A Dying Billionaire Told Me 7 Secrets About Money. I Was Broke for 30 Years.

I need to tell you something tonight that I have never told anyone. For thirty years of my life, I was broke. Not struggling. Not getting by. BROKE. I was a rabbi who could not pay his electricity bill. A teacher of wisdom who had to borrow money to buy food for Shabbat dinner.

Until one night everything changed. I received a phone call at two in the morning. A man named Eliyahu was dying. He was one of the wealthiest men in our entire country. He owned hotels. He owned land. He had businesses on four continents. And he was asking for me.

He grabbed my hand and said: "I have seven things I need to tell you about money. Seven things I wish someone had told me when I was your age."

Secret 1: Money Is Not Evil — Poverty Is Powerless

He looked at me and said: "For thirty years you have been teaching your community that money is dirty. That is a LIE."

"Do you know what money gave me? The ability to build a hospital wing where children with cancer are treated for free. You think poverty is holy? Poverty is POWERLESS. Get rich so that you can do what God cannot do with His own hands."

Secret 2: Save First, Spend What's Left

The first ten percent goes to charity. The second ten percent goes to savings you NEVER touch. Then live on the rest.

I asked: "What if there is not enough?" He smiled: "The problem is not the twenty percent you saved. The problem is the eighty percent you are spending on things you do not need to impress people you do not like."

Secret 3: Never Trade Time for Money

A man older than him once said: "Eliyahu, you are a fool. You are trading the only thing you cannot make more of for the one thing you can always make more of."

"Sell your thinking. Not your time. Build something that earns while you eat dinner. While you sleep. That is freedom. Everything else is slavery with a paycheck."

Secret 4: Generosity Creates Wealth

Every time he gave money away, his wealth GREW. When he donated a million to build a hospital wing — within six months, three new deals appeared worth ten times more.

"Generosity creates trust. Trust creates relationships. Relationships create opportunities. Opportunities create wealth. The entry point is giving."

Secret 5: Your Family Is Your First Investment

He started crying. This billionaire. This titan. Crying in a hospital bed.

His oldest son's first football game — he was in a meeting. His daughter graduated top of her class — he was on a plane. His wife sat at dinner alone three hundred nights a year.

"I gave them everything money can buy. And I withheld the one thing money cannot buy. Myself. Bread on a table with love is a feast. Steak on a table with an empty chair is a tragedy."

Secret 6: Read One Book a Week

He never graduated from university. But he read one book every single week for forty-seven years.

"Every fortune I made started with a page in a book. Stop watching television. Take one hour and READ. In five years you will not recognize your own life."

Even dying in the hospital — he had three books on his bedside table.

Secret 7: Money Is a Tool — Then Put It Down

"Money is a tool. The same way a hammer is a tool. You do not worship a hammer. You use it to build something beautiful. And then you put the hammer down."

He died four days later. At his funeral there were 600 people. Business partners. Politicians. But the front row had two empty chairs. His son. His daughter. They did not come.