How to be Prosperous

My lesson in FHE last night started out something like this:

"Tonight we're going to talk about how to get rich, be successful and be happy. And my text for this lesson comes from a talk by a Roman Catholic economist. "

That got their attention.

During the course of the lesson we had more discussion than we normally do and I could really tell those boys, who I felt strongly needed this lesson because they will be the providers of families someday, were mulling over and considering this information more than usual.

My text came from this BYU forum by Arthur C. Brooks. And I found it very interesting. As an economist he wanted to prove that John D. Rockefeller was wrong in his position that he was rich partially because he gave money away. He said that numbers just don't work that way. He spent months researching and crunching numbers and kept coming up with the result that 'when people give money away, they tend to prosper'. He thought that was counter intuitive so he threw away his findings, got a new computer and started again. He got rid of the old data, looked for new data, recrunched numbers and got the exact same result. Statistically, people who give (money, time, talents--even blood) are richer, more successful and happier than those who don't.

One quote I found very interesting: "I am here to tell you, having looked at the data, that the day the government takes over for you in your private charity is the day we get poorer, unhappier, and unhealthier. We must demand to take our place as givers and support the communities and people who need the services we can provide."

I just found the whole thing interesting because the prophets have told us all along to be of service and that we'll be blessed and happy for it and now there are hard facts to back that up! Tom added that a friend at work (who is not LDS) took a class on becoming wealthy (taught by a group that is not LDS based) and one thing they recommended you do to increase your income is give 10% away to charity. All very interesting.