Green - Beyond wealth: the road map to a rich life

CONTENTS

Copyright 2011 by Alexander Green. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Green, Alexander, 1958

Beyond wealth : the road map to a rich life / Alexander Green.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-02761-5 (hardback); 978-1-118-07832-7 (ebk); 978-1-118-07833-4 (ebk); 978-1-118-07834-1 (ebk)

1. Success in business. 2. Success. 3. WealthPsychological aspects. 4. Conduct of life. 5. Self-actualization (Psychology) I. Title.

HF5386.G73 2011

650.1dc22

2011002025

To Karen

When the Buddha began to wander around India shortly after his enlightenment, he encountered several men who recognized him as an extraordinary being.

They asked him, Are you a god?

No, he said.

Are you a saint?

No.

Are you a prophet?

No, he said again.

Perplexed, they asked, well, what are you then?

The Buddha replied, I am awake.

The Pali Canon (29 BCE)

To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?

Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)

FOREWORD

As the head of a $45 million financial publishing company, I lead a very bottom-line kind of life. I spend a good deal of time thinking about how our team can generate more products, more revenue, more profits, and more satisfied customers.

Yet, like many of us who are employed full time, I strive for balance between work and play, responsibility and enjoyment. Too often, for instance, Ive forfeited a beautiful Saturday morning outside for work projects that could have been delegated or postponed. That may give you a clue why I consider the book in your hands essential reading.

Since youve picked it up, its safe to assume you already know theres more to a genuine sense of wealth than just working, saving, and investing. For one thing, we have to define what being rich actually means to us. Then, no matter how much financial success we enjoy, we have to learn how to spend not just our money but also our two most precious commodities: our time and attention.

During my 20-plus years as publisher for The Oxford Club, Ive had the good fortune to work closely with some of the most astute investing gurus in the business. Certainly, the author of this book is one of the best. Alexander Green is a wealth master, a trusted guide for hundreds of thousands of regular readers.

More than 10 years ago, in his desire to help others reach financial independence, Alex left a major investment bank to join the Oxford Club as our Investment Director. Soon after, the Clubs Communiqu track record was named one of the best in the nation, and still is by the leading industry-tracking group.

Thanks to Alex and his clearly defined investment principles and recommendations, Ive made better personal financial decisions than ever before. And, as he leads the worlds largest private investment club, countless others have benefited from his work, too. Perhaps the most rewarding part of my job as his publisher is to read the testimonials that hit my inbox each day. This comment about The Oxford Club was recently posted on the respected financial web site MarketWatch :

The key player is undoubtedly Editor Alexander Green, who has developed a dramatically successful track record, expressed through several portfolios, since arriving in 2001.

Peter Brimelow, author of The Wall Street Gurus and an editor of the independent Hulbert Financial Digest

About three years ago, however, Alex proposed a new kind of advisory for our members, one that discusses wealth not in material but spiritual terms. At first, I thought it might be too risky. So did my colleagues. The subject matter would be deeper and more controversial than our normal financial communications. It might offend our most conservative membership. It would take us beyond the core competence of our normal business. Worse, it would cost money to produce with no expected financial return.

But Alex knew there is a questing, philosophical side of meand our readersthat would be intrigued. I liked the idea of exposing a great talent like Alex to a broader audience. Once he showed me a few drafts of what he had in mind, I couldnt say no. I subdued my bottom-line rationalizations and recognized that this kind of wealth guidance could be priceless.

And so, after much going round on the name, we launched the first issue of Spiritual Wealth in February 2008. It was one of the best moves Ive made and an instant hit with readers, generating more positive feedback and gushing testimonials than anything we publish.

Through Spiritual Wealth , Alex deftly manages to present his readers with fresh insights on how to lead a mindful, compassionate, and intelligent life being ever respectful of different religious and political beliefs. With each concisely written essay, he titillates us with a nugget of truth or lesson from history that we can apply to our lives, here and now.

After a year of broadcasting Spiritual Wealth online to our readers, John Wiley & Sons published the first 65 essays in an anthology, The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters. The book was an immediate success, climbing the best-seller lists within days of publication.

Alex has now taken the next 65 essays and turned themalong with some of his other thoughtsinto the book you now hold in your hands. If your experience is typical, you wont just enjoy it, youll tell your family and friends about it and give it often as a gift.