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If I were thinking about starting a small business from nothing or I were actively operating a small family company, there are eight questions that I would immediately ask myself about any entrepreneurial idea I had. These eight questions are: How do we make money? (What product or service do we provide at a profit? What…
Very early in life, I had three important insights that helped me achieve the things I desired within a year or two after graduating college. These three insights were based upon my observation of the world and years of sitting in a reading chair by the fireplace pouring over history, accounting, economics, philosophy, psychology, ethics,…
Though I very rarely talk about my personal life on the blog due to privacy concerns, I will say that for years, I have attended a flexibly-scheduled weekly family dinner that rotates among the members’ households with the host cooking for the guests. This is an extension of the tradition that began during my childhood…
In the most recent Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, Warren Buffett remarked that the three best investments he ever made included his home in Omaha (the other two were wedding rings). He conceded that he would have had more money if he had instead rented and invested the cash, but the utility of the home far outweighed the opportunity cost. Now that I am in my late twenties, I understand what he meant.
Tonight, I reorganized the master bathroom at home and came across several bottles and products of Brut. The company, once a luxury brand, has become one of the cheapest two-buck-chuck colognes in the United States and sells for a couple dollars at Wal-Mart. Although I’m normally known for my obsession with high-end fragrances, even going so far as to special order scents from overseas and paying hundreds of dollars per ounce just to sample a new perfume house offering, this infamous brand still sits proudly on my shelf along with the most expensive and exclusive fragrances in the world. Why? Because it reminds me of my grandfather. It was his cologne of choice and the moment I smell it, I’m instantly transported back to my childhood.
After meeting my newborn nephew for the first time, Aaron and I went to grab lunch at Houston’s steakhouse on the Country Club Plaza. We had planned on going to Ruth’s Chris but everyone else was too exhausted so just he and I headed over to the shopping district because we wanted to look at…
We finished our business on the East Coast, though you only saw the personal parts of the trip, and flew back to Kansas City this afternoon. I’m finally starting to feel better. Most of the way home, I read magazines such as Architectural Digest and the Harvard Business Review. I also listened to my iPad…
After breakfast with Laura this morning, Aaron and I took a detour and ended up swinging by Rider University and went into the bookstore to pick up some paper, pens, highlighters, etc. We then picked my mom up at the hotel, and drove 2.5 hours through the mountains to visit Ashly and Ian. It was…
Had I been running this blog years ago, you would have seen Laura on a consistent basis. She was the Assistant Dean of Student Life and adviser to the Student Government Association back when we were in college. The lessons I learned from Laura were about people and human relationships. I am a better man…
Yesterday, we attended the Diana Crane Scholarship Benefit Concert in Princeton, New Jersey, spoke at the event, and had our foundation make a gift to celebrate the 26 years of service of one of our favorite professors at Westminster, the music school of Rider University. Diana was both Aaron and my academic adviser throughout much…
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