Joshua Kennon

You can tell that you have created God in your own image
when He happens to hate all the same people and behaviors that you do.
- Paraphrase from Anne Lamott

I’m really excited that we are heading into the back third of the year and the schools are back in session. Third and fourth quarter generate most of our revenue and sales.  I love being well dressed, wearing a cashmere Ralph Lauren coat, and going Christmas shopping for family at my favorite high-end department stores.  I love having steak dinners at Fleming’s and Ruth’s Chris.  I love contributing to my retirement accounts and pension plans.  I love counting that year’s profits and growing, reinvesting almost all of the earnings.  I love the Santa Clause rally on Wall Street.  I love year-end dividends!

I love Christmas music, snow, being in your car when it is really warm as it is freezing outside and you are driving at night, fireplaces crackling, spiced cider, Rudolph and Frosty cartoons, playing video games, and … just everything.  I love autumn and winter.  They are magical to me.  It makes me happy just thinking about it.  Sports coats and dress shirts, silk ties and cashmere sweaters.  The smell of sharpened pencils.  Hot caramel macchiatos.

Because of my childhood and growing the businesses from nothing, it was always when the payoff came.  It was always when all of our hard work paid off, we had new things, our bank accounts were full, we spent time with friends and family, and the world sparkled.

It reminds me of choosing courses for that semester at college, driving through New Jersey as the leaves changed, and singing Christmas Carols with the choir.  It reminds me of playing Kingdom Hearts in the dorms.  I love the last third of the year.  It’s like all of the goodness of life saturates the world.

Sometimes, when people are filled with melancholy and angst, I find it hard to not roll my eyes and walk off stage left.  I mean, I really struggle to be supportive.  In fact, even as a kid, I never liked nor understood “angst” movies, whether coming of age, the despondency or suburbia or forlorn love.

Life just isn’t that damn hard. It really comes down to doing what you love every day, being independent from the control of others, and having relationships with people that make your heart dance with delight when you see them turn around a corner unexpectedly.  Everything else is meaningless. Somewhere in there, you should try to do your part to improve the civilization for providence.

Unlike money, you can’t save time.  You either use it wisely or it expires.  Neither you nor I will ever get this day back; don’t waste your life trying to satiate people who are insignificant.

Let no man despise thy youth … – 1 Timothy 4:12

Age has nothing to do with wisdom or knowledge.  It just means you are older.  Some men are wise.  Some men are fools.  That is the truth of it.  Age is merely a number.

Consider:

• The folks who invented Google and Yahoo were under 35 when they did it,
• Ditto for Facebook.
• Jesus Christ preached and was crucified several years before his 35th birthday ….
• Oh, yeah … and Mozart was dead by 30
• Joan of Arc conquered Europe as a teenager.
• Thomas Jefferson was only 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
• Benjamin Franklin was under 35, also, when he became the bestselling author in the colonies and, thus, one of its richest men.
• In fact, 10 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were under 35 and two of them were 35 on the dot, so that is 12 of the founding fathers, or nearly 21.5% of the 56 total founding fathers.
• Queen Elizabeth I was only 25 when she ascended to the British throne and she literally took England out of the bankrupt poorhouse where her father, Henry VIII, had abandoned it.
• Michelangelo was in his 20s when he sculpted The David.  Leonardo DaVinci was in his 20s when he ascended to one of the most respected men in Europe in art, music, philosophy and science.
• John D. Rockefeller controlled 90% of the world’s oil refining capacity before he was 35.

These are just some germane examples.  When it comes to success, as a general rule you are never too old or young to achieve what you want, especially in today’s world where you can conduct global business from a computer in your bedroom.  The world has changed for the better.  Rejoice!  Rejoice greatly!

There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up. – Proverbs 21:20

I just got notification that my new iPhone has shipped from the Apple store!  Since I ordered it from Apple.com and they were backlogged, it is coming directly from the facility Shenzhen, China via Fedex Global, but it should be here on Friday.  Woo hoo!