MONEY-MAKERS

 Anybody can save; only a few can make money.

 

All you have to do, to save money, is to spend less than you get. And any human being that is healthy and “compos mentis” can live on, say, nine-tenths of what he is now living on and put by the other tenth. There may be exceptions to this rule; we must grant that for the severely¹ accurate, but they are scarce as hen’s teeth. It is safe to say that those who say they need every cent of what they make, and that it is impossible to save anything at all, are victims of self-pity, weak will, and bad management.

 

And saving money is about all that most 67 of us can do. And that makes few rich.

 

If I make ten dollars a week I can lay aside one dollar. If I make a thousand dollars a week I may bank nine hundred and ninety dollars of it (though I certainly would not). But in either case I wouldn’t get rich.

 

Rich people are not those who earn large salaries. They are those who handle money, who make money earn money.

 

Of course, in this argument we exclude two classes—those who have money given them, by inheritance or otherwise, and those who get money by chance. These two classes merely step into money some one else has made.

 

But very few people get rich, for the simple reason that money-making requires a certain order of genius. Money-makers are born. They have a natural gift.

 

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They are like poets, mechanicians, orators², artists, in that they are endowed by their Creator with a peculiar³ capacity.

 

The money-makers are the real kings of modern life, because vulgarly we measure all things, including human worth, by dollars.

 

If you make ten thousand dollars a year at your job it is only because your employer is making more than that amount out of your services. He is the player; you are the chessman. He is the general; you are the private.

 

The best thing for us workers to do is to let money-making alone. Nine times out of ten when we go into that game we are stung.

 

Wall Street is strewn with the corpses⁴ of lambs who thought they could outwit the cunning old wolves that hunt there.

 

Many a shopkeeper has been ruined trying 69 to get rich, not realizing that he is not a money-maker, but a money-earner.

 

And many and many a widow has lost all her insurance money by imagining that, being possessed⁵ of a tidy lump sum, she could increase it rapidly by shrewd investment. She does not understand that in speculating in real estate or buying stocks she is pitting her inexperience against genius and trained ability.

 

Let the natural-born money-makers make money. Let us, you and me, content ourselves with the only thing wherein we have a prospect⁶ of sure success—that is, saving money.

 

Sometimes the money-making faculty⁷ is a racial heritage, as among the Hebrews. Sometimes it runs in a family, and sometimes it appears sporadically⁸, and a money-making genius crops out in the most unexpected 70 place, just as a Lincoln, a Napoleon, or a Leonardo comes from a commonplace environment.

 

The thing for us to remember is that getting rich is but one small way in which human endeavor succeeds; that those who achieve riches are by no means certainly happy, and that their power to acquire luxuries is usually destructive to character.

 

And to remember also that the money-saver, if he be intelligent and if he have common sense and philosophy, is practically assured of contentment.

1 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

2 orators   

n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The hired orators continued to pour forth their streams of eloquence. 那些雇来的演说家继续滔滔不绝地施展辩才。 来自辞典例句
• Their ears are too full of bugles and drums and the fine words from stay-at-home orators. 人们的耳朵被军号声和战声以及呆在这的演说家们的漂亮言辞塞得太满了。 来自飘（部分）

3 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

4 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

5 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

6 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

7 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

8 sporadically   

adv.偶发地，零星地

参考例句：

• There are some trees sporadically around his house. 他的房子周围零星地有点树木。 来自辞典例句
• As for other aspects, we will sporadically hand out questionnaires. 在其他方面，我们会偶尔发送调查问卷。 来自互联网