Page 10 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

Since it is necessary to crawl before you walk, it is suggested that you make
that objective $1,000.

Now you may say, why stop at $1,000? Why not make it $100,000? While
there is merit in the idea of setting up your sights high, there is such a thing
as shooting at the moon. Set an objective that you know you can attain.
Having attained your first objective, you can then consider what your next
objective will be. Remember that after you start in business you are going to
run afoul of many discouragements. While it looks easy now, it may not two
months from now. If you have as an objective a mark that you can almost
reach out and touch, it will help you to carry through this period of
discouragement.

The Story of Money

Since this is a book about making money, and money will be mentioned
frequently, it might be in order to get it clearly fixed in our minds what
money is. Money itself is no good. You cannot eat it. You cannot wear it.
You cannot use it for much of anything except to exchange for things which
you need. That is why it is called a “medium of exchange.” Money can be
anything. In the early days of the West whiskey was used for money. A farm
was advertised as being worth so many barrels of whiskey. Beads were used
by the Indians as a medium of exchange. The island of Manhattan was
bought from the Indians for a few beads. The first use of coins as money
antedates Christ. To save people the trouble of having to weigh each coin to
determine its value, the government stamped them with its mark. They could
then be passed in exchange without using scales, although even today the
banks in Great Britain weigh all gold coins presented to them to determine
the wear.

One of the first countries to use credit money as a medium of exchange was
England. People took their silver to the Exchequer and received in exchange
a tally stick. Notches were cut in this stick according to the number of
“pounds” of silver loaned to the government. These tally sticks were about
three-quarters of an inch square and about ten inches long. After being
notched, the stick was split in half, and one-half was hung in the Exchequer,