Wealth Building from the Old Testament

Posted on September 13th, 2011

Perhaps you are a contractor hired to build a mansion.  You need a driveway made of cobblestones recently discovered from an ancient road bed near Boston and someone to provide an elegant marble surface for the foyer of the home.  You may likely call J.J. Flowers Surfacing to complete the work. 

Mr. Flowers has a long list of clients who praise his work.  Plus he has won numerous awards for excellence in surfacing.  Even during the best of economic times, he never took clients for granted. He never accepted more business than he could handle.  He always delivered the best product that he was capable of producing.  Yes the demand for his services is down today, but his business remains profitable.  There are still buildings and facilities being constructed. 

Mr. Flowers never lived above his means.  He has been married to the same wife for 31 years.  They have lived in the same nondescript traditional home for 24 years.  During good times as well as bad, he and his family only bought what they needed.  For example, in 1992, he bought a 1988 SR5 Toyota truck with 60,000 miles on it.  He could have easily afforded to purchase a fleet of new trucks but in his mind that would be a waste.  In 2010 his precious SR was ready for the smelter.

Tires worn. . . steering fuzzy. . . differential [rear end] making noise. . . 388,000 miles.

He told me:

. . .as much as I hated to I bought a 2005 Tundra [with 100,000 miles]. . . lousy gas mileage.

According to Mr. Flowers, demand for his services has nothing to do with the type of truck he drives. 

I'm only as good as the projects I have completed.

He often recalled a lesson he learned  from the Old Testament: something about 7 bad years and 7 good years. . . .  Be sure to store your grain when grain is plentiful.  In other words, build wealth when demand for one's product is high.

 

Category: Lessons Learned
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