31 Lessons I’ve Learned About Money

They say that if you think professionals are expensive, try hiring an amateur.  This is true in the sense that being cheap or looking for a bargain on services has come back to bite me many times. HOWEVER, I have also been disappointed with how many professionals are actually amateurs. Sometimes, if you want a thing done well, you have to do

I’ve had the privilege of talking to many, many extremely wealthy people.  They are not that rare. Rarer is the one who actually likes what they do for a living (for instance, half the ones I meet all seem like they’d rather be writing books for some crazy reason). Rarest is the one you’d want to trade places with.

If you don’t take the money, they can’t tell you what to do .  That’s what Bill Cunningham said:  If they pay you, they get to tell you what to do . Remember his words: “Money’s the cheapest thing. Liberty, freedom is the most expensive.”

If it makes you a worse person (parent, neighbor, writer, whatever), it’s not success.  If starting a business makes you a worse person—if it stresses you out, if it tears your relationships apart, if it makes you bitter or frustrated with people—then it doesn’t matter how much money it makes or external praise it receives. It’s not successfu

Seneca said that poverty wasn’t having too little, it was wanting more.  He wasn’t talking about poor people. He was talking about rich people.