"I Come to Bury Wealth, Not to Praise It"

The average man is clearly not okay, and in a very different way than history has any record. The country feels full of guys with money and nothing else. To compound the issue, the dearth of mentorship for the youngest men in the real world concerns me. COVID was a vibe shift in man's relationship with capitalism – a fissure in what could be the late innings of the century-long middle class miracle, which is all that living Americans know. I seek not to offer solutions for navigating the realm we are hurtling towards, but to illuminate the time-tested alternatives that might bring contentment and inner peace to one's life.

I write for three reasons:

1. I perceive an overwhelming number of misguided men being sold platitudes that completely miss the mark and fail to address any core issue.
2. The white space for workshopping authenticity as a compass toward happiness has expanded to its greatest breadth in at least 30 years.
3. Selfishly, these thoughts crowd my mind, and though I claim no mastery of the pen, there is a catharsis in committing them to paper.

You may cease reading here if you wish, for the solution to nearly everything lies in laboring with diligence, maintaining consistency, and remaining unburdened by outcome. Has anything else ever been so much more easily said than done? I personally wrestle with all three and fear that advancing years have weakened rather than strengthened my resolve.

My aim is not to dissuade anyone from their financial goals or ambitions but to serve as a critical complement as people reconcile themselves with the realities of fortune, timing, and other forces beyond their governance. I simply wish to help construct mental life rafts for your journey so that you might discover multiple paths to personal victory. You have been hearing about the ‘road less traveled’ in abstract since elementary school, but I want to add some concreteness to that very concept

Winning deserves contemplation, for it is often viewed through the narrow lens of a sole victor in a field of competitors playing an identical game. This zero-sum game represents a slender definition in life's vast spectrum. Various outcomes carry different weights to different souls depending on their point of origin. No one can diminish the man who accomplishes an authentic dream of his own creation, yet everything may be stripped from one who seeks to mark the scoreboard for an external sake. Were I forced to choose one reductive metric as the true common denominator by which to evaluate each man, it would be the zeal with which he embraces each day of his existence.

Money is magnificent, and money is not wealth. Men are comparative by nature, and money has increasingly become our agreed-upon voting machine as a proxy for happiness. Nevertheless, too often we conflate those who merely possess money with the actually venerable figures who acquired wealth through authentic success with any

I promise the essays that follow should not read as instructive as this; they shall show rather than tell. I hold you in too high esteem for mere didacticism. However, I believe this preface is essential to establish the central theme of the project. Consider it  our north star as we wander through obscure stories and tangents seemingly disconnected from these principles. I shall discourse on obscure sporting achievements and brasseries I could not locate again on any map. My core purpose is to avail the reader of the boundless possibilities in the pursuit of happiness.

The greatest affliction for a man's soul is to harbor a monomaniacal, vapid goal and never attain it. The second greatest is to reach it and discover that nothing awaits beyond it. The life we all yearn to live is one where we accomplish something enduring, and if fortune smiles, walk through our gardens while we remain to enjoy our flowers’ fragrance.