Book Review - Thou Shall Prosper (Part 3)

In a previous post, I wrote an brief "overall" review on the book Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. This book comes highly recommended by both Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller.

In this post, I continue going through each commandment in more detail. Today, we're going to look at The Second Commandment - Extend the Network of Your Connectedness to Many People.


Lapin suggests in this chapter that friendships lead to wealth, rather than the reverse. Here are some of his key points regarding building relationships:

1. Honor the relationship with your parents and learn from them.


2. Health and human companionship do go hand in hand.


3. Try to win friends not in order to influence people for your benefit, but for the sheer joy of forming and maintaining human relationships. This cannot be faked!


4. Find opportunities to make friends - civic clubs, Rotary International, synagogue, church, etc.


5. Forge friendships by creating ongoing obligations. This may seem materialistic, but constantly creating and discharging obligations nurtures and sustains a friendship.


6. Only crowds of people can create wealth - locate yourself in the heart of large populations of people who share your values. Then begin connections.


7. Improving connections enhances wealth creation.


8. Helping others improve their lives helps you improve your own life.


9. Don't be a "wage slave" - be in business for yourself.


10. Be proud of and let people know what you do.


11. Choose your friends and customers carefully.


12. Service doesn't mean servility.


13. Love others, not just yourself.


14. To learn how to serve, learn how to be served.

This book's second commandment could be summarized thus: Make lots of new friends, try to help them, and make sure that they all know how you could help them and that you are eager to do so.

Book Review - Thou Shall Prosper (Part 2)

In a previous post, I wrote an brief "overall" review on the book Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. This book comes highly recommended by both Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller.

Now, over the next several weeks, I would like to go through each commandment in more detail, so let's review Lapin's 10 Commandments for making money:

1. The First Commandment - Believe in the dignity and morality of business


2. The Second Commandment - Extend the Network of your connectedness to many people


3. The Third Commandment - Get to know yourself


4. The Fourth Commandment - Do not pursue perfection


5. The Fifth Commandment - Lead consistently and constantly


6. The Sixth Commandment - Constantly change the changeable, while steadfastly clinging to the unchangeable


7. The Seventh Commandment - Learn to foretell the future


8. The Eighth Commandment - Know your money


9. The Ninth Commandment - Act rich: give away 10 percent of your after-tax income


10. The Tenth Commandment - Never retire

OK, so here's some more detail on The First Commandment - Believe in the dignity and morality of business.

Lapin suggests in this chapter that making money is more difficult to do if, deep down, you suspect making money to be a morally reprehensible activity. Jewish tradition views profit and wealth creation as a moral activity if, of course, your occupation is a moral one to begin with!

Step one in increasing your finances is to begin mentally and spiritually accepting these two beliefs:

1. you are in business


2. the occupation of business is moral, noble, and worthy

Lapin asserts that if you feel really good about your profession, that you bring others along with you because of your enthusiasm. Making more money changes you as a person. You become a slightly different person, and people notice this change.

This could be expressed in a mathematical equation:

Old you + More money = New you,

or to put the equation a different way:

More money = New you - Old you

In order to acquire more money, you need to work on far more than merely learning new skills. You need to work on changing yourself and belief system.

Society teaches today that if you own a business and are earning an incredible amount of money, you must be cheating or stealing from others. Lapin totally rejects this notion. Are there bad, corrupt business out there? Sure, there are a few bad apples, but the majority of businesses are providing valuable goods and services to people and their communities.

In our business and occupations, we all must believe that we are providing valuable goods and services to others. This is a morally excellent way of life!

Book Review - Thou Shall Prosper (Part 1)

Over the last several weeks, I've been reading the book Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. This book comes highly recommended by both Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller.

I'll say this from the beginning, this is a deep book and not an easy read (it was written by a Rabbi!), but I'm so glad I persevered and made it all the way through. The last 2 chapters were the best of the entire book.

For today's post, I'm just going to give a quick overview of what the book is about.

Introduction: This book is essentially a Jewish outlook on making money and creating wealth.

Lapin contends that God's chosen people have long been known to be excellent business people and good money managers, due to certain fundamental principles detailing how the world works being deeply ingrained in the Jewish people since the time of Abraham. These certain fundamental principles all come from the Bible and Jewish oral tradition.

The essential "framework" in which Lapin constructs his book is his Ten Commandments for making money.

1. The First Commandment - Believe in the dignity and morality of business
2. The Second Commandment - Extend the Network of your connectedness to many people
3. The Third Commandment - Get to know yourself
4. The Fourth Commandment - Do not pursue perfection
5. The Fifth Commandment - Lead consistently and constantly
6. The Sixth Commandment - Constantly change the changeable, while steadfastly clinging to the unchangeable
7. The Seventh Commandment - Learn to foretell the future
8. The Eighth Commandment - Know your money
9. The Ninth Commandment - Act rich: give away 10 percent of your after-tax income
10. The Tenth Commandment - Never retire

I'll post more on this book over the next couple of weeks.

Larry