Genre: Self
Improvement/ Prosperity
Edition / Year: Rhema Edition 1998 (Publishing Right 1998)
Publisher: Rhema Publishing Ministry, Inc., Benin City Nigeria
Reviewer: Buchi Douglas
The Review “Our prosperity as a nation depends upon the personal
financial prosperity of us as individuals”. These are the opening words of this book authored by George S. Clason. He writes to show that that personal prosperity and financial success are not limited by the barriers of ethnicity, race, color, religious beliefs, family background or even geographical location. This invariably means that a nations uplift in finance, as posited by him, does not depend solely on it’s natural resources excluding that of the human aspect. A nation is ‘blessed’ naturally yet the citizenry could be wallowing in abject poverty. On the other hand a nation could virtually have no natural resources but would have citizens who could turn a nation into the cradle of economic and financial hub like his hypothetical Babylon.
The book consist of a foreword by the author and eleven chapters, the last of which is ‘an historian sketch of Babylon’. Structurally it could be divided into five subsections.
The first section consists of the first three chapters given as: the man who desires wealth; the richest man in Babylon; and seven cures for a lean purse respectively. Here we see Bansir in the company of his friend Kobbi trying to unravel the mysteries behind the accumulation and the distribution of wealth to no avail. So they decided to seek the counsel of Arkad, the richest man in their time, whom they feel is not as wiser and smarter than they are. On meeting Arkad, they got the weirdest of answers they did not expect. Hear him speak. “If you have acquired more than a bare existence in the years since we were youths, it is because you either have failed to learn the laws that govern the building of wealth, or else you do not observe them”. These laws which he states as the Seven Cures for a Lean Purse, he briefly summarizes in one sentence as “a part of all you earn is yours to keep”.
In sections two and three consisting of two chapters each respectively Clason clearly illustrates that it is one thing to accumulate wealth but another to protect the accumulated wealth. He also dismissed the idea, with firm certainty, that luck counts in the scheme of things. And one has to build a sure fortress around one’s wealth in the form of an insurance.
Section four consist of three chapters with stories of two different people with background both achieving financial success in different occasions and situations. Here we see a camel trader – a man of noble birth– who threw his nobility to the dogs, joined a gang of desert thieves, became a local slave and then rose from that demeaning position to an exalted one applying these laws. Also the book tells of a very rich man whom twice was sold into slavery in the kingdom, first in his childhood and then in adulthood. But he had to beat the odds to become very rich that you won’t believe his story.
Then the book closes with a historical sketch of Babylon, the most glamorous empire in its time. This empire however, wasn’t located in a suitable setting that conjures the visions of wealth and splendor as one is wont to believe.
This piece is a classic for the pursuit of service to humanity and the accumulation of wealth. The author clearly establishes, and I strongly agree with him, that there is nosuch thing as sudden wealth. This is one thing many are not aware of. A lot are engulfed with the get-rich-over-night syndrome that has ravaged the present day societies as is illustrated here.
Stylistically, the book can fit easily into any of the present day society because of it simplicity. Clason uses parables from ancient Babylon to push home his ideas on the principles of wealth accumulation. He also used proverbs at the beginning of some chapters and bulleted summary to vividly make the reader retain his point of views.
However, the use of Elizabethan English as the language of the book could make it difficult for wider spread of readers worldwide. Nonetheless, this book – The Richest Man in Babylon – is a must read book. Get a copy for keeps.