greatest wisdom book

Chapter 61 Game Law: Harmony is the most important thing in life 3
The smartest is the generosity of others

There have been many monarchs in the world who built great careers by relying on armies, and were also known as the most generous.The money which the prince spends, however, is either his own and his subjects' money, or else other people's money.In the first case, the prince must know how to be economical; in the second, he should try to show generosity.

——"No.16 Generosity and Miserliness"

Money and wealth are things that everyone desires. Although they are full of copper smell and come from many sources, some are noble and some are very dirty, they are flocked to and spared no effort to pursue.However, money is not everything, and wealth may not always make people happy. Only by transcending its existence can one enjoy life.

Many rich people are willing to do good and can throw money generously. They think that money does not always bring them happiness, but distributing money and doing charity work make them find happiness instead.

Andrew Carnegie, a billionaire steel industry magnate, believes that the purpose of getting rich is to distribute money.When he was impoverished, a rich man treated him as a friend and let him borrow books from his private collection freely.After Carnegie made his fortune, he donated money to build the world's largest free lending library.

Julius Rosenwald rescued the struggling Sears Roebuck from the brink of bankruptcy and has now turned it into a retail giant.Today, he is in charge of developing and improving the rural agency system and the Four-Health Association (the slogan proposed by the former US Department of Agriculture, which aims to promote modern science and technology education such as agriculture, animal husbandry, and housekeeping for rural teenagers).His goal was to bring prosperity and modernize education to rural America.

Even Rockefeller, who was "crazy for money", stopped working tirelessly on wealth after middle age, but began to think about others and how to exchange money for happiness.Rockefeller spread his millions to help those in need.This made him no longer afraid of being framed and attacked by others, and made him no longer suffer from insomnia and illness.He became a great philanthropist known far and wide.

The rich people feed back the wealth they pursue to the society, so that the society can share his wealth, which is a higher pursuit.Their generosity was rewarded with a higher return, not just in money—it not only satisfied their happiness, but also earned them immortal fame.

The opposite of generosity is naturally stinginess. Many rich people, because they love money too much, guard the golden mountain, be careful, and weigh pennies and pennies. As a result, apart from money, they will always lose people's hearts, and even be ridiculed and belittled.Being stingy is boring and useless, save when you should save, and when you should not save, money is the best tool to accomplish things for yourself.Sparing money not only wins a good reputation, but also can open up contacts and broaden the channels for doing things. Why not do it?
We still have to admit that the rich man gives generously and spends a lot of money on the premise that he has sufficient self-protection ability.It is also not advisable for a person to spend all his wealth and make himself poor because of too much generosity.A man like Julius Caesar, for example, who was one of those who aspired to the Roman scepter, would have ruined the Empire if he had continued to reign after he had taken it and not economized on his expenses.

Caesar was a generous leader. In order to obtain the highest military power and become the consul of Rome, he distributed a lot of money in exchange for his reputation. The money was obtained from the merchants and politicians who supported him.However, once Caesar became a monarch, the property of the country was his property. If he squandered it at will and did not use it to stabilize the society, the foundation of the country would be shaken.

It can be seen that generosity also depends on time.Sometimes generosity is a virtue, which is admired and respected; but sometimes excessive generosity is self-defeating and will hinder one's own development.The smartest way to be generous is to use other people's property to give away, to win a good reputation for others and for yourself. This is the best way to spread money, that is, to be generous to others.

(End of this chapter)