Chapter 2 of Decide Your Future is a part of the book that will help you increase your wisdom and make wealth out of nothing. It’s all about helping the readers learn the processes of making money and keeping it. Chapter 1 of this book is just a prelude to wisdom!
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
Ecclesiastes 7:12 (ESV)
A decision that brings wealth
Where is the money? That’s a question that most of us long for the answer to. It’s not a mistake to read this book— it has the answer to the above question. The International Student’s edition of the Oxford Dictionary defines money as ‘1what you earn by working or selling things and use to buy things.’ ‘3a person’s wealth including their property.’
Money has passed the stage of being defined as ‘a medium of exchange.’ Although, that’s what it is. I’m not disputing it. I’m trying to bring to your knowledge that most people don’t understand the meaning of money—where it can be found and how to acquire it. I’ve provided the unique meaning of money in this book, and where and how it can be found and acquired.
Money is made by undertaking a process such as working for an employer or for yourself, selling a product, rendering a service, or selling or leasing your property. The money is in what you do, work, or sell. Do you know that money is inside you in form of ideas? How you package yourself determines the amount of money you can make.
Money is not only seen or handled in the form of paper or coin but in the form of ideas, exercise, career, and profession. The money is in the services you render or in the products you sell. You can inherit wealth but may not inherit the process by which the money was made. It’s not your sweat, so it might not last. You need to make your own money, the master plan will be with you, and it would hardly collapse when you have the master plan.
You can’t make money by staying idle. Money is what you earn or gain as an exchange for a product you sold or a service you rendered. You will understand what I mean if you read this book meditatively. Idleness does not earn good things, but commitment does even more than you can imagine. The money you seek is also in your property; you can become a millionaire by selling off or leasing out your property.
If you don’t work for an employer or for yourself or sell a product or render a service, you can never make money. Anything that can guarantee the accumulation of wealth is where the money hides. The money is hiding inside you, bring it out and stop searching for it elsewhere.
The fastest way to make money is by solving a problem. The world is full of problems and if you know how to solve any, you know how to make money. Everything in life is done at a price. Those in the telecommunication industry are extremely wealthy because they are solving the problems of communication for people on daily basis. We pay them by purchasing their recharge cards and subscribing to their weekly or monthly subscriptions, programmes, and advertisements.
Mike Adenuga made his money by rendering telecommunication services. Bill Gates made his money by offering Microsoft applications to the world. Thomas A. Edison made his money by inventing the electric bulb and Edison’s Dictating Machine.
Footballers make their money by rendering services on sports using their skills. Musicians make their money by unleashing the genius in their voices and skills. Authors make their money by inventing ideas from their brains and making them eternal on paper.
They write prolifically to keep the world going in the wave of history. Their ideas have sustained the future of millions of people who read books. You can see what the actors and actresses do on television when they act in movies, and that is how they make their own money.
Then, where is the money? The money is in what you do to make ends meet. It’s in the decisions you make on daily basis. When you make a decision to be committed to something meaningful in order to make ends meet, you’ve made a decision to make money.
You may have the skill, knowledge, and certificates required for making money, but when you fail to make the right decision, it will be hard for you to make money. That’s the reason why you should decide your future accurately.
What about money and wisdom?
I don’t know if you have the answer, but this advice will be helpful to you. If you don’t have wisdom, have money. If you don’t have money, have wisdom. Wisdom and money are like brothers and can substitute for each other to some extent. What wisdom can do for you, money can do as well except one thing: wisdom can preserve your life but money cannot.
The only advantage wisdom has over money is that it preserves the life of him who has it. For a deeper understanding of this truth, let’s consider what the Scripture says in the book of Ecclesiastes 7:12 about wisdom and money, using different bible versions:
For wisdom is a defense, and money is a defense: but the excellence of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
KJV
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
ESV
Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it.
NIV
For wisdom is a defense even as money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom shields and preserves the life of him who has it.
AMP
The contents of the different versions of the Scripture have it to say that: money is a defense just as wisdom; money protects just as wisdom; money is a shelter just as wisdom; but wisdom preserves life while money does not. Since I started studying the Scriptures, I’ve not seen anything that was used to compare wisdom except money!
This explains how important it is to make money. If you must be known in the world, make money, or have wisdom in a special way.
No wonder most people struggle to make money even at the point of death; some ladies prostitute their bodies for money, some young men commit crimes and shed blood for money, politicians fight tirelessly pursuing money and to occupy positions for money, leaders suppress the supremacy of the constitution for money, majority of young Africans have become pastors for money and there is bribe everywhere because people need money.
Love is now for sale and most ladies go after you when you have the money. There is no true love for a poor man just because he has no money. The same Scripture that compared wisdom and money also warns us against the evils of money. Money has the absolute power to do anything except to preserve the life of its possessor. The Scripture clearly says:
Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grieves.
1Timothy 6:9-10
God does not also limit us from making money in any quantity we want, but he is against making it in evil ways. God does not give us wealth (money); he gives us the power to make wealth (money).
You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Deuteronomy 8:18 (ESV).
Have you ever researched why the Scripture compared wisdom and money? God does not also place any limit that one cannot exceed when making money or acquiring wisdom. He knows that we need both wisdom and money to enjoy the life He gives us. That’s why He didn’t place any limit on wisdom and money.
Both can be acquired in limitless measures. Make money as you can or get wisdom as you can, you’re free. There is no overdose of wisdom nor shall there be for money. People hardly believe that they have enough money even when they do, that shows how defensive money is. We want more money just because we want more protection, for there’s no limit to acquiring money.
You could believe me that the reason why our creator does not place a limit where we can stop when making money or acquiring wisdom, is because the more we make money or acquire wisdom, the more we become protected since both are ‘a defense.’
Again, wisdom can bring money, but money cannot bring wisdom. With wisdom, we can conceive ideas that give birth to money. We can only use our money to buy or hire men of wisdom and pay them for their services, but cannot buy wisdom. Money has power and can influence anyone.
In fact, if you are not careful, money can make you foolish. Wisdom preserves life while money does not. This book will teach you how you can make money, success or acquire wisdom by making decisions. It will guide you on how to decide your future in the right way.
How to make money
Take your time to discover what people need, and help them provide it. Help them solve their problems. Yes, solve their problems at a price. People’s needs are their problems. If they need cleaning services, render cleaning services; if they need educational products, sell educational products; if they need consulting services, become a consultant in your area of specialization.
We cannot make money by providing the services or selling the products we found suitable for us. We must sell or provide what others need.
If we must make money, we must sell or provide what others need that we know they can’t possibly provide for themselves at the moment. They will pay you just to have it. That’s what Mark Zuckerberg did. The owners of Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Jumia, Konga, and DSTV/GOTV did the same. They knew that they will make money if they show people the easiest lifestyle to enjoy life.
When Mike Adenuga and other telecommunication service providers discovered the need for telecommunication services in Africa, they provided them. Today, they are billionaires. Mike did not decide to go into business because he needed to make money; he took his time to discover what the people needed before he made the right decision to establish it. The right decision gives profit.
Most people fail in business when they go into the wrong business; into a dead business. A dead business is one that has less or no people that need its services; it’s not lucrative. A business that is not lucrative cannot make you rich. Go into a lucrative business if you want to make money. The fastest way to make money is to solve people’s problems at a price.
What guarantees wealth
Money hardly goes to the foolish because wisdom is needed to acquire, safeguard and sustain it. Wisdom and money work in harmony; they are like twin brothers, and that’s why the Bible compared both with similar power.
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
Ecclesiastes 7:12 (ESV).
Listen, in the case of human twins, one is always stronger than the other, and so is wisdom over money. Jacob was stronger than Esau, and wisdom than money. Sometimes, money goes to the foolish but vanishes in a twinkling of an eye, due to the inability to control, safeguard and invest it wisely.
In case you doubt it, prove me wrong. Where on earth have you seen or known a foolish man who made fortune? If you know such a person, kindly link me to him. I will like to learn from him. Wisdom makes you strong, even stronger while foolishness makes you timid and weak.
A little drop of money in a foolish man’s pocket can make him timid to keep it safe. Keeping money safe is investing it wisely. When you lack wisdom, you can’t invest wisely.
King Solomon prayed for wisdom and he became the wealthiest king amongst the kings of the world in his time. You should believe this: ‘when you acquire wisdom, it is certain that money must be attracted, but when you first acquire wealth or make money, there is no guarantee that wisdom will be attracted.’
When you have money, it can even make you foolish when you allow pride to envelop your mind. That’s why wisdom must first be gotten before money, in order to checkmate money. For wisdom is stronger than money. It can checkmate money.
First, get wisdom and every other thing shall be made possible for you. Without wisdom, you cannot utilize good opportunities— opportunities that can make you rich.
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