A collection of principles and observations noted from the book, preserved for reference.
Habit is second nature but an artificial habit is stronger than nature.
To make money, requires a clear brain. A man has got to see that two and two make four; he must lay all his plans with reflection and forethought, and closely examine all the details and the ins and outs of business.
The use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage, is as much an infatuation, as is the smoking of opium by the Chinese, and the former is quite as destructive to the success of the business man as the latter. It is an unmitigated evil, utterly indefensible in the light of philosophy; religion or good sense. It is the parent of nearly every other evil in our country.
Don’t Mistake Your Vocation
The safest plan, and the one most sure of success for the young man starting in life, is to select the vocation which is most congenial to his tastes. Parents and guardians are often quite too negligent in regard to this.
Select the Right Location
After securing the right vocation, you must be careful to select the proper location. It is equally important that you do not commence business where there are already enough to meet all demands in the same occupation.
Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent servant but a terrible master.
Let money work for you, and you have the most devoted servant in the world. It is no “eye-servant.” There is nothing animate or inanimate that will work so faithfully as money when placed at interest, well secured. It works night and day, and in wet or dry weather.
Davy Crockett said: “This thing remember, when I am dead: Be sure you are right, then go ahead.”
Persevere in the Right Path
When a man is in the right path, he must persevere.
The proverb of Solomon: “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.”
Whatever You Do, Do It with All Your Might
“Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well."
Work at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.
Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.
Idleness breeds bad habits, and clothes a man in rags.
Do all you can for yourselves, and then trust to Providence, or luck, or whatever you please to call it, for the rest.
Depend Upon Your Own Personal Exertions
The eye of the employer is often worth more than the hands of a dozen employees.
The possession of a perfect knowledge of your business is an absolute necessity in order to insure success.
Among the maxims of the elder Rothschild was one, all apparent paradox:
“Be cautious and bold.” It is to say; “you must exercise your caution in laying your plans, but be bold in carrying them out.”
The Rothschilds have another maxim:
“Never have anything to do with an unlucky man or place.” That is to say, never have anything to do with a man or place which never succeeds.
There is no such thing in the world as luck. If a man adopts the proper methods to be successful, “luck” will not prevent him.
Use the Best Tools
Men in engaging employees should be careful to get the best. Those men who have brains and experience are therefore the most valuable and not to be readily parted with; it is better for them, as well as yourself, to keep them, at reasonable advances in their salaries from time to time.
Don’t Get Above Your Business
There is no greater mistake than when a young man believes he will succeed with borrowed money.
Money is good for nothing unless you know the value of it by experience.
Nothing is worth anything, unless it costs effort.
There is no royal road to learning, and I may say it is equally true, “there is no royal road to wealth.”
In regard to wealth. Go on in confidence, study the rules, and above all things, study human nature; for “the proper study of mankind is man,” and you will find that while expanding the intellect and the muscles, your enlarged experience will enable you every day to accumulate more and more principal, which will increase itself by interest and otherwise, until you arrive at a state of independence.
Young men loaded down with other people’s money are almost sure to lose all they inherit, and they acquire all sorts of bad habits which, in the majority of cases, ruin them in health, purse and character.
Happy is he who by listening to the experience of others avoids the rocks and shoals on which so many have been wrecked.
No profession, trade, or calling, is overcrowded in the upper story. “The basement is much crowded, but there is plenty of room upstairs”
Let your motto then always be “Excelsior,” for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.
Learn Something Useful
Every man should make his son or daughter learn some useful trade or profession, so they may have something tangible to fall back upon.
Let Hope Predominate, but Be Not Too Visionary
Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary. The plan of “counting the chickens before they are hatched” is an error of ancient date, but it does not seem to improve by age.
Do Not Scatter Your Powers
Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it. A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last, so that it can be clinched.
Be Systematic
Men should be systematic in their business. A person who does business by rule, having a time and place for everything, doing his work promptly, will accomplish twice as much and with half the trouble of him who does it carelessly and slipshod.
Read the Newspapers
Always keep thoroughly posted in regard to the transactions of the world.
Beware of “Outside Operations”
However successful a man may be in his own business, if he turns from that and engages ill a business which he don’t understand, he is like Samson when shorn of his locks—his strength has departed, and he becomes like other men.
Understand the Value of Money (By Earning It)
So with the young man starting in business; let him understand the value of money by earning it. When he does understand its value, then grease the wheels a little in helping him to start business, but remember, men who get money with too great facility cannot usually succeed. You must get the first dollars by hard knocks, and at some sacrifice, in order to appreciate the value of those dollars.
Don’t Endorse Without Security
I hold that no man ought ever to endorse a note or become security, for any man, be it his father or brother, to a greater extent than he can afford to lose and care nothing about, without taking good security.
Advertise Your Business
Those who deal with the public must be careful that their goods are valuable; that they are genuine, and will give satisfaction. Be careful to advertise it in some shape or other because it is evident that if a man has ever so good an article for sale, and nobody knows it, it will bring him no return. The whole philosophy of life is, first “sow,” then “reap.” If a man has a genuine article, there is no way in which he can reap more advantageously than by “sowing” to the public in this way.
- Anything spurious will not succeed permanently because the public is wiser than many imagine. Men and women are selfish, and we all prefer purchasing where we can get the most for our money and we try to find out where we can most surely do so.
Be Polite and Kind to Your Customers
"As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them" means to treat others as you would like to be treated. Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.
- Men who drive sharp bargains with their customers, acting as if they never expected to see them again, will not be mistaken. They will never see them again as customers. People don’t like to pay and get kicked also.
Be Charitable
"There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than meet, but it tendeth to poverty" means - generous spending can lead to growth, while excessive hoarding or stinginess ultimately leads to poverty or financial hardship. It is easier to make Christians with full stomachs than empty.
Don’t Blab
Some men have a foolish habit of telling their business secrets. Say nothing about your profits, your hopes, your expectations, your intentions.
Goethe makes Mephistophiles say: “Never write a letter nor destroy one.”
Preserve Your Integrity
The most difficult thing in life is to make money dishonestly!. The public very properly shun all whose integrity is doubted.
A man who is known to be strictly honest, may be ever so poor, but he has the purses of all the community at his disposal.
The history of money-getting, which is commerce, is a history of civilisation, and wherever trade has flourished most, there, too, have art and science produced the noblest fruits.
Make money honestly, and not otherwise, for
Shakespeare has truly said, “He that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends.”