Throw The Bum Out!

 

There's this old story about a rich dude who leaves town and puts his three main workers in charge of managing his wealth.

 

The first guy, he leaves him in charge of the equivalent of 300 years worth of daily pay for an average worker. In today's numbers, average pay is about $35k a year, so that would be around $10,500,000.00. Ten million bucks is not a small number, is it?

 

To the second guy, he leaves about $5 Million in today's money. Not exactly chump change, right?

 

And then the third guy, who must have not been very well trusted in the first place, but still trusted enough to handle his money, the rich dude gives him about $2 Million.

 

The idea behind this story is that everybody has certain talents and abilities. Our job is to do the very best we can with what we've been given because our rewards are based on our results. Simple enough, huh?

 

 

As the story goes, the rich dude gets home and wants all three of his guys to give an account of what they've done with his money. After all, it is a ton of money. I would want to know. Wouldn't you?

 

The first guy says, "You left me with a little more than $10 Million. I went out and killed it! Here's your original $10M and I made you $10 Million more while you were gone."

 

Great results, huh? Yeah. I would love to have guys working for me who doubled my money. The rich dude says, "Well done. Very nice!"

 

The second guy says about the same thing: "You gave me $5 Million. I went out and hustled; here's an extra $5M to go with what you originally gave me." Again, tremendous work, right?

 

Finally, the last guy has to give an account of what he's done with the money. Only this time, the story doesn't end well.

 

The last guy answered, "I knew you were a hard man. I mean, c'mon, you make money even when you're not trying to make money. Honestly, I was afraid to lose your money. I hid it in the ground, but at least you get all your money back. Here ya go..."

 

The rich dude, who really was good at making money, looks at this last guy with disgust and says, "Hey! You should have at least put my money on loan with the bankers. Maybe you could have made me a little interest while I was away. You didn't even do that! You're evil and lazy."

 

The rich dude wasn't finished...he was really mad, "Throw the bum out. He can't stay here anymore. Take away his $2 Million and give it to the guy who made me $10 Million."

 

 

The story closes out with the story-teller, Jesus (it's an old Bible story), giving the moral of the story, "For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."

 

 

First of all, the moral of the story doesn't sound fair, does it?

 

Take from the guy down on his luck and give it to the guy who is already doing well? Wasn't Jesus for poor people?

 

Kicking a guy when he's down, even though it is his own fault, still sounds rough. Is that fair? Nope! Not really, and I'm not sure I like it, but we already know life's not fair.

 

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It's not fair, but it is true, isn't it?

 

No social program, redistribution agenda, fight for equality, or protest will ever change the universal laws of money physics. You can't legislate people into taking care of business. Either they do or they don't. Period.

 

 

Second, there's no way you can take $10M and double it without taking on some massive risk. I mean, the last guy was scared to death of risk so he buried his money, but the first and second guys jumped out there and put their money at risk.

 

Sure, they could have lost it all, but they didn't. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. They risked it all and doubled their money.

 

Little risks and big rewards are two things seldom found together.

 

If you want to make a lot of money, you'll have to risk a lot of money. If you're happy with what you're making now, you probably won't have to invest much more than what you're already putting at risk. 

 

Finally, last thing, if you stop investing, if you stop putting your money at risk, you're asking for somebody to come along and take everything away from you and give it to somebody who is already doing much better. 

 

Stop investing in yourself, somebody else will own your life for much less money. You'll punch their time clock, on their terms, under their supervision.

 

The whole world is advancing. You can't stand still, bury your head in the sand, and expect to stay even. That's not how the physics of money works. You have to keep risking. 

 

Stop investing in your business, you'll get run over by a competitor who is doubling down on risk. You won't stand a chance. One day you'll be up, the next day you'll be left wondering what happened. The smart money keeps moving, investing, and doubling-down.

 

Sometimes, the riskiest thing you can do is to do nothing at all.

 

✌ Mike