Page 23 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com

7 DEBT AND DESPAIR

If Franklin was around today he’d be on Oprah. ‘Industry pays debts,
while despair increaseth them’ as his advice. It’s a pity that so many of
us fail to heed it.

Debt, drug dependency and depression are pretty much the grim horsemen
of the modern apocalypse, intertwined and mutually provocative as they are.
What Franklin was pointing out all those years ago wasn’t just that hard
work pays debts, but that frozen immobility actually fuels them. What’s
often forgotten is the painful truth that throwing yourself into work may not
be enough to dig your way out of the hole and could even just contribute
to the problem.

DEFINING IDEA…
He who promises runs in debt.
~ THE TALMUD

In the animal kingdom there are countless examples of small beasties that
freeze to avoid the attentions of larger, hungrier ones. Fair play, and if it
wasn’t a successful strategy then there wouldn’t be so many beasties still
around pretending not to be there. The catch is that while this will probably
save you repeatedly from peckish predators, it does precisely diddley squat
for your chances when it comes to avoiding the dinosaur that is about to
stomp on you simply because you’re in its path. Debt is that vast, short-
sighted diplodocus plodding your way. It doesn’t matter whether you act the
stick insect and freeze, or the ant and toil all the more furiously because
that’s how you’ve always dealt with life. Either way, the arrival of the
overgrown lizard is going to leave you equally flat.

So deal with the debt dinosaur before the debt dinosaur deals with you.
Debt happens; indeed it is a normal part of life for all but a rare few.
Whether we’re talking personal finances or company balance sheets, the
problems occur when debt grows beyond our ability to manage it. And this
is the point at which it quickly transforms into the scaly, unavoidable