The Way to Wealth (14 page)

50
BE CAREFUL OUT THERE

A firm opponent of dogma, Franklin nonetheless firmly believed that faith in (a) God should accompany every aspect of life. It is telling, therefore, that in
The Way to Wealth
he specifically says that
‘In the affairs of this world men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it’.

An extraordinarily capable man, Franklin (inventor, physicist, musician, writer, politician) clearly believed that we are responsible for our own endeavours and encouraged those around him to organise themselves to make their lives better. That’s as clear from his actions as from his words, since he is seen as the founding father of both the first fire-fighting organisation and the first hospital in the US.

DEFINING IDEA
…

Every business and every product has risks. You can’t get around it.

~
LEIACOCCA, AMERICAN INDUSTRIALIST

By urging us to rely on a lack of faith he is highlighting the risks involved in trusting your health and wealth to heaven, fate or blind optimism. It’s a risk that particularlyaffects entrepreneurs who tend to be notably dynamic and (over) optimistic. In your excitement about your own business and wealth creation, then, you can be saved by not trusting to fate. Here are some things I bet you haven’t taken into account…

Death marks the end of your own personal way to wealth, but if you’re the principal breadwinner have you got life insurance in place for your dependants? Even if you have, the chances are that you haven’t invested in disability insurance because a) you’re too busy trying to make money to spend it on insurance, and b) you just don’t want to think about it. Do consider it. You don’t have to work with industrial machinery or have a risky occupation to wind up disabled; a stroke or heart attack will do just as good a job of incapacitating you.

Death and disability

Irreplaceable others

If you’ve chosen co-workers and employees carefully then you should have at least one you see as being invaluable. Which is great while their qualities are working on your behalf, but what if they leave? What happens to your business if a key employee has to move on? Do you have clients who are entirely dependent on a single relationship with one person? How much business would you lose if that individual went to a rival company? Entrepreneurs tend to live their business and often forget that it is far less all-consuming, satisfying or attractive for their staff than it is for them.

Globalisation and rivals

You’ve got a great idea and a great team to put it in place, so what can possibly go wrong? How about a rival in Taiwan coming up with the same thing using cheaper labour and selling their product directly into your market via the web? Don’t trust that your brilliance will keep you ahead of the game or that this year’s good idea will last for ever. Someone, somewhere will build a better mouse trap.

HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU
…

Got an employee worth their weight in gold? Appoint them as a mentor to someone else and have that person shadow your wunderkind. In particular have them work as a team with clients so the shadow becomes seen as the apprentice and heir apparent to the star.

51
DON’T STOP BECAUSE YOU MAKE IT

The Way to Wealth
isn’t just about pointing yourself in the right direction; it’s about keeping up the momentum on the way. Or as Franklin puts it:
‘He that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor; but then the trade must be worked at, and the calling well followed, or neither the estate, nor the office, will enable us to pay our taxes.’

DEFINING IDEA
…

It’s never enough until your heart stops beating. The deeper you get, the sweeter the pain. Don’t give up the game until your heart stops beating.

~
SHELLSHOCK, BY NEW ORDER

I once had a conversation with a venture capitalist about entrepreneurs in the UK. He explained that essentially they had two waves of entrepreneurs—the driving young types determined to prove themselves and make their mark, and then the second-time-around types. The latter were older men and women who had already ‘made it’, become millionaires and drifted into semi-retirement, only to find that they were bored and looking for a challenge.

Franklin’s advice was set against a backdrop of less general affluence than today, and his point was that you must continue to work on your skills and abilities if you want to get the most out of your work life as well as pay your bills. What he didn’t stress for his audience in the 1750s is that this advice holds true for those who have achieved success, as well as for those still struggling to find it.

You might think that you work your way to wealth because you want to achieve a certain level of comfort, kudos or satisfaction. What you will find is that once there you will (indeed, should want to) set new goals to continue your personal momentum. Otherwise you stagnate.

Goal setting is the key for this. Breaking down major tasks into more manageable goals is important, yes. What is equally important for your personal and business momentum, however, is to ensure there is always another, bigger goal out there on the horizon. Keeping a list of your goals is a great help, since looking back on what you aspired to two years ago helps you focus on what you have achieved since then and on what remains to be done. Setting goals without recognising your achievements en route can turn the way to wealth into a treadmill.

Don’t fall into the rut of thinking that new goals simply means more of the old goals. Try to think laterally about what you might achieve differently. Don’t be bashful about thinking big and putting your wildest dreams onto your list. If you are stuck for ideas about how wild your dreams should be, then try brainstorming with co-workers and friends about just how high you could all go. It doesn’t matter that the wild dream is too big a goal to go for right now, just that it’s in the picture and you’re keeping that dream alive.

You can work out steps to break down the dream into more easily digested chunks as you go.

HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU
…

Mentoring is an excellent way of maintaining momentum because it freshens up your ideas with someone else’s fresh start, makes you think about new problems in new ways, and increases your networking reach. Think about signing up as a mentor yourself.

52
BE REALISTIC

The very last message of
The Way to Wealth
is a very human one, namely that Franklin knows full well what people are like and how much notice they tend to take of good advice about thrift and hard work. After his ‘harangue’ is done he notes that
‘The people heard it, and approved the doctrine, and immediately practiced the contrary’.

DEFINING IDEA
…

If you’d have my advice, I’ll give it you in short, for a word to the wise is enough.

~
FATHER ABRAHAM—AKA BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

We are all like the crowd in
The Way to Wealth
—we hear plenty of good advice, nod our approval and promptly ignore it. We know it doesn’t make sense to have large credit card balances but we still use them as stop-gap loans. We are fully aware we buy things we don’t strictly need, but the new i-Thingy is sooo bright, sooo shiny. Whatever advice Franklin gives us we will still be suckers for bargains, and we will still be tempted to keep up with our peers. As sure as tomorrow follows today, we will put off unpleasant jobs and will inevitably splash out on luxuries to reward or compensate ourselves for making it through the daily grind.

Franklin recognises that; in fact, his final point is that while the audience completely ignores the advice the one person struck by it, almost shamed by it indeed, is himself.
‘I resolved to be the better for the echo of it’
, he promises,
‘and though I had at first determined to buy stuff for a new coat, I went away resolved to wear my old one a little longer.’
Having heard his own advice spoken back to him, he has at least decided to make one little concession and keep his old item of clothing for a while longer rather than replace it right then. It is a small step but, as he notes repeatedly throughout the treatise, such small steps add up to great savings if repeated and multiplied.

His final promise to us can therefore be seen as being at the same time very modest and very hopeful:
‘reader, if thou wilt do the same, thy profit will be as great as mine,’
he says, knowing that the ‘profit’ in question is a short-term saving on a new coat, and an attitude that will stand you in good stead for life.

So don’t go away thinking that Franklin’s wisdom is all very well but barely workable. He himself concedes that while ideally you should go to bed early, work harder than everyone else, borrow nothing and purchase nothing but necessities, life isn’t so straightforward. Instead if you take just one little tip from his ideas and apply it to your life that will be precisely the kind of small step that leads towards wealth. Or, to put it another way: one good idea can change your life.

HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU
…

If you don’t have time to put in practice all the ideas and themes of
The Way to Wealth
then go to Idea 8,
To Thine Own Self be True
(p.17), and begin by working out your finances. If you did that and nothing else you would be on the path to prosperity.

INDEX

A

AA (Automobile Association)

Accenture, survey by

accountants

accreditation

advertising on websites

advice

financial

how much do we take?

learning to take

from a mentor

Allen, Woody

Amazon

‘ambush marketing’

appraisal of self

arrogance

attitude

attrition

auditing your debts

Augustine, Norman R.

B

balancing income, and outgoings

bankruptcy

banks

bargains

seeking out

temptation from

Barnes and Noble

Barton, Bruce

Bezos, Jeff

Bierce, Ambrose

blacklists

Boone, Louis E.

Boren, James H.

boss, being your own

brain training

‘brand equity’

Branson, Richard

breaking down large jobs

British Accreditation Bureau

Brookner, Anita

budgets

business evolution

buying on impulse

C

Callcredit

Carphone Warehouse

cars, cost of running

cashflow

change, embracing

communication between business and

customer

commuting

comparison websites

complaints, acting on

computers, the advent of

confidence

consultancy

Consumer Credit Counselling Service

consumerism

Coubertin, Pierre de

credit, taking other people’s

credit cards

late payment charges

new cards with 0% deals

credit rating

creditors

CRM (Customer Relation Management)

systems

cultural differences in work ethic

customer retention

D

D’Angelo, Anthony J.

Davies, Robertson

deadlines

death

debt

assessing

balancing

short-term relief from

delaying difficult tasks

delegating

depreciation of cars

Dinges, David

disability

Domeyer, Diane

downshifting

downtime

dreams, realising

E

eBay

‘elevator pitch’

email

frequency of checking

time wasted on

emergency plans

employees, irreplaceable

endorphins

entrepreneurs

Epstein, Robert

Equifax

Executive Hammocks

exercise

for the brain

expenditure

expenses, ‘unexpected’

Experian

F

failure in small businesses

Father Abraham

Ferriss, Timothy, The 4-Hour Work Week

‘fighting fund’

financial advice

first impressions

fitness

flexible working

‘founderitis’ (Founder’s Syndrome)

4-Hour Work Week, The

France, time management in

frugality

fuel costs

further education

G

Germany, time management in

globalisation

goals, constantly resetting

Gotti, John

H

Hammocks, Executive

‘harangue’

Heraclitus of Ephesus

Holiday, Billie

holidays

home, working from

Hoover, Herbert

hosting companies

How Old is Your Brain?

I

I Iacocca, Lee

immune system

impulse buying

independent financial advisers (IFAs)

Inland Revenue

insolvency

insurance

interest rates

on debts

on savings

Internet Lite

investment in property

IQ

ISAs

IVAs

Izza, Michael

J

job descriptions

Juran, Dr

K

Kaupthing Edge

Kawashima, Dr

‘keeping up with the Joneses’

Kiam, Victor

L

late payments, charges for

Lauder, Estee

laziness

learning

for business advancement

new trades

leisure

lenders

lifestyle, downshifting

lists, of things to do

Lloyds TSB

loans

loyalty schemes

Lubbock, John

luck

lunch breaks

luxuries

M

‘make do and mend’ approach

management

managing big tasks

market research

marketing yourself

McEldowney, Ken

McLuhan, Marshall

memory, improving

mentoring

micromanagement

minor expenses

modernisation

mortgages

motivating others

Motley Fool, The

moving away

mp3 files for napping to

N

napping

NASA

National Debtline

negotiating a pay rise

networking

New Order

Nintendo, How Old is Your Brain?

O

Office of Fair Trading

old age

organising time

outgoings

outsourcing

overconfidence

overseeing projects

P

Packer, Kerry

parental control, online

Pareto Principle

pay rises, negotiating

pensions

people management

Peters, Tom

physical fitness

plagiarism

positivity

power-napping

praise

offering

receiving

pre-owned purchases

price comparison websites

prioritising

procrastinating

progress in business

project management software

property investment

R

rainy day funds

‘rate tarts’

relaxation

remote learning

repayment dates

research

resistance to change

retail therapy

Riley, Pat

risks

rival businesses

Roberts, James

Rockefeller, John D.

Roosevelt, Eleanor

Ruskin, John

S

salary checkers

sales pitch

Saunders, Richard

savings

accounts

Scott, Sir Walter

second hand purchases

Secrets of Consulting, The

self-belief

self-discipline

self-employment

annual appraisal

selling yourself

Shakespeare, William

Sharma, Robin

siesta

skills

increasing

teaching to staff

sleep

small print

SMEs (small and medium enterprises)

Smith, Adam

social networking

spelling in websites

sport

staff, irreplaceable

staff management

standing costs of cars

stress

success in business

supervising workers

Syrus, Publilius

T

Talmud, The

task dumpers

tax

on savings

for self-employed

team leadership

temptation from bargains

time

management

thieves

wasting

zones

to-do lists

trade, learning

triage

trouble-shooting for business

Twain, Mark

U

Uhlich, Karin

unique selling point

unsociable hours

V

Virtual Private Networks

visual cortex

W

waiting

web filters

websites, quality

Weinberg, Gerald

well-being

Whitehead, Alfred North

Wood, Victoria

World Wide Web

work ethic, cultural differences

working from home

worst-case scenarios