Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money, Second Edition

Chapter 11. Epilogue

Life is business, and business is life. Learn one, and you will have also learned the other.

In the few years since the first edition of this book was published, I have had the privilege of meeting hundreds of men and women who described to me how their lives were changed by reading Thou Shall Prosper. Callers to my radio show quote passages from the book to me and folks form lines at live events for me to sign their copies. All of this has been enormously gratifying for me because I believe implicitly that it is impossible for one person to prosper without that person adding to the welfare of many other people in his community.

My Uncle Joe spent his later days driving dusty country roads in a Rolls Royce. He was a manufacturer's representative. He was a very successful manufacturer's representative. Earlier in life he had built up a business importing and servicing high-end European and Japanese audio equipment. Without even thinking about it, he practiced all the Ten Commandments of this book and became wealthy. His business prospered until he sold his growing company to a conglomerate for a great deal of money. Because he would never have violated either the tenth commandment by retiring or his non-compete agreement by opening up another business, he was in a quandary. Then he realized that nothing in his agreement prevented him from working for another company or even several companies. He approached manufacturers, importers, and wholesalers and offered to ...