May: Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money Review

Book Description

A practical approach to creating wealth-based on the established principles of ancient Jewish wisdom-made accessible to people of all backgrounds

The ups and downs of the economy prove Rabbi Daniel Lapin’s famous principle that the more things change, the more we need to depend upon the things that never change. There’s no better source for both practical and spiritual financial wisdom than the time-tested knowledge found in the ancient Jewish faith and its culture. In the Second Edition of Thou Shall Prosper, Lapin offers a practical approach to creating wealth based on the established principles of ancient Jewish wisdom. This book details the ten permanent principles that never change, the ten commandments of making money if you will, and explores the economic and philosophic vision of business that has been part of Jewish culture for centuries. The book’s focus is on making accessible to individuals of all backgrounds, the timeless truths that Jews have used for centuries to excel in business.

Outlines ten fundamental “commandments” relating to business and money
Includes insights that will increase your potential for creating wealth, no matter what your faith or background may be
Blends contemporary business stories and Lapin’s own business experiences with the wisdom of the Torah and Talmudic prescriptions

This Second Edition provides new examples, especially of Internet related business opportunities. In addition, each chapter highlights specific action steps that can lead to wealth opportunities in both difficult economic times and periods of prosperity.

Book Club Review

Thanks for being a part of the Modern Leadership Monthly Book Club. If you happened upon this page and are not a member you can join for free here .

The book club is designed to explore books that will help us on our leadership journey. It is a part of the Modern Leadership Podcast where we breakdown a book weekly in each episode. You can catch the podcast here.

This month’s book is Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money by Daniel Lapin

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Brief Summary

This book starts with a very complementary intro by Dave Ramsey. This is a key endorsement for the book for a few reasons. First, Dave Ramsey. That alone is huge. Dave has a large audience and a lot of influence. His endorsement is not easy to get and suggests quite a respect for Rabbi Lapin. Second, Dave is an outspoken Christian recommending a book that solely explores the teachings of Judaism. This suggests the principles discussed are timeless as well as nondenominational. I found this to be quite true in my reading.

As the book begins it dives into the 10 Commandments for Making Money with each chapter deep diving into each commandment.

The First Commandment: Believe in the Dignity and Morality of Business
The Second Commandment: Extend the Network of Your Connectedness to Many People Befriend many people who are a rung or two above and below your financial level, then find ways to help them achieve their desires.
The Third Commandment: Get to Know Yourself
The Fourth Commandment: Do Not Pursue Perfection
The Fifth Commandment: Lead Consistently and Constantly
The Sixth Commandment: Constantly Change the Changeable While Steadfastly Clinging to the Unchangeable
The Seventh Commandment: Learn to Foretell the Future
The Eighth Commandment: Know Your Money
The Ninth Commandment: Act Rich: Give Away 10 Percent of Your After Tax Income
The Tenth Commandment: Never Retire

About the author – Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Rabbi Lapin is known widely as America’s Rabbi. He is a noted rabbinic scholar, best-selling author and TV host, He studied in England as well as Israel and established a boat building business in Johannesburg South Africa before immigrating to the US and founding the Pacific Jewish Center in California.

In addition to writing the bestselling book, Thou Shall Prosper, which is actually his 3rd book, he is a frequent speaker for hundreds of organizations including keynoting the Congressional Bi-Partisan opening of the 106th Congress in Washington, DC. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Jewish Press, and The Washington Times

Who should read

You should read this book if:

You struggle with the morality of wealth- does making money make you feel uncomfortable? You should read this book
You like straight forward principles of making wealth, generating influence and service
You want to deep dive into spiritual principles from the
You want to understand why Jewish people appear more frequently on lists of “Most Wealthy” or “Most Successful” in publication

Who shouldn’t read this book

Do not appreciate spiritual aspects related to a financial topic.
Do not want to make more money or understand how to.
Anti-Semitic.

What surprised me

This book was recommended more than any other book on the podcast. Every person who recommended the book is devout Christian, including an insightful forward by Dave Ramsey. I wondered how a book, written by a Rabbi and focusing on the religious teachings of Judaism, could be universally relevant.

The book is fantastic. True principles are true principles regardless of your preferred spirituality or religion. It was clear from the first chapter that this book could benefit every reader from every walk of life. This fact was reiterated when Rabbi Lapin joined me on episode 14 of the Modern Leadership Podcast to discuss his book.

Criticism

Although I thought the book well researched and informative, and I definitely recommend it, I found it got a little long for me. Each chapter (commandment) is packed with background stories and examples. By the end of each chapter I felt like I “got it” and was ready to move on. It is a big book, 388 pages, divided into 10 chapters based on the commandments.

Takeaways

From Dave Ramsey Intro

“You’re 12 years old. You don’t need money, what you need is a job!”
Thomas Edison said it pretty well: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
It is definitely one of the top financial books I have ever read—and I’ve read a lot of them.
Overall, this book isn’t about becoming rich; it’s about adding value—to yourself, your family, and the world around you.

From the Book

From notorious Nazis to Hassidic scholars, from Japan’s cultural commentators to conspiracy theorists who have never met a Jew, all who have examined the historic and current identity of the Jewish people acknowledge one simple truth—Jews are good at business.
Three thousand years of Jewish scholarship reveals precisely the reverse. The more wealth that the people around me create, the more I shall benefit.
Ben Zomah laughed joyously and said, “Blessed is the Creator who has created all these people to serve me.” Continuing, he mused aloud, “Think what Adam had to endure before he could eat bread. He ploughed, he planted, he reaped, he bound the sheaves, he threshed and winnowed, he ground the ears, and he sifted the flour. He then kneaded and baked, and then, at last, he ate, whereas I get up each morning and find all these things done for me. How much did Adam have to do to obtain clothing? He had to shear sheep, wash the wool, comb it, spin it, and weave it. I get up each morning and find all these done for me. All kinds of craftsmen come to the very door of my house and supply me with whatever I need.”
Learning how to increase your ability to make money and produce wealth suffuses every aspect of your existence.
Most people who learn how to make money inevitably learn how to improve their relationships with others.
How does one become a better negotiator? In much the same three phase method that one becomes better at carpentry, better at omelet cooking, and better at writing poetry: (1) learn, (2) understand, and (3) practice. Phase one is learning the techniques. Phase two is understanding those principles that lie behind the techniques. Understanding how those techniques work provides assurance that they will work. Gaining confidence in the ultimate effectiveness of those techniques is important because it helps to provide the motivation to keep going with phase three. Phase three is doggedly and determinedly practicing, not only to become proficient in the technique, but also to become a different person.
“I have learned much from my teachers, even more from my colleagues, but I have learned most by far from my students.”
Jewish tradition views a person’s quest for profit and wealth to be inherently moral.
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.
Old you + More money = New you
- More money = New you – Old you
If feeling passion and pride for my work helps me talk enthusiastically about what I do, so does talking excitedly about my work increase the passion and the pride I feel for it.
If you are embarrassed about your business, you set yourself up to fail. Few sales professionals wholeheartedly and effectively promote products or services they feel to be shoddy or overpriced. Not only does your moral ambivalence inhibit all out effort, but it also triggers a shame reflex. Instead of winning the approval of people whose opinions you value, you feel them radiating an almost palpable disapproval for your profession. You shrink into yourself and appear apologetic and embarrassed. This is hardly the posture of success.
“Ben Azzai said, hasten to commit good acts and flee from misdeed since every good act encourages another in its wake, while every misdeed eases the way to the next.”
If you are comfortable with prayer, go ahead and include a request for prosperity in your prayers. What you are really asking for is the opportunity to serve your fellow human beings.
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.
Few people can truly excel at occupations about which they entertain moral reservations.
Her monthly commission check was a measure of how helpful she had been
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.
YOUR PATH TO PROSPERITY • Begin embracing these two related notions: (1) You are in business, and (2) the occupation of business is moral, noble, and worthy.
Only by actively and perhaps even joyously interacting with other people can the circumstances of wealth creation be set in place.
FIND OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE MANY FRIENDS
Now some people may say, “Well, that is all very materialistic. My friendships are far too real and personal to require gifts and thank you notes. My friend knows that I care for him, and we don’t need those little scraps of tangible evidence.” This is a lot like the person who thinks he has discovered that one doesn’t really need to water flowers. In fact, he thinks, one can even detach them from their plants and carry them indoors to brighten up a room. A little while later, when the flower has faded and died, the foolish horticulturist realizes that the water and the nurturing plant did serve a purpose after all. They provided sustenance and durability. Without them the flower eventually died. Similarly, friends who abandon these rituals that constantly form and discharge mutual obligation soon discover friendship fading. Constantly creating and discharging obligations nurtures and sustains a friendship.
You are not trying to expand your business Rolodex. You are trying to warm your life with new relationships.
Ask people why they golf with business associates, and the answer is always the same: It’s a great way to build relationships.
Although it is certainly true that modern advances in telecommuncations allow you to be in business despite geographic isolation, moving to a small and remote community might not be the best way to prepare for your new life of economic success.
You too can make your home inviting to guests, and you can similarly increase your circle of friends by inviting guests to enjoy your hospitality.
What if you have no passion for your work? Trying to earn money doing something you dislike is equivalent to boxing with one hand tied behind your back. You need to do everything in your power to cultivate an interest in what you do. If that is impossible, I would suggest finding a position you can be passionate about.
This book’s second commandment could be summarized thus: Make lots of new friends, try to help them, and make sure that they all know how you could help them and that you are eager to do so.
If you really are to succeed in business, it won’t be because people think you are smart; it will be because people like you.
Be predictable, and you’ll be seen as a professional.
Did you say you were laid off? Not at all—you are merely going to be marketing your company’s services elsewhere. Are you undergoing new skill training? Fine, you are merely finding new products to market to your customers. You’re in business, all right!
He realized that he was not seeking a job as much as he was seeking new clients or customers.
How can you hope to succeed in this quest to make only wise decisions? Treat this quest as a war and, as in all wars, you must know the enemy and its goals.
Long before you can hope to lead others, you must acquire the strength to lead yourself.
Out of control by you means in control by them—you’ve lost it.”
James Jerome Hill was born in a log cabin in Ontario, Canada, in 1838.
- His concept was to build the line slowly and first develop the economy of the area before continuing on further.
Have you heard folks say things like, “Why not take the day off and spend it with the family?” or “Nobody ever dies regretting not having spent enough time at work”? Those are very pretty notions, but they can be said only by someone with no fear at all of having to put his children to bed that night, hungry and frightened.
Better to have the sociopath gene if one wants to become a billionaire.”9 They confuse cause and effect. It is not the system that makes sociopathic behavior pay off; it is sociopathic behavior that has damaged the system.
Anything residing in your brain becomes part of you and plays a role in the person you become, in the actions you perform, and in the things you say. You can use this fact by deliberately implanting in your mind those ideas and principles that you wish to retain and empower to impact you.
Let nobody consider himself to be poor. Forming that opinion of yourself erects an insurmountable obstacle to becoming rich.
A quick glance at reality reveals that business creates wealth, it doesn’t redistribute it.
Rude evangelism is never excused by the fervor felt by the crusader for his or her cause.
The best thing to do is design a system, he says, that provides incentive for the most able and creative people to keep working long after they no longer need to work.
The American Management Association prefers classroom situations for its course “Developing Executive Leadership” and promises instruction in such areas as “How to lead individuals,” “How to communicate under pressure,” and “How to handle difficult people.”
Why does everyone agree on how to produce top-rate doctors, car mechanics, and physicists, but nobody seems to agree on how to produce top rate leaders? Medical education in Bombay does not differ substantially from medical training in Boston; but every single leadership training program claims to have its own unique system.
Stressful circumstances have created more leaders than have all the leadership training programs put together.
One key to being a leader is to leap at the opportunity for leadership.
Mastery of facts is an indispensable accompaniment to leadership, but it is only half the story. If facts are all you master, then you will always be valuable to the leaders, but you are not destined to become a leader yourself.
- The other necessary element is that of faith. Does this mean only religious people can become leaders? No, of course not. When I use the word faith, I mean the ability to work as comfortably with something yet invisible as if it were already a present reality.
You must act as if the desired outcome was already the reality.
Most of the really important adventures on which you embark depend on belief and faith.
Your effectiveness as a leader will have much to do with how much faith you exude about desired outcomes, and you can increase your ability to both feel and exude faith.

My Key Key Key Takeaway

The Havdalah service
- Recited over a cup of wine that runs over into the saucer beneath. This overflowing cup symbolizes the intention to produce during the week ahead not only sufficient to fill one’s own cup, but also an excess that will allow overflow for the benefit of others. In other words, I am obliged to first fill my cup and then continue pouring as it were, so that I will have sufficient to give away to others, thus helping to jump-start their own efforts.

This is my most key takeaway because I just love the metaphor, the imagery of doing what is necessary to find success and fill my cup, but then continuing to work hard so that my success will overflow and bless those around me. As Zig Ziglar states- you can have everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.