Jimmy’s House

One thing I’ll say about Dave, unlike many other talk radio guys (or gals) out there he doesn’t claim to know it all.  Because of that from time to time he will introduce his listeners to other people they can learn valuable lessons from.  One of the first people I learned about from Dave is Rabbi Daniel Lapin.  I am proud to call Rabbi Lapin my rabbi.  Now, before you start looking at me funny, no, I’m not Jewish.  As Rabbi Lapin would explain you don’t have to be Jewish to need a rabbi.  No, he would say that everyone needs a rabbi because everyone can benefit from being able to learn how the world really works.  How does Rabbi Lapin help everyone learn how the world really works?  By sharing with us ancient Jewish wisdom from the Old Testament of course.  As you can tell Rabbi Lapin is quite the interesting man.  He is an Orthodox Jew and created the “American Alliance of Jews and Christians”.  He has several great videos on his site which I would encourage you to go and watch.  I have a link to his site over on the right side of the page so hop over there a watch a little.  I think you’ll find him to be very insightful.

Well, let me move on to the main topic of this post.  I want to tell you about his newest book, “Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money”.  In this book Rabbi Lapin shares with us why Jews seem to be so disproportionately successful in business.  He takes some time in the beginning of the book to dispel several myths out there including but not limited to the myth that Jews cheat to get ahead.

Look, I’m not a fancy writer so let me just say this in simple James terms because that’s all I can understand myself.  I learned from this book that being in business and wanting to be successful at it isn’t evil.  If I manage to get some money it isn’t because I took advantage of someone else.  I didn’t mug some old lady or rob a kid of his lunch money.  I got that money because I served someone well.  See, if I don’t believe in the morality and dignity of business (commandment number 1) then how in the world can I expect to be successful at it?  If in my heart I think that business is evil and exists to take advantage of everyone then how can I expect to prosper?

Rabbi Lapin makes an interesting observation.  He notes that so often business and businessmen are the villains in movies.  Right now it’s more obvious than ever.  Not even a day is going by right now that we aren’t told how evil everyone on Wall Street is.  A year or two ago those guys were everyone’s heroes.  People all over America were trusting these men with their retirement/investment accounts.  These guys who were in charge of multi billion dollar mutual funds.  It was their job to make sure they purchased stocks that were growing.  In return they were paid and paid very well.  Nobody was complaining while things were going well.  Here recently things aren’t going so well and now all these men are just so evil.

In this book Rabbi Lapin explains that we are all in business for ourselves.  Some of us just have one customer, our employer.  We have to believe that we participate in a moral activity if we are going to be successful in that activity.  We have to believe that we are taking part in creating wealth.  Not only for ourselves but for everyone around us.  My business creates a lot of wealth.  My mechanic receives wealth from me because he services 4 vehicles.  I give wealth to all my suppliers.  My employees get wealth from my company and they in turn give wealth to the utility companies or to the local restaurants.  Yes, business exists to create wealth, not take it from others.

I took these ten commandments and listed them on a special page HERE. Please review them. I think you’ll find them very interesting. He also has his own radio show in San Francisco on KSFO. Just click on “Sunday” and click “Download” next to either 1pm-2pm, 2pm-3pm or 3pm-4pm. On Sunday’s when the Raiders play the second game of the day he is preempted but other than that he is taking calls and sharing his views on all kinds of things. Consider yourself warned, he is VERY conservative, but he is also very thought provoking.

Here is a video of Rabbi Lapin with Pat Robertson on CBN.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2823870820965510420

Dave, I love your “Get out of debt plan” but how do I convince my wife/daughter/father/son to do this with me?

At least a couple of times a week I hear this type of phone call on Dave Ramsey’s radio show.  Most of the time he tells them that they need to share how this program has changed their life.

I can tell people how great the Dave Ramsey plan for financial peace is.  I can tell them that “Dave says this” and “Dave says that”.  If you aren’t already a fan then spewing Dave-isms at someone is probably not very powerful.  A few weeks ago we were at a school function and I got a chance to talk with someone who was kind of on the fence with all this “Dave Ramsey” stuff.  Well, as all of you know once you open the door for me to start talking about something I’m passionate about you better be ready for me to just run right in and that’s exactly what I did.  This time I didn’t just start throwing Dave advise at her.  I was actually able to share how my new way of looking at money has affected my life.

The fact is that right now Julie and I are building a great story.  It’s not been an easy path at all.  We are in the middle of so many changes.  These changes hurt and are really causing us to have to hold closer to each other and our God than ever before.  I know one thing for sure; once these hard times have passed and we come out the other side successfully we are going to have one inspiring story to tell.

Today I got to tell my story to the most unlikely of people.  Today, three members of Dave Ramsey’s company came to our home to shoot some video to be used at a special conference in Nashville.  They are going to be honoring our real estate agent who is the real estate ELP for the Kansas City Area.  We stood around in our driveway and I was able to share with them how all of this has affected my life this year.  I shared some things with them I still haven’t shared with a lot of people.  You can just tell that they LOVE their job.  Dave has said it many times and they said it to me today.  Dave Ramsey and his team sell H-O-P-E.  Some of you reading this right now understand what I’m talking about and honestly, some of you don’t.  If I tried to explain to you where me and my business was at the beginning of this year you would be freaked out.  If I hadn’t tuned into Dave earlier this year I know for a fact my business would not exist today.  I didn’t just get great advice from Dave and subsuquently all the books I’ve read this year.  I also got HOPE.  I really believe I can do this.  I really believe that a simple guy like me can have a successful business.  I really believe that with hard work and determination anyone can do anything in this great country.

It was such an encouragement to get to visit with these three men today.  I feel like God sent them to me as a reminder that I am on the right path.

If there is hope in the future there is power in the present.
-John Maxwell