lessons
But for this 31st birthday, I went back and considered 31 valuable lessons that coincide with each year of my life. Some are specific to personal finance and investing, while others are general.
I, like you, was a helpless little butterball. Thankfully, human parents make huge sacrifices to help their helpless kids. But that courtesy ends at some point. Eventually, you’ve got to learn to help yourself.
I was the youngest of three boys. If I didn’t play nice with my brothers, I might get shoved down in the snow. The same thing happens in adulthood, but the shove and the snow look a little different.
Life is better with cake. Or whatever your version of cake might be. If we can’t eat cake, then what’s this all about?
Some of my earliest memories at home involve playing games—rummy, Parcheesi, Magic: The Gathering—with my parents or brothers. Turns out that real life, too, involves a little bit of math, strategy, luck, skill, politics, memory, pattern recognition, etc.
1st-grade involved forays into arithmetic. It came easily to me. But I also learned in first grade that I liked helping people understand their multiplication. Helping people is fun.
I was a good student, so getting a C on a math test in 3rd-grade was devastating. I did not have the tools to deal with (what I deemed) a massive failure. It’s a good lesson to learn early. It’s certainly a lesson you’ll learn often. Failure happens.
Anthropology is important. Understanding other cultures is vital. But I shudder when comparing the millions of people-hours (not an exaggeration) spent on Iroquois longhouses versus the utility of that knowledge in our lives today. Thatched roofs aren’t that important.
Mr. Leone’s 6th-grade social studies classroom. That’s where I was when we turned on the TV to see the Twin Towers fall on September 11, 2001. Where were you? Some events are unforeseen, unpredictable, and yet have colossal consequences. These are black swans.
I played basketball my entire childhood. While my skills were there, I was chubby and slow. Even for small-school JV basketball, I didn’t have the athleticism to make an impact on the court. I was a liability. That summer, I worked on my game and pushed to get faster.
At the end of my sophomore year at Rochester, I picked up a squash racket for the first time. Now 12 years later, I’m still playing squash 3-4 times a week. Trying new things can change your life.