The Luckiest Man in Babylon 6
This is the last chapter of The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Classon. Please send me any questions or topics that you would like me to discuss in after completing this book.
Characters:
Sharru Nada – The Merchant Prince of Babylon
Arad Gula – Sharru’s partner
Hadan Gula – Arad’s grandson
Everyday Sharru’s master was more eager that he come home, more eager to divide the money. And he kept on encouraging him to sell more.
Sharru regularly ventured outside the wall, since the overseers over the slaves were good clients. One day he say the same guy who scoffed at work and said he would do the minimum. He looked so bad that Sharru felt sorry for him and gave him one of the honey cakes. He devoured it greedily.
Then one day Arad Gula (Hadan’s grandfather) asked Sharru: “Why dost thou work so hard?” Sharru explained to him what Meggido has said of work and how work is proving to be his best friend. Then Arad enquired what Sharru would do with the money, to which Sharru explained that he wants to buy his freedom and become a merchant.
Then Arad Gula confided in Sharru and told him that he is also a slave and in partnership with his master.
This news is too much for Hadan and he objects fiercely. He cannot imagine that his grandfather was a slave.
Sharru Nada remained calm. “I honor him for rising above his misfortune and becoming a leading citizen of Damascus. Art thou, his grandson, cast of the same mold? Art thou man enough to face true facts, or dost thou prefer to live under false illusions?”
Now that is a question! Do you have what it takes to walk the walk? Do you have the hunger to drive you to get up and do that reading? Or to attend the seminar early on a Saturday morning? How is it with YOU?
Hadan is very upset. “… you sayest he was but a despised slave in Babylon.”
“Had he remained a slave in Babylon, then he might well have been despised, but when, through his own efforts, he became a great man in Damascus, the Gods indeed condoned his misfortunes and honored him with their respect,” Sharru Nada replied.
Arad confided in Sharru that he was scared. He had enough money to buy his freedom, but now he is scared that he will not succeed on his own, that his sales would drop without the support of his master.
Sharru encouraged him to break free and to once again live and act like a free man. To once more acquire the mindset of a free man. “Act like a free man and succeed like one. Decide what thou desirest to accomplish and then work will aid thee to achieve it.”
Work will also help you to realise your dreams, just as work is helping me to reach my dreams. Work comes in many forms. It is work like in labour for money and the jobs we do. But it is also work, such as learning and acquiring knowledge and skills. And especially working on mindset and attitudes. These last may be the most difficult.
The Luckiest Man in Babylon 5
This is the last chapter of The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Classon. Please send me any questions or topics that you would like me to discuss in after completing this book.
Characters:
Sharru Nada – The Merchant Prince of Babylon
Arad Gula – Sharru’s partner
Hadan Gula – Arad’s grandson
As the day at the slave market draw to a close, the prospect of going to the wall looms bigger and bigger, since Sharru is still there. Then, in the nick of time, he convinces a baker to buy him and teach him the secrets of the trade. And so it happens – he considers himself the luckiest man in Babylon.
He did whatever he could to make himself valuable and useful, not only to his master, but to the business in general. Eventually he started taking over and running the business. At this point he went to his master with the plan to bake extra honey cakes and sell it on the streets when his work was done. He and his master would share the profits.
The plan was put into action and the next day he found himself on the streets, selling his honey cakes. Or, rather, trying to sell them, since nobody seemed interested. He became really dishearted, but, once you are in, you are in, so he persisted. After all, he was not selling honey cakes, he was buying his freedom!
But then people started buying and soon he had sold everything. And as time progressed, he found regular customers, one of which was Arad, Hadan’s grandfather.
One day Arad said: “I like thy cakes, boy, but better still I like the fine enterprise with which thou offerest them. Such spirit can carry thee far on the road to success.” This was words of encouragement that made Sharru work with even more dedication.
While Sharru’s purse was growing heavier, his master used his free time to visit the gambling houses …
One day Sharru ran into Megiddo, who was also in a position of trust and found favour with his master, because of his hard work and trustworthiness.
Tomorrow we continue.
Yesterday evening, when taking my daughter back to university, she said she doesn’t think she would like working for a boss. (My genes talking.) I said this: Working for a boss is not bad. A good boss should invite ideas and feedback, because it is important to the success of his business. But when you give the feedback, keep in mind that the boss is higher than you, and therefore has a different horizon The boss knows and sees things that he does not necessarily can or want to share with you. So, whatever you say, will always be based on your horizon, and might not be true in the boss’s horizon But, ultimately, he who pays the piper, calls the tune. So do your job well, deliver more than expected, give feedback without expecting anything in return, and you will not have a problem.
But don’t try to tell the boss how he should run his business. Don’t start telling co-workers how they should do their jobs – it is not your responsibility. That, I think, is the message of today’s Richest Man in Babylon.
Tomorrow we take another step.