We Became What We Set Out To Be

In The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason tells a story. And so it comes along one day when the middle-aged chariot maker, Bansir, is tired and can't quit working. He's built a linear income. And there's the lyre player, Kobbi.

Kobbi's coming up the hill with lyre in hand, going to do a show in the evening to get another days' bread. And he sees Bansir not hard at it. In fact, he's resting. So, he asks him if he can borrow some money.

Bansir is tired. He looks at him and he says, "I can't loan you the money. I don't have the money. And look at you, here you are going up the road to play a gig, and you're asking for a few bucks so you can get a bite to eat so your stomach's not growling while you do that."

He said, "We are failures. However, our boyhood companion, no different than we when we all started out, is the richest man in Babylon!"

Wow, now that's a big contrast. The richest man.

The point of our story right now is not that the richest man began and studied the ways of wealth, and set everything in motion, compounding, building wealth solidly—that's another story. Ours right now is that it eventually came to Bansir, the chariot maker, why it was he and Kobbi were poor.

It was because those two boys, grown into middle-aged men now, had become what they had set out to become…albeit they didn't know any greater wisdom at the time they started off, when they were youths. There was no financial education in society at large then, the same as today.

Bansir had become one of the best—and at times had been considered the absolute best—chariot builder in all of Babylon. He didn't lack for work, oh, no, no. His attention to detail, his quality, the durability of his product, his style, meant he got work. But he never got ahead.

He had linear income.

Kobbi had done the same thing. He became highly acclaimed as a lyre player. He didn't lack for work. Again, the problem was that he had to work too much because he had to work.

Years up the road, Arkad had invested. Arkad had studied the ways of wealth.

Arkad had realized, "When my golden days come I'll have a forest, a rainforest of wealth, to take care of me, because of the magic of compounding."

"No, Kobbi, laments Bansir, why are we not wealthy? We never sought it. But it's never too late to start anow."