A Delightful Look at China's and America's Pasts in Salem, Massachusetts

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so. I know that I am!

Do you enjoy visiting historic homes?

Do you like seeing home decor and furniture from prior eras?

Are you fascinated by model ships?

If you answered "yes" to any two of these three questions, this blog post may be helpful for you.

Mention Salem, Massachusetts to most people, and they conjure up memories of the Salem Witch Trials or of Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The House of Seven Gables. For people who live in eastern Massachusetts, Salem is also a spot they think of for celebrating Halloween.

But the best reason to think of Salem, Massachusetts is for the remarkable Peabody Essex Museum (see http://www.pem.org/homepage/) that is located there. The Peabody Essex is located near downtown Salem but you may never find it unless you have directions (see http://www.pem.org/visit/hours.php).

Did you know that the Peabody Essex is now one of the largest museums in the eastern United States?

What relevance does this museum have to living better than a billionaire on five dollars a day?

After the Revolutionary War, Salem was the home of the American nouveaux riches who dominated the China trade . . . the earlier incarnation of the current fascination with importing inexpensive manufactured goods from China. These wealthy captains and traders were the equivalent of today's billionaires. Their financial reign was dramatic, but brief, in American history. You'll enjoy thinking about what might be ahead for today's billionaires when you see Salem's wealthy past.

If you look around Salem and at the museum, you can get several object lessons about how to live better than a billionaire.

1. These traders were always working and usually away from home. The Gilbert Chadwick house shows this influence as the home is decorated to serve as a display case for customers who were entertained during social occasions.

2. They drew little on their own culture for improving their lifestyle. Instead, they relied on Chinese artisans to create hand-made goods that were much less expensive and more exotic than the European equivalents.

3. Although they had great wealth compared to their neighbors, they had little privacy to enjoy the wealth in. Homes didn't have indoor plumbing, so they had to trek to outhouses or use chamber pots like their poorer neighbors. Wealth can only take you so far away from being like everyone else.

4. The wealth was soon gone and left little behind except some mansions and the museum's collections of imported Oriental goods. The wealthy person of one era can be the pauper in another era without conservatism.

5. By contrast, the museum contains Yin Yu Tang, the home of a Chinese merchant family, that was built around the same time as the Gilbert Chadwick house, where family is everything. This home was moved from China and carefully reconstructed within the Peabody Essex, providing a marvelous contrast with the perspective of the Salem merchants. The home contained several generations of the same family in safe proximity to one another in private surroundings where the outside world was kept carefully at bay.

You should draw your own lessons, but here are a few that today's billionaires should consider:

1. There's more true wealth in a strong family than in a rich strongbox.

2. Build your business and family for the long haul, rather than the quick opportunities of a few years.

3. What's enormously popular at one time can quickly disappear.

4. Beware of trading your youth for potential riches away from home.

Can any billionaire do better than follow these lessons? I don't think so!

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N.B. As you can tell, I'm experimenting with color. Let me know what you like and what I should change about my use of color. Many thanks to Linda Grace for her suggestions which I am following!

Please let me know what else you would like to learn, and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

Here are some upcoming subjects:

Tomorrow, take a thrilling ride on the world's best theme park attractions!

Thursday, I will describe the life-changing experience I had in hearing Dr. Masaru Emoto describe on October 6, 2005 what he has learned about the nature of human thought from photographing water crystals.

Friday, I'll share my preparations for viewing the Michigan-Penn State game in Ann Arbor as model of how to enjoy college football better than a billionaire.

Saturday, let's look at how to plan a party that any billionaire would envy!

On Sunday, we'll explore the spiritual joys of closely examining nature better than a billionaire.

If you are new to this blog, be sure to check out the updated table of contents entry that I posted on October 5. The table of contents will help you find earlier entries that may be of interest. I'll update this table of contents every week or so for your convenience.

August 31 was the most frequently read blog entry to date. Be sure to check it out!

Thanks so much for your support of this blog. I'm delighted that so many tens of thousands of people have made this blog part of their regular reading habit!

If you like this blog, please let others know who might also enjoy it. E-mailing your favorite post to them is a great idea.

Check out the latest index at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005/10/latest-table-of-contents-to-this-blogs.html to pick out your choice.

Thank you to my many friends, students, clients and blog readers who are spreading the good word about this blog.

If you are visiting today because someone invited you, I'm delighted to meet you! Let's stay in touch.

Remember to also visit

Live Spiritually Better than a Billionaire at http://livespirituallybetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Be More Successful than a Billionaire at http://bemoresuccessfulthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Mansions Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoymansionsbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Football Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoyfootballbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/ and

Be a World Hero Better than a Billionaire at http://beaworldherobetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/.

I offer individual on-line tutorials and in-person seminars on living better than a billionaire on five dollars extra a day, creating 2,000 percent solutions (20 times the results with the same effort), developing more profitable business models and designing strategies that work regardless of the business environment. For information, contact me at ultimatecompetitiveadvantage@yahoo.com.

I am available to you as a speaker on these subjects. You can find my background at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005_08_30_livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars_archive.html/.

May God bless you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell