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Occasionally they change dramatically but all that does is camouflage how little the permanent principles have changed.
Thou Shall Prosper is necessary in order to highlight more effectively how those things that never change, really never do change.
for the most part people prosper when they behave decently and honorably toward one another and live among others who conduct themselves similarly.
“If he knows the secrets of wealth creation, why doesn’t he just get on with creating wealth instead of writing the secrets down for others?”
The more money you want, the more you will be willing to work and produce for me and for countless other people.
panhandling
Jewish tradition teaches that after you have done new things consistently for a while, you begin to feel yourself becoming a different person.
When we act new, think new and live new... we become a new person.
Confident in what you know and who you have become, you will successfully avoid the demoralizing chatter of the envious.
It is no accident that many fervent religious believers describe their spiritual advances in terms of being born again. Becoming a different person is not nearly as formidable as it sounds.
proffered
to put before a person for acceptance; offer.
churlishness.
Making money is much harder if, deep down, you suspect it to be a morally reprehensible activity.
When we cannot find a true meaning for our efforts in living and making money, then making money becomes a useless act... and morally unjustifiable.
Jewish tradition views a person’s quest for profit and wealth to be inherently moral.
Step one in the process of increasing your income is to begin wrapping yourself around these two related notions: (1) you are in business, and (2) the occupation of business is moral, noble, and worthy.
Many times , I have seen too many people doing business as if they aren't doing it. No... business is something real and something we all have to work for if making money with it is going to be real. Money is morally needed, Money is noble and Money is worthy.
Most people understand that they enjoy greater success when they feel good about their activities.
For better or worse, humans are holistic.
People’s bodies perform better when their brains and souls are on board with the program.
Helping your mind to know and believe that what you do professionally is good, noble, and worthwhile in itself helps to fuel your energies and propel your efforts.
You will become known for telling entertaining accounts of amusing incidents in your professional life.
Stories about events in your business day can inspire others, and they will be moved by poignant interactions you relate.
These natural and positive aspects of your public persona flow inevitably from feeling pride...
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Having additional money in your pocket, real spendable money, is not the same as having a pen or a cigar lighter in your pocket.
A substantial and meaningful increase in the amount of money you own changes you.
In other words, in order to acquire more money, you need to work on far more than merely learning new skills. You have to work on changing yourself. It may not be easy, but it can certainly be done, and it works.
approval of our friends is an important aid to a person’s business success; and likewise, people are stimulated and encouraged by their friends’ approval. Even more important, this approval helps people find passion and enthusiasm in what they do.
Developing a deep conviction of the intrinsic morality and dignity of business injects vast power into any enterprise undertaken.
No, you are not a swindling rogue. In reality, you are a noble person providing for others in a marvelous environment that benevolently rewards you for your consideration.
By contrast, Jews always viewed putting one’s capital at risk to enable someone else to make a profit as an honorable way to earn a living and to help others.
However, lending money to a needy man elevates him into an independent businessman. This way his dignity is preserved, and he retains the psychological self image so necessary to conducting business successfully.
The main reasons that Jews found their way into the fields of finance were undoubtedly trustworthiness and their conviction that they were fulfilling a necessary need in society.
On the contrary, they felt that they were providing a vital and valued service.
Deep within traditional Jewish culture lies the conviction that the only real way to achieve wealth is to attend diligently to the needs of others and to conduct oneself in an honorable and trustworthy fashion.
It is no surprise that Jews have never been handicapped in business by feelings of moral confusion about money.
My task is to mark the path toward similar conviction for you. In my Introduction, I said that you must be more than a mere reader. You need to be an active participant in your own “redemption.” You will need to walk your own path to conviction. The first marker on that path is to see most clearly how today’s cultural forces defy your purpose.
But I have noticed that it is much easier to persuade business professionals to talk about the good they do outside the office than about the immeasurable good for society they do by running their businesses.
really succeed in whatever is the business of your choice, you have to come to understand and utterly absorb into your being the fundamentally true idea that your activities in your business are virtuous and moral, provided of course that you conduct your business affairs honestly and honorably. Absorb this lesson into your heart and into your soul, and you will have overcome a major hurdle on your road to financial achievement.
We must all understand that in a free, transparent, and honest marketplace, you cannot make the money in the first place without benefiting other people.
If you subsequently choose to give money away, that is fine but it is not the justification for making money.
You must come to see that part of your goodness, part of the benefit you bring to others, is your daily conduct in operating your business enterprise.
The rule is that people seldom excel at any occupation that deep down they consider unworthy; and even if they are neutral about the morality of business, that neutrality is a weak reed on which to build success.
WE CAN’T HELP BELIEVING SOME OF WHAT PEOPLE TELL US
You cannot help believing some of what people tell you.
The Talmud regards this as an enormous failure on the part of King David. For this mistake in judgment, God later punished David by splitting his land into two during the days of his grandson Rehoboam. But the question of how David misjudged the situation remains.
The Talmud provides an answer that is a frightening glimpse into human nature: Once you admit a lie or a slander into your ears, you can never totally rid yourself of its effects.
You may think that you have expunged the information from your memory, but its impact will be with you forever.
This is the lesson of that story and the main reason it is recounted in such Biblical detail. You may think that you can remain uninfluenced by the things you hear, but it just isn’t so.
Overcoming nature is an essential element of Jewish faith. “It is natural” has never been an adequate defense for immoral behavior in the Jewish legal system.
Why do people raise their food to their mouths instead of lowering their mouths to the plate? Judaism views the dining table as a contemporary replacement for the long destroyed altar whose purpose was to raise the material to the level of the spiritual.
Wealth creation is partially how people express their spirituality.
You shall have no other Gods, and for our fellow humans, Thou shall not commit adultery. In other words, do not adulterate relationships.
