I don't agree with everything on his list, but included are many great principles.
Here is why you should take me seriously. I was born in 1942. I have seen what works and what doesn't.
I have a Ph.D. I am rich by most Americans' standards. I have never been divorced. I am in good health -- and have been since age 9. I am content with my life. There is nothing that I want that I cannot not pay cash for. I spend almost no money on buying consumer goods, except for used books, because I own everything I want, and I have for 30 years.
Take my advice.
I could list these rules by order of importance or by chronology. I chose chronology. You must get into good habits now. Start where you are.
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I've had my disagreements with Mr. North in the past, and his list isn't an exception. I agree with:
Honesty will make you righteous, but it won't always make you succeed.... those are 2 different things.
I disagree. It depends on how your define success. For example, if your standard for success is accumulating wealth, you can achieve it dishonestly and still claim success (and a false sense of self). However, if your standard for success is earning wealth by honest trade, no matter how much you accumulate, you will never succeed as long as you're stealing it.
The principles (or rules, as he calls them) defined in the article don't explicitly state all of his standards. Many of those are assumed or can be inferred (especially if you're familiar with many of his other articles that describe his religious and libertarian values).
That is a very good point. Thanks.
I was referring to success as what I assumed to be the most common idea of success... which is just accumulating wealth and being socially known as a celebrity or something of the sort. Of course, using dishonesty is not how I would achieve success... I just meant to say that a lot of people reach a similar social status by just lying. I personally would rather not being that kind of 'successful' if that implied lying.
With that said, I think a majority of people would not define 'success' as "earning wealth by honest trade, no matter how much you accumulate", which actually might show how corrupted our society is. But I have no data to prove this, so it's just an assumption and I might be wrong.