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Review:
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon's Secrets to
Success, Wealth, and Happiness
Each
year hundreds of books hit the market designed to help you achieve
greater success, get richer, and find happiness. You would think
by now there?d be nothing new to add ? that all possible wisdom
on these subjects had been recorded long ago for anyone willing
to learn it and practice it.
Author Steven K. Scott would probably tell you that all the
wisdom has already been recorded, and can be found in a handy
old book you may have heard of (although not necessarily digested
cover to cover): the Bible. Using the Proverbs of King Solomon,
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived offers a new guide to
wealth and success based on wisdom that?s not so new. In fact,
it?s downright ancient.
Scott begins by relating that, 30 years earlier, psychologist
Dr. Gary Smalley challenged him to read a Proverb each night
to see if it might improve his success in life. Millions of
dollars later (much of it made by writing and producing direct-market
infomercials), Scott is a believer, and maintains that keeping
to Solomon?s edicts is the road to riches, while straying from
Solomon?s words will bring you poor results, if not leading
to your ultimate demise (as straying eventually did to Solomon).
While
the book?s title suggests specific wealth-building tools, you?ll
have to look elsewhere for those. In Scott?s interpretation
of Solomon?s teaching, wealth (as well as other markers of success
and happiness) is a byproduct of action and attitude. What the
book offers are the do?s and dont?s in deciding on actions to
take and attitudes to cultivate.
In this way, The Richest Man isn?t much different than
other personal success books. Create a vision, make a plan,
work the plan, and try to avoid pitfalls that commonly trip
us up on our way to a better life. Nevertheless, there are a
few pointers that jump out. Scott strongly emphasizes partnering,
whether it's an informal mentor-mentee partnership or a real
business partnership, in order to gain wisdom and perspectives
no one person can have, and also have someone to help shoulder
the risk. He also stresses the need for diligence, to overcome
adversity or just plain laziness by consistently plowing ahead
-? it appears Solomon was already saying ?Just Do It? many centuries
ago.
A quibble with The Richest Man Who Ever Lived? Sometimes
Scott loses his point, or squeezes the point to fit some words
of Solomon, even when it?s not particularly appropriate. A couple
examples: In discussing partnering, Scott uses this heading
to describe one of the consequences of choosing not to seek
help: ?You Will Experience Financial Loss and Personal Humiliation.?
(Yikes.) Almost as ominous is the heading ?You Will Fall? in
which Scott brings up the death of Dr. Robert Atkins (of the
Atkins Diet), who died after slipping and falling on ice. Not
sure of the connection ? is Scott saying Atkins would still
be around if he?d sought a helping hand to get down those stairs?
That?s about all I can come up with to explain this tidbit?s
appearance in the book.
All
in all, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived delivers a solid
guide for getting on the path to success. You may not find a
ton of new ideas here (and how could you, they?re thousands
of years old), but if you need a kick in the pants to get you
on the right track, you could do a lot worse.
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