Making Money, 1880 vs. Now

I ran into this little gem today: Golden Rules for Making Money by P. T. Barnum (1880). It just proves nothing changes when it comes to the fundamentals of making money. However, these days, there’s an extra word, instead of “Making Money”, it’s now “Making Money Online”. Just ask David Heinemeier Hansson, he was even compelled to give a talk on the subject.

Well let’s see what the new-age twists are on these Golden Rules. What changes to P.T. Barnum’s rules when we apply web 2.0 logic to it? Half-seriously, I call it Golden Rules for Making Money 2.0 (web entrepreneur edition).

1. Don’t mistake your vocation -> Hackers should code, designers should draw stuff in Photoshop, and Businessmen should sell and give VC pitches.
2. Select the right location -> Move to the valley. Or at least be in India or China.
3. Avoid Debt -> Splurge on someone else’s dime. Get VC money.
4. Persevere -> “Startups rarely die in mid keystroke. So keep typing!”
5. Whatever you do, do it with all your might -> Stick with Ruby.
6. Depend on your own personal exertions -> Take as few partners as possible. More sweat equity.
7. Use the best tools -> Stick with Rails.
8. Don’t get above your business -> Release early, iterate often.
9. Learn something useful -> Learn Scala or Erlang on the side.
10. Let hope predominate but be not too visionary -> Do something small …
11. Do not scatter your powers -> … and do it well.
12. Be systematic -> Switch to 4 day work weeks.
13. Read the newspapers -> Read Blogs.
14. Beware of “outside operations” -> Don’t blow your exit money on another venture. See rule 3.
15. Don’t endorse without security -> VCs: invest in people with previous exits.
16. Advertise your business -> Use Google Adwords.
17. Be polite and kind to your customers -> Offer email and phone support.
18. Be charitable -> Open source parts of your code.
19. Don’t blab -> Get IP. Enforce it.
20. Preserve your integrity -> Don’t comment spam or SEO spam to get traffic.

See? It’s basically the same thing nearly 130 years later.