Good Use of a Loan

The idea of winning the lottery has a beautiful allure. Think about it for a moment. With the expenditure of a trivial sum of cash, you purchase the potential to receive millions of dollars. This all occurs in the space of days. If any sum of money could be called fast money, it would have to be lottery winnings. However, one look at the odds involved in winning such fast money are so astronomical, that one will find that there is more of a likelihood of being struck by lightning than of winning the lottery.

In fact, the entire idea of fast money is little more than a dream. Certainly, one could possibly find a loan for a substantial sum, however, while such a loan could qualify for fast money, you still have to pay it back eventually. This is hardly the idea that most people entertain when they are dreaming of acquiring enough cash to have few money problems ever again.

A look into the lives of entrepreneurs will demonstrate that most of the most financially successful people in history did not look for fast cash. While many of them may have taken out a loan in an effort to start their dream, few sat around and waited for life to dump untold millions into their laps. A notable, and deeply interesting, example of such an entrepreneur can be found in the person of P. T. Barnum.

Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5th, 1810- April 7th, 1891) was a Connecticut native who went on to create the most famous circus in the world. Ironically enough, one of Barnum’s first entrepreneurial endeavors was, in fact, a lottery. While this was a financial failure for him, it did lead him down the road to more successful ventures.

After a number of other failures, such as being a storekeeper and starting up a newspaper, he eventually found he had a knack for creating traveling shows that became extremely popular. He found that he was quite good at assembling a collection of performers, animals, and other items, that people were more than happy to pay money to see. His traveling entertainment developed into such a success that he had to develop means to keep people from dawdling for too long. Perhaps the most famous of these schemes was his placing a sign up stating, "This way to the Egress." Those believing that there was yet another fantastic display or freak to view discovered too late that they had, in fact, discovered the exit.

P.T. Barnum became an enormously successful entrepreneur. This was not due to any loan money he may have gotten, or to his looking for fast, easy money. His success was the tale of many financially successful entrepreneurs. He took what loan money he could get and invested it into his dream and hard work. Through his efforts, and never giving up despite his early failure, he was able to become one of the most famous men of his time, and an enormous financial success.

Contributing National Payday Staff Writer

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