Subtitled “King Solomon’s Secrets to Success, Wealth and Happiness,” this book takes the wisdom of Solomon in Proverbs and applies it to business and lifestyle choices that we have to make every day.

It is based on the author’s own experiences: “Imagine going from a below average wage to a personal income of more than $600,000 per month! Imagine losing nine jobs in your first six years after college, and then, on your tenth job, building more than a dozen multimillion dollar businesses from scratch, achieving sales of billions of dollars. Imagine doing all this by following specific steps taught by Solomon in the Old Testament Book of Proverbs. In a nutshell, that is my personal story.” 

When I read passages like that I always ask myself, “is this is just prosperity gospel garbage?” But I also believe that the Bible does contain principles (and proverbs are principles, not promises) that will make the follower more successful than not, so I continued reading.

The author also acknowledges at the start of chapter 9 that, “Like it or not, conflict and adversity are as much as part of life as eating, drinking or breathing. But according to Solomon, conflict and adversity serve very important purposes in our lives that are rarely accomplished by any other means.” 

He devotes a later chapter to Solomon’s warnings about greed. So this book contains a balance generally lacking in prosperity gospel teaching, while providing good business and life applications.

The Book of Proverbs contains 31 chapters and the author gained his insights by reading one chapter each day of the month for a number of years. If you feel you are not up to that, then this book will give you a condensed overview of its wisdom.

By Steven K. Scott
Waterbrook Press, Colarado Springs, 2006
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7197-5

– David McLeod-Jones