Basic Introduction:
Writer: George S. Clason.
Category: Financial Management
Pages: 150 Pages
It contains all the practices and advice on how to become wealthy, how to attract good luck, and the famous five laws of gold.
It remains a classic bestseller.
Link to Buy this book:
Book Summary (Chapter-wise):
It has 9 chapters that I discussed in brief and will give you an insight into the overall concept of the book.
The first chapter “A historical sketch of Babylon”, talks about the historical importance of the city Babylon which is now vanished away in the desert. But around 8000 years ago, Babylon was a well-established city inhabited by Babylonia living in walled cities. They were the first people to have a written language and they used to do it on the clay tablets. They were clever financiers, traders, and inventors of money as means of exchange.
The second chapter “Man who desired gold”, talks about the conversation of two poor friends whose lives are miserable and poverty-laden. They wish to become rich and dreamt of that in their minds. Then they talked about their common friend “Arkad” who is the richest man in Babylon and has a lot of gold. They both decided to pay a visit to a rich friend to inquire about the secrets to becoming rich.
The third chapter “the richest man in Babylon”, talks about the secret of Arkad’s wealth which increased more rapidly than he spent it. The secret lies within 3 laws that were taught to him by Alagmith, the moneylender.
- 1st law is “a part of all you earn is yours to keep”. Means you should keep at least one tenth of all you earn or in simple words pay yourself first.
- 2nd law is to seek advice from those who are competent through their own to give it. Means you should not invest money without professional advice.
- 3rd and last to make gold work for you means let the money to work for you like a gold slave and you have to reap only profits of it.
In the fourth chapter “seven cures for a lean purse”, the author talks about the 7 steps to become rich. There are briefly as:
- Start paying yourself
- Control your expenditures
- Make your investments to multiply
- Guard your treasures from loss
- Make your dwelling a profitable investment
- Insure a future income
- Increase your ability to earn
In the fifth chapter “meet the goddess of good luck”, the author shed a light on the topic of fortune. According to him, the Goddess of fortune will come to those who respond promptly to the opportunities and avoid procrastination. To attract good luck to oneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities. In one line – men of action are favored by the goddess of good luck.
In the 6th chapter “the five laws of gold”, the author described the five important laws about earning gold or money
The first law of gold: gold comes gladly and in increasing quantity to those who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
The second law: gold is a willing worker. It is ever eager to multiply when opportunities present themselves.
The third law: gold clingeth to the cautious owner even as it flees the careless owner.
The fourth law: gold slips away from those who invest it in business or purpose with which they are not familiar or not approved by those skilled in its keep.
The fifth law: gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who follows alluring advice of tricksters and schemers. So, take into account the risk and lurk behind every plan to make great wealth suddenly.
In the 7th chapter” the gold lender of Babylon”, the author talks about some advisories of lending that a gold lender shared with a laborer who got the gift of fifty gold pieces from the king. He tells various stories that how he lends gold to people and what difficulties he encounters during repayment. So, lending should be done carefully. It is better to be a little cautious than a great regret.
In the 8th chapter “the walls of Babylon”, the author talks about the strength of the Babylon city wall for protection and compares it with the walls of insurance, saving accounts, and dependable investments in today’s times.
In the 9th chapter “the camel trader of Babylon”, Dabasir (a Camal trader ) shares his story about how he become a successful camel trader from a slave in Syria, it was all possible due to his strong determination towards his goal. So, where the determination is the way can be found.
Overall brief review:
To summarize, this book is for those
- who want to gain knowledge on managing finances. Although this book is written in the early 20th century but the principles discussed in this are still valid and applicable in today’s times.
- who have a lean purse and are looking for financial wisdom.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5