“A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner; neither do uninterrupted prosperity and success qualify men for usefulness and happiness.”–Burton.

PROSPERITY often warps the judgment of the individual and all but destroys discrimination. This is usually made apparent in his method of living and in his purchases.

The tendency, during a period of prosperity, is to buy and to uncomplainingly pay high prices, because high prices are the rule. It seldom occurs to the individual that, by a proper discrimination in the making of purchases and in the ordering of his life, high prices may in many instances be avoided.

In the selection of our needs, whether they be necessities or merely desires, a fine sense of discrimination may be brought into action which will result in a saving of something in every case and of as much as 50% in some cases.

It is a well-known and generally accepted fact that the average American is an unusually good salesman and a remarkably poor buyer. As a people, we have had our salesmanship educated, cultivated and developed to a high degree. There are schools which teach salesmanship and many of the leading business schools have recently been opening departments of salesmanship. It seems that the selling of things receives much attention but the buying of things for our own consumption continues to be done by the majority of people in a loose, haphazard and unscientific manner.

Suppose we resolve to buy only the thing which will best serve our purpose and on every purchase bring to bear the best buying judgment we possess; at the end of the year the result of this careful buying will stand out very clearly.

How many times do we rush into a store and buy something which is not the thing we really wanted and which, when we get it home, hangs in the closet, lies in the drawer or rests on the shelf for months and even years.

Suppose we buy what we need and want when we need and want it and refuse to buy until we get just what we need and just what we want. We will probably discover that a fair percentage of our past purchases have been ill-advised and some of them, at least, wholly unnecessary.

And then there is much pleasure in having just what we want, in having a thing for which we never have to make excuses or offer apologies. This applies with equal force whether the article be a home, an automobile or merely a hat.

There are very few people who do not own a hat, a pair of shoes or some other piece of wearing apparel which they have never worn and which probably they never will wear. It was not what they wanted when they bought it and it never should have been bought at all.

Buying cheaply is not necessarily buying wisely. It may be much better to pay a high price for the thing you want than to pay much less for a make­shift which does not serve the purpose and in the ownership of which you will never be happy.

Paying a high price for a perfectly suitable article may avoid paying a low price for three or four articles which would not last as long and would not serve the purpose as well as the one thing which costs the higher price.

The needful thing is discrimination in buying with the result that, with such discrimination, there will be less buying. The producers will make as much profit, the manufacturers’ profits will be as large or larger, the merchants’ profits will be even more satisfactory and every one will be happier as a result.

Prosperity may have impaired such little dis­crimination as we had been accustomed to exercise. Prosperity does not sharpen the wits or develop judgment or discrimination. It is likely to make most of us lose our poise and our perspec­tive. It makes us take more pride in quantity than in quality.

This thought finally brings us to a formula, the application of which to our daily lives may extend our period of prosperity, make us happier and more contented by making it possible for us to enjoy everything we have and to have everything we need or may reasonably want. The formula is: Work faithfully; buy carefully; live honestly; and deal fairly with all men.

Some of these thoughts may sound, in the jazzy glare of today, a little bit old fashioned, but there is nothing old fashioned about having money and the person who follows these precepts is reason­ably sure to have more at the end of the year than when the year began.

“it is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently; and honorably and justly, without liv­ing pleasurably.”–Epicurus.

“There are but jew proverbial sayings that are not true, for they are all drawn from experience it­self, which is the mother of all sciences.”–Cer­vantes.

Tags: The Secret of Wealth