308 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-MASTERYIt may seem a cruel fact, but it is a fact nonetheless, that if you
have no money, and have not developed the Habit of Saving, you are
out of luck. as far as availing yourself of the opportunity to make money
is concerned.
It can do no harm to repeat-in fact it should be repeated over and
over again-that the real start of nearly all fortunes, whether great or
small, is the formation of the habit of saving money.
Get this basic principle firmly founded in your mind and you will
be well on the road toward financial independence!
It is a sad sight to see someone who is well along in years and self-
sentenced to the wearisome treadmill of hard labor because he or she
neglected to form the habit of saving money when they were younger.
Yet there are millions of such men and women, of all ages and types,
living in the United States alone.
The greatest thing in life is freedom!
But there can be no real freedom without a reasonable degree of
financial independence. It is a terrible thing to be compelled to be at
a certain place, at a certain task (perhaps a task that one does not like)
for a certain number of hours every working day of the week, for a
whole lifetime. In some ways this is the same as being in prison, since
one's choice of action is always limited. It is really no better than being
in prison with the privilege of a "trustee;' and in some ways it is even
worse because the person who is imprisoned has escaped the respon-
sibility of providing themself a place to sleep, something to eat, and
dothes to wear.
The only hope of escape from this lifelong toil which curtails
freedom is to form the habit of saving money, and then live up to
that habit, no matter how much sacrifice it may require. There is no
other way out for millions of people, and unless you are one of the
rare exceptions, this lesson and all these statements of fact are meant
for you and apply to you!