Success is Not Final, Failure is Not Fatal
Investor Josh Brown writes that in 1923, nine of the most successful U.S. businessmen met in Chicago. Within 25 years, all of these great men had met a horrific end to their careers or their lives. The president of the largest steel company, Charles Schwab, died a bankrupt man; the president of the largest utility […]
Humility Begins with Self-honesty
Wayne Teasdale writes in The Mystic Hours, There is no possibility of a mature spiritual life without humility. Nor is it possible to be a successful human being without it. Humility is also, most fundamentally, a relationship of truth with ourselves. Humility begins with self-honesty about our actions, attitudes, and speech. It compels us to […]
The Genius of Alfred, Lord Tennyson
T. S. Eliot writes in his Introduction to Tennyson’s Poems, Tennyson is a great poet, for reasons that are perfectly clear. He had three qualities which are seldom found together except in the greatest poets: abundance, variety, and complete competence. We therefore cannot appreciate his works unless we read a good deal of it. We […]
Hiding Our Emotional Pain Doesn’t Work
Chogyam Trungpa writes in The Lion’s Roar: An Introduction to Tantra: There is a story about a man who was stealing a bell, and he covered his own ears so that no one would hear it ringing. We plan ways to hide our own pain, thinking that nobody will know. Realizing the fundamental suffering, the […]
Power Concedes Nothing Without Demand
American abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This […]
Financial Innovation
Seth Klarman’s extraordinary and mysterious book Margin of Safety, Risk Averse Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor has sold for $700 for used varieties with newer copies going for $2,500 to $4,000. His foremost investing premise is risk mitigation. He writes, Investors must recognize that the early success of an innovation is not a reliable […]
The Scarcity Principle
From Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Homeowners who are told how much money they could lose from poor insulation throughout their house are more likely to insulate their homes than those who are told how much they could save. Something will seem more valuable when its quantity is limited. People also tend to […]
Relating With Enemies
Henepola Gunaratana writes in Mindfulness in Plain English, For all practical purposes, if all of your enemies are well, happy and peaceful, they would not be your enemies. If they are free from problems, pain, suffering, affliction, neurosis, psychosis, paranoia, fear, tension, anxiety, etc., they would not be your enemies. Your practical solution towards your […]
Being Thankful for Small Blessings
Dharma teacher Pamela Gayle White writes in Skunked by Gratitude, So many factors demand our attention; isn’t it awesome that we have at least some influence over what we choose to focus on? And if there is power in acknowledging and being thankful for even small blessings, the power of finding meaning in the face […]
W. B. Yeats’s Praise of Tagore’s Gitanjali
The Irish poet W. B. Yeats wrote the introduction to the second edition of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali (Song Offerings): Flowers and rivers, the blowing of conch-shells, the heavy rain of the Indian July, or the parching heat, are images of the moods of that heart in union or in separation; and a man sitting in […]