A trader once gave his young protégé a copper coin and said, "Pay yourself first." The kid looked puzzled. By the time he retired, he owned more copper mines than his mentor ever did. The lesson sounds deceptively simple. Surely building wealth requires sophisticated strategies and superior knowledge? Yet the most enduring financial wisdom ever recorded asks nothing of the kind. It asks only for one habit, practiced without exception. The principle traces back to ancient Babylon, where merchants observed something consistent among the wealthy: they didn't earn more than everyone else, they simply kept more. Before paying landlords or satisfying any appetite, they reserved a portion for themselves—not what remained after expenses, but what came first, before expenses had the chance to expand and consume everything available. Most people invert this entirely. They earn, they spend, they hope something remains. It rarely does. Lifestyle quietly inflates to match income, whims disguise themselves as necessities, and the gap between earning and keeping stays permanently wide. Lesson: Pay yourself before the world takes its share, and the world eventually has less claim over your future than you ever imagined possible.