"everything to be had", is this a correct expression? Hi, all This is a phrase from the currently popular book "From 0 to 1". Is "everything to be had" in this phrase a normal English expression? I

wisekimi

"everything to be had", is this a correct expression? Hi, all This is a phrase from the currently popular book "From 0 to 1". Is "everything to be had" in this phrase a normal English expression? I couldn't find any similar examples on the web. ------------------------- Unless they invest in the difficult task of creating new things, American companies will fail in the future no matter how big their profits remain today. What happens when we’ve gained everything to be had from fine-tuning the old lines of business that we’ve inherited? Unlikely as it sounds, the answer threatens to be far worse than the crisis of 2008. Today’s “best practices” lead to dead ends; the best paths are new and untried. ------------------------- Is "everything to be had" same as "everything that we are to have"? Thanks.

Feb 8, 2018 1:49 AM

Answers · 7

To me, the two are not interchangeable. In the first example, "everything to be had," the word "had" functions like a synonym to the aforementioned word "gained." In order to make sense in this context, it needs to stay in the past tense. Since "everything we are to have" is in the future, it doesn't have the same meaning or sound correct here.

February 8, 2018

It's more like 'everything that is possible for us to get, we have'. As in, there's nothing more to be gained because they have everything already. 'Everything that we are to have' is talking about something in the future, that there is something more out there to get. I read it a bit closer, and it does seem that you're correct after all with your sentence. Sorry, I didn't realise that it was also referring to the future. They essentially mean the same thing here.

February 8, 2018

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