, if this opportunity cannot be characterized as a safe investment, you are totally unfamiliar with it, or lack any experience on the subject, then all of your time and hard effort to accumulate your savings will have been completely wasted.

On the other hand, choosing safe investments for your hard-earned cash can be of little value, if you haven’t actually managed to stick to saving at least one tenth of your income, reassuring yourself that there will always be time to save more in the future. This time may never come, and you can’t go back and correct any mistakes that you made in the past. So, take the first step, and start saving now, at least ten percent of your income, because tomorrow could be too late.

The price of wealth is experience

A person can acquire knowledge in two ways: either by his or her personal experience, or through the experience of others. However, as it is shown in this book, personal experience is much more powerful than watching, listening to, and learning from the experience of others. Although the rich man from Babylon offered his best advice to his son, in an attempt to prevent him from making the same mistakes that he had made in his youth, this didn’t work in practice, and the son repeated the mistakes of his father. Finally, after trying for a second time, he managed to slowly get back the fortune that his father had given him, and become rich by applying perhaps the most important rule, which is to always choose to invest prudently, wisely, and carefully.

The most underrated principle in "The richest man in Babylon"

There is one single piece of advice offered in this book, which is the most underrated, in my opinion. This advice is that work should be a man’s best friend.

Although the title of the book can be misleading to the reader at first, because it can cause the impression that it is about just another story of a rich man who followed his dream to become rich quick and rule over other people, the author is clear that there are very few exceptions of people who managed to make a fortune from sources other than work, and kept their wealth for a long time. “Easy comes, easy goes”, as they say.

Only money earned through work can be of any value to the person who worked to make it, because it represents a hard and honest effort to achieve prosperity in life. If it had been earned fast, and through dubious ways and methods, it would not be as valuable to its owner, who would spend it carelessly, and probably end up even poorer than before.

That’s why George Samuel Clason recommends his readers to follow a relatively slow, but steady, strategy, in order to accumulate wealth, by saving 10% of what they earn. In this way, they will be able to avoid becoming Scrooge McDuck, a comics figure, who only lived to count his cents, and see them growing into dollars.

That’s not life; that’s tyranny, and you would become a slave of your uncontrolled passion to grow richer and richer, no matter what personal sacrifice it takes. Saving ten percent is more than enough, and if you are patient enough, you can see it grow with time. Then, when the right opportunity arises, you will be able to take advantage of it, and let your money work smarter for you (Scrooge McDuck would actually agree on this, because his favorite advice was to “Make your money work smarter for you!”). This will also improve your patience skills, which will help you keep your riches longer.

Further reading:

The richest man in Babylon-Wikipedia

The richest man in Babylon by George S. Clason-Goodreads

Book review: The richest man in Babylon by George S. Clason

Book review: The richest man in Babylon by George S. Clason

Book Review of The Richest Man In Babylon: A Summary of Practical Wealth-Building Advice

book review
Like

About the Creator

thepavsalford

Hi,

I have written articles for various websites, such as Helium, Hubpages, Medium, and many more.

Currently, I work as a translator. I have studied Tourism Management at college.

See you around on Vocal Media!

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.