Ingenious and Comical Solution to a Debt Problem
The Science of Getting Rich is one of the Best books I’ve ever read on the secrets of wealth creation.
I joined the “The Science of Getting Rich for Practical Geniuses” course out of interest of getting more information.
Here is a little comical true story about how Abraham Lincoln settled a debt problem in a rather amusing and yet simple and smart way.
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Back in the early 1800s when Lincoln was a young, self-taught lawyer straight out of the Illinois backwoods, an infuriated man came to him, demanding that he handle a lawsuit against a neighbor. It seems this neighbor owed the gentleman two and a half dollars and had been unable to pay.
Lincoln, a natural-born peacemaker, calmly urged the man to pursue some other less combative method, and finally he reluctantly agreed that if Lincoln could just recover his money, he’d drop the suit, but he demanded what he called justice. So Lincoln accepted the job.
“My fee,” he said, ”is ten dollars.”
“Done!” the man thundered, and handed over a ten-dollar gold piece.
Later that day, Lincoln went to see the neighbor and let him know of the lawsuit threat. But he went with a solution in mind. “Look,” he said, “this fellow is bound and determined to make you pay, so here’s what I propose.” And he took five dollars out of his pocket.
“You go see him and pay him his two and a half dollars,” Lincoln explained, “and then you keep the other two and a half for yourself.”
The neighbor was surprised, but easily agreed.
And that’s how the story all worked out. The neighbor was off the hook for the debt and was two and a half dollars richer for his trouble. Lincoln made a five-dollar fee for a few minutes work and without having to go to court. And the angry man? He was happy, too, because he’d succeeded in forcing that neighbor to pay!
Now, this is a comical example of Lincoln’s wisdom in dealing with an explosive situation, and it’s also an amusing example of a serious subject. Here’s a man who was willing to pay a ridiculous price and actually lose more simply because he was unwilling to let go of his anger and his need to be “right”, because he was so set on forcing the other person to PAY he couldn’t see that the cost of his thinking and action was actually falling on him and him alone.
- Except from Session 29 of “The Science of Getting Rich for Practical Geniuses” http://www.scienceofgettingrich.net
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What’s the moral of the story? Don’t end up losing more resources in the process of trying to recoup on lost resources. Always weight the costs and benefits in everything you do to find if what you do is truly worthwhile.
The smart thing to do is the right thing to do. The “right” thing that results in a lessening of overall good for yourself is the wrong thing to do.
Also, if you see people doing such foolish things, you can step in and capitalize on their foolishness to your advantage while in the process giving everyone what they want.
