“There’s nothing new under the sun.”
I’ve heard this quote throughout my life, but wasn’t sure where it came from, so I did a little research.
It’s a common proverb from Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been will be again, / what has been done will be done again; / there is nothing new under the sun.” As a modern idiom, “there’s nothing new under the sun” is often used as a world-weary complaint against life’s monotony.
What I take it to mean is that human nature has been the same since Adam and Eve. That we have good and bad habits, tendencies, urges to create and lures to laziness, rivalries, and so on.
As an active real estate investor and mortgage broker of 30-years, I have noticed that “nothing new under the sun” also holds true. The good deals, the clever deals, the bad deals, no money down, creative financing, etc.…, it’s all been around for a long time in one form or another, perhaps because real estate is the essence of shelter and for riches.
Whenever I hear of a new type of financing or a new scam or new “guru” saying that they have the key to real estate riches I have to laugh. Which thing from the past is being re-worked to look new I wonder…
I love this saying because it reminds me that things come and go and come back again, and that no matter what “it” is there is a lesson from the past to help me find a solution. Reassuring once you know this. When you are younger you think everything is new under the sun.
A Must Read: Sam Zell, Am I Being Too Subtle?
