Let me tell you a story I read on a Facebook account called “Inspiring Quotes.”
Back in the 1800’s a wealthy business man had a daughter named Hetty Green. When daddy died, she inherited $7.5 million (far more in today’s money – probably a half a billion or more). She then moved to New York and invested her money in Wall Street and became known as:
“The Wicked Witch of Wall Street”
Story goes she married a millionaire.
And even though she had more money than Scrooge McDuck and his money vault:
* She lived on leftover cakes and broken biscuits in grocery stores
* Would argue to get a free bone for her dog every day
* Sewed underpants in her teens and did not change them or buy new ones for the rest of her life
* Never used hot water to save money
* Wore a dress she never changed until it was worn down to the last molecule and had no choice
* Lived on 2 cent pies each day
* Delayed treating her son’s broken leg to not have to spend any money, causing the leg to be amputated
* Died from having a stroke while arguing with her made after the maid asked for a raise
Yeesh.
Probably there are exceptions. But I’ve personally never met a cheapskate who wasn’t miserable & made everyone around them miserable. Before the reply guys get too excited, I am not talking about being broke. That happens to everyone, and is just life. Nor am I talking about being frugal, using common sense, and being wiser than serpent when it comes to money.
I am talking about being cheap minded.
It’s a sickness of the mind & soul.
Stefania (back when she lived in New York City) once told me about a guy she knew whose family made lots of money. The dad is a CFO of a corporation probably everyone reading this has heard of. But he and his family were so cheap they brought bologna sandwiches on the way to fancy restaurants.
The reason:
To not eat & spend so much at the restaurant.
The mom would even squeeze and scrape the condiments to take home, and the son would refuse to eat pasta simply because it had the biggest markup. I probably don’t have to tell you how stingy they were with tipping – assuming they tipped at all.
They sounded like wretched people, too.
The kind that’d stab you in the back.
Incidentally, Stefania also knew someone whose father left her such a large inheritance that she lived on Madison Ave off only the interest, and yet would un-crumple her used paper towels to dry and reuse them later out of pure, uncut, and unadulterated… cheap-mindedness.
Anyway, I’ve seen these types come & go in this business for nearly 25 years.
And I also have yet to meet a single one who I wanted anything to do with.
I also do everything I can to frighten such types away from even thinking of subscribing to the paid Email Players newsletter.
More on the newsletter here:
Ben Settle
