Bruce’s Wealth Blog

Anyone who has heard me speak knows how much I believe this business is not about real estate and not about money. This business is about people. More often than not, it is about people in despair. Most people we encounter are people who live in the home about to be foreclosed. It is the most embarrassing event they will encounter. They see it as a referendum on their intelligence and usefulness as a human being. They feel like failures. If that weren’t bad enough, the process is very public. It is published in the newspapers – papers read by their friends and family. Instead of reaching out to them, their friends and family are embarrassed for the homeowner and don’t know what to say to them. Instead, they simply avoid contact. The homeowners facing foreclosure end up isolating themselves from everyone else instead of reaching out to those who may be able to help. Many virtually end up as hermits or even worse commit suicide because of how they believe the world determines the worth of their lives and more importantly how they view their own self worth.

Somewhere along the line we got everything screwed up. We decided the value of human life should be determined by their possessions. Our worth as human beings are judged based on our “things” instead of the content of our character. I am going to ask you to think about what epitaph you would want on your gravestone. Would you want your gravestone to read like this:

Your Name

Possessed Many Things

19xx – 20xx

Please take a minute and write down what you would want as your epitaph. Then listen to Randy Pausch. Randy is a professor with Carnegie Mellon University. At the time he delivered his last lecture and the following clip his life expectancy was being measured in months. After you listen to Randy take another look at your epitaph. Is there anything you want to change? How does this change the way you see those facing foreclosure? How does this change the way you want to run your business? How does this change the way you approach wealth creation and any other goals you may have? How does this change the way you live your life? Is your situation different from Randy’s? Has tomorrow been guaranteed to you? You may be wondering how it feels to know you are going to die. I would ask you how it feels to be under the delusion that you won’t.

I think these are important points to ponder.

Randy Pausch Last Lecture Reprise (12 minutes)

Randy Pausch Last Lecture
Carnegie Mellon University (1Hour 44Min.)

Bruce..