The Richest Man Who Ever Lived, by Steven K. Scott

"Generosity starts in the heart. It always takes action, and it is never passive." - Steven K. Scott, from The Richest Man Who Ever Lived

I'm always looking for financial advice.  As someone who has never, ever been a member of the affluent or  semi-affluent or even quasi-affluent, I've always had to be careful about handling money.  I'd like to experience a life in which every significant purchase isn't crippling.


So when I got a free copy of The Richest Man Who Ever Lived, I was anxious to learn the secrets to creating a more comfortable lifestyle.  Unfortunately for me, I'm already applying (or at least trying to apply) every suggestion from said book.  I'm sure not rich from a financial stance, but I'm wealthy in more important ways.


Still... I look forward to being both!


For anyone interested, here's a review of the book:


The Richest Man Who Ever Lived is essentially a commentary on the Old Testament Book of Proverbs. That can’t be a bad thing. After all, Proverbs contains moral truths universally applicable regardless of one’s faith or lack thereof.


Despite its title, the book is not a guide for getting rich - at least not financially. While applying author Steven K. Scott’s suggestions can certainly contribute to financial gain, the core objective of the book is to provide a framework for achieving wealth in non-monetary forms.


Some readers may be disappointed that a book about the richest man who ever lived (the Old Testament’s Solomon) is not a get-rich financially guide, but rather a get-rich personally guide. True wealth comes not from the digits in a savings account, but from the peace within one’s heart and mind.


But who wouldn’t want a little more money? The Richest Man Who Ever Lived includes the author’s personal experiences of financial gain and loss, the latter of which was always the result of ignoring Solomon’s advice from the Book of Proverbs. When the author heeded Solomon’s advice, his financial success is, at least as much as the author admits, flawless.


The Richest Man Who Ever Lived is not a get-rich guide, but it will help readers manage their finances and personal and interpersonal habits more effectively.


Read Chapter 1 of The Richest Man Who Ever Lived.


I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Beyonce, Jay-Z, and… Steinbeck?

“It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.” – John Steinbeck

It would be unfair of me to place Beyonce Knowles and husband Shawn Carter (better known as Jay-Z, I guess) in either of Steinbeck’s above classifications.  But I’ll do it anyway.  At least partially.

In risk of classifying myself as judgmental I’ll declare the famous newbie parents as greedy.  Any other assumptions would be gut reactions (Shawn’s lyrics certainly paint a picture of a self-loving egotist, but maybe that’s just his Jay-Z character), but I’ve got some numbers to indicate their greed.

According to therichest.org, in 2011 Jay-Z had a net worth of $450 million while Beyonce rang in at $300 million.  Together, that’s 3/4 billion dollars, which is roughly 3/4 billion dollars more than my net worth.

While specific charitable donations are difficult to uncover, I found Beyonce donated $100,000 in 2008 to the Gulf Coast Ike Relief Fund.  She’s also agreed to donate $100,000 annually to a cosmetology center she and her mom opened in 2010.

According to multiple sources, Jay-Z and Sean Combs together donated $1 million to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.  Beyond that donation, most of Jay-Z’s philanthropic efforts come through words and a little bit of time.

Let’s give the couple the benefit of the doubt and just prorate Jay-Z’s Red Cross donation and Beyonce’s Gulf Coast Relief Fund donation over five years and even tack on a little extra for good measure.  Let’s say their charitable donations annually are $500,000.  It’s quite clear they’re not, but let’s just say they are.

With estimated collective earnings in 2011 of $72 million (according to therichest.org), their $500,000 charitable donations would be just under 0.7% of their income.

Contrast this with the $600,000 gold rocking horse Jay-Z bought for their new baby and an estimated $900,000 in additional expenses spent on the baby in its first days of life.

My point isn’t that we should give all our money to charity and not spoil our babies at least a little, but come on.  Imagine how many starving children could have lived off the money for that rocking horse.

And I really don’t mean to pick on Beyonce and Shawn.  They’ve both got decent rags to riches tales that I admire.  It’s just a shame their riches have blinded them to what it means to still be in rags.

I’m also aware that their income and charitable donations are not my business.  Honestly, I wish there wasn’t so much easily attainable information like this on the Internet.

Picking on the wealthy is like shooting fish in a barrel for those of us far from their financial fortune.  Does some of my anger come from jealousy?  Sure.  But in this world where people live in cardboard boxes and eat garbage and drink contaminated water, who has the ego to buy a $600,000 gold rocking horse for a baby that can’t tell the difference between gold, plastic, and wood?

This kind of behavior sickens me, but more than anything, it motivates me.  Anyone else want to become rich and famous so we can teach these people the real value of their wealth?  Let’s go.

Impossible

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” – Walt Disney

It shouldn’t have happened.

With just a few hours remaining to secure the last $2000 needed to meet the fundraising goal to get my newest feature film off the ground, it wasn’t looking good.

But as the hours ticked away, a steady stream of new pledges and increased donations tipped the scale in the affirmative direction.  And just like that, the campaign ended with 134 backers contributing 101% of the fundraising goal.

And here’s the kicker… I’ve had people contact me after the Kickstarter campaign ended to ask if it’s too late to contribute.  Kind hearted, generous folks are still showing support.  Thanks be to God for showing that through Him there is no impossible.

I’ve been asked multiple times what it felt like to reach the goal in the manner I reached it.  Was my head still spinning?  Had I come down from the adrenaline high I was on?

Truth be told, the adrenaline was contained and my head was only spinning as it normally does in the hours after school when my kids are hyped up on whatever it is that turns them into monsters that time of day.

With the Kickstarter campaign moving along as slowly as it was the first several weeks, I had resigned to the idea that the ends may not have been as important as the means.  All along, I felt convicted that $8000 was the amount to ask for.  Believe me, I wanted to lower it to make it more attainable, but I had a serenity about me that assured me $8000 was the amount for which to reach.

When it looked unattainable, I assumed God wanted me to go through the process for reasons beyond securing the finances.  Maybe it was the connections I’d make through the campaign or announcing to the public I was going to do this project or just a reminder that I cannot do things on my own.

And it was all those things.

Plus the money.

So I got that going for me.  Which is nice.

Apologies to Bill Murray.

Anyway… I was really at peace with whatever would come about from the whole Kickstarter experience.  Coming up short of the goal would have been a huge setback, but it wouldn’t have killed the project.  Maybe just delayed it a year or two.  As it is, now I’m hopeful I can move into production in the summer of 2013 which was the hope all along.  Still no guarantees, but with money to pay my lawyer and put into marketing and meetings and oh-so-many other expenses, I’m ready to shift into the next gear.

Walt Disney really did accomplish the impossible in his relatively short life in this world.  He may not have attributed his successes to the One I know was responsible, but Disney set a good example nonetheless – go out and DO something.  Don’t wait until somebody else gives you permission.  The more impossible those around you say something is, the more rewarding it will be to prove them all wrong.

At least I know for sure there are 134* people out there who believe I can accomplish the impossible.  I thank God for each and every one of them.

* Though 134 backers are listed on Kickstarter, many of those backers are couples or families, so I know the number of supporters is greater than 134.  Plus, the handful of angels who have given money after the Kickstarter campaign ended.  And there were a few people who found non-monetary ways to show support.  I just thought it sounded good to put a number in that delineation, in spite of the slight manipulation.  Maybe there’s a political career ahead for me…

Beg

“Whatsoever we beg of God, let us also work for it.” – Jeremy Taylor

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Forgive me for putting that melody in your head.  Is it the Springsteen version?  It is, isn’t it?

Santa may be coming in a few weeks, but God is already here.  And despite popular sentiment, God and Santa are not one in the same.

Why is it we spend the majority of our prayer time in ‘ask-mode’ and so little in ‘thanksgiving-mode’?  Or am I the only one who finds himself asking far more than thanking?

I’m getting better.  That’s not to pat myself on the back, because I’ve still got a long ways to go, but the more I listen and offer thanksgiving instead of always asking, the more at peace I find myself.  Funny how that works, huh?

These last few weeks I’ve spent plenty of time begging through Facebook, Twitter, radio and television.  At least I assume many have perceived it as begging.  My multiple Facebook posts nearly every day asking friends and acquaintances to donate money to the development funds of my current feature film could be perceived as begging.  They could certainly be perceived as annoying.

Contrary to what many of my Facebook connections likely assume after the last month, self-promotion is not one of my fortes.  I don’t like offering unsolicited updates about my career.  I’ve always said it’s better to let others do the talking.  Put another way:

“Boast not of yourself; if you’re as great as you think you are, others will do the boasting for you.” – J. O.

But this whole Kickstarter campaign has nothing to do with boasting or self-promotion.  It’s really just a project for which I’m passionate.  And it’s a project I sincerely feel is driven by a higher power.  And not a higher power in a red suit flying in a sleigh.

I’ve been begging God to simply guide me through this whole movie project.  He’s been faithful and true to His word, even when I get frustrated and pessimistic.

But in my begging, I have never been passive.  I love Mr. Taylor’s quote above.  Simply praying for God to take action while we sit on our butts is as productive as reading diet books while drinking a super-size Coke and a half-dozen Twinkies.

So that’s why I’ve been so persistent in my – call it what you want – begging, pleading, conjuring, imploring, urging.  I believe this is God’s project, but I also believe He expects a lot of hard work from me in seeing it come to be.  Posting a bunch of status updates is not hard work; that’s not what I’m implying.  But the behind-the-scenes efforts I’ve been making at the expense of sleep and free-time are where I hope to separate myself from the passive beggars.

To my Facebook connections frustrated with my bombardment of repetitious status updates, please forgive me.  I beg of you.

Relative

“Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.” – Khalil Gibran

Professional athletes, movie stars, business tycoons – we love to see their philanthropic efforts.  And for the most part, I’d like to think abundantly rich folks give a portion of their wealth to charitable causes.  Whether they do it for publicity or out of a genuine desire to help is not our judgment to make.

Ten-percent of one’s wealth is the Biblically accepted baseline for giving back to God what is rightfully His.  Where exactly this 10% should go is debated, but I’m a firm believer that any worthy cause is an acceptable allocation of the 10%, whether it be entirely to your church or charities or simply sharing with a brother or sister in need.

A millionaire’s 10% is incomparable to mine.  A millionaire’s 10% is more than my 100%!  Does that make his/her tithing more important than mine?  Of course not.

It’s all relative, of course.  While the richest among us have the potential to make the biggest individual splashes – and they often do when they donate 7 figures to a particular cause – the cumulative efforts of the middle and lower class can have just as big an impact.

It’s easy to give comfortably.  Once we pay our bills, buy our groceries, fuel our cars, and take advantage of this week’s sales at Target, then it’s relatively easy to squeeze out some remnants for our brothers and sisters.  Once number one is taken care of, then maybe we’ll do what we can to help others.

But as Mr. Gibran states so brilliantly, “generosity… is giving [away] that which you need more than [others].”  What a statement!  And what an idea!  To give to others before taking care of oneself.

Mark 12: 41-44 talks about a poor widow who gives to the offering box a tiny donation in relation to the others who gave before her.  Yet Jesus applauds her above the others because her donation was a bigger sacrifice.

We live in a greedy world where the richest few continue to get richer while the majority of the world continues to live in poverty.  Instead of griping about the rich, maybe if those of us in the middle upped our efforts we could reduce the unnecessary starvation plaguing the world.

We’re called to love one another and to help each other when we are in need.  If my current movie project becomes the success I hope it will become, I will be doing incrementally more to carry my weight in bringing this world back up from the poverty it’s currently in.  I’m already working hard to take care of my brothers and sisters, but I want to do so much more.

Care to join me?  Give money to your church, to your favorite charities, to a friend or family member who is struggling.  Then take $5 or $10 and donate to the movie project I’ve been commissioned to oversee.  I promise to be generous with whatever success the movie finds.  And I will pay everybody back someway, somehow when the movie finds financial success.  I promise.