Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. That reality sets an obvious course for me and my family: Keep all we can conceivably need and distribute the rest to society, for its needs. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others. Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. The reaction of my family and me to our extraordinary good fortune is not guilt, but rather gratitude. In short, fates distribution of long straws is wildly capricious. Ive worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. My being male and white also removed huge obstacles that a majority of Americans then faced.) My luck was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well. (For starters, the odds against my 1930 birth taking place in the U.S. Both my children and I won what I call the ovarian lottery. My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends. Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. I like having an expensive private plane, but owning a half-dozen homes would be a burden. Some material things make my life more enjoyable many, however, would not.
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