P.T. Barnum, The Art Of Money Getting (1880)
“Golden rules for making money.” The table of contents alone is awesome:
- The art of money getting
- Don’t mistake your vocation
- Select the right location
- Avoid debt
- Persevere
- Whatever you do, do it with all your might
- Depend upon your own personal exertions
- Use the best tools
- Don’t get above your business
- Learn something useful
- Let hope predominate, but be not too visionary
- Do not scatter your powers
- Be systematic
- Read the newspapers
- Beware of “outside operations”
- Don’t indorse without security
- Advertise your business
- Be polite and kind to your customers
- Be charitable
- Don’t blab
- Preserve your integrity
Like most prescriptive books (including my own) you could probably write a whole book simply stating the opposite, but there’s so much in this book I love, especially the very simple message of “living below your means” stated in the beginning, which is not stressed enough these days:
True economy consists in always making the income exceed the out-go. Wear the old clothes a little longer… live on plainer food if need be; so that, under all circumstances, unless some unforeseen accident occurs, there will be a margin in favor of income.
Great read.
Files under: my reading year 2012
