“Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.”
~G.B. Stern

I owe so much to Cindy. Not just for her endless support and unwavering faith, or for the two beautiful children who so obviously wear some of the best of her. And not because she put the pen in my hand and helped me find the page, but because Cindy is also my fairly constant muse.

As I sift through the million or so words I’ve written in the last year, I wonder how many were rooted in her soil. Yes, I speak with limitless language, but she is always there to endlessly listen.

Many of my posts at Writer Dad have stemmed directly from our dialogue, but Cindy has given me millions of seeds and threads to plant elsewhere as well.

When it comes to partnership I’m luckier than most, and I do everything I can to justify my good fortune. If we were all so charmed as to have someone to help us discover our dreams, walk beside us through the most jagged edges of our journey, never failing to encourage, all while offering honest and open feedback. Well, I do believe the world would be a better place.

Thank you, Cindy, for being all of that for me.

“The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.”
~Kin Hubbard

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been ribbed by loved ones over my affection for playing the lottery, I’d probably run right out and buy another handful of tickets. Many people agree that playing the lottery is foolish. I disagree.

As long as you know what you’re buying, I believe playing the lottery is one of the best things you can do with a dollar. I haven’t played in over a year. As much as I enjoy it, I do understand it’s a gamble, and this last year while sweating my mortgage, I would never allow myself to part with a dollar that could be used for family essentials.

And that’s just it – I’ve never viewed the lottery as the solution to a problem. I see it as cheap access to a sprawling dream.

When Cindy and I shared plenty of disposable income, I found that the single dollar spent on my Mega Million Lottery ticket each week was penny for penny about the best entertainment I could think of. For half the price of a Venti daily drip, I could spend a half week dreaming of a better life for me and everyone I love.

And I had every right to that dream because I was willing to lay my dollar down.

I was never disappointed that I didn’t win, only happy for the chance to dream.

I don’t believe anyone should play the lottery with money they do not have, but I do believe there are far worse ways to spend a dollar. A penny for your thoughts is reasonable, but ginormous dreams for an extra 99 is a pretty good deal as well.

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“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.”
~Ralph W. Sockman

Knowledge is easy to swallow. Like the staples of a healthy diet, you must ingest information with regularity to maintain a healthy mind.

Wisdom is different.

Wisdom must be lived. It is more like working out, going to the gym each day and building on the actions from the day before. We strengthen our muscles by tearing them slowly, then giving them the time needed to heal. Wisdom is gained by tearing the fabric of our assumptions, making mistakes and moving forward.

You can cheat when it comes to knowledge. You can remember the bullet points enough to pass the test or skim the pages just enough to lay a solid foundation. Yet wisdom, like lifting weights, cannot be faked.

There is only so much weight your body can handle. If you have not built up the strength to lift what you are holding, gravity will have her revenge.

The most knowledgeable man in the world might be barren of wisdom and the wisest man void of any deep knowledge, but in a world where answers are now only a couple of clicks away, it is important to ask ourselves what we are hoping to find.

The intelligent man prefers the answer, the wise man is after the question.

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“Find a job you like and you add five days to every week.”
~H. Jackson Browne

Secondary education can make you a living, sure. But it is self-education spent in the trenches of the real world which can yield an impossible fortune.

Consider this:

When you commit to something for four years and beyond, you are by definition dedicating yourself to a specific path, pointed toward a fixed horizon. This is why you don’t find too many doctors, lawyers, or other decorated degrees surrendering their hard won security for a roll of the dice, no matter how promising the potential may be.

Bootstrapping entrepreneurs, on the other hand, must jump from situation to situation in a state of fairly constant adaptation.

Granted, the risk is extraordinary and certainly not for everyone. But those who do take the risk might build their estate far off the beaten track that is so difficult to leave once you start spending a lifetime running around it.

What if careers are slowly dying?

What if intelligent evolution within the way we each carve ourselves a living is an inevitable future.

There has never been a better time to believe in yourself and all you can do, while making piles of money doing it. The key is to believe, proceed with a plan, and then ignore all the people who tell you that you’ll never make it.

You can toss them a wry smile while they’re running laps.

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Not too long ago I was at a friend’s house for dinner. He told me a simple story that has stayed with me since.

There was nothing to it, really, and was said only in passing. Yet Aesop’s fables are often only a few lines long and have sent aftershocks through the centuries.

My friend is one of those guys you just know is going to make it. He’s determined, hard working, talented and charismatic. He’s also a good looking guy, which we all know goes a long way to increase the credit limit, especially in LA. He will one day soon have all he has dreaming of, I’ve no doubt in my mind.

One of the harbingers of “making it” for my friend is having his own boat. This is something he has always wanted and cannot wait to have. When mentioning this desire to a friend, his friend replied, “That would be awesome! I would love a boat too. Maybe we can pool our money and get one together one day. We could get an old one even, maybe fix it up on the weekends.”

This suggestion made my friend happy.

About a week after the exchange he was standing in the same spot, this time with a different friend. He repeated his dream to one day have a boat. This second friend said, “That would be awesome! I’ve always wanted a friend with a boat… In fact, I need a friend with a boat.”

Beware of friends looking for friends with boats.

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