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On today’s show. Rabbi Daniel Lapin explains why people that practice the Jewish faith are so disproportionately financially successful while sharing the secrets of financial success. As, as you know, the book was spurred by a question I was constantly being asked by by good people at people who didn’t have a molecule of bigotry in their entire bodies, but people said to me, why is it that Jews are so disproportionately good with money? On today’s show, Rabbi Daniel Lapin explains why in the original Hebrew language, the words work and worship meant the same thing.

This might be the most important and powerful point we’re talking about today, which is that the word for worshiping the God, the Lord is exactly the same as the word for doing your work for six days a week. She explains both the power and Princeton. At the sixth day Workweek, he explains why the original Hebrew language intentionally did not include a word for the English term, say. He explains why the original Hebrew language intentionally decided not to have a word for retirement.

We think of retirement in Hebrew as obscene. He explains why money should be viewed as a certificate of appreciation. He explains why that in order to get rich, you must sell the customer something that they want, not something that you want. He explains why being a good person will not necessarily guarantee you financial success. He explains practical steps to increase your personal earnings and why nobody can become successful when involved in selling something that they believe to be morally reprehensible and explains why doing what you love will not guarantee you massive amounts of wealth and much, much more money. Only work because of faith, and this is one of the reasons that the planet has never produced an atheist degree. Gene with a healthy economy never happened.

Ladies and gentlemen, this show could be the most profound episode of the thrive time show that we’ve ever recorded. You have a pen and a pad and get ready to enter into the lab and the Dojo of Mojo about how to create wealth with Daniel, rabbi Lapin.

Some shows don’t need a celebrity in a writer to introduce the show. This showdown to May eight kids, Koch created by two different women, 13 moke time million dollar businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the thrive time

Sean

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Based on today’s show, we are interviewing the best selling author, the best selling financial expert and author, rabbi Daniel Lapin. And if you’ve ever been out there seeking financial wisdom, uh, financial advice based upon Biblical truth, this show is the show for you, rabbi Lapin. We’ll come onto the show. And how are you, sir?

I couldn’t be any better delighted to be together with you and your wonderful audience.

Well, I would like to start by asking you what the term rabbi means.

He means a teacher with a specialty in ancient Jewish wisdom insights into the Bible.

No. I know that you have had a ton of success as an author and you’ve really developed a career that spans decades, but could you share with us where you grew up and what life was like growing up?

I was a terrible child. And, um, I grew up in the home of a, of a very famous and distinguished rabbi and his wife. And this was in Johannesburg, South Africa. And, uh, when I was about 10 years old, uh, they, the parents were rightfully worried that I was turning into a completely barefoot savage. Wow. And so they sent me to boarding school in England and, uh, and I went to school there and, uh, gradually became civilized, but it took quite awhile.

What is it like going to a school like that?

Um, it was shocking. It was shocking to me because of the school way beyond the standards I was accustomed to. So, uh, it took a little while for me to find my feet and to become accepted. I had to work at it. And, uh, it taught me a great deal of, it really did. But you know, I was 10 years old. What? I know.

Rabbi Daniel, when did you decide that you wanted to become a rabbi?

Never. And my father was a rabbi in my grandfather, my great grandfather. And so I grew up knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that of all the careers in the whole world. The one thing I really wouldn’t never ever be with the rabbi, but, um, I’ve, I’ve come to the conclusion that the good lord has your destiny in mind and he’ll send you one or two soft messages and if you don’t pay any attention, um, he begins to get you with the two by four. And, uh, eventually he whacks you hard enough that you do start paying attention. So I actually became an engineer. I worked for Royal Dutch Phillips, the um, the Phillips, uh, excuse me, not role, that’s the Phillips Electronics Company, uh, designing communication equipment. And, uh, and um, I thought that was what I wanted to do. I certainly did not want to replicate the career path of my family, but, um, as I said, the good Lord has plans and a, you can ignore them for a certain amount of time, but eventually you say, you know, this hurts too much. Maybe I better just do what I’m expected to do.

You’re shall prosper. So many nuggets of knowledge that they really don’t teach in college. Somebody profound ideas that country, they

teach the opposite very often in college as, as you know, the book was spurred by a question I was constantly being asked by, by good people, uh, people who didn’t have a molecule of bigotry in their entire bodies. But people said to me, why is it that Jews are so disproportionately good with money? Right? And I realized that this was a, a question worth answering. And I even thought to myself, you know, I’m going to be absolutely honest about it. I’m getting to spend as long as it takes to research this. And if it turns out that Jews are good with money because they routinely rip everyone else off, well then I’m going to know the truth. But, uh, it turned out not to be the case. There are bad apples in every bunch and no more or less with Jews. Uh, you know, was it that it’s Jewish genes, you know, that the cause x killed all the poor Jews leaving the rich ones available to reproduce.

But if that were true, it would need to show a many gene in Jewish sperm, which just doesn’t exist. And we also see that that in common with, uh, with other groups, they’re very often in Jewish families. After several generations, wealth is dissipated, not created. So I had to really probe and finally, and eventually after, while I was a good few years, nearly seven years, and it became apparent to me that, uh, the inevitable conclusion, which shocked me, I hadn’t expected that was that imbedded in the Bible embedded in the Torah, structured within the intricacies of the Hebrew language. And a 2000 years of carefully communicated ancient Jewish wisdom with thousands of tips and tools and techniques and specific strategies for how many works and how to be good with it. And I decided to condense that into a book called Thou shall prosper, the 10 commandments for making money.

And, uh, the publishers said it was much too big. They needed to, uh, after when I was a good few years off, this I was a good few years, nearly seven years. And it became apparent to me that, uh, the inevitable conclusion, which shocked me, I hadn’t expected that was that embedded in the Bible embedded in the Torah, structured within the intricacies of the Hebrew language and a 2000 years of carefully communicated ancient Jewish wisdom with thousands of tips and tools and techniques and specific strategies for how many works and how to be good with it to begin with. This book and our work was about how do you increase your revenue, how do you make more money than you are now making and that was what the work was all about.

How did you go from your early career to becoming a rabbi and a financial teacher from a biblical perspective? How did you make that jump? What was the transition like?

Well, I, I was forced in spite of the fact that I, I thought I wanted to become an engineer and I was forced before I could even go to school for engineering. I first of all had to go to Bible school and I had to become ordained as a rabbi. And my father said, look, I don’t care if you done practices or rabbi, but I want you to be able to, and uh, I didn’t understand it at the time, but obviously today I’m enormously grateful that he insisted.

Nope. Tim Redmond has been a client of mine for years and now we work together on different business ventures. And he was actually my boss when I was 19 years old. I landed an internship at tax and accounting software and he was my boss and I, I’m telling you, this guy quote you all the time. It’s almost like he’s a paid advocate of you. Like he’s a paid, like a sales guy knows his shit.

It’s not that at all.

Legit.

Tim really gets it. Tim has studied this material. He and I have worked together on numerous occasions and we’ve, we’ve spent hours and hours and hours studying this material and researching and working on it together. Say he really gets it. And, and that’s really all it is.

Well, Tim, this is the thing, Tim pulls me aside. I don’t remember what year it was. They pulled me aside and he says, Hey, uh, you know, the Hebrew language was God’s original language and that original language, the Hebrew language does not have a word for retirement. And I’m going, what? And maybe I’m losing something in translation there. Could you explain the Hebrew language and does it have a phrase for retirement? What’s that all about?

Sure. Well, need to say I’m not the only person and you know, this is not rabbi Daniel Lapin, Jeremy, Hebrews, God’s Lang. No, it’s not like that at all. Um, many learned people, um, people who, uh, who developed the Oxford English dictionary understood it. Um, so William Bradford, who came to North America on the Mayflower, uh, wrote a book in the 17th century called history of the Plymouth plantation. And the first 20 pages or so in his own handwriting, in the manuscript of the book are in Hebrew. And in the, in those 20 pages, he even explains why he studied Hebrew and learned how to read the Bible in the original Hebrew, the Old Testament. And so, and he says, it’s because this is the language in which God spoke to the Patriarchs of old. And it’s the language in which Adam named all living things, et Cetera, et cetera.

Um, and so yeah, uh, this Lord’s language does have certain pieces of wisdom in it. One of the males that certain words, concepts that for which no word exists in biblical Hebrew are false concepts. So for instance, there’s no word for adolescents. Now, I don’t know if you’ve raised teenagers and adolescents, but if you have, you know that the word teenager or adolescent is a euphemism for somebody who wants all the advantages of being an adult with all the slack cut to him for being a child. It doesn’t work like that in the real world. You’ve got to make up your mind. And that’s how I raise my children. I am not interested in your chronological age. I’m interested in your behavior. You can either behave in a way that says you’re an adult or you can behave in a way that says you’re a child.

Those are the only two choices, and we will treat you accordingly. Uh, there’s no word in Hebrew for hero. Why is that? Well, what is the most common usage of the word here? Oh, he’s my hero. Or who is your heroes? Would you hear all the time? Uh, the word doesn’t exist. It’s a false concept because God doesn’t want me to be anybody else but me. He doesn’t want me to strive to be like my hero. Whoever that is. He wants me to strive to be. What he has decided is my destiny. And it’s terribly important, particularly in our financial success, in the development of our business personality, that we don’t try and replicate somebody we admire, but that we use the information and we use the inspiration in order to develop and grow and ultimately achieve our own destiny. And so retirement is another word that doesn’t exist.

You know, why is that? Well, it all flows from a, uh, a really important principle early in the book, Thou shall prosper. And this is fundamental to the disproportionate financial success enjoyed by the people of Israel. And, and that is that, look, nobody can ever succeed. No decent person can ever succeed at any activity that deep in their hearts, they believe to be morally reprehensible. And so, you know, if, if you’re a decent person and you’re working in sales, but you believe that your merchandise is shoddy and overpriced, you’ll fail. You can’t sell it because your heart’s not in it. And so it becomes very important, very important to understand that we become the kind of people that relates to the moral vision that we hold. And so if you believe that making money is essentially taking money, if you believe that profits is essentially plunder, then you’ll never be very good at making money because you have moral qualms about it thinking that you’re taking.

And by the way, many people are like this, you know, the, the babysitter, we, uh, we had working for us Saturday night three weeks ago. I noticed when we came home and I wanted to pay her, I said, how much do we owe you? And her eyes went down to the carpet in a toe, started tracing patterns. Uh, she was uncomfortable to say, you owe me $40, because she felt she was taking my money. And so I had to explain to her, I said, look, we want to pay you, we want to pay you what you asked for. And if it’s too much, we won’t use you again. If it’s right, we want to be able to use you again. So please don’t be shy about saying how much you want. You’re not taking anything from us. You gave us an evening out. You follow what I’m saying?

Yes. Because money is just a certificate and performance.

That’s exactly right. And the problem with retirement is that what you’re essentially saying is, hey, I’ve got enough so I’m getting Outta here to which I say hello. You know, you’ve been my doctor or my dentist or my bookkeeper or my shoe polishing guy, or I don’t care what it is, but for the last 20 years you’ve been taking care of a need I have in my life, but which I’ve been happy to pay you. And now you tell me. Sorry. You’re not like, what’s with you? What are you doing instead? What? You’re going to play golf instead of taking care of me? Well that suggests that all along you weren’t in this to take care of me, but you are in it just to get what you could get out of it. Now that you’ve got enough, you’re done. So in that sense, um, we think of retirement in Hebrew as obscene.

Hi. Can you explain to the listeners out there the difference between Christianity and Judaism? Nope.

Several reasons. Number one is, uh, I only know about Judaism. Okay? Number two, that’s theological and I have zero interest in theology. Theology is what men think about God. Okay? And, um, I’m just, you know, I’m not sure what men think about men is wrong and silly. I’m certainly not an incident. What men think about God? I’m really understanding, only interested in what God thinks about man. That’s not theology. That’s Bible. So I’m sorry, but that’s a question I said. Yeah,

I love it. Not My field. I love the directness of it. I maybe I’ll try it this way. I have a Bible verse that I quote often and I quote quite a bit. It’s a collections three 23, 24, it says, whatever you do, work at it with your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you’ll receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Do you share the same, the same view that you’re working as unto the Lord your word. It’s like you’re working to honor God. Did you view it the same way or no?

Okay. So, um, again, I don’t know the new testament, but I know the Hebrew scriptures very well and a crucial aspect of this. And I think this is exactly, it goes exactly to this important point you’re making. And that is that in the heat in the Hebrews. Okay, let’s look at this real quick. In the book of Genesis, God put man in the garden of Eden to work it right? And um, we also know that in chapter 20 of exes who got the 10 commandments and uh, in the 10 commandments, and C’mon on number four, it says six days shall you do all your work. So here we’ve got two versus having to do with work. God put Adam in the garden of Eden to work it and six Asian was doable. Your work. Now there another two visits I want to share with you quickly.

One is that God says to Moses, go to Pharaoh and say, let my people go so that they may worship me in the desert, and the other one is towards the end of the book of Joshua. Joshua says, you know what? I don’t care what you guys want to do. As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord. Now in the last 40 seconds, I’ve shared with you four versus two of the verses include the word work and the other two versus into the word worship. What you don’t know, none of our listeners know is that in the Hebrew text, there’s only one word for all those four instances, which is an incredibly powerful thing. This might be the most important and powerful point we’re talking about today, which is that the word for worshiping the God, the Lord is exactly the same as the word for doing your work for six days a week. In other words, to put it very directly, taking care of business is another way of worshiping God. One of the ways, by the way, that in English we say customer service and Worship Service, recognizing this fundamental reality that in taking care of our customers, we’re also serving God.

I am probably going to have to put that on repeat 40 to 50 times in a row because it’s so mind expanding. And I, I read this book called think and grow rich by Napoleon.

Oh, it shouldn’t Napoleon Hill.

Yeah. And I’m reading that book because my boss told me I had to read it or I’m fired. He said, I was like a ship without a rudder. You’re a ship without a rudder. Gonna read the book and over Napoleon Hill said, if you overdeliver, eventually you’ll be overpaid. And he goes, just exceed the expectations of every person on every transaction. And that really helped me because I grew up without any money. And uh, there’s just so many powerful concepts in your book, and I want to ask you about this one, the concept of businessman, he businessman being a business person. How do you in your book, Thou shall prosper. You talk about this a little bit, but the Hebrew concept of businessman I believe, and again I’m just making sure I’m getting my notes right because I’ve got notes everywhere. Is a man of faith is is a businessman. Can you kind of explain that and what am I getting that wrong?

I know you got that exactly right that in Hebrew the word for a business professional is also a person of faith and that is the reason why history’s most effective engine of wealth creation, namely the United States of America puts not on the walls of its churches where you would have expected the phrase but on its currency, the phrase in God we trust and that’s because if you’re in church you can’t probably already know that so you don’t need it on the wall of churches. But what you need to know is that many only works because of faith and this is one of the reasons that the planet has never produced an atheistic regime with a healthy economy never happened. And the most religious, the most bibles centric country on earth, which is the United States of America, is also the engine of greatest prosperity. I’ll go further than that. And point out that in the thousand years from the year 900 to the year 1900 and no indigenous capital market ever grew in a non Christian country.

You know, so today we have stock markets in Acra and we have stopped markets in Hong Kong and Singapore. We’ve got stock markets all over the place. But originally the stock market grew in London and Amsterdam. Essentially the idea of pooling capital, which is the heart of faith, uh, only grew in Christian Bible based countries. And uh, uh, you know, I mean when only has to look at the most prominent and revered structures in every European city, like not Redang cathedral in Paris. And you’ll find, uh, the, the Christian origins of the wealth building of Western civilization.

And Rabbi Daniel Lapin, I just want to get into a religious debate with you. And I just want to say for the listeners out, there’s somebody out there who doesn’t understand Judaism. You really have a knowledge of the Old Testament. Is that, is that correct? For anybody out there who’s unclear in their mind of you?

Yes. It is important for everyone to understand. I’m not saying you have to be Jewish to succeed with this book. I’m not saying you have to be of the Jewish faith in any way whatsoever in order to benefit from the strategies of ancient Jewish wisdom that I share in thou shall prosper.

That is right, and I don’t want anybody out there to discount that because we’ll make sure we kind of understand where you’re coming from and your background there. Now use write, rewrite in your book. Oh, this is highlighted and circled and I really have to apologize for the desecration of this book

on the country. I’m thrilled to hear it

and I wrote, take out a dollar bill and look at it. Now, pat yourself on your back because you’re looking at a certificate of performance. Rabbi, can you break that down?

Sure. Look, let me, let me give you an example. And by the way, this is really important, this points you’re bringing up because if we don’t understand money, we cannot get it. I’m, I’m, you know, I’m probably one of the worst fisherman in the world, but I, I, you know, I like, I like fishing for salmon in the, in the cold waters of British Columbia with the west coast of Canada and something I learned a long time ago. Um, is that the best money I’m going to spend is not on my gear, but it’s on the guide because somebody who really knows the fish will help me catch them. I can have the most expensive Rodan real, but if I don’t know fish, if I don’t know salmon specifically, I’m not going to catch him. And I really didn’t until I tweaked onto, to this fact that, hey, I can hire a guide and all of a sudden I looked like a good fisherman.

Right?

Uh, in the same way money’s like that as well. If you don’t get it, if you don’t understand it, it’s simply not going to work. And so, uh, for instance, in the book we cover the whole question of physical and spiritual. What’s the difference in, by the way, spiritual doesn’t mean godly or holy or religious. Spiritual just means something you cannot measure in a laboratory. And I explain why. You’ve got to be able to understand the essential spirituality of money. And, and part of that is that, you know, look, imagine, um, you know, let’s say I was, let’s see, my job is a roofer and I was planning on taking my kids, uh, you know, fishing or whatever. And all of a sudden I get a call from somebody who says, Hey, you’re the roof. I say, Yup. He says, can you come quickly? It’s been raining where we are and these are, there’s a leak in the roof.

My wife is going nuts. The water’s coming into the kitchen making everybody miserable. And so I’m just about to say to him, Hey pal, you know what, how about I come tomorrow? Cause like the soft noon, I’m planning on taking my kids fishing. And all of a sudden, fortunately I shut up because I remember to think before I speak. And I in fact say to him, you know, I’ll be happy to come. The only thing is I was about to take my kids fishing, but it would be worth much, much more for them to see how I serve another one of God’s children by fixing your roof. And so if you don’t mind, I’ll be on my way, but I’ll bring them as long as well. So all the kids into the pickup truck tools in the back off we go. And uh, and the kids helped me and we, we, we, we fix it up.

We put down some new shingles, roof is fixed, the guys as happy as could be, his wife is smiling and he says, um, I appreciate it very much. Uh, would you need some certificates of performance? I say, yes, please. I would. I need a 100 certificates and forms say takes out a roll of green certificates and he peels off a hundred of them, gives them to me and I’ll say, thank you very much indeed. That night I’ll take my wife for dinner and we come into the restaurant and the uh, uh, restaurant versus the, yeah, and I think, well, it’s not really a polite way to welcome and Dinah, but all right. I say, you know, could we please have a two big fat steaks and a, and a play the largest, biggest French fries you can make? And he says, what? You want me to go into that hot kitchen and slave over a stove to make you steak and fries?

And I said, well, yeah, isn’t that what this restaurant’s all about? And he says, no. As matter of fact, this restaurant is only for members of a club who take care of God’s other children. I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. He says, well, let me put it this way. Could you prove to me that you’ve taken care of anybody else today? I said, it was Mac fact. I can. He said, how are you going to do there? I say, right, you’re in my pocket. The person I took care of this afternoon gave me a hundred certificates of performance. He said, well, why didn’t you say so before it brings me a great meal at the end of the meal? I say to him, now, would you like any significant support? Who’s, yeah, my kids have to go to the dentist tomorrow and our dentists only takes care of people who’ve taken care of other people. And uh, he says, I need 60 certificates and performance from you. So I happily peel off 60 and are given to him and off we go. We are all part of the club of human beings who take care of how the new human beings. Beautiful.

I don’t understand. I grew up very, you know, without money. I grew up very, very limited resources. I don’t understand the argument mentally, financially, spiritually, as you defined it. The argument for socialism. How could anybody with a sound mind advocate for socialism right now? It’s

not an accident that almost that exception socialists are people who do not share biblical faith. Hm. Socialism almost always goes together with atheism. Now what’s this mean? It’s very simple. One of the big differences between a, uh, a person who has a spiritual awareness and somebody who thinks the world is confined to the material is that people who think the world’s confined to the material think that a human being is nothing other than about $10 worth of cheap chemicals. You know, like a bunch of nitrogen, a bunch of oxygen, a bunch of carbons and hydrogens and potassium and all of this mixed together, you know, producers and um, anyways, that that biological determinism is a, uh, an atheistic and physical view of the human being personally like that as a human beings. Just a body. I don’t think that’s right. In fact, I’m, I’m, I’m willing to state with some certainty that it’s not right.

Not Out of faith, but out of life, experience and financial experience. I think people are both body and soul. Now, one of the big differences between physical and spiritual, and I can wrap this up and bring it in for a landing very easily, is that um, uh, that an example of a difference is a uh, a saxophone is physical cause you can take it into a lab and wait. You can measure it, you know, saxophones mare out of five pounds of brass and you know, carefully arranged and structured. That’s what a saxophone is. And if I have it on the table in front of me and when my attention is diverted, you run in and take it away. Now you’ve got the SEC. So phone and I’m without a saxophone. That’s how physical things work because it’s a rule of physics that any physical object can only be in one place at one time.

This is an expansion of Einsteinian principles of time, space. Any physical objects can only be in one place at one time. However, at tune that tune is not a physical thing. It’s a spiritual thing. There’s no instrument in the world, no lab in the world capable of measuring attune to see whether it’s kind of tune that would make people happy or sad or make men march off to war or whatever it is. And so attune. If I ever tune and you hear me whistling my tune and you learn it, you walk away and your teacher to a bunch of other people. Have you taken away anything from me? No. You’ve just made the world a more tuned for place. The difference between physical and spiritual, it’s physical can only be in one place at the time. Spiritual can be in more than one place at a time. Now if money is only physical and sure a socialistic, people view the world in materialistic terms. You’ve heard of the Marxist materialistic dialectic and that is that everything is only physical. That’s the essence of Marxism and communism and socialism will in that case, money is like the saxophone and if I have some, and this is really important, Dave, I’ve got it. That must mean there are a whole bunch of other people who don’t have it because I must have taken it from them.

Hmm. And and the only way other

people to get at is to take it from me. That’s called by the way redistribution. But the way money truly works is that spiritual, not physical. And that is that a two human beings can agree on an transaction and that transaction doesn’t exchange money. It brings money into being. And I explained all the arithmetic and mathematics of that in the book, Thou shall prosper. But the, the bottom line is that inflation is when the government prints more money than transactions have created. And deflation is when government doesn’t print enough currency to account for the fact that every time you and I did a transaction, we actually brought money into being.

Wow. Wow. And Andrew, I think I’m would have the duct tape my head together and listen to this show. At least you, you talk about, you write about that in order for people to prosper, we have to behave decently and honorably toward one another and the live among others who conduct themselves in a similar fashion. Can you explain what this is all about?

Yeah. Look, a lot of people have said to me, ah, well I don’t get it. You know, um, my rabbi or my past is this really holy guys. So spiritually, so wonderful and yet he suffers in terrible poverty. Okay, fine. Yeah. I would never say a word against your rabbi against your past. I’m sure they are very beautiful people. Let me give you an example. How about a guy who is a beautiful human being, lovely person, loving, kind, compassionate, spiritual, godly, virtuous in every possible way, wouldn’t hurt a fly. And he walks to the climbs to the top of a 20 story building and he steps out the window. Well, he starts moving towards the ground really, really quickly and it’s, it’s kind of a thrilling ride for about four seconds, but it comes to a very abrupt end in a way that kills him.

And then he comes before the good Lord and he says to him, I don’t, I don’t get this, Lord, I, I’m such a good person. I’m so kind to people. I pray to you twice a day, uh, I give charity, I tied my money. How could you let me die? And God says to him, well, I gave you a set of principles, both physical and spiritual and one of the sets of physical principles that I, I put there in the world for you to learn is that if you step out of the window on the 20th floor, you get to come to a very painful. And why didn’t you pay attention to that? Did you really think that the fact that you are good and Verti as virtuous can take the place of actual knowledge? And so I say exactly the same thing to the poor rabbi or the poor Pesta.

I say, of course you’re a good and kind person. That’s lovely. But do you really think that that’s enough to make money? No. God wants you to have certain information, which by the way is why the old testament is filled with financial data. Um, I don’t know the new testament, like I said, but I wouldn’t be some if somebody told me there is a v there’s a thousand times more mention of money in a positive sense in the Old Testament and then you test them. I wouldn’t be at least bit surprised because many, many, many dia, good Christian friends in mind before they started setting bible with me and learning the Old Testament, they believe that money is evil. And when you believe money’s evil, I promise you you’re not going to get any

right.

So, uh, the Old Testament teaches these principles about not stepping out of the 20th floor window. In other words, it’s not enough to be a good person that doesn’t stave off poverty. God wants us to do actual specific things and what those are are some of the things we were talking about.

Yeah. You write about the idea that in order to be a successful person, you can’t promise more than you’re going to deliver. You have to actually promise less than you’re going to deliver. Can you,

but you’ve got to over deliver always. Yes.

Now you talked about how, how businesses that don’t do something valuable for others do not survive and should not survive. Profit is a way to measure how useful a business is. This doesn’t ever change. I’d love to have you share more about that.

Sure. So there is somebody in New Zealand, uh, that I’m coaching at the moment, business coaching. And here’s how our engagement began. This person told me, uh, the business he started and what he is supplying to customers in New Zealand and how is advertising and marketing and it’s just not working. And I, I said to him, what made you decide to sell this particular thing at the particular price you’re selling it at? And he said, I just believe deep in my heart that it’s what people need and, and that I’m providing a real value. And so I said to him, look at part of ancient Jewish wisdom is that, uh, I am sometimes going to help you collide with reality. And like any other collision, a collision with reality can be very painful. And I’m going to tell you that, um, we don’t really care about what you believe.

That’s not the point. The point is that only the market can determine value. And so you think that the market needs a thing and that’s because you are in love with this particular type of product. That means you should be buying that product, not selling, but we need to build you episodes. You Fall in love with the act of business, which is the act of supplying the needs and desires of other human beings. And if that was really what motivated you, you would have done research to find out what people really want in your neighborhood, in New Zealand, not decide in advance what you want to sell them. And so that is, is very much at the core of what we’re talking about. Understanding that it is the market out there, that it’s what people want. The idea of being in business is serving God’s other children.

And you can only do that by finding out the things that they want and they need and they design it and then providing them, which is why one of the stupidest things that anybody ever tells new graduates is all. Now that you’ve finished your studies, you finish, you’re leaving school, you must find a job doing what you love doing. Well, that’s rubbish. What’s, I mean, that’s an unbelievably selfish piece of advice, which will never work. You know, take me for instance, I love boating. I’m yet to find anybody who’s willing to pay me a nice living

for going boating.

It’s irrelevant. What I got to do is find out what people around me need me to do and then I’ve got to learn to love it.

You are just so much wisdom and I just think everybody should go out there and pick up. Dow shall prosper. There’s just so many great concepts in there. I wanted it to seek your wisdom on two more questions. There are rabbi Daniel. Um, what are the most costly and harmful habits that you see stopping most people from having success or growth or profitability with their business or their lives?

Well, it’s, it’s, it’s not necessarily the same thing for, uh, you know, the things that, that, that people can do that hom their marriages and their businesses. And, and, and I’m so interested that the way you phrased the question included both those areas in terms of family. And let me give you an example. Um, one of the most fundamental principles of a sexual relationship is that it has to be between two people, be one person. And if it is, most people are embarrassed about it and they don’t talk about, you know, people might say, ah, you can pick me up at eight. Uh, I’ve got to take a shower first. But they’ll never say, um, picked me up at eight because I first have to shower and you’ll pardon me. Um, provide myself with sexual satisfaction. Nobody would ever say that because it an embarrassment because you’re not providing anybody else with anything.

And we, human beings, we’re created by God to be givers, not takers. And so that’s one of the reasons that, uh, that particular solitary activity is shameful as much as, I mean Bill Clinton at a general who had a fire because she was obsessed with trying to normalize and popularize that particular solitary behavior. People weren’t interested in it because deep down in our souls, we all know that sex is a gift for bringing together two people. It’s, it’s bringing joy to another person. And that’s particularly important, particularly to a man. It’s not a case of seeking self satisfaction. It’s providing somebody else. Now, if you fail to grasp that, you just not going to be very good at marriage. Exactly. The same thing is true for business. And that is you have to be obsessive, really preoccupied with fulfilling the needs of another person that that couldn’t be more fundamental and basic.

Uh, it’s not something, it’s not about you, it’s about the other person. And so in both those areas, both family and marriage, you and me, both family and business, the idea is learning to find the thrill in bringing pleasure, satisfaction, joy and uh, and enthusiasm to another human being. So that’s absolutely fundamental. And very, very interesting that, um, that, you know, you can buy books on how to build a boat. You can buy books on how to build a, an airplane in your basement. You can buy books on how to build a log cabin. And in all of those cases, those things you build are going to work just fine. They really are. Um, you know, Boeing builds planes and other than a few sad exceptions, they, they don’t fly 98% of the time. They find 100% of the time when people build ships with a sad exception, the titanic ships float 100% of the time.

When an architect builds a building, it stands, it’s not like 84% of this guy’s building stand. They all stand, right? But when people set out to build a marriage, the success rates is only about 70%. When people set out to build a business, the success rates even lower than that. So why is it that it’s so easy to build a building or a ship or an airplane? It’s so reliable and yet it’s so risky to build a marriage or to build a business. And the answer is goes, it’s very easy to communicate physical data and to build boats and skyscrapers and airplanes. All you need is physical data. It’s not hot. But marriage and business both involve a spiritual data. And without that spiritual data, your chances are very low.

Rabbi Daniel, and I don’t want you to take this as an offensive question. You are not bill gates. You know, you’re, you’re not a, you’re not Steve jobs. You’re not. So what Ma, for somebody out there who’s wrestling with this idea of what makes him qualified

to give me financial advice

and, uh, I not only don’t take offense, but I admire you for being direct enough to ask the question. Look at the answer is, is, is really very, very simple. And if I, if I may say, uh, without sounding obnoxious, it’s a very important point. And that is, look, um, uh, Bill Gates. Bill Gates would be probably a more entertaining interview. And people who heard you interviewing Bill Gates would probably talk about it for the next three weeks. Oh Wow. I heard Bill Gates interview because he’s a celebrity and he’s one of the wealthiest guys in the world, and this is remarkable. However, if w with all humility, I’m more useful than Bill Gates. Bill Gates is very, very helpful in terms of making money as long as, as long as your father is a very prominent and well connected in national attorney, and as long as your mother is on the board of directors of IBM, and as long as you dropped out of a prestigious university at the cusp of the computer revolution, if all of those things apply to you, Bill Gates is more useful to you than I am.

Got It. But if you dropped bill gates into Wichita, Kansas with a $100 in his pocket and you dropped any student of mine into Wichita, Kansas with $100 in his pocket, I am almost a hundred percent willing to guarantee that at the end of the first month, my student will have a whole lot more success than Bill Gates will. And I’m willing to guarantee that at the end of the year, Bill Gates will be knocking on doors asking for help and my student will be well on his road, well, on the road to a fortune, that’s the difference. And the same thing applies to uh, uh, visas or Donald Trump. They are all very specific people. Visas, by the way, might be a slight exception because a, he did start a business from absolutely nothing. So he may well be a bit different, but what I bring is the is history’s most effective longitudinal study of hundreds of thousands of ordinary men and women, Jewish men and women of all colors and all sizes and all shapes and all backgrounds, all of whom succeeded financially beyond your wildest dreams. There are people who started huge businesses in America like you know, cvs pharmacy and commodore computers and Chappelle construction that was started by people who came out of World War II with their families destroyed with their backgrounds, destroyed with their wealth, destroyed, their came as broken penniless people and they giants of commerce. They became multimillionaires using what? Using the principles of ancient Jewish wisdom.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin, thank you so much for investing the time and our listeners. I personally will be listening to this show multiple times. One because I go through and edit every show, so I will definitely listen to it once, but there are certain shows where I’ll listen to the show two times or three times and then I’ll, and your book, it’s, it’s sort of, it’s so practical, but yet it provides so much context, so much richness of, of wisdom. If you had to recommend one of your books to the listeners out there, is there a certain book you’d recommend and I’ll let you get back to doing what you do.

I would recommend the vow shall prosper and then move on to business secrets from the Bible or you can start with business secrets from the Bible and move on to thou shall prosper.

Well, we’re going to put a link to the show notes right now and let’s get the the, the, the, there’s you have, thou shall prosper, which I’ve read any other book title there. Rabbi was what?

Business secrets from the Bible.

Well, business secrets from the Bible. We’re going to buy one right now on Amazon that we were starting the momentum here starting the momentum. Thank you for investing in our listeners and I just hope you have an awesome day.

Thank you very much indeed. It’s been an honor to be with you and I wish success and prosperity to everybody listening in

in 1938 the fair Labor Standards Act was passed, it created and put into law. However, think about this for a second. If the pilgrims who came over to the United States of America on their d landed at Plymouth Rock, imagine that they believed in the 40 hour workweek. Would they have survived? No. Okay. Let’s look at the 40 hour work week from a secular perspective. Uh, Elon Musk, who is the guy behind a paypal, the man behind Tesla, the guy behind behind space ex he wants wrote, and I’m quoting Elon Musk once wrote, he said work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hours per week. This improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then if you’re doing the same thing, you know that you will achieve in four months what it takes them to achieve in a year.

My friend, the point is the 40 hour work week will enslave you to poverty. I can’t think of examples. I’ve read autobiographies about, um, Conrad Hilton. I read the biographies of Russell Simmons, Dale Carnegie, Phil Knight, Larry Bird, the basketball player, uh, the founder of Starbucks. I can go on and on and on the in and out story, the quick trip story, the southwest story, none of those people worked 40 hours a week. If you want to be poor work 40 hours a week, but if you want to succeed, you have to believe in and act upon the sixth day principle. You just have to work six days. You cannot get ahead. If you’re working 40 hours a week, it’s not possible. If you’re out there and you’re a Christian and you want a Bible verse, you can print out and put on your mirror and put on Facebook and wherever you’re going to see it.

Exodus 16 five reads on the sixth day, they are to prepare what they bring in and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days or read the book of Genesis. God created the earth and how many days? Six days, and he rested on the seventh. So if you’re out there today and you are of the Judeo Christian faith, stop working 40 hours a week. Go to work for free on your off day, whatever you have to do, just work six days a week. Because when you sow the seeds six days per week, you’re going to gather a harvest twice as much. On the sixth day, but you cannot get ahead working 40 hours per week. If you’re out there and you say, I don’t believe in the Bible, then just fire up the elan Musk quote or read about the life in history in the times of John d Rockefeller who are, or Andrew Carnegie or Russell Simmons or Michael Jordan or anybody.

None of these people worked 40 hours a week. This idea that you’re going to achieve success while working 40 hours a week is absolutely a sham mockery. It is wrong. It is backwards. It’s not possible. And this podcast, I hope that it has touched your soul in a profound way because the idea that the word work in worship mean the same thing. Wow idea that the Hebrew language doesn’t have a word for the word fair. Wow. The idea that the Hebrew language doesn’t even acknowledge the word retirement because they think the word is obscene. That deserves a wow. What does it mean to be obscene? Obscene means to be offensive or disgusting, to be absent of morality. That’s what obscene means in the Hebrew language. The concept of retirement is obscene. And I agree. Stop trying to work 40 hours a week so that you can eventually work zero hours per week, my friend. You have to work six days a week if you want to become successful. So I would ask you this, how many hours a week are you working right now? How many days a week are you working right now? Because if you are not working six days a week, you cannot get ahead. And now, if any further ado, we’d like to in each every show with a book. So here we go. Three, two, one, boom.

Yeah.