Steven K. Scott ,The Richest Man Who Ever Lived Review

Overall Rating

Clear writing and illustrations.
Practical steps to put suggestions into practice.

A key point the author wants to make is on having a 'vision' basing the importance on the verse, "Where there is no vision, the people perish..." (Pr 28.19). However, the word vision as used by the author is different in context than as used in the proverb.

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived by Steven K. Scott contains insights and lessons that will improve your life if you apply them. The "richest man" in the title is a reference to Solomon, third king of Israel and Scott's book works through many of the themes addressed in The Proverbs of Solomon and organizes them in a way they can be applied to daily life in the home and workplace. Each chapter is written clearly, contains principles and examples, and closes with a section containing specific questions or suggestions to make its lessons real.

The two foundational stones to success according to Scott are diligence and having a vision. The chapter on diligence covers the proverbs pertaining to it, then the benefits and rewards of being a diligent person are highlighted. The chapter continues with a strong section on the consequences of not being diligent then concludes with practical steps to make diligence an important area of one's life.

The next area is the key point that this book wants to impress upon the reader: the vital importance of having well-defined visions for your personal and professional life. This is a short chapter that makes its point and ends before you can dismiss it as just more of the same-old same-old and introduces what Scott calls the Vision Mapping Process. This is a very practical step-by-step procedure that will enable you to distill the well-defined vision.

In later chapters other topics are addressed such as partnering and mentoring, communication, and the right way to handle conflict, criticism and adversity. The reader is also schooled on the problem areas of anger, greed, and naivet .

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived is clear and credible, relevant and practical. Apply it to your own benefit.