Thrift

It is a funny thing that out of you boys who now read these words, some are certain to become rich men, and some may die in poverty and misery. It pretty well depends on your own selves which you are going to do. And you can very soon tell which your future is going to be.

The fellow who begins making money as a boy will go on making it as a man. You may find it difficult to do at first, but it will come easier later on. If you begin and go on, remember, you are pretty certain to succeed in the end-especially if you get your money by hard work.

If you only try to make it by easy means-that is by betting, say on a horse race-you are bound to lose after a time. Nobody who makes bets ever wins in the end; it is the bookmaker, the man who receives the bets, who scores. Yet there are thousands of fools who go on putting their money on, because they won a bit once or hope to win some day.

Any number of poor boys have become rich men. But in nearly every case it was because they meant to do so from the first. They worked for it, and put every penny they could make into the bank to begin with.

So each one of you has the chance, if you like to take it.

The knights of old were ordered by their rules to be thrifty, not to expend large sums on their enjoyment, but to save it in order that they might keep themselves, and not be a burden to others, and also so that they might have more to give away in charity. If they had no money of their own, they were not allowed to beg for it, but had to work and make it in one way or another. Thus money-making goes with manliness, hard work, and sobriety.

Author

Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell (Chief Scout, London, UK)

Date of Creation

1908

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