468. On Being a Lender

"Neither a lender nor a borrower be." - William Shakespeare. This is advice that is a little over-simplified. If someone asks you gor a loan, examine what it is for. If the project looks like a winner and the person has a good track record, offer them a convertible loan. (No, this is not a loan for a sports car !).

A convertible loan is a properly legally binding loan agreement with repayment schedules and details all worked out and forming part of the agreement.

If the project is successful and profitable, you have the option to convert the debt (to you) into equity (shares) in the project and this will give you a share in the profits.

Two things to remember about convertible loans are that you should make sure that your equity is made up of VOTING shares, and that the loan is SECURED against their property, so that you will still get paid if anything goes wrong. This degree of due dilligence will sort out the wheat from the chaff.

160. Good Company

It is useless having a mind like a machine-gun without having ammunition to put in it - Winston Churchill.

It is vitally important that you feed your mind with fine material (ammunition). This is keeping the mind in Good Company. Good company for the mind is that which elevates your mind to higher ideals than the mere mundane. It includes such diverse sources of inspiration as the music of Mozart, the writings of Marsilio Ficino, Shakespeare, Schiller, Goethe, Descartes, Voltaire and other philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius etc. as well as the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci. Good Company means being in the presence of those who meditate and who are otherwise saintly. It means reading scripture an vedas. It alsomeans working with like-minded people on projects for the greater good of mankind.

111. Prioritise Your Committments

Whatever else you do about your promises (snd you should strive to keep them all), the promises you make to yourself take ABSOLUTE precedence over those made to others. "This above all else, to thine own self be true for it follows as night the day that thou cannot then be false to any man." - William Shakespeare.

96. Vocabulary

It is vital to amass a large vocabulary. Words are tools. The more words you collect, the more jobs you can do. For the purposes of generating wealth, the greater your business vocabulary, the greater your earning potential. Apart from the clinical, intellectual knowledge of the meaning of your words, it is important that you learn to feel the emotional and physical import of the words that you acquire. Average vocabularies are in the 9,000 word range and this is more than adequate for most purposes (e.g a working knowledge of a foreign language). William Shakespeare is said to have had 30,000. The more words you can acquire, the finer the distinctions you can make. Vocabulary then is a gateway to raising your I.Q.