I listened to an insightful podcast from The Knowldge Project featuring Morgan Housel recently. I highly recommend it to everyone. Housel is an expert on human behaviour when it comes to money . Housel tells the story of the Vanderbilt family which had a net worth of around $400 billion if you adjust their family net worth in today’s terms as a share of US GDP. However, by 1974 the family did not have a single millionaire out of any of their 120 descendants left. They squandered their fortune in lavish lifestyle purchases in a most stunning destruction of generational wealth.
What caught my attention, however, was not the epic loss of value but rather the discussion on how the skills needed to acquire something are rarely the same skills required to keep it. Cornelius Vanderbilt and his son William Henry had figured out how to acquire vast amounts of wealth through their shipping and rail business interests. However, had no clue on how to make sure that it remained as the structure of the world’s economy changed and as they handed over their wealth to future generations.
In most things in life the focus seems to be on acquisition. If you think of the self help section of any major bookstore, most of the focus is on acquisition rather than longevity. How to get rich…quick. How to climb the corporate ladder. How to code. How to learn a new language or skill. All focussed on getting. Very little focussed on keeping. Would you buy a book entitled “How to keep what you have for longer”? Even for those that are dating the use of apps seems to be focussed on acquisition. My guess being that the sustained success of these apps signals that people are in a constant cycle of acquiring (read hooking up).
While it may seem like one must, therefore, focus on preservation that is unfortunately not the case as to be successful in life requires both acquisition and preservation. Think about your most enduring friendships or relationships. Acquiring the friend is rarely the goal. It might only be the goal on Facebook. Usually people build friendships with a view some ongoing interaction. Any parent with young kids in their house will know how insistent a child can be that they want a play date with their closest buddy from school. Even at their age they recognise that simply being know as friends is not good enough.
I have recently started working in the field of capability and skills development. It’s quite fascinating how many people (me included) acquired their means of earning a living many years ago, yet are required to solve problems that didn’t exist cost when the job was acquired. In the early years of a career should one focus on the acquisition of many different experiences or go deep in terms of trying to preserve the opportunity you current have. Is it about learning to drive multiple modes of transport, or being the best driver? One might argue that all depends on whether you are currently a pilot or a bus driver.
At the end of it all, the Vanderbilt’s sound a cautionary tale. You somehow need to keep new good things coming in. While at the same time, trying to make sure you built on what you already have. One of the wonderful things about human beings how we rarely operate at extremes. In all interactions where choosing between two alternatives and our final behaviour will be somewhere in between.
300Paychecks 