*In 1923, nine of the wealthiest people in the world met at Chicago’s Edge Water Beach Hotel*.
*Their combined wealth, it is estimated, exceeded the wealth of the Government of the United States at that time*. These men certainly knew how to make a living and accumulate wealth. *Attending the meeting were the following men*:
1. The president of the *largest steel company,*
2. The president of the *largest utility company,*
3. The president of the *largest gas company,*
4. The president of the *New York Stock Exchange,*
5. The president of the *Bank of International Settlements,*
6. The *greatest wheat speculator*,
7. The greatest *bear on Wall Street,*
8. The head of the *World’s greatest Economy*
&
9. A member of *President Harding’s cabinet*.
*That’s a pretty impressive line-up of people by anyone’s yardstick.*
Yet, 25 years later, where were those nine industrial giants?
*Let’s examine what happened to them 25 years later*.
1. The President of the then largest steel company (Bethlehem Steel Corp), *Charles M Schwab, lived on borrowed capital for five years before he died bankrupt.*
2. The President of the then largest gas company, *Howard Hubson, went insane*.
3. One of the greatest commodity traders (Wheat Speculator), *Arthur Cutten, died insolvent.*
4. The then President of the New York Stock Exchange, *Richard Whitney, was sent to jail.*
5. The member of the US President’s Cabinet (the member of President Harding’s cabinet), *Albert Fall, was pardoned from jail just to be able to go home and die in peace.*
6. The greatest “bear” on Wall Street, *Jesse Livermore committed suicide*.
7. The President of the then world’s greatest monopoly, *Ivar Krueger, committed suicide*.
8. The President of the Bank of International Settlement, *Leon Fraser, committed Suicide.*
9. The president of the largest utility company, *Samuel Insull, died penniless.*
*What they forgot was how to “make” life while they got busy making money!*
*Money in itself is not evil;* it provides food for the hungry, medicine for the sick, clothes for the needy. *Money is only a medium of exchange.*
*We need two kinds of education*:
a) One that teaches us *how to make a living,*
and
b) One that teaches us *how to live*.
*There are many of us who are so engrossed in our professional life that we neglect our family, health and social responsibilities.*
If asked why we do this, we would reply that *”We are doing it for our family”*.
Yet, *our kids are sleeping when we leave home*. They are sleeping *when we come back home*!! *Twenty years later, we’ll turn back, and they’ll all be gone, to pursue their own dreams and their own lives*.
*Without water, a ship cannot move*. *The ship needs water, but if the water gets into the ship, the ship will face existential problems*. What was once a means of living for the ship will now become a means of destruction.
Similarly we live in a time where earning is a necessity but *let not the earning enter our hearts, for what was once a means of living will surely become a means of destruction for us as well.*
*So take a moment and ask yourself, “Has the water entered my ship?”*
I hope not!