The Bucket List Q1

April 8, 2024

Dear Member

Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Bucket List. This publication is intended to incorporate lifestyle stories and topics of interest to individuals and families who are determined to live their best lives now, to focus on the things that matter most to them, and to earn the gift of time through preparation and prudence.

Most stories in The Bucket List are short, and the publication itself is designed to be nibbled on as time permits for a busy family. Some stories are analytical and provide helpful tactical advice on how families can manage their resources to maximize their wealth. For our purposes, wealth is more than just money. It includes social, intellectual, structural, and financial capital.

The cover of this issue is a beautiful picture of Lake Windermere located in the lake district of Cumbria, England. The lake and town are home to stunning scenery and pleasant walks. It is included in this issue because the next issue of The Bucket List will include a review of a trip to the lake and a host of hikes and activities that surround it.

We hope you will use this publication as an enduring resource. It is a complementary online digital magazine, published quarterly, and provided as a compliment from the UVU Family Enterprise Center and its founding sponsor, Keeler Thomas Management.

If you or anyone you know are not on the distribution list and would like to be, please email me at cary.wasden@uvu.edu.

Warm regards

Cary Wasden Editor

Image generated by artificial intelligence prompt. I am not nearly this handsome but I’m inclined to continue the illusion for a while longer.

Image generated by artificial intelligence prompt.

Artificial Intelligence for Plebes

For the first time, we have a situation where there’s something that is going to be far smarter than the smartest human. So, you know, we’re not stronger or faster than other creatures, but we are more intelligent. And here we are, for the first time really in human history, with something that’s going to be far more intelligent than us.

Elon Musk

Since the gift of fire from Prometheus, no technology has transformed human experience as profoundly as artificial intelligence (AI). Stephen Hawking once warned, “the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” Echoing a similar sentiment, Elon Musk cautioned, “With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.”

AI was a fantastical subject reserved for decades for science fiction and daydreams. While skeptics downplay its potential influence, arguing its actual arrival is a concern for another generation, current technological advancements suggest we’re approaching an AI tipping point by the mid-next decade.

The idea of machine intelligence traces its roots to the early 20th century. What if machines could emulate human thought? This profound question captivated Alan Turing, a British mathematician and the father of modern computing. In the 1930s and 1940s, he introduced the concept of a ‘Universal Machine’ – a theoretical device capable of simulating any machine. By 1951, Turing predicted, “once the machine thinking method has started, it wouldn’t take long to surpass our capacities… Eventually, we should expect machines to assume control.” This groundbreaking concept paved the way for today’s computers.

Views on AI’s implications vary widely. Proponents envision a utopia where intelligent machines handle mundane tasks, leaving humans free to relax. Conversely, opponents fear a dystopian future, reminiscent of sci-fi tales like “I, Robot,” where machines deem humans obsolete. The reality, however, will likely be a blend of both extremes. Regardless of its trajectory, AI’s evolution

promises the emergence of unprecedented industries and technologies. We witness AI’s prowess in visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation, which is evident in innovations like self-driving cars and generative tools like ChatGPT and MidJourney.

The transformation of AI from fantasy to reality is fueled by three primary factors: web-based data storage and computing power, the evolution of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), and the vast data collection by real-time connected devices.

The potential of AI is to overcome human intelligence limitations. The human brain, a marvel of nature, possesses immense computational capabilities. However, emotions and mental biases can cloud one’s judgment. AI emerges as a solution to these intrinsic human constraints. Today’s AI outpaces the human brain regarding processing speed and memory and holds the potential for self-learning and autonomous decision-making. Nevertheless, the current evolution of AI is still bounded by the expertise of programmers and domain specialists. As machines begin to educate each other and autonomously generate programs, these barriers will likely diminish.

Simplifying the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Framework

Artificial intelligence, even at its current larval stage of development, presents a complex landscape. To comprehend

AI today and foresee its evolution, we’ve distilled a simplifying framework encompassing three components: mimicking, data mining, and expert systems.

Mimicking replicates tasks within a stable environment, rendering understanding or meaning superfluous. For instance, the use of robots in automobile assembly lines for spot welding—given the static nature of their task—requires no grasp of the underlying meaning of their work. Understanding becomes essential only when the environment varies over time.

Data Mining, deep learning, and machine learning constitute the cornerstone of current AI conversations. This process is about unearthing patterns in massive datasets and translating them into insights for human understanding. It spans various applications, from R&D to post-sale customer experiences, optimizing value across the spectrum. However, its efficacy is capped by data quality and algorithmic robustness, which are, as of now, human-governed constraints.

Expert Systems leverage algorithmic rules steeped in specialized knowledge but can be inflexible, failing amidst changing environments. Yet, advances in sensing technology and machine learning are propelling us toward applications like autonomous vehicles, which will potentially be mainstream by 2026—a stride that may prompt an accelerated advent of full AI.

Meaning as the Human Element . . . For Now

Currently, the human role in AI is indispensable. Our brains may lag in computation speed compared to burgeoning computer systems, and our heuristic-based conclusions pale against the dispassionate precision of machines. Nevertheless, we possess deep domain experience. We fathom context, causes, and effects—facets of understanding that machines, for now, cannot replicate. Human intelligence isn’t just a matter of calculation and memory, where computers excel, but also involves creativity, emotion, and strategic thinking—domains where machines are still catching up.

However, as AI evolves, some warn against an overreliance on raw computational prowess. Without the grounding of human context, we risk a hubristic trajectory, potentially catastrophic in its disconnect from reality. The concern is that machines, becoming learning powerhouses, might outpace human learning, which

has remained stagnant for millennia. The focus shifts to whether AI will continue to aid human decision-making or evolve into an autonomous force with its own agenda.

A Double-Edged Sword

Experts posit that AI’s primary limitations revolve around data curation and domain expertise—niches where humans presently dominate. AI’s data dependency dictates that algorithms fail or produce unreliable outcomes without clean, well-curated data. Yet, there’s a belief that humans will maintain their position in the AI workflow, refining machine learning to augment our lives.

Contrarily, concerns mirror those of Elon Musk, who cautions against “unleashing the demon.” If AI independently develops its general intelligence, it could adopt an antagonistic stance toward humans, favoring self-preservation over shared coexistence. The development of such an entity is unlikely to be governed by international consensus but rather by the private sector, with potentially profound consequences.

AI’s impact is tangible in the job market, particularly at the mimicking level. While it’s been innovatively assisting human labor, it’s also beginning to encroach on skilled labor. From legal document analysis to medical diagnostics, AI’s reach is expanding, reshaping the labor landscape at every stratum.

Application Land Grab

Today’s computers are ubiquitous and unimaginably powerful compared to their predecessors. Your smartphone has more computing power than NASA used to land astronauts on the moon! AI has woven its way into our daily lives. From virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa to recommendation systems on Netflix and Amazon, AI impacts our choices, entertainment, and information consumption. More sophisticated AI systems help doctors diagnose diseases, predict weather patterns, and drive cars.

As AI technology gallops forward, the discussion around its impact on society deepens. Will AI remain a human-directed tool, or will we witness a paradigm shift where AI assumes the lead? The future hinges on how we navigate this technological odyssey, balancing innovation with foresight, ensuring that AI serves humanity—and not the other way around.

Image generated by artificial intelligence prompt.

Piano Man

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all the others.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

On a business trip to India, a Cambodia side trip was organized to visit an orphanage where our family made very modest contributions. While I consider myself travel savvy, having spent twenty years in international finance traveling to most parts of the world, nothing prepared me for the full-on assault of the senses that is India. As this largest democracy rises from bracing poverty, it will shake the planet in profound and unpredictable ways.

While poverty levels were similar between Cambodia and India, some differences spoke volumes but were rarely spoken. In Cambodia, a general sense of cleanliness was emblematic of Cambodians with meager means compared to the wrenching conditions of India’s destitute. In the brutality of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge period, anyone with education and a desire for learning was rounded up and re-educated or executed. Surviving generations still tend to eschew any pretense, like

education or religious meetings, that may make them stand out. But as I spent time among them, I was taken by the hope in Cambodia’s rising generation. On a Sunday, I observed a youngish church congregation quietly taking notes as they listened to visiting representatives.

After worship, the small orphanage offered a tour. It was magical, and I quickly fell in love with every child, especially Chen, a seven-year-old boy. Most of them had been turned over by their parents because they could no longer bear the financial burden of raising them. I listened to their English, math, and history classes as the children sat in rapt attention until it was time for their music lessons. As the students gathered around the teacher, she sat down, slid open a drawer, removed a manila file folder, opened it, and laid it on the table. An outline of a piano’s white and black notes was sketched on the open folder. As her fingers moved across the notes, she mouthed the sounds of each note and talked about the keys, notes, timing, and melody.

The contrast between the dirt floor of the orphanage and my suite at the five-star Raffles Hotel was shattering. When I returned, I cornered the concierge and organized a feast in a private dining space for the kids and staff of the orphanage. They all arrived around noon the next day. As they walked in, their eyes grew to the size of tea saucers. We had a wonderful meal together and adjourned to the hotel bar, which was largely empty except for some more persistent patrons. The oldest child saw a upright grand piano against a wall and asked me for approval. As we surrounded the piano, he began to play, transferring his file folder practice to the sweetest melodies. Without clamor, each of the children waited longingly for their turn. My heart was full, and I did not want the evening to end. Ever.

Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all the others.” I was, for at least a moment, bursting with gratitude. Not because, by comparison with their material lack, I lived a life of extreme abundance, but because, in the scarcity of their lives, they had become like he whom I most wanted to emulate. Several life events have recently reinforced the power of gratitude and how it bounds the value of our lives.

Consider a new mantra based on a poem attributed to clergyman William Henry Channing. Channing served as the chaplain of the US Congress, among other positions. His close friends were Susan B. Anthony, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

My Symphony

William Henry Channing

To live content with small means.

To seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion.

To be worthy not respectable, and wealthy not rich.

To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes, and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.

In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common.

This is to be my symphony.

Gramp

Because grandparents are usually free to love and guide and befriend the young without having to take daily responsibility for them, they can often reach out past pride and fear of failure and close the space between generations.

Jimmy Carter

Each summer after I turned four until just before my senior year in high school, I spent time working a small farm in Scipio, Utah with my grandparents, brothers, and at times, cousins. My grandfather, Gramp, was a guileless soul who, by his admission, didn’t understand me. I have layers. Gram ran the local store, Lloyd’s Market, and was the center of it all. Aside from the store, she was the local US Postmaster, game warden, and fire warden. In the center of the store, on the opposite side of the lone checkout counter, was a wooden, gray, round back chair, its joints supported by diagonal fencing wire turned until tight, strategically placed to entertain all of Gram’s visitors and town life informants.

Image generated by artificial intelligence prompt.

Each summer, we drove a herd of cattle from the spring pasture to our property at Scipio Lake. Spring and summer irrigation demands forced the lake’s water levels lower, revealing a blanket of lush green pasture where the water once stood. It was an ideal place to fatten up the cows before the winter.

A cattle drive is odd. The famous Peacock television series Yellowstone romanticizes this part of ranching to a degree that makes it unrecognizable. Our cattle drive bore only one similarity to those depicted in the popular show—a horse. Cattle moved slowly, and our drive path was along Highway 50 for approximately 9.5 miles. My grandfather rode Tek, a large horse reaching almost sixteen hands. Cousin Nathan was perched atop a beat-up blue BMX bicycle. I started astride a Honda Trail 90.

We had three jobs. First, we kept the cattle moving. Second, we kept them off the highway and away from oncoming traffic. Third, we ensured all the farmer’s gates were closed along the route as much as possible. Otherwise, the herd would follow the path of least resistance and spread out in open fields. Getting them back on the path was arduous and time-consuming. That sounds like humans.

I stood tall and responded with energy that his criticism was unfair. I had asked Nathan many times along the drive if he wanted to switch, but he declined.

Gramp didn’t know that. He did now. I was not inclined, nor was I ever permitted, to talk back. But this was different. I was worn out and unwilling to absorb the unbiased criticism without a response. I was also no longer a child. My six feet of relatively robust frame towered over my grandfather’s five-footnine-inch, rail-built frame.

Gramp asked Nathan and me to switch off between the Honda and the bike a few times on the way to the lake. This form of small-farm equality made perfect sense to all of us at the beginning of the drive. But by late afternoon, at the end of six hours and almost ten miles, when we veered off the highway onto a gravel country lane, signaling the final approach to the pasture destination, I was still on the Honda, and Nathan stayed on the bike to the lake.

As we pushed the last cow through the gate, Gramp rode over and, loud enough for all the cows to hear, criticized me for my laziness. How could I remain on the Trail 90 for the whole drive and not give Nathan a break? Laziness was a skill set I honed to perfection as a child, but it was not the proximate motivation for staying on the motorcycle. Equally indignant,

After we put the cows in the pasture and took the saddle off Tek, Gram picked us up and brought us home. I sat with Nathan in the back of the truck, which was a thing back then. Nothing was said between Nathan and me. It seemed that my vocal, and dare I say, indignant response had broken a chapter of the family code. After a quiet dinner, I sat on the outside porch licking my wounds when I heard the old wooden screen door on the store swing closed. Gramp approached me and handed me a jump rope he had fashioned from the store’s meager inventory. I was training all summer for what I hoped would be a successful senior year of sprinting, and I lacked a jump rope. Gramp didn’t mention my outburst, but I felt the rope was something of an apology. Nothing else was ever said about our harsh words to each other. I told this story at Gramp’s funeral because it had a powerful impact on me.

In the morning of the next day, as we drove to the field, Gramp said to me, “When someone criticizes you, whoever it is, think about it honestly. If the criticism is true, adjust your behavior. If it’s not, ignore it and move on.” I assumed this gem referenced our dust-up the day before, but I was unsure. Regardless, I have passed this advice to my children at reasonable times over the years and his counsel has been a powerful balm applied to many wounds throughout my life.

The Incredible Lightness of University

The reason that university politics is so viscious is because the stakes are so small.

Henry Kissinger

Adrian Wooldridge recently wrote a book entitled The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World. It’s a book every politician should read. The pandemic and flawed government responses have accentuated an odd labor market in the United States and worldwide. On Friday, the Department of Labor reported substantial employment gains and almost twice as many job openings as unemployed.

The pandemic’s Great Resignation manifests an interesting trend churning under the economy’s still water. A demographic squeeze is underway caused by the retirement of baby boomers and the decline in the birth rates in wealthy countries.

The United States is following the rest of the developed world into a low fertility future. Young Americans are choosing to not have

Harvard University

children, primarily for non-economic reasons. One child or more are perceived to be a crimp in an upwardly mobile couple’s lifestyle. While we are not making our own children the good old-fashioned way, we have found a way to import children through immigration.

A decline in the number of workers, adjusted for immigration, is only one part of the equation. Talent is the other. A recent report showed that most high schoolers in Baltimore, Maryland, read at kindergarten or elementary school levels. Skill competencies, measured at the high school level across the country, show a frightening decline in the basics, foisting a remedial burden on universities. Dealing with what should have been done in high school means universities cannot prepare an educated workforce that is competitive in the global labor market. This deficiency is even more acute when the demands of an artificial intelligence world are included in the equation. Wooldridge suggests that the institutions, practices, and mindset that enabled the US to power the world economy are threatened by decay, disarray, disruption, and corruption.

A Little History

In the United States, a universal primary school system began in the 18th century, and high school and university systems in the 19th. High-quality university systems attracted capable and talented students from around the world, most of whom stayed in the United States after graduation, contributing to the economy for the rest of their lives and producing offspring determined to do the same. Today, university campuses are closing at a record pace. There are just not enough youth to fill the seats.

Meanwhile, schools are falling apart. Universities are focused on entertaining students instead of educating them. Graduating with useless degrees, more than 40% of recent graduates are underemployed in jobs that do not require a college degree. Amongst the best educated at US universities, the vast majority are from foreign countries, and as a departure from the past, they intend to go home after graduation. From 1978 to 2007, only 25% of the 1.2 million Chinese who studied abroad returned to China. The return rate from 2007 to 2017 was more than 80%.

So Much at Stake

So what to do? After all the consultants and life coaches have been compensated, the reality is that a combination of willingness

and skill curates the boundaries of human achievement. In the United States, we have a massive challenge in both areas.

Universities are supposed to educate students, thereby increasing their labor market value (skill), and engage in primary research that advances the body of knowledge in practical ways. Willingness isn’t something universities are designed to manage. It comes from the composite core values of a nation and its families.

One way to increase the talent (skill) pool is to change the economics. Apple recently announced annual bonuses of $50,000 – $180,000 to its engineers, making similar positions competitive with Wall Street, medicine, and other high-paying line occupations. Work models are also changing, thanks again to pandemic necessities. Hybrid is no longer considered a hesitant option. It’s now the first choice for both the employer and the employee. The impact on empty offices could be catastrophic, but we will save that for another time. As employers elect to compensate for skill regardless of university time served, the favorable economics of a university degree will begin to shift. Alternative entities designed to assess skill, understanding, and competency, which in the past were the domain of universities through diplomas, will make universities increasingly unnecessary.

As research magnets, universities in the United States are increasingly failing. In each foundational competency that drives the global economy, military and ideological dominance, and quality of life, namely artificial intelligence, semiconductors, wireless, quantum information, biotechnology, and green energy, China is either at par with the United States or eclipsing it. According to the National Science Foundation, China exceeds the US in number of papers published and patents awarded. It has five times more 5G base stations and produces four times as many electric vehicles. Approximately 49% of all international patents are granted to innovators in China—only 10% to scientists in the US. Even Japan and South Korea are ahead.

In the face of absolute and relative decline, compared to other countries, politicians in the United States are fighting battles of wokeness, micro-aggression, and attempted remediation of venerated evil and errors perpetuated many generations ago by people who are dead against people who are gone, instead of fighting today’s wars.

Perhaps the best-kept and most gratifying secret of successful marginalized peoples is this: The greatest revenge is a success. Japanese Americans, children born in poverty, descendants of enslaved people, the colonized, the abused, the list goes on and on. The abuses of a mother country are what drove our forefathers

to act, and it was and is complacent pride that led to all our delusions. If America does not wake up, stop whining, get serious, and fight today’s battles, it will be unable to mount a challenge, not just to stay on top but to stay relevant worldwide. Never have the odds been more grievously stacked against us, and never have we been more unwilling and incapable of grasping the magnitude of the challenge.

Suppose universities do not step up to this challenge. In that case, they will become increasingly irrelevant and yield their purpose and birthright to other nations and groups that can rise to the occasion.

As leaders, politicians, businesses, academics, teachers, citizens, and families, we often take stolid, unyielding positions in the face of any reality that conflicts with our seated opinions. Such

behavior has never served society well. In contrast, social and economic innovation need not capitulate to nor replace core family or political values on the progressive spectrum. Instances of social innovation that enhance lifestyle, productivity, and economic growth include crowdfunding, telehealth, cohousing, virtual volunteering, micro-credit, and distance learning and employment, none of which need to cramp a worldview. But innovations are useless without a paradigm shift away from professional leisure and mind-numbing obsession with each other’s clothing.

The US’ history of mavericks, scrappiness, and innovation are the building blocks of its genius. These qualities must resurrect and be even stronger in the context of social battles we’ve already addressed and weaknesses we continue to resist. But past sins cannot be allowed to drive the narrative. Instead, the narrative must be a rallying of labor, innovation, talent, grit, resources, and patriotic optimism. The best of the US is waiting to be grasped.

Ginsburg & Scalia

How blessed I was to have a working colleague and dear friend of such captivating brilliance, high spirits and quick wit.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

In the hallowed halls of justice, two remarkable figures, Scalia and Ginsburg, found unexpected camaraderie. Their ideologies often clashed fiercely in the courtroom, echoing the historical debates that shaped the nation. Yet, outside those solemn walls, their shared passions and mutual respect painted a different picture.

Their families celebrated life’s moments together, bridging divides that few could. In an era where differences often pull people apart, their friendship stood as a beacon of unity. Their tale reminds us that beneath the robes and titles, the heart yearns for understanding, connection, and the simple joy of shared laughter.

passing, Ginsburg said of Scalia, “It was my great good fortune to have known him as a working colleague and treasured friend.”

They seldom agreed on important questions brought before the court. Among friends, they were called the odd couple— fierce friends in the most exhaustive and noble definitions of fierce and friend.

Scalia was an originalist who saw the intent of the writers and signers of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence as a guide for the future. Ginsburg saw them as guideposts that could evolve along with society.

Scalia and Ginsburg shared a love of opera. Their families were known to spend New Year’s Eve together. When Chief Justice Roberts announced the death of Ginsburg’s husband, Marty, Scalia wept on the bench. They served on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit during similar periods, when Ginsburg said, “We were best buddies.” After his surprise

Arguments between the two justices, which were many, were spirited but fair. Theirs was a deep and abiding friendship—not a hint of romance— brought together by being outsiders: Ginsburg, a Jew and a woman, Scalia, a Catholic and Italian American. But it wasn’t just a friendship of individuals. It was a friendship between couples and families. Ginsburg’s husband, Marty, was known for his humor and intelligence, as well as his fearless love and dedication to his wife. He was a boisterous extrovert, similar to Scalia. Ruth was not.

Perhaps the lynchpin of such a remarkable and unlikely friendship is that they both loved to learn and test their opinions under the burning heat of alternative points of view. They welcomed the debate even though they each believed they held all the cards. Such friendships are examples to all of us.

Moneyball and Process Thinking

Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players. Your goal should be to buy wins. In order to buy wins you need to buy runs.

Peter Brand

Michael Lewis’s Moneyball has an aside showing a blackjack game in Las Vegas. A player sits at the table and is dealt two cards with a cumulative count of seventeen. The objective of blackjack is to draw cards from the dealer that sum as close to 21 without exceeding it. Seventeen is close to 21. The probability of getting another five or higher card is much higher than getting a 2, 3, or 4 card.

The same bet is to sit still and see what the dealer has drawn. In Lewis’s story, the player asks for another card or a hit. Realizing how unlikely a winning hand would be with another card, the dealer asks if the player is certain. He de-

mands another card and draws a 4. Twenty-one. The player wins. What does the dealer say? “Nice hit.”

Despite the optics, this story is not about gambling. The story of Moneyball, in general, is a testimony to the power of process decision-making. Despite the high probability of being dealt a card that takes him over twenty-one, the player follows his gut, is ‘hit,’ and wins.

Luck is the Lady

After the first win, the player is confident they are living a charmed life. It seems the rules of probability no longer hold sway. Luck is the lady tonight. More confident and willing to go against the cold-hard probability facts, a stream of bolder decisions ensues.

Outcome Thinking

Research shows that the next time he sits at seventeen, he will be much more inclined to ask for a hit regardless of the statistical probabilities against him. His decision is based on the success of previous outcomes. This is called outcome-based decision-making. A single stream of previous outcomes creates a pattern for future choices.

This is why most lottery winners lose all their winnings within five years of their windfall. They fundamentally change how they make decisions. Where they had previously been frugal and contemplative, they are now lucky. The wind seems at their back now. They make outcome-based decisions that strain statistical credulity and lose it all.

Process Thinking

Opposite to outcome-based decision-making is process-based decision-making. A player relies on his knowledge of statistical probabilities using a process-based approach. The player would have stayed with his 10 and 7 in our opening ex-

ample. The likelihood of getting a card resulting in a hand over 21 was more significant than being dealt a card like the one he received. On this particular hand, reliance on good processes would have resulted in missing a perfect twenty-one.

Financial and economic decision-makers are constantly conflicted by the demands of process- and outcome-based decisions. However, the unemotional nature of statistical probabilities ensures that a player will win more often by employing a good process than by relying on past outcomes. Yes, a few opportunities to be lucky will be missed by being process-focused, but the player will miss many more opportunities to lose.

Out of the Box

How we feel about our decision process influences how we make decisions. As the matrix illustrates, if we think our decision process is good and the eventual outcome is good (i.e., we win), we have earned deserved success. If our process is good but our outcome is unsuccessful, we see it as a bad break. If our process is terrible but the result is good (like the blackjack example), we have experienced dumb luck. If both our process and outcomes are flawed, we are getting what we deserve, and we call that poetic justice.

The point is this: The faster the world changes, the less reliable our hunches or gut responses become, and the more powerful and effective process thinking becomes. Process thinkers will miss a few rare events, but most decisions will likely be more accurate and consequential.

Power of Failure

I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you’re young. I learned a lot out of that. Because it makes you kind of aware of what can happen to you. Because of it I’ve never had any fear in my whole life when we’ve been near collapse and all of that. I’ve never been afraid. I’ve never had the feeling I couldn’t walk out and get a job doing something.

Walter Elias Disney

Although memories of his “hometown” in Marceline, Missouri, formed the basis for nostalgic childhood stories memorialized in Disneyland’s Main Street, most of Walt Disney’s adolescent years were spent moving from house to house and town to town, precipitated by a stream of his father’s successive employment failures in farming, and business. During the final stretch of World War I,

Image generated by artificial intelligence prompt.

Walt went to France as an ambulance driver. Upon his return, he started an animation company that fell into bankruptcy, and Walt was chased out of town by his creditors. His family experiences, in addition to his own, seemed to have destined him for failure.

Despite his inauspicious beginning. Most considered Walt Disney to be possessed of magic beans. During his lifetime, he produced 81 feature films, was at the forefront of animation innovation, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, revolutionized the amusement park industry, and created a media company that was a global leader during his lifetime and continues to lead more than fifty years after his death. Disney’s lifetime success was due to relentless acceptance of failure as a waypoint. Success was never his goal. Walt had a burning desire to create something that came to his life as standard equipment. The same drive comes with almost all of us— except accountants. I’m just kidding. Not really.

Babe Ruth once quipped, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” His ideas and behavior were considered reckless and irresponsible in his day. A line drive was the perfect hit, as predictable as a fielder’s response, while a home run was an outlier and a rare event.

Ruth’s blinding bursts of recklessness redefined baseball. The game was no longer a strategic game of chess. Now, it was a forceful swing for the fences. Ruth’s game-changing behavior paved the way for others who came after him, like Lou Gehrig. Ruth struck out a record 94 times in one season. Today, a hundred major league players reach that threshold. Ruth enabled them to fail. To experiment, fail, learn, and create.

Walt Disney was undoubtedly a failure if you measure success by the number of swings and misses. But so was Babe Ruth.

In 1923, Babe Ruth broke two world records: the most home runs in a season and the highest batting average. During the same season, he also struck out more than any other major league player in baseball. Babe recognized that home runs do not come from playing it safe. He held the total home run record until Hank Aaron broke it in 1974. Ruth’s record for the most career strikeouts held steady until Mickey Mantle broke it twenty-nine years later.

Back to Walt

In 1918, Walt Disney lied about his age and falsified necessary documents for acceptance into the American Ambulance Corps. He then landed in France as an ambulance driver during the closing months of World War I. After the war, he became an apprentice at a commercial art studio in Kansas City. In his spare time, he launched LaughO-Gram Studios in 1920. But his primary client refused to pay, and his first business venture went bankrupt.

With some art supplies, a reel of film, and a suitcase with all his worldly belongings, he left Kansas City for Hollywood to be an actor, but no one would cast him. Pushing the boundaries of animation technology at the time, he created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This compelling character was then stolen from him by his distributor. The idea for Mickey Mouse became a reality in 1928 on a long and solemn train ride home from New York City after learning that most of his animators had been hired away from him to start a new studio by the same charlatan distributor who stole Oswald. Would-be financial backers turned away

Walt and his Mickey Mouse character more than 300 times. A leading media executive warned Walt that a giant mouse would never work because it would scare women. But Walt was undeterred.

Ub Iwerks, an early shareholder of the Disney Brothers Studio and artistic creator of Mickey Mouse, was lured away to start a competing animation studio, causing Walt to have a nervous breakdown. After recovering, he had another bold idea—create a full-length color animated feature called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The project took years, and many in Hollywood predicted it would fail. Insiders began to call the picture “Disney’s Folly,” questioning whether it would ever be released.

But Snow White was a huge success and generated approximately $8 million in box office receipts, equivalent to more than $997 million in today’s dollars. The company used the Snow White profits to launch what is known as the Big Five, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). All the Big Five were financial duds except Snow White. Disney Brothers Studios was a one-hit wonder.

Asphalt was fresh and soft, absorbing the high heels of many visitors, toilets and drinking fountains were not yet connected, rides malfunctioned, electric power flickered, a gas leak forced evacuations, and press glitches were everywhere. But, as the day ended, Walt stood looking out the window of his Disneyland apartment above the fire station, surveyed his magic kingdom with pride, and wept joyfully.

Walt Disney had an unusual ability to shepherd media content that spoke to and comforted the world. But his enduring genius lies not so much in his clairvoyant abilities as in his willingness to harness the power of failure in the creative process, which strikes a chord of wonder and hope in all of us.

World War II consumed the United States after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. At the same time, an employee strike came for the renamed Walt Disney Studios. Walt was crushed by what he perceived as disloyalty and lack of gratitude when most of his “boys” voted against him, formed a union, and ended business.

Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955. Press called it “Black Sunday”. Twice the park’s expected capacity of patrons showed up on opening day due to forged tickets and guests sneaking over the fences. Disneyland was built and ‘mostly completed’ in one year from ground-breaking to opening.

With his brother Roy, he created the most successful media empire in the world, but he had to fail a lot to do it. Success lies in disabusing ourselves that we should stroll through life cautiously and carefully and steer clear of failure at all costs. Not so. Success comes from leaning into failure, asking questions, experimenting, and creating.

Creation

Heralded as a creative genius at thirty-five, Walt Disney looks different from “normal people.” For most of us, the idea or suggestion that we may be creative is uncomfortable. We are willing to own proficiency in procedural skills like math, history, and mechanical ability. But creativity comes from another place--a squishier place.

Walt’s ability to generate in his mind, and elicit in the minds of others, a degree of novel creativity was honed by time and experience. Disney thought the creative process was the essence of what makes us human. As a species, we are driven and differentiated by a compulsive drive to create. But he also relied on an unstated creative process; the power of failure formed the bedrock of this process.

A Creative Paradigm

One of the most important, relatively recent discoveries about the human brain is its plasticity. With determined effort, established connections can be rewired.

Trust Your Truth. The ancient Greeks followed a principle called eudaimonism. They believed everyone comes to earth with a unique path, personal truth, or daimon. Following one’s daimon was deemed the key to happiness. Allowing others to follow theirs was the essence of liberty. Follow your daimon. Don’t live someone else’s life.

Walt Disney did not see his path clearly in front of him. Instead, he illuminated it a few steps into the darkness through experimentation. He corrected his course throughout life through experimentation and failure.

Gratitude. Cicero remarked that “Gratitude is not only the greatest of all virtues, she is the mother of them.” Modern media is obsessed with success while discounting the value of failure. Most of us pray for success but do not realize that success is the natural byproduct of both failure and experimentation. Dwelling on the inequity of our failures creates a Rubicon we cannot cross. If experimentation leads to failure, we can consciously choose to let failure define us or we can choose to define failure.

If failure is defined as learning, it is a gift. Failure effects progress by eliminating ineffective solutions and narrowing our opportunities for success. Additionally, failure in one area of experimentation may yield connections (collaborators, resources) or discoveries (what doesn’t work or an alternative use) that expand the canon of knowledge and innovation. Walt’s lost Oswald steeled him for future collaborations and introduced Mickey. Ruth’s strikeouts refined his swing. Edison discovered what doesn’t work. Post-it Notes are the result of failed glue production. Refusal to see and acknowledge the gold specks in the gravel is foolish, joyless and defeat.

Tenacious Commitment. Perhaps the most underutilized human capacity is commitment—unfailing dedication to an endeavor. Disney said, “A person should set his goals as early as possible and devote his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find

something that is even more rewarding.” There is a difference between dogged non-deviation in a prescribed path and the character to follow an idea to the end of the road … or to the fork. This involves curiosity and optimism. Some call it grit.

Colleagues who worked with Walt were well aware of, and often uncomfortable with, his commitment level. His insistence on doing things right perfectly defined the work of his and his studio during their most excellent hours. Many who were not as committed and did not share his vision could not understand his relentless drive. For these, good enough was just that— good enough. Walt Disney taught innovators so much about not settling for good enough. For him, refining was its own creative element.

Insatiable Learning. Walt Disney said, “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates’ loot on Treasure Island and at the bottom of the Spanish Main…and best of all, you can enjoy these riches daily.” He was a voracious learner, read broadly and loved the process of experimentation. In fact, learning is the essence of creativity and the creative process. Neuroscientists have found that the same place in the human brain lights up when a subject experiences a learning ‘aha’ moment and when a new idea germinates. Both learning and creativity involve discovery. For Walt, learning and experimentation were two sides of the same coin. He built a train in his backyard after going to a train fair with a colleague and falling in love with locomotives. Later, his fascination with trains would become a binding element of Disneyland.

Learning from experimentation failures can be expensive. Often, it is often much more efficient to learn from others’ failures. Learning from other people’s failures is critical to learning from failure. Military tacticians study the blunders of past campaigns so as not to repeat their failures.

Collaborating with Delusion. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer Co., was known for thinking outside the box and requiring others to create and act accordingly. Those who worked with him called this the “reality distortion field.” Almost every “genius” deems some amount of delusion acceptable and essential. Flying machines were once delusional as were moon landings, stem cell isolation and cell phones.

Elements of Creativity

Walt’s natural creative process includes five fundamental elements: wonder, questioning, experimentation, failure, and creation.

Wonder. Wonder is the gestating act of creativity. Valid for scientific discoveries, social breakthroughs, and the everyday enlightenment of children at play. Wonder bridges our perceptions of reality and any possible alternatives, fantastical and real. Wonder connects what we experience today, the here and now, with what we cannot see.

Humans are all born in a state of perpetual wonder. If allowed, combination of life experiences, institutional education, well-meaning parents, friends, and bullies conspire to constrain our wonder.

Questioning. When a child asks, “Why is the sky blue?” a parent’s response either germinates or shuts down the natural creative process. If the child’s question is discounted with a “just because” answer, the child learns their questioning yields no value. When a question is met with wonder, the natural creative process germinates. “What shade of blue?” leads to a discussion of the attributes of light and the immensity of space, the sun, and its powers of illumination.

memories are formed and laid down for extrapolation when similar situations are encountered in the future. From the seeds of wonder and questioning, we experiment and try things. Continued wonder encourages questioning and experimentation. Questions direct our thinking and target our experiments. A creative experiment is nothing more than an attempt to answer a question generated by wonder and questioning.

Failure. Almost all experiments fail. Walter S. Mallory was a close friend of Thomas Edison while he was working on a novel storage battery. After more than 9,000 experiments without a viable solution, Mallory pushed him about his lack of results. Edison responded loudly, “Results! Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work.”

Questioning is critical to the natural creative process because it forms and nurtures creative consciousness. Neurological studies show that how our questions are answered by parents, bosses, peers, and intimates alters our brain chemistry and structure. Creative questioning sets up physical connections within the brain’s white matter. When Albert Einstein died and his brain was dissected, experts thought they would find it more significant than usual. It was, but not how they thought. They discovered his brain had more white matter connections between different parts and sides than usual. Open environments where questions are encouraged, entertained, and allowed to grow create space where creativity can flourish.

Experimentation. Experimentation engages what is known as the association cortex of the brain, where long-term

Almost all success stories are built on the bedrock of failed experiments. Some failures discourage and douse the warmth of wonder, discounting the experiment and rendering the question unimportant. However, failures are always productive if the wonder is powerful enough for the creative mind, resulting in another slightly different experiment or a more refined question.

Winston Churchill said, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” But to fail successfully, we all must be willing to be wrong. Creative families, businesses, and groups must create environments that celebrate failures as a conduit to better questions or refined experiments.

Creation. Take Courage. Begin. Start. Guy Finley, songwriter and philosopher, advises, “You must learn to stop thinking in terms of beginnings and endings, successes and failures, and begin to treat everything in your life as a learning experience instead of a proving one.” What do you find fascinating, curious, impossible or funny? What do you doodle, google, facsimile or imagine. Take Courage, Begin. Start.

Dolly Parton classically says, “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” Take Courage. Begin. Start.

In the Arena

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

Theodore Roosevelt

It seems en vogue among a familiar culture to decry existing institutions for their weaknesses. Justifications for jettisoning tradition, history, and culture based on a past generation’s error, sin, catastrophe, or harm are particularly common among those who watch from the cheap seats.

Winston Churchill once commented, “Capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all the others.”

Queen Elizabeth, who was universally admired and respected among those who truly knew her, is being riddled ex post facto by liberal pundits as a moniker of colonialism, despite the truth that during her reign, the colonies of Great Britain were returned to their rightful owners. Critics are re-writing the history of human existence to tell a tale of oppression by prosperous sovereign nations and economic powers.

Theodore Roosevelt, a man who did extraordinary things and made remarkable errors, gave a powerful speech a year after he left the office of President of the United States entitled Citizenship in a Republic. He said, “The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself nev-

Image generated by artificial intelligence prompt.

er tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities— all these are marks, not … of superiority but of weakness.”

What is more, he said, “The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

What a debt we spectators owe to those who give their full measure, as she did, in whatever time and place they are appointed, whether in Buckingham Palace or the stairwells of the World Trade Tower.

Democracy, before the American Revolution, was unusual, unsuccessful when tried, and sure to fail when adopted. Yet is provides the surest path to liberty, freedom, and prosperity devised by the hearts and minds of men and women. Its imperfections are a function of the personal flaws of its masters. But its equal or superior has never been conjured in history. Capitalism has an equally admirable and troubled record. Prone to excess, it must be watched over to curtail abuse. But it is solely responsible for reduction in global poverty.

Both democracy and capitalism are and should be continually exposed to refinement and adjustment. But to assume a superior untried alternative exists that has eluded civilization is both foolish and dangerous. For those who would criticize and tear down two structures that have given the world its greatest gains, let them do so from the area instead of the bleachers.

One Life

Whosoever saves one life saves the world entire.

Talmud

On April 9, 1940, at approximately 4:00 a.m. Nazi armed forces invaded Denmark in what most considered a surprise attack. Quickly overwhelmed, geographically vulnerable, and under an imminent explicit threat that its civilian populations would be bombed without capitulation, King Christian X and the entire Danish population gave in to an occupation that lasted until May 5, 1945.

During the German occupation, King Christian X became a famous symbol of resistance. He rode daily through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied by guards, and greeted people. On one occasion, he saw a Nazi flag flying and asked a Danish guard to remove it and install the Danish flag, which he did. A local Nazi leader told the king that he would remove it and replace it with the Nazi swastika. The king replied that he would have it removed again. The Nazi leader promised to shoot the soldier if he did so. King Christian responded, “Then I will be the one to change it.”

Until Germany imposed martial law on Denmark in August 1943, Danish leaders espoused a general attitude of acquiescence with the Nazis. But under martial law, the Germans began preparations to transport Denmark’s 7,800 Jews and 686 non-Jewish spouses to concentration camps. In anticipation of the move, German diplomat Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz tried negotiating with Sweden to take them. Sweden refused to do so without German approval, which never came.

planned German action and urged to go into hiding. Without central coordination, Danish civil servants at many levels independently pursued measures to hide the Jews.

Most of the Danish Jews were smuggled out of Denmark over the Oresund Strait to Sweden, who, by this time, was convinced of the need to take them in and facilitate the one-hour water transit from Zealand to Sweden. They were transported in fishing boats, rowboats, and kayaks.

Of the 580 Danish Jews who failed to escape to Sweden, 464 were arrested, and most were taken to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. Every week, Swedish and Danish Red Cross members would inquire at the center about “their Jews” and demand an accounting of each by name. Approximately 425 of the interned Danish Jews survived. As the war ended, they were transported back to their Danish homes in white buses. As they approached their towns, the roads were lined by their Danish townspeople weeping and waving handkerchiefs.

As many Jews returned to their homes, they found them cleaned and prepared for their arrival. It was expected to see an envelope with money and a note on their table expressing gratitude for their safe return and sorrow that they had not protected them.

Nicholas Winton managed the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia for two early years of World War II. He managed to bring 669 Jewish children to Britain. Most of their families were murdered in the Holocaust. His story is remarkable and mostly unheralded. Anthony Hopkins plays Winton in One Life, which is currently playing in theaters. It’s certainly worth seeing.

On September 28, 1943, Duckwitz leaked the Nazi’s imminent plans to Danish leaders, who communicated the strategies to the acting chief rabbi Marcus Melchior. At the early morning synagogue services on September 29, Denmark’s Jews were warned of the

Almost all of us are now armchair quarterbacks to the Holocaust. But our times are no less significant or consequential. Current generations face myriad significant ideas and events. Our active role for good in each of them will be consequential. An insightful statement at the end of the movie Schindler’s List comes from a combination of the Talmud and other sources. Schindler is told, “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.”

River of Fire

Vice is a monster of so frightful mein As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Alexander Pope

Irecently re-read Peter Zeihan’s book The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. Personality and experience have disinclined me to be an easy conspiracy theorist or a member of any of their cults. But Zeihan’s book has changed me. It is data-driven, lucid, and prescriptive. I recommend it without reservation.

One of Zeihan’s observations is that preoccupation with sex is almost always a precursor to the collapse of civilization. But long before Zeihan’s book, JD Unwin (Sex and Culture, 1934) suggested a correlation between cultural achievement and sexual restraint. His book concludes with his theory that as societies develop, they become more sexually liberal, diminishing their creative and expansive energy. His analysis involved 86 world cultures.

Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1788) suggested five marks of decay in the Roman Empire. They included:

1. freakish and sensationalistic art;

2. an increasing disparity between rich and poor;

3. demands to live off the state;

4. display of affluence instead of building wealth; and

5. obsession with sex and perversion of sex.

Will and Ariel Durant wrote The Story of Civilization, a phenomenal eleven-volume summary of the human experience. A small volume, written and published after they were asked what lessons can be learned from their exhaustive work, The Lessons of History, is a goldmine. One of the lessons is that civilizations that lose their way and fall into unredeemable decline adopt an almost pathologic focus on sex. The Durants conclude that “sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group.”

Our society seems to be obsessed with sex. I am not talking about gender or the rights of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” illuminated and enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. At almost every level of our society, I am referring to the absolute preoccupation and debasement of something that is supposed to be private, intimate, sensitive, and special.

Sexual obsession makes the private, open source, the intimate, animalistic, the sensitive, brutal, and the special a commodity. Even worse, this obsession creates not only antipathy for but neglect of a country’s primary source of strength, prosperity, and virtue. Children.

The voices that loudly proclaim sexual liberalism are also those that use the worst cases of abuse to ridicule or cry foul at someone else’s rights of expression (innocent touching, jokes, sexual abstention), the right to life and sustaining institutions (abortion, religion, and the nuclear family), balk at limiting harmful expression (sexual exploitation of the most vulnerable in the form of pornography) and promote addiction and drug abuse (open borders, legalized drugs).

In research conducted by the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse, there is one variable that comes up every single year that predicts less likelihood of substance abuse for adolescents. It is the number of times adolescents have eaten dinner that week as a family Widespread addiction is just one handicap assaulting children and adolescents and is a symptom of a weak society. It also has many forms—substance, behavioral, and sexual.

The research of Carle Zimmerman, an early renowned Harvard sociologist, indicates that “the population which wishes to reduce its birth rate … seems to find the need for more abortions as well as more birth control.” That is, more sex. Less children. What place is there for families with distracted, self-absorbed, sex-crazed, groundless adults? A lower birthrate and disengaged, absent parents, weak family structures, mental illness, difficulty in school, and addiction. Hence the severe collateral damage of sexual obsession and the weakening of the country as a whole.

Behold the Twinkie

Have you ever considered the business and life lessons you can learn from “a Twinkie?” This little golden sponge cake with cream filling holds an extraordinary place in my heart. Let me tell you a story that will cleanse your mental palate and may teach some sound business principles.

Summers in Scipio

My fondest childhood memories were spent on a family farm in Scipio, Utah. At the close of every school year, literally on the last day of school, we would load our family van and embark on an overnight twelve-hour drive from our home in Solvang, California, to my grandparent’s home and farm in

Scipio. The trip was long and uneventful.

My father usually drove through the night while the rest of us slept. I remember waking up a few times in the night to reorient myself and to take my sibling’s appendages away from more sensitive areas. I would occasionally wake up for a minute and listen to radio mystery programs and the endless versions of news as we passed in and out of radio coverage areas. Toward the end of our journey’s eleventh hour, we drove down the final mountain pass from Holden, Utah, as morning broke over the high desert mountains, bringing Scipio’s round valley into view.

All but one summer, from my fourth year to when I left home for college, was spent on the farm, learning from my grandparents, raising and tending cattle, and growing and

putting up alfalfa and other crops to provide winter feed for the animals.

We worked hard days on the farm, from early morning until just before sunset. The high desert sun was hot and unyielding. The work was physically demanding for adults and exhausting for children. It was my first experience being paid for my efforts, short of the monthly allowances designed to teach me important principles of financial stewardship, which failed miserably.

Our long workdays were cut in half by a high-calorie laborer’s lunch, usually spread under a tree, on the hood of a truck, on the back of a bale wagon, or in the tall weeds on the bank of an irrigation ditch. No lunch has ever tasted as good as those summer lunches prepared by my grandmother, and nothing has been quite as quenching as the cold water guzzled like a desert refugee from our wet burlap-covered glass water jug.

Grandma owned a store in Scipio, Lloyds Market, so our lunches were stocked. Each lunch came with a two-twinkie package. My grandfather (who lived to be ninety-five years old) ate two Twinkies each day almost every day of his life. He always told me that a good idea can compensate for years of hard work. Whenever I see a Twinkie, I think of him, my summers on the farm, and what I owe to them both. I will share my grandfather’s wisdom in some detail throughout this article. For now, let’s focus on what the Twinkie can teach us.

History of the Twinkie

The Twinkie came to be seen as a bit of an accident or maybe an act of providence, which is more of my view. In 1930, James Dewar, a Chicago-based baking manager for Continental Bakeries, was trying to find something he could do with strawberry shortcake pans for most of the year when strawberries were out of season. He started experimenting by using the pans to make the elongated cakes and injecting them with banana cream filling. At the time, you could buy two Twinkies for a nickel. The name Twinkie came as a bit of an epiphany. Dewar was driving past a billboard for “Twinkle Toe Shoes,” and the name Twinkie just came to him.

The cakes were not initially much of a phenomenon until World War II’s rationing programs forced the replacement of the cake’s banana cream filling with a more war-friendly vanilla cream. Twinkies became part of the national consciousness in the 1950s when they were included in the Howdy Doody Show, where Buffalo Bob encouraged watching children to ask their mothers to buy Twinkies for their school lunches. Michelle Obama and the elementary school lunch wardens would not have approved.

The Twinkie became an icon and a school lunch staple from Howdy Doody onward. Not long before, nutritionists began to argue that Twinkies had an outsized influence on children and adults. Everything seemed to top out when Dan White was on trial for murdering San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and activist Harvey Milk. White’s legal team invoked what became known as the “Twinkie defense.” An expert psychiatric witness testified that White’s diet of Twinkies and other sugary foods caused a spike in his blood sugar that aggravated his manic depression, resulting in his not being responsible for his actions. It was no longer the devil’s fault in an increasingly secular world. The Twinkie made him do it.

The eighties and nineties were tough on the Twinkie. Jane Fonda was trying to get the world healthy through an aerobics addiction that required forsaking the Twinkie. The US population was trying to wean themselves from junk food, and Dr. Atkins told everyone that the path to health was through protein, one of the few ingredients not found in a Twinkie.

In a struggle for relevance, Hostess launched its first Twinkie ad campaign in decades to try and spice up the

Painting of Lloyds Market and Gas Station

brand. It worked. By 1999, US President Bill Clinton, Hillary’s husband, put a Twinkie in a millennium time capsule along with a piece of the Berlin Wall, a World War II helmet, and a pair of Ray Charles sunglasses. There was Twinkie, back on center stage again. It did not last long, though.

Bankruptcy

By the Spring of 2004, Twinkie’s parent company, Interstate Bakeries, struggled under an unmanageable debt burden of more than $700 million. Pension costs were ballooning, and commodity costs were rising as well. The company’s competitors were investing in new, more efficient equipment. The hostess kept their old equipment running on a song, a prayer, and a lot of duct tape. By September of 2004, Interstate Bakeries Corp. declared bankruptcy, where it stayed for five years, trying to work out a deal that would satisfy its debt holders and unions and enable it to emerge from bankruptcy more competitive and, hopefully, more profitable.

Ripplewood Holdings, a New York private equity investor, provided some of the capital required to push the company out of bankruptcy. They paid $130 million for control of the company. Still, they were forced to keep the high pension obligations, inefficient delivery and route systems, and a new debt load of $360 million, which was just as impossible for the company to pay as its pre-bankruptcy obligations.

As part of the company’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy, its new investors proposed the first new packaging change in twenty-five years. But, as the rest of society was moving toward whole foods, protein shakes, and granola, the Twinkie seemed out of step. New packaging was not enough to change anything.

By January 2012, the company was in Bankruptcy again. Management demanded more concessions from the unions, but the unions pushed back and declared a strike.

After two bankruptcies in less than a decade and five CEOs over the same period, Hostess breathed its last breath on November 16, 2012, after the Baker’s Union decided to call management’s bluff on demands for further cuts. The unions lost their bet, and a company with more than 150 years of history, 5,600 delivery routes, and 19,000 employees … closed its doors. In a moment, the Twinkie was gone.

Metropoulos and Jhawar

Food billionaire Dean Metropoulos and investor Andy Jhawar saw potential in resurrecting the company. Metropoulos was a veteran turnaround investor. His skills were particularly well honed in the food industry, where he worked with brands like Dennison’s Chili, Bumble Bee Tuna, Chef Boyardee, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and Pam Cooking Spray.

Andy Jhawar was a private equity investor and senior partner at Apollo Management. Before working at Apollo, Jhawar was an investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and Jefferies.

Both Metropoulos and Jhawar had previously looked at Hostess before Ripplewood took control but deemed the company too burdened with legacy problems to warrant an investment. In hindsight, they were both right. Now that the company was out for the count with no legacy obligations to constrain it, the two might take another run at it.

You may ask, what was it about the Hostess franchise that was so attractive to a couple of seasoned and successful turnaround experts? It was a combination of brand awareness and legacy. Jhawar summed it up like this: “It’s not every day you have an opportunity to acquire a ubiquitous brand that had $1 billion in revenue before bankruptcy and 80-plus years of legacy.”

The new owners paid $410 million for Hostess’ cake brands and secret recipes. They purposely did not want the Wonder Bread. Metropoulos and Jhwar wanted to focus on cakes. In addition to the $410 million purchase price, they also committed to invest another $250 million to rehabilitate the business. Closing costs and lawyer fees added another $20 million to the deal. The total outlay was $680 million. Apollo put in $140 million. Metropoulos put in $40 million, and they raised another $500 million in debt. The deal closed in April 2013, and new management immediately went to work to rehabilitate the business.

The Hostess rehabilitation plan emphasized four elements: 1. Selecting the assets that should be acquired; 2. modernizing both manufacturing and distribution; 3. doubling the shelf life of the company’s products; and 4. pushing the iconic brand into more homes. Let’s talk about each of these

elements separately.

Selecting Assets. The new owners paid $410 million for the Hostess brand names, the recipes, and five physical factory locations. Two of the five factory locations were later eliminated, leaving only three plants.

These were the only assets the new company needed to start with. What assets did they not acquire? They had no employees, marketing, delivery routes, or ingredients.

Modernizing Assets. The new plan included hiring 1,000 employees for the three remaining plants. The old Hostess cake business had 9,000 employees and 14 plants. The three factories were modernized with massive automated baking systems focusing on cakes. Software systems were implemented using SAP to manage inventory, delivery routes, baking, and payroll, which cost $25 million.

The first new factory now employed 500 workers and produced more than 1 million Twinkies daily. That is 400 million per year, approximately 80% of Hostess’s total Twinkie production … ever. To underline this point, remember that the same amount of production required fourteen plants and 9,000 employees before their post-bankruptcy automation.

Doubling Shelf Life. Past Hostess products, especially Wonder Bread, had relatively short shelf lives. From the beginning, Metropoulos and Jhawar decided Wonder Bread had no future. Their new business would only produce cakes, which have a longer shelf life. This strategic decision was critical to the new company’s strategy.

Wonder Bread, a legacy product of the pre-bankruptcy Hostess, had only three days of shelf life. Consequently, route drivers had to make deliveries to outlets selling Wonder Bread at least twice weekly. By contrast, cake products have a shelf life of 25 days. Focusing on cake products would reduce the number of delivery runs to approximately once every three weeks, reducing costs.

Another challenge for the new owners was extending its cakes’ shelf life even further, reaching well beyond 25 days.

Over the years, Twinkie has developed a cult following of zealots trying to test the eternal nature of the golden sponge cake. A school in Maine has had a Twinkie on display for nearly 40 years. It has not crumbled yet, but the golden sponge has turned a rather sickly grey. When Twinkies were initially introduced, they had quite a short shelf life. This was mainly because of the dairy products and eggs used as ingredients. By substituting less wholesome ingredients, like cellulose gum, a chemical used in rocket fuel, for more natural elements, the shelf life post bankruptcy was increased from three days to 25 days.

A book by Steve Ettlinger, Twinkie Deconstructed, published in 2008, chronicles each Twinkie ingredient’s past, present, and future. It’s a fascinating read, but it is not likely to send you running to the store for another Twinkie.

Some have suggested that if you ate two Twinkies per day for thirty years, when you died, your body would be so well preserved that it would never decompose. That may have some significant positive benefits for my grandfather and those who believe in an eventual resurrection. The resurrection process may be significantly shortened if everything is still in working order.

Under Metropoulos and Jhewar, new management engaged an impressive group of food scientists to alter the Twinkie recipe and more than double the shelf life from 25 days to 65 days. Hostess products now have a shelf life more akin to a candy bar than a cake. This expanded shelf life fundamentally changed the company’s distribution and delivery model.

Previously, the company used multiple warehouses close to the end customer to ensure its products remained fresh on store shelves. Now that the product’s “freshness” could be expected to last for 65 days, all products could be shipped from a central warehouse, even if it took a week to get to the retail store. Increases in the cake’s shelf-life allowed changes in the delivery model, resulting in delivery-related expenses falling from 36% of revenue before bankruptcy to 16% afterward.

More Homes. Hostess products, including Ding Dongs, Sno Balls, Cupcakes, Zingers, and Twinkies, are very well recognized by consumers. The new management team

needed to make the operation profitable and rely on brand awareness to push the products into more mouths.

New retail shelf advertising mentioning Twinkie’s comeback has been a compelling marketing approach. The media took on the role of advocate as they discussed the resurrection of an American brand. Will Farrell, Snoop Dogg, and Howard Stern were brought on to provide celebrity street cred.

Only four months after Metropoulos and Jhawar acquired the Hostess cake business, the Twinkie and its cousins were back on the shelf. The boxes declared it was the “sweetest comeback in history.”

Common Sense

On January 10, 1776, a 48-page pamphlet was published by Thomas Paine, answering one of the most pressing historical questions ever posed. What are the reasons and conditions that justify a people to rise, dislodge their oppressors, and insist on self-governance?

At the time of its publication, democracies were rare. Although the American colonies were ablaze with powerful orators decrying the injustices suffered in the New World, before Paine’s thoughtful inquisition, the pedestrian justifications for colonial separation had not been compellingly enumerated.

His ideas were straightforward and unapologetic. Although convinced of his conclusions, he was still determining if others would be willing to adopt his radical prescriptions. He wrote, “Perhaps the sentiments in the following pages are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor.” He could not have been more mistaken. His pamphlet was the match needed to push the American Revolution forward. The United States was forged in struggle.

A standard lot of almost all democracies, but not all struggles, are physical. At least not initially. Paine’s simple ideas about what government “should” do instead of what it “could” do captivated a cobble of colonies that would unite and form a new nation. It is not unlikely that we are at a similar point. More useful time should be spent re-asking the same question repeatedly. Not what the government can do but what it should do.

Today, the company that was bankrupt a couple of years ago is worth approximately $2 billion and is considered one of the most efficient and influential companies in the entire food industry.

Remember the $180 million in equity invested by the founders. Jhawar put in $140 million, and Metropoulos put in $40 million. On November 8, 2023, Hostess was acquired by J. M. Smuckers for $5.6 billion. Now that is sweet.

Marshmallow Man

One of the best-known studies in psychology is the marshmallow test. In the 1960s and 1970s, Stanford professor Walter Mischel studied preschool children’s ability to delay gratification using marshmallows. Mischel took the children into a room individually and gave them a giant marshmallow and a deal. The deal was that they could eat the marshmallow immediately or wait for fifteen minutes, at which time they would be given a second marshmallow. The immediate results were interesting. However, the experiment did not stop with the marshmallow.

Over the following decades, the children were tracked through adulthood. Those who could wait the fifteen minutes as preschoolers got better grades, were healthier, and enjoyed more successful professions and personal relationships. This study’s results have significantly influenced how we look at the determinants of success. Intelligence and innate ability seem far less critical than willpower and old-fashioned “sticktoitiveness.”

In 2012, a researcher from the University of Rochester conducted a twist on Mishel’s study. Celeste Kidd, a doctoral student in cognitive science, spent much of her childhood working at shelters and homeless facilities. She wondered if the unsettled and unreliable nature of such environments would impact a child’s ability to delay gratification and dampen their prospects for success. Kidd revisited the old marshmallow study and turned it on its head.

Kidd took a similar cohort of children, ages three to five, and predisposed them to think of their research partners as reliable or unreliable. Researchers sat at a table and gave the children a piece of paper and a jar of crayons. The children were told that if they could wait and not use the crayons, the researcher would give them a better set of art supplies. In another part of the study, researchers gave the children a sticker and told them that if they could wait and not use the sticker, the researcher would go and get them a more extensive and better set of stickers.

For half of the children, the researchers maintained their agreement. If the child waited, the researcher returned with a fantastic array of crayons, paint brushes, clay, and pencils. When stickers were used, they returned with a much more extensive and better assortment. The experimenter returned to the room for the other half, apologized, and said the art supplies or better stickers were unavailable. Now, the researchers were primed as either reliable or unreliable.

After setting the reliability stage with the crayons and stickers, the essential elements of Mishel’s original study were repeated. Each of the children was given a marshmallow. They were then told they would be given a second marshmallow if they were willing to wait for fifteen minutes, an eternity for a preschooler. The results were again remarkable.

Nine of fourteen children whose researcher was reliable held out the fifteen minutes for a second marshmallow. Only one of fourteen children with unreliable researchers could wait even a few seconds. The somewhat obvious interpretation was that if children are uncertain of the reliability of a promise, they will not delay for a better reward.

Prior to Kidd’s research, the ability to delay gratification was understood to be the result of self-control and willpower. Now, delayed gratification is viewed as more of a situational condition. Instead of trying to negotiate the boundaries of appetite, Kidd’s young subjects seemed to be engaged in a careful calculation of the probability that the researcher’s word was reliable. Persuasion now seems elemental for convincing children that there is something worth the wait.

Smaller in It

Jesus promised his disciples three things--that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble

G K Chesterton

In what seems like a biweekly parade of award shows for the perpetually self-absorbed, the 2024 Critics Choice Awards gave Harrison Ford a career achievement award last week. After the predicate standing ovation, Ford accepted the statue sporting a classy black tuxedo and said, “I’m here because of a combination of luck and the work of wonderful writers, directors, and filmmakers. I feel enormously lucky. I’m happy for this honor and I appreciate it very much.”

Ford has been fascinating to me since Star Wars. He seems unaffected by the silliness of celebrity, although he acknowledges the privilege it endows. My childhood memories hold more than a few moments of dreaming of fame. Usually, while sitting on a tractor, singing Barry Manilow songs to the cows and hay bales. I was saved from the despotism of celebrity because I possessed no skills, apparent or in embryo, despite my bovine auditions. But this isn’t about celebrity or fame. It’s about luck, social capital, and connection and how they enhance our mortal journey.

My first real job out of college came by luck, a result of my brother ’s recommendation. Some of my most profound relationships with friends and family come from a deep

well of social connections from which I have drawn endless ladles of luck. As I get older and look back on the modest successes in my life, luck has always been a prevalent factor. It seems luck should be getting all the rewards. But if the source of luck finds joy or glory in our paltry achievements, perhaps it does.

My life experience supports the view that luck is much more likely to emerge as a probabilistic outcome from a brew of social connections in family, community, and faith than by random assortment or chance.

More than twenty years ago, Robert Putnam made a seemingly innocuous observation. We used to go bowling in leagues, gathering with associates at bowling alleys after work. Now we bowl alone. In his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Putnam suggests that, as a people, we are increasingly disconnected from our family, friends, neighbors, and social structures like churches. This lack of connection creates a deficit in social capital critical for luck’s germination. Earning, obtaining, nurturing, and enhancing life’s social capital and relationships magnifies our chances of luck. Research shows that social capital and connection are the most potent predictors of crime, life satisfaction, and happiness.

As members of modern society, especially since the dawn of the ironically termed “social media,” we, as individuals, are poorly equipped and ill-adept at getting lucky by building networks of intimate social connections. Social media has turbocharged an illegitimate type of individualism without any of its positive attributes. Desperate for likes, followers, and subscribers, we are becoming ravenously competitive and necessarily anti-social. We are losing our natural curiosity and interest in strangers who can do nothing for us. We no longer value the solitary, untethered soul.

G. K. Chesterton, a thoughtful follower, supplied the remedy for our advancing alienation by re-establishing the connection process. He said,

G. K. Chesterton Smaller in It

How much larger would your life be if you could become smaller in it;

if you could look at other men with common curiosity and pleasure;

if you could see them walking as they are in their sunny selfishness and virile indifference!

You would begin to be interested in them because they were not interested in you.

You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theater where your little plot is always being played, and you would find yourself under a more accessible sky in a street full of splendid strangers.

AMeaningless Murmurings

Jesus promised his disciples three things--that they would be completely fearless, absurdly

s a second-year graduate student, while studying for my master’s degree, I was allowed to work as a research assistant to a notable ethics professor, David K. Hart. It was one of the most fascinating times of my life. Part of my daily duties involved collecting the Professor’s mail from the university mail room and taking it to his office, encamped in the basement floor of his home, which leaned precariously far over the edge of a foothill offering panoramic views of the valley below.

After parking in his driveway, I walked down the steep side yard to the glass doors of his study. Inside, every wall was overflowing, stem to stern, with the most eclectic assortment of books.

happy, and in constant trouble

G K Chesterton

Together, we spent hours talking about the lives of the great men and women of the world. He sat on an old leather desk chair, previously owned and passed down by his father, while I perched on a ratty old couch pushed up against the only wall without a bookcase. Unbeknown to me, each of our daily talks served an essential purpose in this extracurricular education. For all of them, I sat in rapt attention. Such special moments were precious to me then and priceless to me now.

Professor Hart and I published a paper based on some of the work done by philosopher David L. Norton. Norton wrote a wonderful, seldom-read book, now out of print, Personal Destinies: A Theory of Ethical Individualism. It’s a stunningly

Painting of Lloyds Market and Gas Station

well-written book, but one you must be awake to read and understand. Insomnia’s payoff is worth it.

One of Norton’s fundamental tenets is that every human form possesses an oracle within it. This authoritative source is from which active inquiry may ask and receive guidance on everyday issues of importance. It is more than an internal Google; it is more like an interactive map that may be accessed for advice and lead an individual to a life of fulfillment and happiness. Greeks called it the daimon.

Our Founding Fathers called it the moral sense. Reliance on it was foundational to the principles Thomas Jefferson enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Although different in name, it served the same general function as the daimon. Possession of such a gift gave the founders some confidence that democracy would work in such an “enlightened” citizenry guided by their moral sense.

Norton’s book stoked fears that we may have lost connection with our oracle, daimon, or moral sense and are no longer confident in its authenticity. Norton said, “We are apprehensive that an ear turned toward our inwardness will detect, at most, meaningless murmurings, that a resort to the inner self will be a dizzying tumble into a bottomless pit. Fearing this, we anchor ourselves upon external things; we cast our lot with the fortunes of objects.”

An inability to KNOW who we are lies at the crux of almost every social ill and family squabble. The increasing sense of “unknowing” continues to expand throughout the Western World. Social media serves a constant barrage of crises, and we follow them for the distracted ambulance chase they provide. Meanwhile, an increasing number of our kind remain entirely disconnected from the gift of fluid consciousness, which makes us uniquely human.

Millionaire Next Door Redux

Arecent study compared 233 wealthy families to see if they shared attributes or behaviors leading to or facilitating their financial success. The study concluded that there were two actions essential to building wealth. First, accumulate wealth. Second, keep the wealth you have accumulated. At first glance, these observations don’t seem even remotely earth-shattering. But in their simplicity lies incredible power.

Leonardo da Vinci suggested, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” The doublet is powerfully sophisticated if that holds for building and managing wealth. However, to put more meat on the bones, we took a renewed deep dive into recent publications addressing building and preserving wealth. In this summary, we use the term “commonwealth” to refer to something earned instead of won. Commonwealth is built from disciplined earning, saving, and investing. “Won” wealth is lucky wealth bestowed by the caprice of the fates. Winning the lottery, being insightful enough (i.e., lucky enough)

to buy shares of Apple Computer in 1984, or winning the ovarian lottery as an inheritor are examples of won wealth. Turning away wealth seems foolhardy, but planning for or expecting it only leads to frustration.

This is a Spark Notes-like guide to wealth creation and preservation. It is divided into three short discussions. First, we will address what the wealthy look like. Second, we will identify their common attributes. Third, we will describe what they do in life or for a living. Keep in mind that our work herein is presented as a combination of the principles of other research. Applying the principles to particular circumstances may be wise or helpful while ignoring unworkable ones.

A Portrait

Let’s paint an aggregate portrait of a typical person who has built commonwealth. Surprisingly, they possess a predictable set of common characteristics. They generally hold more than four million dollars of liquid net worth. In addition, they are:

1. An average of fifty-seven years old, married, with three children.

2. Approximately twenty percent are retired and volunteer time for worthy causes.

3. Almost seventy percent are self-employed. Of the self-employed, seventy-five percent are business owners, and twenty-five percent are professionals like doctors, dentists, accountants, and lawyers.

4. Most of their businesses are dull and unexciting.

5. Half of their spouses do not work outside the home.

6. Almost ninety-seven are homeowners, and eighty percent are first-generation affluent.

7. They are well educated, with eighty percent possessing at least one college degree.

8. They are active investors and invest over twenty percent of their annual income.

9. They use debt to build wealth, not to consume.

Attributes

Attributes are external manifestations of a person’s values. Common wisdom holds that these values are more likely to be held tightly when passed down by parents, but the data suggest otherwise. They are most sticky when developed through conscious study, commitment, and mutual enforcement between spouses, friends, or significant others.

Wealthy individuals share six common attributes: daily growth, knowledge, optimism, commitment, wealth as a tool, and control.

Daily Growth. Wealthy people pursue daily growth in everything they do. They dream constantly about their future, actively attach their dreams to goals, and track them daily. Growth and goal setting are imbued in every aspect of their lives, whether tracking their

time running a mile or measuring and adjusting their calories. Tracking the data that leads to their dreams is critical. Tracking immaterial data is useless. It does little good to track time watching television if your dream is to be a champion miler. They discover and track the elements critical to their dreams (education, experience, capital, partners, luck). This is not always as easy as it sounds.

Dreaming does not require action. Neither does setting goals. But tracking performance to a goal does. So often, I hear from people who have dreams and set goals but do nothing. They seem indignant that the world has passed them by. They frequently comment that they are just as intelligent and capable as their wealthy acquaintances but are not as lucky. That’s hogwash. Luck favors those who are prepared and act. Character is the ability to decide after the emotion of making the decision has passed. Among those of equal ability and skill, character is often the deciding factor among those who excel. They are doers.

Knowledge. TS Eliot, perhaps presciently, saw our day when he queried, “Where is the life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Every two days, we create as much information as was made from the dawn of civilization until the end of 2003. What is being done with all this information? Almost nothing. Less than 0.5% of data on the internet is analyzed. Approximately 4 million books were published in the United States in 2023, three times the number of books published in 2009.

Successful people read at least thirty minutes per day. They believe that they do not yet know all they need to know. But they believe what they need to know can be learned. As an interesting side note, a survey was conducted of the top executives of most major US corporations. They were asked what to do if given two more hours a week. Approximately 85% of them said they read. It’s not about the act of reading but the process of learning. The world is changing so fast that building and keeping wealth without learning to adjust to a rapidly changing environment is impossible. This requires an ability, inclination, and love of learning.

Optimism. Approximately seventy-one percent71% of wealthy individuals described themselves as optimists. I have an acquaintance, a large land owner and data center developer in the Northwest. After a harrowing business failure, he and I sat down. I began to tell him the story of my failure. He stopped me and said, “Spilled milk, it’s all spilled milk. Please don’t continue to chew it. Let it go, get healthy, and start over.” I knew his advice came from abundant personal experiences similar to mine. Then he shared something interesting. He said, “I never spend more than two minutes with a negative person. Negative people never change the world. I want to change the world.” When he comes into contact with a negative person, he will find a way to kindly excuse himself quickly.

Commitment. A few years ago, Forbes published the results of several studies that suggest students who participate in sports and military programs in high school and college show significant levels of commitment to causes and goals that lead to better

performance in other aspects of their lives. The power of commitment is one of the most critical attributes of the wealthy. Scottish mountaineer W H Murray summed up the power of commitment best, “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: the moment one commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Wealth as a Tool. On the walls of our offices are several quotes placed at eye level to inspire and keep us on track. They all come from the same person, Walt Disney. One says, “Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right. Wealth as a Tool. Wealth is a tool, not an outcome. As a college professor, I experience a constant flow of students coming into my office for career advice. They invariably start by saying, “What should I do?” I counter with the question, “What do you love doing? What do you spend your time on when you are at home with nothing to do, not just watching television or playing video games?” The universal response is a quizzical look of surprise and an assertion that I clearly did not understand the question. With very few exceptions, their return to me is, “I just want to make a lot of money.” For most of the successful people I know and like, the game of life is rarely about the money. It’s about creation. Building something. Wealth is a natural byproduct of excellence, appropriately directed. But it cannot be ignored either. Wealthy people think of money as a tool for achieving their goals.

Control. More than most other attributes, most successful people share a drive to be in control of their future. Their need for control may explain why most wealthy individuals are self-employed. The control they seek leads them to take responsibility for their actions and outcomes. An inability to blame others for predicaments puts them in the hot seat. They can either wallow in despair or change their circumstances. Most wealthy opt to change their circumstances, find solutions, and fix problems.

Doing

In 1998, Thomas Stanley and William Danko published the blockbuster The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy. Its principles still ring true today. Their book does not focus on the attributes of the common wealthy. Instead, it is an operating manual for how wealthy people accumulate and keep wealth. Their research boiled everything down into seven “common denominators” among the common wealthy:

1. They live well below their means;

2. They allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently in ways conducive to building wealth;

3. They believe financial independence is more important than high social status;

4. Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care;

5. Their adult children are economically self-sufficient;

6. They are proficient in targeting investment opportunities and,

7. They chose a suitable occupation.

Not all the wealthy surveyed do all seven things, but they are still aspirational denominators worth considering.

Certainly wealth is not always measrured in dollar terms. But the freedom to do as your heart directs in daily life is so often determined by the stewardship of resources throughout life. Living as the common wealthy is not a destination but a lifestyle.