PDF Summary:Thou Shall Prosper, by Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Can you become wealthy, practice self-improvement, and make the world a better place all at once? In Thou Shall Prosper, Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Daniel Lapin teaches you how to do exactly that by following what he calls the “Ten Commandments” of making money. Lapin blends modern economics lessons and business advice with traditional Jewish wisdom to create a text that’s half business guide and half self-help book.

In this guide, we’ll explore ancient rabbis’ views on conducting business, how you can build and lead your own business, and how earning money can be a spiritual pursuit. In our commentary, we’ll provide background information about Judaism to make Lapin’s teachings more accessible. We’ll also compare Lapin’s ideas with those in secular books on similar topics, such as Limitless by Jim Kwik and Start With Why by Simon Sinek.

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Characteristics of a Leader

Lapin says that, while there’s no singular definition of leadership, there are some common characteristics that all great leaders share:

Characteristic 1: An Inspirational Vision

Lapin notes that to motivate others to follow them, leaders must have a clear vision or goal that they’re working toward, and they must be able to keep others focused on that goal. For example, the story of Exodus says that Moses led the Jews through the desert for 40 years based on the strength of his vision of the Promised Land: a new homeland for the Jewish people, promised to them by God, where they would live happily.

(Shortform note: An inspirational goal or vision can be motivating, but getting people to follow you often means creating a sense of urgency as well. In other words, don’t just tell people what you’re going to do, also tell them why you’re doing it, and why it needs to happen right now. For example, in the business fable Our Iceberg Is Melting, the leaders of a colony of penguins spur their followers to action by explaining that global warming is about to destroy their home; therefore, the entire colony needs to immediately work together to find and move to a new location.)

Characteristic 2: The Will to Engage in Necessary Conflicts

It’s not enough to have a goal; you must also have the will and the ability to fight for that goal. According to Lapin, this often means confronting people who don’t approve of your ideas in order to win them over, but it can also mean confronting your employees or your colleagues when their work isn’t meeting your expectations.

(Shortform note: The will to fight for your goals and beliefs arguably isn’t just a good trait for a leader—it’s a good trait for anyone. As Mark Manson says in The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, one way that you control your life is by deciding what you’re willing to struggle for, and how much hardship you’re willing to endure. Further, as Lapin notes, this struggle may involve confrontation with others—something many people fear. To become more comfortable with confronting others and fighting for what you believe in, consider noting down all of the good things that might happen if you speak up. You’ll likely find that these benefits outweigh the possible negative outcomes of confrontation that you’re afraid of.)

Characteristic 3: The Ability to Follow

Counterintuitively, successful leaders must be followers as well. Lapin explains that even the person at the top of a hierarchy has something to follow—for example, a religious leader must follow the teachings of their religion, while the CEO of a company must follow that company’s mission statement.

(Shortform note: Lapin discusses following principles and ideas, but sometimes great leaders may also need to follow other people. This is because nobody can be the best at everything—not even the strongest of leaders. Leaders who allow themselves to follow others are admitting their own shortcomings and working to improve them. “Following” in this case might look like a leader stepping back and allowing experts to take charge of a difficult situation, or it could mean that a leader studies and learns from people whose skills they want to emulate.)

Characteristic 4: Faith

Lapin notes that this means having both faith in God and faith in yourself. First, Judaism teaches that trusting in God is crucial for success in any endeavor—in Judaic stories, people who follow God’s will invariably succeed and earn great rewards, while those who oppose God are ruined or wiped out. Second, when you have faith in yourself, you’ll naturally project a confident air. That confidence will cause others to also have faith in you—therefore, they’ll follow where you lead.

(Shortform note: Some research indicates that faith in God and faith in yourself are closely linked. Several studies have found that prayer and religious faith are associated with increased self-esteem. The researchers concluded that belief in a loving, supportive God who protects you and guides your actions leads to this boost in self-confidence.)

Characteristic 5: The Ability to Leverage the Power of Facts

Faith and self-confidence are necessary for leaders, but they aren’t a substitute for knowledge. According to Lapin, to make good decisions, you must have the relevant facts about the current situation. For example, if you’re the head of a new tech startup, you should have a thorough understanding of the hardware or software your company makes, entrepreneurship and effective business practices, and the current state of the technology industry (so you know your competition). That background knowledge will help you to make effective business decisions and ensure that your startup becomes profitable.

(Shortform note: If you’re researching the facts of your current situation online, ensure that you’re using an accurate source: A lot of information found online is unreliable and could lead you astray. As you search, ask, “How do I know I can trust this source?” For example, is the source considered to be reliable and relatively unbiased? Is the website updated regularly to keep up with new information? Where did the information come from; an expert on the topic, or just someone who has a blog or a YouTube channel? Do other sources confirm the information or refute it?)

Principle 4: Embrace Change

Lapin’s next teaching is that many people fear change because it can be difficult and painful. However, it’s also both necessary and inevitable. Therefore, you must readily embrace change, rather than fear it; you can’t stop change from happening, and in the long run, it often turns out that things have changed for the better.

Lapin adds that this pattern holds true for businesses as well as for individuals. Many companies go out of business when faced with change. However, the companies that successfully navigate those changes often enjoy profits that more than make up for their initial losses. In other words, those companies find that things have indeed changed for the better.

For example, when the Internet became available to the average person, it created enormous changes in the business world. Many companies that didn’t embrace those changes went bankrupt, like Toys “R” Us and Blockbuster. However, businesses that embraced those changes and used them to their advantage—such as Amazon, led by Jeff Bezos—enjoyed enormous profits.

(Shortform note: The classic business fable Who Moved My Cheese? gives two reasons why people (and businesses) tend to fear and resist change, even though it often works out for the best. First of all, people who are satisfied with the way things are will naturally resist change because it could upset their comfortable situation. Second, people (satisfied or not) tend to exaggerate the risks associated with any given change—they’ll imagine worst-case scenarios and act as if those scenarios are sure to happen. However, the moral of Who Moved My Cheese? is the same as what Lapin says here: Change is inevitable, and usually beneficial for those individuals and companies who embrace it.)

In this section, we’ll discuss how you can guide your business through major changes, and how you can anticipate those changes by learning to predict future trends.

How to Navigate Big Changes

Lapin says that companies can navigate major changes by acting slowly and purposefully, rather than impulsively reacting to a changing market. Furthermore, it’s crucial for companies undergoing change to stay connected to their core values and mission statements—if they make changes that compromise their brand identities, they’re likely to lose customers instead of gaining new ones.

(Shortform note: What Lapin describes here—purposeful action instead of impulsive reaction—is a hallmark of mindfulness. In simple terms, mindfulness is the practice of recognizing your feelings and impulses without acting on them. For example, if someone else made you mad, you’d recognize and acknowledge that you feel angry in that moment. However, you wouldn’t act on your impulse to, say, yell at the other person or attack them. Some experts say that business executives who practice mindfulness are more effective leaders because they’re less stressed, more aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and better able to make thoughtful decisions that align with the company’s mission and values.)

A business that exemplifies successfully navigating change is the Walt Disney Company. While staying rooted in its mission to entertain and inspire people through stories, and continuing to use its most popular characters (like Mickey Mouse) as the foundation for its brand, Disney has repeatedly expanded and diversified over the last century to become one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world.

(Shortform note: A strong mission statement has many benefits beyond acting as a guidepost for company leadership. As Simon Sinek explains in Start With Why, an inspirational mission or vision will energize your company on two fronts. First, you and your employees will be more engaged and motivated if you’re working toward a specific goal, instead of just working to make money. Second, a strong vision will attract customers who share that vision—for example, Tesla became popular largely because of its appealing mission to develop popular yet affordable electric cars.)

Lapin bases his assertions about change on Jewish traditions. Judaism teaches that change is easier to accept when it happens gradually, which is why rituals to honor life changes (such as marriages and deaths) take place over multiple days.

(Shortform note: The mourning ritual called shiva (Hebrew for seven, to indicate that it lasts for seven days) is an example of how Judaism slowly guides people through difficult life changes. Immediately after burying a family member, the bereaved people return to their homes and spend a full week there. Traditionally, the family leaves a candle burning during this time to represent both the deceased person’s soul and God’s light—in other words, the candle is a sign that God and the loved one are still with the family. After seven days the candle burns itself out, symbolizing that the person’s soul has moved on and it’s time for the family to begin living their lives again.)

Jewish rituals also make it easier to embrace change by encouraging you to draw support from the parts of your life that remain constant. Such rituals involve praying, celebrating, or mourning with your family and community—therefore, they help you stay connected to your loved ones and your faith as you navigate major changes in other aspects of your life.

How People Can Embrace Change

Major life changes can threaten individuals’ identities. For example, it’s common for a caregiver to feel lost when the person they’ve been caring for passes away; having lost their role as a caregiver, they may not have a strong sense of who they are now or what they’re supposed to do.

Here are some tips that may help you come to terms with big transitions:

1. Identify a clear breaking point with the past. There will often be a significant date associated with a life change, such as a wedding, a funeral, or a breakup. Mark that date in order to create a clear division in your mind between your life before, and your life after that event. In other words, use that date to remind yourself that one phase of your life has ended, and another one has begun.

2. Acknowledge how your past led to the present. Breaking with the past doesn’t mean forgetting about it; those experiences are still a part of you, and you’ll have to acknowledge them in whatever new identity you build for yourself. For example, recovered alcoholics frequently reinvent themselves as sponsors or supporters for people who are still struggling, through organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous. By doing so, they create a meaningful link between their past and present—their personal struggles and suffering gave them the tools to help people who are now struggling with similar issues.

3. Focus on other meaningful aspects of your identity. As Lapin says, you can come to terms with major changes by drawing strength and support from the parts of your life that haven’t changed, such as your family, friends, and religion (if any). You could also find strength in new aspects of your identity by, for instance, doing volunteer work in your community or joining a local club.

Looking to the Future

You can arguably embrace change more easily and more effectively by following another of Lapin’s teachings: Learn how to predict the future. (This may help you to figure out exactly how things will change.)

To help with this, Lapin provides several pieces of advice on how to make the most accurate predictions possible.

Tip 1: Study current trends and ask, “How did we get here?” When trying to predict future events, it’s often helpful to see what led to the present state of affairs. In other words, before trying to guess the future, look at the recent past for major trends that are likely to continue (or to end soon). For example, the Earth’s climate is getting warmer, and that trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that people will need affordable and reliable air conditioning; that could be a business opportunity for you.

(Shortform note: When considering possibilities—like whether a certain trend will continue—the most accurate predictions tend to come from people who embrace uncertainty and think in probabilities, rather than definite terms. In Superforecasting, political science writer Philip E. Tetlock and journalist Dan Gardner say that the best forecasters are those who break the habit of thinking only in terms of “yes,” “no,” and “maybe.” Instead, they estimate (in percentages) how likely it is that something will happen, and then choose a course of action based on that probability. This method is similar to how skilled poker players will calculate the odds of a winning hand and pick their plays based on those calculations.)

Tip 2: Keep an eye on world events. Major events can create opportunities or dangers for your business. For example, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine caused a sharp—though relatively brief—spike in gas prices around the world. Therefore, companies that rely on transport vehicles (trucks, trains, planes, and so on) had to find ways to prepare or compensate for those increased costs.

(Shortform note: Predicting the outcomes of major world events can be difficult; big changes often have far-reaching and unpredictable effects. To make your predictions more accurate, the authors of Superforecasting suggest a technique called Bayesian question clustering. Instead of trying to answer one big question (“What will the war in Ukraine do to my business?”), break it down into numerous smaller questions that you can answer: For instance, “What will happen to my business if the price of gas increases?” or “How might a war in Ukraine affect the global supply chain?”)

Principle 5: Understand the Nature of Money

Another of Lapin’s teachings is to understand that your money is a reflection of you: Everything from your possessions to your time, creativity, and energy can be measured in monetary value. For instance, when you go to work, you’re selling your time and energy in exchange for money; if you make and sell a piece of art, you’re selling your creativity and artistic skills.

Therefore, Lapin says you should develop a healthy respect, and even love, for your money. However, don’t love your money because of what you can buy with it, but rather because it represents the value that you’ve contributed to the world.

(Shortform note: Lapin believes your wealth is a measurement of how much value you’ve added to the world, but that assumes earnings are an accurate reflection of productivity. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has reported that may no longer be the case. In fact, at least for the average American (the focus of the EPI’s research), productivity has increased 3.5 times faster than pay over the last 40 years. Workers are generating more value for their employers, but seeing smaller returns on what they produce. This suggests that money earned might not be an accurate way to measure your life or your contributions to the world, as it doesn’t reflect the true value or impact of your labor.)

Furthermore, when you view wealth as a reflection of yourself—instead of just as numbers on a bank statement, or as a goal that you’re supposed to chase—you’ll make more careful decisions regarding your finances and your business.

Your Money Is Your “Skin In the Game”

Why would viewing your wealth as a reflection of yourself make you a better businessperson? Arguably, it’s because when you equate your wealth with your worth, your business dealings involve more personal risk. If you make bad decisions that decrease your business’s monetary value (and thus your wealth), not only are you losing money, but you’re also losing self-worth.

According to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, taking on personal risk—what he calls having Skin in the Game—is the foundation of any good business strategy. He claims having “skin in the game” will help you in a number of ways:

Engagement. People are more focused and work harder when they’ve got something to lose.

Experience. Taleb believes that learning through experience (and especially through failure) is more effective than learning through study and reasoning. When people’s failures affect them personally, they’re more likely to take those lessons to heart.

Ethics. People are more likely to behave ethically when they know they’ll face personal consequences if they get caught behaving unethically.

Why Charitable Donations Are Profitable

Lapin says that how you use your money reflects on you just as strongly as how you earn it. In other words: While the money you gain reflects the material value you’ve contributed to the world, the money you spend reflects your principles and your moral character. For example, if you pay your employees well and on time, you’ll earn a reputation for generosity and reliability. Therefore, it’s important to be generous and charitable with your money.

Jewish tradition holds that giving money to charity benefits the giver more than the receiver. First, being generous is a mitzvah (a good deed) meaning that it will benefit you spiritually and help you feel good about yourself.

(Shortform note: To understand the connection between money and spirituality, it’s helpful to know that Judaism places very little emphasis on the concept of an afterlife. Therefore, when Lapin says that a mitzvah will benefit you spiritually, he means it’ll help you live a good life here on Earth, not that it’ll help you get into heaven. That’s also why, as we’ll see later, Lapin believes that earning money can be a spiritual endeavor—he sees money as a reflection of how much you’ve improved the world, so accumulating a lot of wealth means that you’ve performed many good deeds.)

However, counterintuitively, giving money away is also one of the best ways to increase your income. This is because it’s profitable to have a reputation for generosity; people will be more willing to work with you and to support charitable causes by supporting your business. On the other hand, people who cling to their money seem desperate and untrustworthy, so people tend to be uncomfortable doing business with them.

(Shortform note: Some companies view charitable donations as something they can only do when profits are high, as a way to get positive attention and tax write-offs. However, some business and marketing experts support Lapin’s claim that the exact opposite is true: Corporate donations to charity increase sales and profits because customers then do business with you to support good causes. Therefore, giving money away can be the ultimate form of marketing. Conversely, companies that develop reputations for greed tend to lose customers, and therefore profits; for example, the software company Unity lost an enormous number of customers and public support after announcing plans to charge developers a fee when users installed games made using their software.)

Principle 6: Don’t Retire

Lapin’s final teaching is that you shouldn’t seek to retire—instead, stay active and productive for as long as possible.

Lapin says that people commonly believe three things that lead them to think retirement is not just necessary, but also desirable. In this section, we’ll review those three beliefs and why Lapin argues they’re not true.

False Belief 1: Work Is Meaningless

Lapin says one belief many people hold is that work has no value; it’s just something they have to do to survive. People who believe this only work to make enough money to eventually retire and don’t see any reason to work a day longer than necessary.

However, Jewish wisdom teaches otherwise: Work gives meaning to the worker’s life, and helps to improve the world for everyone. Remember that your money is a reflection of your accomplishments and your contributions; therefore, if you choose to stop earning money, it means you’ve chosen to stop contributing to society and to limit what you’ll achieve in your life.

(Shortform note: Whether it’s accurate or not, the belief that work is meaningless is quite common; according to a 2015 survey, nearly one in five US workers feel that their jobs are useless and that their work does nothing to improve the world or society. Many people also reject the idea that their job is what gives their lives meaning. For example, in Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl says there are three ways to find meaning in your life. First, find it through achievements and accomplishments (which could be work-related, but don’t have to be). Second, find meaning in positive experiences like finding love and beauty in the world. Finally, derive meaning from negative experiences such as a difficult job—but only if you can find meaning in your suffering, like working that job so you can support your family.)

False Belief 2: You Won’t Be an Effective Worker Anymore

The second false belief people commonly hold is that you’ll become less productive as you age. However, unless your career relies almost entirely on your physical abilities, Lapin argues that you’ll actually get more productive as you get older. This is because you’ll have more money to invest, producing ever-increasing returns. You’ll also continue to grow your network of contacts throughout your life, which will provide more and more opportunities to generate wealth.

(Shortform note: You won’t necessarily become less productive as you age, but you might find that the kind of work you’re able to do changes. In From Strength to Strength, Arthur C. Brooks says that your creativity and reasoning skills will decline as you enter middle age and beyond; however, your experience and knowledge will continue to grow throughout your entire life. Therefore, you should look for a career path that will let you take advantage of your changing skill set as you age. According to Brooks, this typically means finding some sort of coaching or advisory role where you can use your accumulated wisdom to guide others.)

False Belief 3: People Are Supposed to Retire

The third false belief is that people aren’t meant to spend their whole lives working; they’re supposed to spend their last years relaxing and enjoying the life they’ve built.

However, Lapin argues that as you get older, you might find that you don’t want to retire. Instead, you may want to be as productive as possible up until the end of your life, to make as much of an impact on the world as possible.

Further, he notes that people commonly become more spiritual as they age. Continuing to create wealth can be a spiritual endeavor because your work benefits the whole world.

Causes and Benefits of Working Longer

Some people seem to agree with Lapin’s argument here and aren’t looking to retire; for instance, a survey of American workers found that about 40% of them plan to keep working for as long as possible. However, it should be noted that many of those respondents said they planned to keep working for economic reasons. In other words, they’re working past retirement age because they can’t afford to retire, rather than because they want to change the world or because they find work spiritually fulfilling.

With that said, continuing to work into your later years—70s and beyond—has numerous benefits:

Working benefits your physical and mental health. Many retirees spend the majority of their time sitting at home. Holding a job will help you stay active, which can keep you in better shape physically and stave off depression.

A job gives you a purpose. As Lapin said earlier, your job can add meaning to your life; it gives you clear tasks to work on and goals to achieve, and it helps you to make a positive difference in the world.

Working longer improves your retirement. The longer you delay your retirement, the more money you’ll be able to save for when you retire (if you do). One research paper found that delaying retirement by just a few months has the same impact on your savings as saving an extra 1% of your earnings over the course of 30 years. Therefore, delaying retirement by years or even decades will enormously increase your retirement funds.