Introduction
You often pursue success while ignoring the foundational principles that truly sustain it. Financial stress, weak character, and poor stewardship leave you feeling empty despite external achievements.
Edwin Louis Cole argues in Treasure that true prosperity requires anchoring your life in unchanging principles, maintaining uncompromised character, and mastering the divine math of stewardship, giving, and diligent execution. Wealth is not merely about accumulating money but encompasses holistic health, purposeful vision, and spiritual maturity.
The book guides you through practical steps to transform your approach to wealth and leadership by examining specific areas of life.
- How do you build a stable life on unchanging principles and decisive choices?
- What separates a destructive pursuit of money from a healthy vision of true wealth?
- How does uncompromised character protect your talents and eradicate debt?
- What strategies help you invest wisely, lead effectively, and overcome adversity?
1. Foundations of Prosperity
Building a life on unchanging principles instead of shifting personalities or preferences provides a stable bedrock for long-term success.
Principles are fundamental laws of the universe and basic truths of nature. People who base decisions on personality, preference, or prejudice have unsteady foundations. Those anchored in principle navigate life with greater consistency and success.
John worked in a trailer selling subdivision homes and used his spare time to study business principles. By applying a principle about money he read in a book, his career skyrocketed, leading him to eventually buy the company where he worked.
The Power of Reading
Continuous reading of books is vital for acquiring workable life patterns. It acts as a crucial defense against cultural ignorance and aging.
Books are humanity's best friends because they develop concentration, creative thinking, and sharpness of mind. Modern technological distractions foster a cultural malaise of ignorance. The disciplined habit of lifelong reading equips you with timeless wisdom and actionable patterns.
In 1644, Massachusetts passed a law making fathers responsible for teaching their children to read.
- Read what others have uncovered before you to learn life's valuable patterns and principles.
- Continue to read and study all through life rather than stopping after formal schooling.
Choices and Destiny
Every individual's life level is determined by their choices, and making a firm decision immediately translates mental intent into productive energy.
Circumstances do not dictate your level in living. What you do with those circumstances shapes your destiny. Indecision saps energy and leaves you listless. A definitive decision creates the vital energy needed to achieve goals and break free from a victim mentality.
A public school administrator who watched a video on the power of choice stopped himself from eating a piece of pizza. He realized he was not its servant, and subsequently changed his eating habits to lose over sixty pounds.
- Recognize that choosing not to decide is a decision in itself.
- Change your choices if you do not like the life you are living.
The Power of Words
Spoken words possess creative power that sets the world in motion. They establish accountability and frame personal reality.
You are only committed to what you confess aloud. By speaking words of intention, you release creative power and influence your relationships. You also shape self-perception and rally others toward a shared goal.
During the contested presidential election, attorney David Boies used carefully chosen words after a court loss to frame the situation as a step closer to victory.
- Change your words once you make the choice to build a new life.
- Use your words wisely instead of taking them lightly.
2. Dreaming and Seeking True Wealth
True wealth encompasses holistic health and is built through a clear written vision, avoiding pitfalls like pride, and utilizing unique talents.
Dream Your Future
Dreams act as a magnet drawing you toward your future. You must explicitly write them down and convert them into actionable goals. Beliefs dictate conduct. Wrong beliefs carry a heavy burden of failure, while faith acts as belief in action.
Teenaged brothers Glenn and Bobby created a synthetic weight-loss belt in their garage. They wrote down their plan, flew to K-Mart headquarters to pitch their product, and ultimately built a worldwide fitness company.
- Write the vision you have for your future and commit it to paper.
- Align your perceptions with truth to free yourself from limiting beliefs.
Wealth Versus Riches
Riches and wealth are not synonymous. Pursuing financial gain by doing work you hate or at the expense of family and health is a form of self-cheating. True wealth is achieved by discovering and utilizing unique talents and partnering with others to cover weaknesses.
Viland left a high-paying corporate management job that he hated. He sold his luxury cars for a pickup truck and started a home-renovation business working with his hands.
- Ask your friends and pay attention to what stirs your creative juices to discover your natural strengths.
- Partner with people who are strong in areas where you are weak.
Overcoming Pitfalls
Human success is continually threatened by the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes. You must counter these threats with humility and love. Pride causes people to resist learning and change, while lust represents insatiable, self-centered desire designed to get at the expense of others.
Mark Cuban sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for 3.7 billion dollars. He ensured that 300 out of 330 employees became millionaires by looking out for their highest good.
- Practice humility by allowing someone to go first, signaling a pedestrian, or giving an extra-large tip while keeping deeds anonymous.
- Master your passion so that your passion does not master you.
3. Character and Money Management
Character must sustain talent, truth must remain the foundation of society, and debt acts as a modern form of slavery that must be eradicated.
Character and Truth
Talent can elevate a person to a level that their character cannot sustain, leading to eventual collapse. Character is always more important than talent because people commit to character rather than talent. Strong internal character requires checks and balances from external sources like reading and mentors.
Two talented athletes fell into eclipse; one rebuilt his character and returned to take his team to the Super Bowl, while the other depended solely on talent.
Truth is the only moral, ethical, and indestructible foundation for good character and societal order. When truth collapses, morality has nothing to stand on, causing social and economic disaster. Trust is extended only to the limit of truth, and trusting a half-truth is equivalent to trusting a whole lie.
Art and his partner started a mobile medical business, but the partner became greedy and lied, leading to a court battle where lawyers and competitors took the business nationwide.
The Nature of Money and Debt
Easy credit and debt act as a structural evil that enslaves people and restricts their freedom. Debt forces individuals to work multiple jobs just to service what they owe, acting as a modern form of slavery. Managing debt requires mastering passions and controlling appetites to break out of a debtor's mentality.
David and Barbara had a business loan and a house mortgage; after hearing a conference speaker, they decided to cut off all money outflows and applied all profits to completely pay off their debts within one year.
You must handle obligations with deliberate discipline and structured actions:
- Do not incur more debt
- Make sacrifices
- Pay cash
- Celebrate each debt paid
4. Investing, Leadership, and Adversity
Financial growth comes through investing in producers, practicing stewardship, mastering listening, and treating failure as the womb of success.
Givers Gain and Investing
True financial prosperity requires mastering stewardship and practicing giving before expecting to receive. Givers gain, and giving must start away from oneself and extend to family before expanding outward. Receiving is as important as believing, and answers to needs always come through people.
John and his wife started sending checks to his parents first, which unlocked the power of prosperity and allowed them to give hundreds of times more over the years.
You must follow specific financial steps:
- Give away from yourself
- Take care of your family
- Set a portion of your money aside and just give
Financial growth is achieved through multiplication via investing rather than addition via saving. Investing requires trading to gain, and you must always invest in the person running a business rather than just the corporation itself. Successful managers hire producers.
H. Ross Perot claimed he did not have a dollar that wasn't working for him, reflecting his massive fortune built through active investing.
You need to follow clear rules when allocating funds:
- Invest in people
- Before investing, investigate
- Risk, don't gamble
- It must be in writing
- Don't live with death
- Invest in producers
- Cast a spotlight on murky shadows
- Funds come from friends
- Invest your life for your greatest good
- Don't quit
Relationships and Leadership
Success in relationships and business relies primarily on the art of listening rather than speaking. Communication is the basis for relationships, and failure to communicate prevents relating. The formula for success in relationships is communication, just as real estate relies on location.
A legendary old country insurance salesman achieved his status by simply letting people talk and then asking them to sign the paper.
Faithfulness is the cornerstone of character and the primary criterion for choosing and leading personnel. Leadership's purpose is to influence people, not industries or nations. Management requires winning, training, and sending people, followed by inspection rather than mere expectation.
Reggie White improved his play on a poor college defensive team through hard work, which subsequently inspired his teammates to lift their level of play.
You must guide your team effectively:
- Train them
- Give them responsibility
- Have them account for it
Time and Adversity
Life management begins with time management, and success depends on being the right person at the right time in the right place. Time flows continuously from the future into the past, meeting humanity only in the present, with 24 hours in a day given equally to all people. Organizing time shows respect for life, and creators must make time for what is important.
Colonel Sanders drove to hundreds of restaurants looking for someone to try his chicken recipe, treating every rejection as bringing him closer to a yes.
All success is born out of failure, and the difference between failing and succeeding lies in handling adversity without quitting.
Problems drive out the worst and bring out the best in you. Quitting is the worst thing in the world, and success is the greatest antidote to failure.
Distraught individuals who had faced bankruptcy and downsizing overcame adversity to become millionaires by treating failure as a stepping stone.
You must handle setbacks correctly:
- Bury past failures and do not live with them
- Work on yourself instead of complaining about others
- Stay in 'til you win
Conclusion
True prosperity emerges when you unite unchanging principles, uncompromised character, and disciplined stewardship into a single cohesive lifestyle. Wealth is never an accident or a mere accumulation of currency, but the natural harvest of a life anchored in truth, sustained by integrity, and multiplied through intentional action. When you align your vision, your words, and your financial habits with divine laws, you transform money from a master into a servant. You stop chasing temporary riches and begin building a lasting legacy that endures through every season of adversity.
- Write down a clear vision for your life and commit to daily personal growth through reading and study.
- Build an unshakeable character where your word remains your bond and truth governs every transaction.
- Master the divine math of giving by practicing tithing and active generosity without expecting immediate repayment.
- Eliminate consumer debt aggressively to free yourself from financial bondage and reclaim your economic liberty.
- Invest your resources in proven producers and manage every asset with the mindset of a faithful steward.
10 Key Ideas
- Building a life on unchanging principles instead of shifting personalities or preferences provides a stable bedrock for long-term success.
- Continuous reading of books is vital for acquiring workable life patterns and acts as a crucial defense against cultural ignorance.
- Every individual's life level is determined by their choices, and making a firm decision immediately translates mental intent into productive energy.
- Spoken words possess creative power that sets the world in motion, establishes accountability, and frames personal reality.
- True wealth encompasses holistic health and is built through a clear written vision, avoiding pitfalls like pride, and utilizing unique talents.
- True wealth is achieved by discovering and utilizing unique talents and partnering with others to cover weaknesses.
- Character must sustain talent, truth must remain the foundation of society, and debt acts as a modern form of slavery that must be eradicated.
- Financial growth comes through investing in producers, practicing stewardship, mastering listening, and treating failure as the womb of success.
- Success in relationships and business relies primarily on the art of listening rather than speaking.
- All success is born out of failure, and the difference between failing and succeeding lies in handling adversity without quitting.