In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Druckenmiller, a legendary investor and mentor to Scott Bessent, criticized the Treasury Secretary’s decision to double long-end Treasury buybacks. Druckenmiller argued that the move was an attempt to support prices in the long-dated Treasury market—and that its positive effect was quickly erased. His larger argument was that no Treasury buyback program can solve America’s underlying fiscal problem. Only a stronger balance sheet can.

The dilemma is structural

In April 2012, I wrote a piece titled “Democracy’s Debt Dilemma,” asking whether every democracy was destined for the problems then ravaging Greece. Fourteen years on, the question is more acute.

Representative government has a structural bias toward the present. Every constituency that benefits from federal spending votes and organizes. The future generations who will pay for it, have no lobby or voice.

In 2026, according to the CBO, the U.S. federal government will spend $1.9 trillion more than it collects—5.8 percent of GDP. Debt held by the public is now roughly 100 percent of GDP, rising to an estimated 120 percent of GDP in 2036, as deficits and interest payments expand. Rising payments will eat into the ability of the federal government to fund social programs, healthcare, the military, and a host of other programs, putting the future of young Americans at risk.

As Druckenmiller notes, this is not a problem any Treasury Secretary can fix. Absent the U.S. choosing inflation and currency devaluation, there are only two broad off-ramps.

Subscribe now

Exit one: reform U.S. fiscal health

The first option is Druckenmiller’s: reform the fiscal health of the United States through cuts to spending or increased taxes.

Some progress could be made just by assuring funds are used as they are intended. The Government Accountability Office estimates the federal government loses $233 billion to $521 billion annually to fraud, three to seven percent of annual obligations. Agencies separately reported roughly $186 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2025, with the cumulative total since 2003 near $3 trillion. Addressing fraud and improper payments is something we can and should do.

But it does not fully close the gap. Mandatory outlays ran roughly $4.2 trillion in 2025 against $1.9 trillion in discretionary spending. Eliminating fraud and improper payments at the high end of the estimated ranges eliminates around one quarter to one third of the deficit. By 2036, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest will consume 73 percent of all federal spending.

So, the only meaningful options involve real and difficult fiscal reform. Raising taxes (particularly on the middle class) is difficult and may deliver diminishing revenue and drag growth and dynamism in the economy. Reforming entitlements, the only lever large enough to matter in spending, has become a third rail in politics and no major party currently embraces it. The math is easy but the solutions are hard. Voters don’t like voting against their economic interests. Representatives won’t sacrifice elections to do hard but necessary things voters don’t support. And any fiscal reforms would come with real-world costs to individuals and to economic growth.

Exit two: grow faster

The second option is unprecedented economic growth. If cutting spending is improbable, the only escape is to grow faster than the debt compounds. Estimates differ, but outrunning our fiscal problems with no spending reform would require, by some estimates, 4-5 percent real economic growth for a decade, a rate matching or exceeding the booms of the 1950s and 1960s, which were powered partially by population growth we no longer see.

For one of the only times in history, there’s an outside chance this may be possible. I have written about what I call the Reality Revolution — a second Industrial Revolution underway across robotics and artificial intelligence, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, and energy. The first Industrial Revolution transformed material life over centuries—leading to world-historic economic growth. This revolution may be bigger and faster. AI and robotics could transform productivity. Biotechnology, in combination with those other advances, could rewrite healthcare. Energy could become cheaper and more available.

But that future is not guaranteed. Each of these technologies has dark sides that must be managed. And each faces bottlenecks that could require political and cultural will. The first is public policy. Mounting backlashes against AI, data centers, robotics, and energy production, if enacted as policy, could strangle these advances prematurely. The second is technological: compute, energy, and manufacturing capacity have real physical limits we are testing now. And a bet on their ability to transform the economy is a bet on continued progress in each space, a wager involving unknowable risks. The third potential bottleneck is capital. Absent large-scale government spending, private markets must foot the bill, but they need to see progress and return on investment to function. The final potential bottleneck is talent. Can the U.S., in particular, continue to train, attract, and retain the most brilliant scientists and entrepreneurs in the world so that Americans benefit disproportionately from the promise these new technologies hold?

The choice is ours

We can choose fiscal restraint — entitlement reform, spending cuts, or increased taxes through a coalition willing to communicate honestly with the public, and risk elections to win the future.

Or we can clear the path for the revolution before us—create policy that enables the technological revolution before us, push those technologies to their limits, fund them, and build the talent to guide them—and bet that growth can outrun debt.

Fiscal reform is a plan. Economic growth is a wager predicated on policy, technology, capital, and talent. America probably needs some of both.

The United States remains the strongest country in the world, and one of its oldest experiments in representative government. Our choices now will set precedent for whether democracy’s debt dilemma is a structural problem or something we can, collectively, overcome. The Treasury can seek to smooth markets, and doing so is one of its proper functions. But it cannot enact decisions only citizens and their representatives are empowered to make.

Share

John Coleman is co-CEO of Sovereign’s Capital and the author of Good Money: Six Steps to Building a Financial Life with Purpose (Harvard Business Review Press). He writes at On Purpose on Substack.

If you enjoy my writing, please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

Free Good Money Study Guide

Greed blinds him. He walks farther and farther, pushing beyond prudence, finally sprinting toward the finish line as the sun sinks. He crosses the marker just in time—and drops dead on the spot.

It’s easy to sit in judgment of Pahom. He had enough, but sacrificed everything for just a little more. Yet many of us live with the same blind ambition, running a race we’re not sure we’ve ever won. We pursue more income, more security, more status, more growth—often with no clear sense of what we are pursuing or why.

Americans at all income levels say the wealth that would make them happy is something greater than what they already have. Research consistently finds that “enough” is always just beyond reach. One recent survey asked Americans how much annual income they would need to feel less stressed. At every income level, the answer was slightly higher than what they currently earned. And as incomes rose, the gap widened. Studies of high-net-worth households similarly show that many wealthy Americans do not consider themselves wealthy at all—a consequence of social comparison rather than genuine need.

In truth, most of us are like Pahom: running our financial race tirelessly with no finish line in sight.

John D. Rockefeller—by many measures the richest man of his time—was once reportedly asked how much money was enough. His answer, whether apocryphal or not, captured a timeless human impulse: “Just a little more.”

We now live in one of the most prosperous eras in human history. The average American has access to comforts and resources unimaginable only a few generations ago. But widespread prosperity introduces a new challenge. For thousands of years, most people worked simply to survive—to provide enough food, shelter, and safety to protect their families. Some Americans still struggle with these basic needs, and addressing that poverty remains a moral imperative. But for many households, survival is no longer the central goal. The new question is: How much is enough for me to stop running?

The solution, as I argue in my new book Good Money, is both radical and simple: set a financial finish line. Every individual or family can determine an income or net-worth level after which they will not continue accumulating purely for themselves. This does not mean abandoning work or ambition. Instead, it means deciding in advance what level of material well-being is sufficient—and committing that beyond that point, additional resources will be used for generosity, impact, or more meaningful pursuits.

For some, this might mean donating every dollar earned after a certain income level to charity. For others, it may mean shifting to more purposeful work once a financial cushion is achieved. For most, it means liberating themselves from the single-minded pursuit of more and focusing time and energy on what matters most: family, friendship, community, service, meaningful work, and joy.

This concept is not new. The FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early) has long encouraged individuals to reduce expenses, increase savings, and achieve financial independence earlier in life. The Finish Line Pledge, a small but growing movement, helps families set lifestyle commitments and avoid endless lifestyle creep. Financial advisors routinely help clients calculate what they need to retire comfortably, though rarely to set limits on further accumulation.

Still, setting a finish line goes beyond financial planning. It is a philosophical shift—a recognition that money is a means, not an end.

A few principles can help guide the process:

1. Calculate what you need for the life you want.
Most individuals never sit down to define their true financial needs. Doing so—with a spouse, partner, or advisor—often reveals that reasonable goals are far more attainable than assumed. Clarity brings peace and counteracts vague but powerful desires for “more.”

2. Set the finish line early.
Lifestyle creep is the death of the finish-line concept. As incomes rise, expectations rise even faster. The bigger house, nicer car, and upgraded vacations quickly become “needs” instead of luxuries. Establishing and committing to a lifestyle before wealth increases dramatically helps protect against endless escalation.

3. Share the commitment with others.
Accountability strengthens resolve. Sharing a finish line with a spouse, friend, or financial advisor increases the likelihood of sticking with it—especially when ambition or comparison threatens to reset the goalposts.

4. Decide what happens after the finish line.
Reaching a financial finish line is not the end of work—it is the beginning of freedom. Some will continue working, giving away additional income. Others will switch careers, pursue deferred passions, or dedicate time to family or service. The point is not to stop living—but to start living more fully.

Pahom could have walked an hour less and lived in comfort. Many of us, with more thoughtful constraints, could spend fewer hours chasing income and more hours investing in the relationships and activities that give life meaning.

A race is only meaningful if it has a finish line. Otherwise, it is just a treadmill. Setting that finish line—even imperfectly—can unlock extraordinary possibilities for purpose, contribution, and joy.

John Coleman is Co-CEO of Sovereign’s Capital and the author of Good Money: Six Steps to Building a Financial Life with Purpose (Harvard Business Review Press, 2026). His prior books with Harvard Business Review Press include Passion & Purpose and the HBR Guide to Crafting Your Purpose.

If you enjoy my writing, please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

Free Good Money Study Guide

This article, authored by me, originally appeared in Advisor magazine.

John D. Rockefeller, by some estimates the wealthiest man in history, was once asked, “How much money is enough?” His reply, perhaps apocryphal, has aged well: “Just a little more.”

It sounds silly until you look at the data. Americans, in survey after survey, define “rich” as an income band or two above their own—whether they earn $30,000 or $250,000. Only 8 percent of American investors with $1 million in assets consider themselves wealthy. A staggering 31 percent of millionaires consider themselves middle class.

I have spent my career as an investor. My clients have ranged from high-net-worth individuals to sovereign wealth funds, and the single most consistent thing I have observed is that money is not what most clients think it is. It is necessary—its absence can be wrenching. But it is not sufficient. The gap between what clients hire their advisors for and what they actually need from them is widening. That gap is the future of advice. It is also the subject of my new book, Good Money: Six Steps to Building a Financial Life with Purpose.

The Hidden Value, Properly Understood

For years, the industry has tried to quantify what makes a human advisor worth paying for. Vanguard’s research on the “hidden value” of financial advice is among the more honest answers: 86 percent of advised investors report greater peace of mind than self-directed peers, and the time and emotional value of working with a human advisor consistently exceeds the explicit dollar value of portfolio construction. Advice’s real return is not just in the alpha, portfolio allocation, or a retirement glidepath. It is in the relationship.

Industry data is starting to catch up. As comprehensive financial planning becomes a core differentiator and practice feature, advisors cite stronger client relationships (83 percent), an enhanced ability to help clients achieve their financial goals (79 percent), and increased client retention (73 percent) as the most significant benefits. Whatever else is happening in the profession, the bet on comprehensive advice is paying off.

The trouble is that “comprehensive” has come to mean something narrower than it should.

What “Comprehensive” Should Mean

Most “comprehensive” planning is comprehensive on the technical surface—tax, estate, insurance, retirement, college, charitable giving, business succession—but thin on the human core. The plan covers every category. The conversation rarely extends to what the client actually believes about money, where those beliefs came from, or what they want their wealth to mean for their family.

In Good Money, I draw on Martin Seligman’s positive psychology and Tyler VanderWeele’s research on flourishing to argue that money is only useful as a means to the intrinsically good components of human flourishing: happiness, character, positive relationships, health, and meaningful work. The book lays out six practices that turn money from a source of stress into a tool for achieving flourishing: developing the right mindsets about wealth; earning with purpose; consuming wisely; giving generously and well; investing for impact; and saving for freedom, not retirement.

These six practices are, at heart, six conversations. Together, they form a different kind of comprehensive—one that meets clients not at the spreadsheet, but at the table where the actual decisions of their lives are made. And offer advisor and client alike a way to reshape their financial lives to better improve the lives they live every day.

Six Conversations That Change The Relationship

The first conversation is about good money mindsets. What is your client’s view of the good life? Extensive research from experts like Nobel winners Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton has shown that beyond a certain level of income (around $110,000 in today’s currency), money doesn’t significantly add to happiness. Rather past that point, life is about relationships, virtue, health, joy, generosity, and the more intrinsically valuable things. Clients should learn that their worth is not their net worth, and that one of the most valuable things they can do in their lives is not run the financial race endlessly but set a financial finish line—a lifestyle beyond which they won’t escalate, regardless of their income or net worth. Have you talked to your clients about the good life? Have they unpacked their core beliefs about money? Have they defined “how much is enough?” This foundational conversation is one of the most impactful an advisor can have.

The second conversation is about earning with purpose. Earning is the largest financial activity of most clients’ lives, yet it is the one advisors are least likely to engage. According to global surveys, the vast majority of people are not engaged at work. They don’t see the meaning in what they do. A client weighing a job change, a sabbatical, a board seat, or a second-career pivot is making a financial decision and a meaning decision at the same time. The advisor who can sit with both—who knows when a client should leave a role and when they can re-craft it—becomes structurally embedded in the client’s life.

The third conversation is about consuming wisely. In Good Money I describe a phenomenon I watched at the firm where I once worked: the watch ladder. Watches are a common status symbol in finance. Junior people wore TAG Heuers; mid-career people wore Omegas; the senior set wore Rolexes; and at the top, Patek Philippes. At every rung, the person who had just upgraded—to a piece of metal worth tens of thousands of dollars—became more, not less, self-conscious about the watches above them. The unhappiest clients I encounter are rarely the poorest. They are the ones whose consumption has quietly outpaced their joy. Helping clients align spending with what they actually value—and naming the misalignments out loud—is among the most differentiated services an advisor can offer. Focusing less on “stuff,” and more on relationships, health, experiences, and saving time—all while living withing one’s means—is a recipe for financial freedom and meaningful spending.

The fourth conversation is about giving generously and well. According to research, generosity is one of the 2-3 most important attributes of a happy and fulfilled life. It improves the world around us, but has also been proven to enrich the mental and physical health of those who give. And yet, 3 in ten Americans give nothing each year; and as a whole Americans donate less than 2% of GDP annually. Advisors who proactively help clients align giving with personal mission—through DAFs, family foundations, or simply better-structured annual gifts—turn a tax-efficiency conversation into a legacy conversation. Those are the conversations that enrich lives, bind families together, and allow advisors to engage much differently with the clients they serve.

The fifth conversation is essential for advisors. It’s about investing not just prudently, but for impact as well. Once a client understands the miracle of compound earnings through investment, they have the opportunity to understand how their investments impact the world around them. Many clients, particularly in younger generations, want to know that their investments align with their values. And an engaged advisor can help a client articulate those values and find investment options that fulfil them—through screening out investments misaligned with those values, engaging with the companies they invest in, and embracing themes in their investment that offer them meaning.

The final conversation is about saving for freedom, not retirement. On average, retirement without purpose, structure, and socialization is bad for you. Studies have shown it’s rarely as fulfilling as we think, and leads to a host of mental and physical health problems for those who retire without focusing on some purposeful outlet for their time and talents. What we really crave is not a life of pure leisure. It’s agency and autonomy in our work—the freedom to engage purposefully and feel in control of our professional lives. This is achieved by financial practices that reinforce that freedom; and a plan that doesn’t target withdrawal, but deeper engagement in meaningful work.

These six conversations cover the breadth of a client’s financial life and unlock greater purpose and flourishing than “just a little more” could ever reach.

Translating Good Money For The Next Generation

The final step in a comprehensive approach to planning is helping clients draw their spouses, children, and even grandchildren into the conversation. I call this “financial apprenticeships,” and it starts with families, collectively, articulating a mission, vision, and values, then thinking together about how the six conversations above impact their lives.

This is good for families. It helps children become adults equipped to flourish. It encourages hard work and generosity, reflection and sound investment. It draws generations together. It also helps advisors develop relationships that persist over time.

Recent industry research finds that nine in ten advisors now facilitate conversations between aging clients and their adult children, and that millennial investors are far more likely than their parents to want their advisor at the family table. The largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history is underway. The advisors who own the meaning conversation will retain the assets. The advisors who own only the plan will watch them walk.

That is the practice-growth implication of comprehensive engagement. It is not the reason to do it. The reason is that this is what clients are actually hiring you for, whether they have the language for it yet or not.

The Future Of Advice

The financial planning profession has spent two decades expanding the technical surface of comprehensive advice—adding modules, certifications, software, and depth across an ever-wider set of categories. That work is necessary. It is not sufficient, particularly in an era where artificial intelligence will make the technical aspects of almost any job easier to achieve—even for clients on their own. The next decade of differentiation will be built by advisors who keep the technical depth and add the human one—who treat the financial plan as the floor of the relationship, not the ceiling.

That is what comprehensive engagement looks like in practice. The advisors who learn it well will not just have better practices. They will have better professional lives—and they will enable clients not just to achieve their financial goals but to live flourishing lives.

Subscribe now

John Coleman is Co-CEO of Sovereign’s Capital and the author of Good Money: Six Steps to Building a Financial Life with Purpose (Harvard Business Review Press, 2026). His prior books with Harvard Business Review Press include Passion & Purpose and the HBR Guide to Crafting Your Purpose.

If you enjoy my writing, please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

Free Good Money Study Guide

Remember what government looked like back then? We now live in the world those 56 men created—a world in which even dictatorships like North Korea cloak themselves in the language of “republic.” But in 1776, freedom, equality, and self-governance were nascent concepts espoused by philosophers like John Locke and adopted only incompletely in a few small enclaves. Democracy was non-existent. There were a few “republics” like the Netherlands, though they often looked more like oligarchy than republic. Switzerland was a confederacy. But the vast majority of countries in the world were hereditary monarchies and empires under which equal rights and individual liberty were not contemplated.

France, England, Spain, and Portugal were monarchies. Germany was divided into smaller principalities and remnants of the Holy Roman empire. The Qing dynasty ruled in China, and the Qianlong emperor had the power of life or death over every person in his 61-year reign. Japan suffered under the imperial rule of the Edo period. The continent of Africa was divided into a host of kingdoms and tribal groups. Catherine II ruled as empress of Russia after overthrowing her emperor husband. And South America was being colonized and looted by European powers. Most governments viewed people as inherently unequal and allocated legal rights on the basis of birth not common humanity. Innovation was throttled by oppression. Global GDP in the late 1700s was somewhere south of $1 trillion (in today’s currency), only four times what it had been a thousand years prior. And the lives of most people were as the philosopher Thomas Hobbes noted, “nasty, brutish, and short.”

Great Britain, meanwhile, was incredibly powerful. King George III ruled over an ever-expanding British domain and the world’s most powerful navy—a territorial occupation that by its peak in 1922 would be the largest empire in the history of the world, encompassing roughly 25% of the world’s population and land mass.

It was in this context that 56 men frustrated by the rule of a far-away monarch decided to do the unfathomable and declare independence from (and, by necessity, war on) George’s unconquerable colossus. Uniquely, the foundation for this wasn’t a coup by a rival monarch—an American king seeking his own power—but widespread, zealous passion for something entirely new. These rebel colonists didn’t want a king. They didn’t want to be kings. They wanted to articulate for the first time a set of principles by which people could assert their own “rights,” sovereignty, and dignity and come together to rule themselves. Building on the imperfect ideas of the old Greek democracies and the pre-imperial Roman Republic these colonists sought to redefine not just their own geographic territory but the terms by which all men and women related to government.

The members of the Second Continental Congress asked five men—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman with determining the terms of the independence they would like to declare from Great Britain. And that small committee largely tasked one man—Jefferson—with drafting the document that would become one of the most important in history.

Imagine how he must have felt. Jefferson secluded himself from June 11 to June 28 in a rented home on Market Street to draft the document. He was 33 years old at the time. A polymath, Jefferson (though flawed in many ways) was one of history’s great talents. And he was in love with the enlightenment ideals that tried to articulate why each human being deserved respect and freedom. In isolation in that rented townhome he drafted what I think is one of the most beautiful passages in history:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Read it again. Read it as if you were living under a Spanish colony in South America or under the iron fist of the Qing dynasty in China. Read it as if you were a poor tenant farmer under the oppressive rule of King George in Virginia or an enslaved person in Georgia (whose freedom under the principles of the Declaration was still decades away). Read it as if you grew up in a system that assumed you were worth less than your neighbor by virtue of your social station, and your future was limited by the circumstances of your birth.

The Declaration was, in fact, a “revolutionary” statement articulating the ideological and factual basis for a coup against empire. But spiritually, it was more important than that. It was a revolution against history. It was a revolution against the idea that some men (and women) are worth more than others. It was a revolution for the idea of dignity, human rights, and equality before law.

And when Jefferson submitted his document to the Congress, and those 56 men signed it and shipped it off to King George and to others rulers around the world they ignited a war in the America colonies that would become a centuries long war to transform the world from tyranny to liberty.

War they got. Five of the signers were captured, tortured, and killed. Nine died from wounds or hardships fighting in the war. All were impacted—raked by violence, their homes and property ravaged, their children thrust into the chaos they created. They starved. They lost battles. They must have wondered if it was worth it—these ideals that had caused them to plunge a nation into conflict.

And then, unexpectedly, they won.

The United States became the world’s most prominent republic. It took 13 more years to get the government right. It took the willpower of one man—George Washington—to resist calls to adopt a monarchy and adhere to the vision of a republic in which leaders served their fellow citizens rather than ruling over them. It took 144 years for women to become full participants in the Republic, and nearly 100 years (and the nation’s most violent conflict) for black Americans to get their first taste of the ideals in the Declaration. The nation was and is imperfect…and yet, that simple statement signed in 1776 lit a spark of freedom that would eventually rage to create the freest, most powerful country in the history of the world. It was and is a nation based not on a particular race, religion, or ethnicity but on common belief in and adherence to a set of philosophic convictions about our government and one another.

And in creating America, those founding fathers reshaped history and humanity. You know what happened when other people read the Declaration of Independence? They, too, wanted freedom. You know what happened when the freedom of America unleashed human creativity and created the most vibrant and explosive economy and political culture in the world? Other countries took note and movements began—some slowly, some quickly—to reshape their societies. Eventually revolutionary movements for democracy would happen in places as far flung as India, South Africa, and France. People everywhere began to hunger for liberty and equality. And the ideology of the world was changed.

We now live in a world in which nearly half of countries are democracies. The combination of political freedom, free markets, and the technological innovation unleashed by those systems has lifted billions of people out of poverty—creating a world more than 100 times richer than the one that existed at the time of the Declaration of Independence. The dominant ideology now globally—though still lived so imperfectly—is the one articulated in the Declaration. And the revolution in America has become a revolution in human history.

However, as always, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Thirty-five percent of the world still live in authoritarian regimes, and in the last twenty years the world has grown less, rather than more, free. In the birthplace of the Declaration, politics has become fragmented and legal institutions eroded. Countries like Turkey and China that were trending towards freedom have reversed course. And ideologies that would stamp out the uniqueness and dignity of the individual in favor of collectivism and power run rampant.

This week in the United States we celebrate Independence Day and a quarter millennia of the American experiment. We celebrate 56 men who risked everything to embrace a new set of ideas and a new form of government to reflect them. We remember the tens of thousands who mounted an unwinnable war against an unshakeable empire to champion a new form of government. And we offer thanks that that unwinnable war was, in fact, won—and that the revolution kindled on our shores spread far and wide to transform the lives of billions of people.

But we also solemnly reflect on the charge of the Declaration and its authors. All people are created equal. We are all endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. Each of us deserves life, liberty, and the ability to pursue our own unique paths to flourishing. But those rights, while inalienable, are not guaranteed. As our forebears sacrificed their lives for these ideals, we too are called to embrace and fight for them. Abraham Lincoln once noted that great men “thirst and burn for distinction” and will have it, “whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving free men.” And around the world the powers that oppose liberty, dignity, and opportunity fight ceaselessly to dominate others.

May we, on this 250th Independence Day, fight back. May we have the audacity and conviction to oppose the enemies of liberty and to continue to fight for the promise of the Declaration and America’s spiritual foundation. May we do so out of love—for our neighbors and for the blessings of the Creator. And may we gain courage from the example of those 56 men, their hundreds of thousands of compatriots, and the unwinnable war they won. Happy birthday, America. May our quest for a more perfect union endure for another quarter millennia to come.

Share

Subscribe now

This is part of a series of “Love Letters to America.” Prior entries: (1) “Love Letters to America” (2) “America the Beautiful,” (3) “The Wright Brothers and American Optimism,” (4) “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Power of Love,” (5) “Through the Fog: America’s Next 250 Years,” (6) “Pax Americana at 250.”

If you enjoy my writing, please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

Happy Father’s Day! This is part of a series of “Love Letters to America.” Prior entries: (1) “Love Letters to America” (2) “America the Beautiful,” (3) “The Wright Brothers and American Optimism,” (4) “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Power of Love,” (5) “Through the Fog: America’s Next 250 Years.” If you like the series, please share it with others on social or via email.

In the ancient world, the Pax Romana was a legendary historical period during which the western world, under the influence of the Roman Empire, enjoyed 200 years of relative peace, stability and prosperity. Commencing its founding under Caesar Augustus and ending with the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Pax Romana was marked by lower levels of violence, increasing trade and territorial expansion that saw peak Rome preside over around one-third of the global population.

Since that time, there have been a number of eras so similarly named, but none as dynamic as the current one: Pax Americana. Typically dated from the conclusion of World War II in 1945, the Pax Americana is the era of peace, prosperity and progress American power has offered the world since partnering with our allies to slay fascism and confront communism. Many predicted this epoch peaked with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and ended with the Iraq War in the early 2000s. But as America celebrates its 250th birthday and the more than 80 year period of Pax Americana seems to be progressing into a new era.

That’s an unabashedly good thing. Americans are losing faith in their institutions, but shouldn’t doubt the immense good their country has created for the world. American global dominance has unleashed the best sustained period in world history. The seeds of Pax Americana date to the conclusion of the Civil War when the United States purged its vilest and most illiberal institution, the U.S. shortly entered a period of industrialization and transformation. Entrepreneurs like Rockefeller and Carnegie became some of the richest men in history —Rockefeller’s Standard Oil once dominating the global oil market. And America began playing an important political and economic role internationally. American leaders like Washington and Lincoln loomed large in the international imagination. Teddy Roosevelt won a Nobel Prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. The U.S. played a critical role in WWI. And while Woodrow Wilson’s missteps contributed mightily to the Second World War, by 1945 America was the most powerful country in history.

Economically, we peaked at more than 50% of global GDP and held 80% of the world’s hard currency reserves. We had developed a radically transformed industrial and scientific base that made the U.S. the world’s innovator and exporter. Our universities emerged as the best in the world. And American culture— as communicated by Hollywood — spread like wildfire through foreign lands. We had also developed history’s most terrifying weapon and our military was absolutely unmatched, having sustained far fewer casualties than countries like Russia, Germany and Japan.

What did we do with that power? Almost any other country in history would have used it to crush and subjugate the world. Americans didn’t. Through the Marshall Plan we deployed tax dollars to rebuild Europe. America seized effectively no territory. We ceased using our super-weapon after we ended the war in the Pacific. America helped to rebuild Japan, then returned it to the Japanese. And then we developed military pacts and global aid programs that allowed the world to stand firm against the horrors of Soviet and Chinese Communism. The biggest black marks on the post-War era were the horrifying domestic mass murders and famines that happened under Stalin and Mao, outside the American security umbrella. American inventors like Norman Borlaug helped lift billions out of poverty. We put men on the moon. And the world entered an era that was safer, healthier and wealthier than any in human history.

And while the United States doesn’t currently boast the level of dominance we had emerging from the ashes of World War II, we remain the world’s hegemon. We are 4% of the globe’s population and 26% of its GDP. As other developed nations in Europe and Asia have slowed, we have continued to accelerate — so much so that countries like Japan, the UK and Germany would rank among the poorest American states. Half of the world’s great start-ups are American —founded by native-born citizens and new immigrants alike. And we are now so dominant in the most critical areas of global innovation — artificial intelligence, space, robotics, biotechnology and a series of other disciplines — that we often outmatch the rest of the world combined. Our military remains the greatest and most advanced fighting force in history. And our natural resources and domestic production capabilities make us one of the most resource-blessed and self-sufficient nations in the world. The dollar is still the world’s currency. Our universities are still preeminent. Our elections and culture are monitored almost as closely internationally as they are on our shores. And we’ve retained our moral foundation far better than most of our peers.

Meanwhile, America’s competitors have stumbled. The Soviet Union, which felt so threatening mid-century, collapsed — the modern Russian state, a sad oligarchic echo of the evil empire that once threatened to enslave Europe. Japan, a (friendly) economic competitor in the 1980s entered a period of multi-decade stagnation, even as America roared. The European Union, formed in the 1990s to compete (though as an ally) with the United States, has similarly stagnated with only a few nations (like non-EU member Switzerland) keeping pace. India and China have proven more persistent in their growth, but neither has emerged as a true challenger. China is the closest but showing signs of weakness. Rumors of internal debt problems persist (bad debt being long a feature of “planned” economies) and its economy has slowed. The inhuman “one-child policy” is now decimating their population growth, threatening to more than halve China’s population by century’s end. The Communist party has tightened its political grip on its people in a way that has crushed any fragile green shoots of freedom. And China finds itself allied primarily with outcast dictators in North Korea, Iran and Russia even as the NATO alliance is resurging in strength. The operating system of Pax Americana — a fundamental belief in personal liberty, representative government, free enterprise, and human creativity — is one no dictatorship can match.

America has at times stumbled. Our leadership is far from perfect. We’ve fought wars we likely shouldn’t have. Our domestic political system has faltered and become sclerotic. Our commitment to freedom of speech and a free press has been challenged both politically by those who would eschew the First Amendment in our own government and culturally by companies and media organizations that would too quickly sacrifice their own freedoms and independence for the temptations of power.

But we are almost shockingly good for a nation with our strength. We continue to navigate growing our country based on shared ideals rather than bloodlines. We are perhaps the most racially and ethnically tolerant and diverse large country in the world and within a generation most newcomers consider themselves and are considered by others American — not Korean, Indian, British, or Argentine. We are the biggest funder of both international institutions (via our government) and international philanthropy (via the generosity of our people). We use our dominant military power sparingly. We pay for or create most of the world’s medical innovation and technological progress. Perhaps most importantly, through our military might and the might of our allies, we remain this world’s defense against the aggression and violence of those who would strip rather than support the freedoms of others. If you have any doubt of the desirability of Pax Americana, picture America’s military and economic dominance in the hands of China, Russia, or Iran. It would be a radically darker and different world.

There are internal threats to our strength. Our debt and deficit spending could cripple us. Our political dysfunction could erode our marvelous legal institutions—which have held so strong for 250 years. Our people could lose our sense of shared values and our confidence in the goodness of our cause. We could collapse culturally into the type of economic and social stagnation that plagues most developed countries today. We could fragment and Balkanize as a country rather than unify.

But I don’t think we will. We’ve countered these threats before. And time and again this government “of, by, and for the people” has persisted — our freedoms and creativity allowing us to stay two steps ahead of the darker forces threatening our world. With any luck, this unrivaled era of peace, fostered by a union more perfect than Rome ever was, will continue unabated, allowing billions to flourish and prosper.

Have confidence, Americans. Be hopeful. As the United States approaches its quarter millennia, the Pax Americana persists. Our challenge now as ever, is to sustain that remarkable era of peace and prosperity and to keep America — and the world — both good and great.

This is based on a previously published piece in Fox News.

Subscribe now

Share

If you enjoy my writing, please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

This is part of a series of “Love Letters to America.” Prior entries: (1) “Love Letters to America” (2) “America the Beautiful,” (3) “The Wright Brothers and American Optimism,” (4) “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Power of Love.” If you like the series, please share it with others on social or via email.

This article appears today on Fox News.

In August of 1776, the Revolution in America was almost snuffed out. Earlier that year, 44-year-old George Washington had marched 19,000 ragtag soldiers to Manhattan after forcing a British evacuation of Boston in the months before the declaration. In July, the British launched an attack on the colonies with the full weight of the most powerful military in the world. British General William Howe arrived at Staten Island with 400 ships and 32,000 well-trained men.

Washington was outflanked, outgunned and outmaneuvered. On the eve of the Battle of Brooklyn in late August, Washington rallied the troops saying:

The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.

Die, they did. After a brutal assault from Howe’s troops, Washington’s soldiers were forced to execute a panicked retreat into Brooklyn Heights. With their backs pinned against the East River, they were only spared by an act of God, a dense fog, that allowed Washington to escape with 9,000 troops across the river to Manhattan.

They survived, but over the course of the fall, the new army was defeated in White Plains and Manhattan, forcing a retreat to New Jersey and leading to British occupation of New York for the remainder of the war. Morale collapsed. Enlistments expired. Soldiers deserted. The future looked grim.

As we celebrate 250 years of American identity, it’s easy to forget how rocky that path has been. The Revolutionary War lasted six years of active fighting (eight before a formal treaty), with the British on the brink of victory for much of that time. Emerging from the end of the war, the American movement faltered. Our first stab at governance, the Articles of Confederation, was calamitous — leading to a new Constitutional Convention in 1787. Despite electing Washington as president unanimously, the founders fragmented into ruthless factions that threatened to tear the new nation apart.

The British waged war again in 1812, occupying Washington, D.C., and burning the White House in 1814. Slavery, our nation’s greatest failure, persisted for nearly a century, and ended only when a terrible Civil War claimed the lives of some 600,000 to 800,000 Americans. Women were not granted the right to vote until 1920, nearly 150 years after Jefferson had declared all men free. And the late 1800s and early 1900s were plagued by ethnic strife, anarchist movements, assassinations and rising communism that imperiled the fledgling republic at every turn.

But one nation, under God, endured. Washington led the new republic honorably as president then voluntarily relinquished power in a peaceful transition. Patriots fought the British to a stalemate in the War of 1812, and the new nation moved forward. The Founders and their successors conducted fierce political fights but found ways to work together and prove the efficacy of a democratic system.

President Abraham Lincoln reunified the republic, then his successors extended grace to those defeated so that we could move forward together. Opposing ethnic groups assimilated, e pluribus unum. Anarchism and communism retreated. And when the broader world was imperiled, we dispatched millions of brave Americans overseas to fight the evils of fascism beyond our shores. We resisted colonialism and financed the rebirth of enemies and allies alike. We grew the greatest entrepreneurial economy in history. We marched toward equal rights and opportunity for all.

And despite our flaws, on the eve of our 250th birthday, America still stands as a great beacon for freedom around the world, and home to the most prosperous, diverse and innovative people in history.

What’s next? It’s tempting to be pessimistic. We see our problems. Politics and culture are divided. A suffocating national debt. Ideological enemies overseas who care little for human freedom. A people who sometimes seem to have forgotten the principles of this great republic and the sacrifice required to sustain it.

Technological changes that, while they may offer great promise, also threaten disruption on a historically unprecedented scale. In the midst of this, it would be easy to feel like those frightened soldiers pinned against the East River in Brooklyn, unable to envision a future for the American experiment through the fog of our present circumstances.

But those early patriots prevailed. So must we. The world needs it. We are history’s grandest, longest-standing experiment in self-governance and liberty. And far from allowing our dreams to decay in the decades following the declaration, our forebears pursued them courageously and at great cost so that they could one day be closer to coming true. The first 250 years of our nation’s history showed not a managed decline, but the constant progress of human liberty — an imperfect nation full of imperfect people who nonetheless found new ways to grow and to aspire to our hallowed founding ideals.

This will require battling, as the early patriots did to advance this great country and her ideals. Many of these battles will be in our own hearts — fighting the urge to divide rather than unite, to retreat in fear from new dangers rather than to confront them with courage, to shrink from our ideals rather than hold steadfast and advance. And they will be in our states, cities, and communities — where each day we face the challenge of remembering who we are as a nation and looking forward, not backward, to pioneering new expressions of “one nation, under God, indivisible“ even as the challenges of the coming centuries attempt to tear us apart.

As we celebrate America 250, we must believe we are not in the twilight of the revolution, but its early hours. In late August 1776, those beleaguered soldiers in Brooklyn must have been frightened by the fog rolling in. But that peril became their path to hope. They defied the darkness and fought through. The world is foggy now. But that’s never stopped us before. New horizons await our next 250 years — if we have the courage and confidence to move forward, together unafraid.

Share

If you enjoy my writing, please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

There’s some reason for concern. A November 2025 study by Erik Brynjolfsson and researchers at Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab found a 16% decline in early-career employment across the most AI-exposed occupations since late 2022. Unemployment among 20 to 30-year-olds in tech-exposed occupations has risen by nearly 3 percentage points since the start of 2025.

But the case for optimism abounds. Goldman Sachs Research estimates that even if current AI use cases expanded across the entire economy, just 2.5% of U.S. employment would be at risk of displacement. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report projects net job growth of 78 million new positions by 2030, even accounting for the 92 million roles that may be transformed or displaced. And recent research shows entry level jobs hitting an 8-year high.

That picture is far from bleak. But new graduates hoping to excel in the era of artificial intelligence should lean into a barbell strategy—mastering AI on one hand, and leaning into distinctively human talents on the other.

On one end of the barbell, aggressively embrace AI. The graduates who will flourish, particularly in white collar professions, are those who become AI native—not just casual users, but those who deeply integrate AI tools into daily life. Software developers who use AI to develop, test, and document code can dramatically increase their productivity and the value they bring to employers. AI and data science specialists are among the fastest-growing job categories in 2025, and lifelong learning and upskilling are now a top priority for 75% of U.S. employers. And there is almost no office job where AI can’t enhance productivity.

AI is a force multiplier. The graduate who can do the work of three people because she has mastered the tools available to her is not a threat to the workforce. She is what every hiring manager is looking for. Don’t wait for your employer (though abide by their compliance policies). Buy your own licenses. Experiment. Build things. The new workforce belongs to those who have employed a team of AI agents even as their peers await a promotion or permission.

On the other end of the barbell, lean into to the distinctively human characteristics that make you irreplaceable. This is obviously true in the skilled trades, where until robotics progresses dramatically there are a huge number of in-demand jobs only humans can do.

But it’s equally true in an office. AI can replicate codified knowledge — the kind found in textbooks and manuals—but it cannot replicate the most important human traits: intuition, taste, excellent communication, and the ability to build strong relationships, among others. And ironically, as the codified commoditizes, human traits grow in distinction.

New graduates who will stand out are those who can walk into a room and build trust, and who can deliver a sharp in-person presentation that moves people to action. Businesses will value negotiation, persuasion, leadership, mentorship, and inspiration. In a world where emails are AI-generated and assembled by algorithms, the person with genuine charisma, emotional intelligence, and sharp communication will stand out as never before.

Even better, as AI automates the “busy work,” it frees up new graduates to become more productive and focus on tasks that are increasingly complex, enjoyable, and valuable to their organizations. Invest in these abilities as seriously as you invest in your technical toolkit. Join Toastmasters. Write publicly. Take on leadership roles. Volunteer for the hard conversations. Empower your work with AI, but make it your work in ways AI can’t replicate.

Finally, act like an owner from day one. Graduates who will thrive in the AI era are those with a growth mindset who refuse to wait for permission. They don’t sit back and hope their company adapts. They bring solutions. They flag inefficiencies. They propose new workflows. They treat every job, no matter how entry-level, as an opportunity to demonstrate initiative and create value.

The AI era is not the end of human ambition—it may rather unlock it in powerful ways. The barbell strategy is simple: master new technology on one end, and deepen your humanity on the other. Do both, and you won’t just survive the age of artificial intelligence. You’ll own it.

Share

Subscribe

John Coleman is Co-CEO of Sovereign’s Capital and author most recently of Good Money: Six Steps to Building a Financial Life with Purpose (Harvard Business Publishing, 2026). You can follow him on Substack at On Purpose.

This article originally appeared yesterday in the Daily Wire.

Congrats, graduates. After years of hard work, you’ve accomplished your educational ambitions and had some fun along the way. Now you are stepping fully into adult life, seeking to build good lives grounded on a solid financial foundation. You have your work cut out for you.

Many are struggling to accomplish those goals. Americans now carry $1.25 trillion in credit-card debt and $1.7 trillion in student loans, with the average new graduate owing roughly $40,000 against a median starting salary near $52,000 — while credit-card rates sit near record highs at over 22% on average. Housing prices are historically inflated. And many young people are concerned about employment in the age of AI.

More troubling, even those who accumulate a solid net worth find that it doesn’t automatically translate into a life worth living. On average, the world has never been richer. But that prosperity hasn’t translated into fulfillment. Rates of loneliness, unhappiness, anger, and stress are near all-time highs. And groundbreaking work from the Global Flourishing Study — the largest of its kind in history — has found there is an inverse relationship between the prosperity of a society and its composite measures of human flourishing.

So, what is a new graduate to do? As you enter the working world, permit me to offer a little advice based on what I’ve learned writing my new book, “Good Money.”

First, anchor your ambitions in a solid understanding of what makes life worth living: what modern researchers (and ancient scholars) call “human flourishing.”

What is that? Two of the great living social scientists give nearly identical answers. The University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman, through his PERMA framework, and Harvard’s Tyler VanderWeele, who directs the university’s Human Flourishing Program, offer a series of similar ingredients for a flourishing life. They include things like happiness and positive emotions, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, accomplishment, engagement, character and virtue, and close social relationships. These are intrinsically good things and worth pursuing for their own sake.

Money is conspicuously absent but not irrelevant. VanderWeele names “financial and material stability” as the enabling condition of flourishing, the platform on which the rest is built. You cannot cultivate friendships while panicking about rent, or do meaningful work while drowning in credit card interest. Money can enable flourishing, but it isn’t intrinsically good; it has its limits.

Decades of research have confirmed this view. Nobel laureates Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, in a study of more than 450,000 Americans, found that emotional well-being rose with income to about $75,000 a year — roughly $105,000 today — and then plateaued. Beyond that level, the good life is not dependent on finances, but on the inherent human goods mentioned before.

So, the question for new graduates isn’t “How do I get rich?” but “How do I build the platform that frees me to flourish — and then deploy my money in service of that flourishing?”

To develop that initial financial freedom, embrace a few simple practices. Save and invest now. Compound earnings are the closest thing in finance to magic. Invest $10,000 today at 22 in an S&P 500 index fund earning the long-run historical return of about 10%, never add another dollar, and you will have roughly $740,000 by retirement. Wait until 32, and you forfeit two-thirds of that future. Open a Roth IRA. Take the full 401(k) match. Automate it.

As you do so, avoid “bad” debt. Nearly 38% of Americans earning over $100,000 still carry credit-card balances — lifestyle creep does not stop at six figures. My rule is simple: never let your net worth go negative. Pay your card off every month, and borrow only for things, like a mortgage, that may hold their value.

To avoid debt and invest consistently, consume modestly. We are often tempted to consume “things” we think will make us happy, often depleting our resources to do so, only to find the thrill of acquisition is fleeting while its pursuit never ends. Psychologists call this the hedonic treadmill: each new apartment, phone, and car delivers a brief thrill, then fades. And we then run faster to acquire more. A recent Empower survey found that no matter how much Americans earn, “rich” is always a salary band or two above their own. And consumption goods that feel good in the moment rarely yield lasting satisfaction. Consider setting a financial finish line — a lifestyle above which you will never live — and stepping off the financial treadmill and into a race you can actually win.

With a prudent financial foundation established, direct your attention to making every way in which you encounter money — earning, spending, giving, investing, and saving — align with what we know to be true about flourishing.

Earn with purpose. Do not take a job for the paycheck alone. Pew Research finds that only 17% of Americans mention their work when asked what gives their life meaning — a quiet tragedy, considering we spend a third of our waking lives there. Find work that uses your gifts and serves something you actually care about. Purpose and prosperity are partners, not enemies.

Spend on what will actually make you happier. As noted previously, “stuff” doesn’t lead to lasting happiness. Buy the bare minimum of consumer goods and dedicate what you have to enabling the core tenets of flourishing — investing in your physical, mental, and spiritual health; purchasing life-changing experiences; and investing in relationships with others.

Give generously — and start now. A landmark 2013 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology examined 136 countries and found that prosocial spending — giving money to help others — boosts happiness in rich and poor nations alike, in sums as small as $5. Commit a percentage of every paycheck before lifestyle creep convinces you that generosity is for later. It isn’t. Lifelong generosity is one of the two or three most critical components of a flourishing life — for you and others.

And finally, when you invest, invest for impact. Over the next 50 years, you will deploy more capital than you can imagine — into companies, communities, and the great human projects of your time. Treat your portfolio as an extension of your values, not just a number on a screen.

The poet Mary Oliver once asked, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” The Class of 2026 has been handed a rare gift: fifty years of compound time, four or five decades of meaningful work, and clear evidence of what actually leads to a flourishing life.

Use it. Build the platform. Then build the life. Money cannot buy your flourishing — but earned with purpose, spent with care, given with joy, and invested with intent, it will clear every obstacle in its way.

Audio version of this article

If you enjoy my writing, please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

This is part of a series of “Love Letters to America.” Prior entries: (1) “Love Letters to America” (2) “America the Beautiful,” (3) “The Wright Brothers and American Optimism.” If you like the series, please share it with others on social or via email.

Of all the men and women who have lived in the past century, perhaps the man most deserving of consideration as a “founding father” is Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s become cliché to refer to Dr. King when speaking of Civil Rights, and in some quarters it’s even considered backwards, a way of highlighting “acceptable” heroes of the movement and overlooking its more controversial figures.

Yet we cannot truly reflect on America’s founding ideals without properly considering the man who helped extend those ideals to all Americans, and articulated our principles, hopes, fears, and failures as eloquently as any person in history. Central to his vision was the indomitable virtue of love and the poetic imagination that inspired a nation to pursue it.

Reverend King, like the savior who inspired him, called us to “love one another.” It wasn’t easy. American slavery was not only a monstrous injustice to those millions of individuals it savaged, but to the very soul of a republic founded on “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Its horrors ravaged the new republic for nearly 100 years (after a century and a half of spread in the colonies)—subjecting millions to servitude and violence and causing a brutal civil war that cost as many as 750,000 Americans their lives. Even after this victory and the formal emancipation of black Americans, legal and cultural oppression continued for a century more. Some of our friends and neighbors living today experienced the pains of Jim Crow, and it was in that fraught cultural moment in the late 1950s and early 1960s that Doctor King arose.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in my city, Atlanta, in 1929 to Martin Luther King, Sr. (then Michael King, Sr.—a name he changed after visiting the original Martin Luther’s home country of Germany). The younger King was a product of a father and grandfather who led the city’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and attended the legendary Morehouse College, both paths he would eventually pursue. His grandmother told him Bible stories, and he memorized scripture and hymns at a young age. He entered Morehouse at only 15, and chose to enter ministry 3 years later, pursuing graduate programs in religion and theology. He married his wife, Coretta, in 1953, and was called to lead a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954 at the age of 25.

King had already embraced the power of non-violent protest, but catapulted to become the nation’s top spokesman for Civil Rights by leading the Montgomery bus boycotts in 1955 and 1956. America has a history of raising up young leaders at critical moments. In 1776, Alexander Hamilton was 21, James Madison 25, and Thomas Jefferson 33. How fitting, then, that King was only 28 when he and like-minded compatriots formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, effectively charting a “Declaration of Independence” for Black America as well. There was no better advocate. The SCLC drew part of its inspiration from the crusades of Dr. King’s friend, Billy Graham, and more from the legacy and strength of America’s black church. And at every turn King’s demands and vision for America were an uncompromising but lyrical expression of his savior’s command “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Reverend King was stabbed, beaten, and arrested multiple times. He was opposed by powerful forces from Georgia governor Ernest Vandiver to Birmingham police chief Bull Connor. He endured bomb threats, the Ku Klux Klan, and political opposition. His followers often suffered the same or worse, facing high pressure water hoses, armed police, dogs, vicious beatings, and prison. He understandably faced pressure by some in his movement to fight violence with violence, but he never yielded—consistently countering hate with love. The non-violent movement he led gradually wore down those who opposed him. He won over Union leaders, politicians, clergy, and every day Americans. Working with legislators and President Johnson, he spurred the passage of the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, winning the Nobel Peace Prize later that year at the age of only 35.

One of his most lasting legacies, however, were the beautiful speeches and letters he wrote, standing alongside the Declaration and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural as some of the most powerful political messages in American history. These works call for justice, and are infused with hope, faith, and love. From a Birmingham prison cell, he chastised fellow clergy and called them to stand by the teachings of Jesus, saying:

I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

And of course, on August 28, 1963, he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and offered one of the most beautiful Christian and American speeches in history, presenting his country with not merely a demand, but a dream:

So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

Jesus once outlined his great commandments to the Pharisees: to love God and love others. Lincoln called us to finish the work of the Civil War “With malice toward none, with charity for all…” And King called us to a vision of justice and love for all people, a completion of the promise of the Declaration, nearly 200 years in the making.

Over its 250-year history, America’s greatest people and movements have been inspired by love—the central virtue of its Judeo-Christian ethic. Our founders fought not just for self-interest but out of a belief in the dignity of their fellow citizens, and a love for each other and the ideals for which they fought. Our greatest early American poet, Walt Whitman, waxed eloquently about his love for America and her people in works like Leaves of Grass. The great American novelist, Mark Twain, for all his poking and prodding fundamentally loved the people and places about which he wrote, a care so evident in his greatest works. And our noblest political leaders from Lincoln to Reagan led with messages of hope, faith, and love—not fear. When millions of American service members poured overseas in two World Wars, they were ignited to do so out of a love for our country, and those who shared our democratic ideals overseas. And even today, the best of American Patriotism is not a disdain for others, but a passionate love for the historical brilliance and hopefulness of this country in which we are blessed to live.

Reverend King was brutally assassinated on a Memphis balcony on April 4, 1968, before attending a service at which he’d requested the hymn, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” to be played. As two men he admired, Lincoln and Jesus, he was martyred for his vision; but his life and words outlasted his physical body and inspire movements to this day. The Founding Fathers laid out a vision for a just society. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helped his fellow Americans realize that vision more perfectly—with poetry, imagination, and a steadfast dedication to the idea that, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” May we ever embrace that wisdom and grace. And may our next 250 years reflect even more perfectly the two great commandments on which Dr. King’s ministry was based.

Share

If you enjoy my writing, please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

This is part of a series of “Love Letters to America.” Prior entries: (1) “Love Letters to America” (2) “America the Beautiful.” If you like the series, please share it with others on social or via email.

Also HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! Mom is the most important role in the world. I’m grateful to all the moms out there who make our world so beautiful!

Orville and Wilbur Wright were two of seven children born to clergyman Milton Wright in the ashes of the American Civil War. It was a time of renewed optimism and hope for the country, one of the most innovative eras in history producing entrepreneurs like Henry Ford, John Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie.

But the Wright brothers were unlikely world-changers. Milton’s job as a Bishop in the Church of the United Brethren of Christ kept the Wright family on the move—living in 12 cities before resettling in Orville’s birthplace of Dayton, OH, in 1884 (13 years after their original stint there around the time of Orville’s birth). Orville could be a challenging kid, once expelled from a school he attended. But the boys possessed a natural curiosity. And they began dreaming of flight when their father brought a toy helicopter home to their place in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1878.

Click Below for the Audio of this Article

Their dreams were millennia in the making. The ancient Greek’s told the story of Icarus, a man who escaped captivity on wings of wax that melted when he flew too close to the sun. Turkish inventor Abu Nasr al-Jawhari jumped to his death in a flying contraption of his own design in the 11^th century, a fate replayed by many aerial aspirants over time. Leonardo DaVinci was obsessed with aviation, drawing designs for flying machines that never made it into production. In 1783, Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier were the first to succeed with the invention of the hot air balloon—their first passengers a sheep, rooster, and duck. And by 1891, German engineer Otto Lillienthal designed and built the first human glider, a work on which the Wright brothers’ later innovations would be based.

Fittingly, the true fulfillment of man’s generational dream of human flight was realized in the most hopeful and unbounded nation in history. Neither Orville nor Wilbur formally graduated high school. Wilbur’s athletic aspirations were ruined by a future serial killer knocking out his teeth in a hockey game in 1885 or 1886, after which he cared for his terminally ill mother. Eventually Orville and Wilbur, began working together designing a printing press in 1889 and hopping into bicycle sales and repair in 1892. But soon they knew that flight, once inspired by that little toy helicopter, was their ultimate goal.

Since others had solved the problems of an internal combustion engine and glider wings, the brothers’ key challenge was control. Launching such a vehicle without it assured the catastrophic fulfillment of the Icarus tale, so the brothers built on their understanding of bicycles to design control mechanisms for an engine powered glider. By 1900, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the brothers were testing their design for a glider first, unmanned, as a type of kite. And then, Wilbur hopped into the seat of the little glider they’d made.

Imagine sitting in the seat of that flying machine the first time. Did Wilbur’s mind turn to those like Abu Nasr al-Jawhari who had once attempted the impossible and died? Did he question his mathematics or the physical engineering of the plane? Did he pray? Did his heart race? Wilbur Wright was in a flimsy vehicle designed by two self-educated former printing press operators in a field far from medical care or safety. But he believed. Those beliefs were rewarded. The plane flew—short distances at first. Longer in 1901. And by December 17, 1903, Wilbur Wright guided his plane 852 feet over the sand for 59 seconds, the first powered and sustained flight under complete pilot control.

Over the coming decades, the Wright Brothers personal courage, unbridled optimism, and endless ingenuity transformed the world. By 1909 they gave the U.S. military its first airplane. The first commercial flight occurred on January 1, 1914 in Tampa, Florida. By World War I, planes were flying reconnaissance and the first fighters were introduced. Progress only accelerated from there.

For thousands of years the dream of flight seemed hopeless. In the 66 years between 1903 and 1969, American optimists drove us from the first 59 seconds of flight on a sandy beach to landing three fearless American astronauts nearly 240,000 miles away on the barren expanse of the moon.

America is a nation of optimists, innovators, and entrepreneurs. It was founded on unbounded horizons and unleashed human creativity. Its government and laws were crafted to free men and women to chase their wildest dreams and to reward them for their successes. Its culture, though chaotic and unpredictable, helped unleash the most remarkable era of human advancement in history. And its optimists, grounded in the fabric a nation conceived in liberty and self-governance, never learned to doubt their possibilities or themselves. The U.S. is roughly 4% of the world’s global population and 46% of its venture capital investment. More than half of Unicorns—those companies reaching a $1 bn valuation—have been headquartered in the United States. We are roughly half of the world’s medical innovation. And Americans remain the most optimistic people in the world—ultimately pioneering everything from the telephone and the automobile to post-it notes and the internet.

That innovation has led the U.S. to be more than one quarter of the world’s economy. It has allowed the United States to innovate (and pay for) the most powerful military in history. But more importantly, it has transformed humanity…with American agricultural innovations lifting billions out of poverty, American healthcare innovations savings hundreds of millions of lives, American strength helping to vanquish the evil empires of the 20^th century ensuring a “Pax Americana” around the world, and American opportunity drawing hopeful millions to our shores every year.

Of course, there are heroic optimists and innovators everywhere. Talent is universal, even if opportunity is not. Hope is a human condition. Courage has been displayed by millions in every nation on earth and throughout history. And the dream of America is not American dominance but the rise of all people through the spread of the rule of law, the politics of self-governance, and a culture of hope and hard work. American optimism and ingenuity have been powered by those newly drawn to her shores as much as native-born citizens.

But America—today, yesterday, and tomorrow—is unique. When Orville and Wilbur pivoted from making presses and bicycles to believing high school dropouts could solve the mystery of human flight, they were likely not doing so while reflecting on the American idea. But in their hearts and souls they believed anything was possible and that nothing in their surroundings would ever seek to hold them back. And that belief—so embedded in the culture of their home—was the wind at their backs. American Poet Emily Dickinson once referred to hope “as a thing with feathers.” It was precisely those plumes of hope, as much as their engineering ingenuity, that allowed the Wright Brothers to take flight.

“On Purpose” is free! If you enjoy my writing, please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

This is part of a series of “Love Letters to America.” Prior entry here.

On June 30, 1864, in the midst of the nation’s darkest hour, President Abraham Lincoln quietly signed a piece of legislation that would give birth to one of America’s most beautiful legacies. After lobbying by conservationists like Galen Clark and Senator John Conness in California, Congress passed and Lincoln signed the “Yosemite Grant of 1864,” setting aside the wilderness of the breathtaking Yosemite Valley in California for preservation and public use. This small flicker of splendor in the midst of our great national despair would grow brighter in the coming years as a movement to preserve America’s beauty spread rapidly.

Lincoln’s spiritual successor, Ulysses S. Grant, expanded that legacy in 1872, officially designating Yellowstone as our first National Park—a result of the tireless preservation efforts of people like Ferdinand V. Hayden and the great artists William Henry Jackson and Thomas Moran. Later, Teddy Roosevelt was central to this movement. Often called the “Conservation President,” Roosevelt used his presidential power to create five new National Parks vastly expanding federal land conservation; and by signing the “Antiquities Act” of 1906 laid the foundation for he and future Presidents to proclaim national monuments with greater ease.

President Wilson followed this with the creation of the National Park Service in 1916. And American legends like John Muir explored and explained these parks to a watchful nation. Today there are 63 national parks in America, covering more than 52 million acres, and welcoming nearly 100 million visitors per year. These are complemented by state parks, national monuments, and other landholdings stretching from Cadillac Mountain in Maine to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska and the tropical rainforests of Hawaii.

America is a nation of ideas. But it is also one of the most beautiful and expansive countries in the world. “America the Beautiful,” long regarded as one of our unofficial national anthems waxes eloquently on this subject with its awe-struck lyrics:

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

What a land it is. America is more resource rich than almost any nation in the world. In California, you’ll find the stunning beaches of San Diego; the tallest, oldest, and largest trees on earth among the Sequoias, Redwoods, and Bristlecone Pines; the microclimates of the San Francisco Bay; and a vast interior that produces fruit for the entire country.

In Kansas, you’ll find fertile plains that stretch hundreds of miles, part of the ecosystem that inspired Western Settlement and has provided untold food for an endlessly growing nation—prosperity that is the envy of the world. Along the great chain of the Rocky Mountains, stretching 3,000 miles and encompassing 6 states live America’s aspen colonies—one of which is likely the largest living organism on earth.

The South boasts ancient swamps and coast lines. New England has rocky shores, pods of whales, and endless forests. The Midwest is home to some of the largest and most beautiful lakes in the world, and Texas and Oklahoma boast immense stores of oil and gas that power the world. Americans have the blue grass of Kentucky, wild expanse of the Appalachian Mountains, sweltering heat of Death Valley, brutal cold of Alaska, the endless depths of the Grand Canyon, winding waterways of the Mississippi River, and fertile farms of Iowa.

The distance between Anchorage, Alaska, and Key West, Florida is more than 5,000 miles—roughly the distance from Caracas to Berlin or Cairo to Shanghai. Our tallest peak is more than 20,000 feet above sea level, our lowest point nearly 300 feet below.

Fittingly, the places America is best known for are a reflection of its people: wild, unbounded, and free. America has great cities—places like New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and Washington. But in reality, they pale in comparison to some of the great cities of Europe and Asia, steeped in classic architecture and millennia of history. Jerusalem, a home to the three great monotheistic religions in the world boasting 4,000 years of history, will always inspire with its spiritual depth. The great cities of Asia, places like Tokyo, Beijing, and Mumbai, host tens of millions of people, towering and expanding almost endlessly. And there are, to be sure, other wild places—in Latin America, Africa, Australia, and every other region of the world that inspire.

But America’s wild beauty is something unique—her people and landscapes impossibly diverse and wonderfully untamed. She’s subject to nature’s ravages through hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, and blizzards in a way few nations are.

But our citizens and our places have been shaped by those trials with strength, resilience, and the scars. The tribal people of early America were deeply, spiritually linked these lands. And her original European settlers—dissidents, refugees, and pioneers—risked everything for the mysterious Western expanses that lay before them. Untamed American beauty has inspired great works of literature, provoked courageous exploration, allowed for enormous prosperity and growth, secured the U.S. from those who would harm her, and shaped a fiercely independent Federalist system and people who value freedom and new frontiers above almost anything else.

Some of our greatest Americans—from Lincoln to Roosevelt—had the foresight to preserve this nation’s beauty for all her citizens. And our national spirit has always been inspired by the challenges and treasures of this beautiful, wide-open nation we call home. America is beautiful, almost impossibly so. As we celebrate 250 years of political history and billions of years that formed the land we love, may we preserve that beauty for millennia to come.

Share

Please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved my country. When I was born my father worked as a rodeo cowboy, my mom cut hair, and we lived in a single-wide trailer that sent us hustling to the movie theatre for shelter during storms. My mom’s Chevy Chevette was beat up and didn’t have air conditioning. My dad’s old yellow truck had a hole in the floor through which I would watch the road whizzing past as we drove. But there wasn’t a day I saw anything in life as impossible. I was taught that my identity and hope was founded in my God, who loved me. I was told that I was blessed to be an American, where anything and everything was possible. No dream was out of reach. I was reminded my country was built by and for underdogs like me.

It was. We all know the stories, but it’s easy to forget. The Pilgrims who founded New England first left Old England for the Netherlands in 1608 fleeing religious persecution and then fled their new home 12 years later to escape the desperate poverty in which they lived. Many early migrants shared their story. Europe, at that time, was a place of rigid social hierarchy, economic depression, and political violence. European countries were often at war, and it was the poor who suffered most. In Russia the serfs were practically enslaved. In England, the poor served landed gentry and faced a ceiling—defined at birth—for opportunity. Across the continent, most countries had state-mandated religions and monarchical structures that limited innovation, opportunity, mobility, and hope.

Despite these conditions, it was shocking these oppressed people ventured out into the “new” world. America offered opportunity but also danger. The journey was almost indescribably perilous. Ships sank. Colonies were often devastated by disease, famine, and violence. What awaited these settlers was hard work and high odds—but also, critically, freedom. The masses came to America not because it would be easy. But because this new adventure offered something their old homes couldn’t: possibility--a future crafted by their will and determination and not constrained by their past.

Because this new world cared less for a person’s lineage or title, the talents of the people who came were unleashed. It was deeply imperfect, to be sure. The native inhabitants were too often abused. The evil of slavery was imported to colonies early, crushing millions of innocent lives and compromising the fledgling nation’s stated principles for centuries to come. Women weren’t politically or legally equal. But these problems with America were also problems everywhere else at the time—whether Europe, Asia, or Africa. It was what was different that made the new nation so unique.

The upstart country was defined by upstart people. Benjamin Franklin was born poor, one of seventeen children. As a teenager he left home and hustled his way to a printing press job. And with no limitation on his future but his talents, he became a business owner, an ambassador, a postmaster, a famous writer, and one of the most respected founding fathers of the most important country in history. Alexander Hamilton was a brilliant orphan who was shipped from his home in the Caribbean to the mainland colonies to study at King’s College, and at 21 he was fomenting a revolution that would see him shape a nation’s politics, laws, financial system, and literature.

Frederick Douglass was born into oppressive slavery in Maryland. But he was brilliant, ferocious, and resilient and went on the shape our history in a way that immortalized him and offered eventual freedom to millions of other enslaved men and women. Time and again, America gave people of every nation, religion, race, creed, and ability the chance to change their lives and their world.

Poor and middle-class kids like Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan became presidents. Immigrants like Elon Musk and Andrew Carnegie shaped and created industries. And hard-nosed women from Harriet Tubman to Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt fought their way to greatness.

They could because this beautiful country was more than just a land and a people—though it is those things. We are blessed with remarkable geography and natural resources, and we are a place of almost unimaginable beauty. Our people are strong. But that is not what we are in our soul. For the soul of America was always an idea—or a collection of ideas. You could make it here regardless of where you came from, but the price of admission was steadfast belief in and adherence to the things that bound us together—liberty, equality before law, dignity, opportunity, hope, hard work, entrepreneurialism, independence, optimism, generosity. The values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution and in the heart and soul of every pioneer became our national identity. And the strength of that identity made the identities our forebears warred over in Europe less important. The beating heart of our country is a dream—as so eloquently stated by the irrepressible Martin Luther King, Jr.—a dream resting on the firm foundations of the millions who have made it real.

My story is an American story—one only possible in this great nation. I believe in it. I believe in my country and her founding and her people. As America approaches its 250^th birthday, we are occasionally losing sight of that special heritage, and the remarkable path before us.

We shouldn’t. For, despite our age and our scars, America remains the greatest beacon of freedom, opportunity, and self-governance in the world. Our forebears created modern democracy. Then, when the world needed them, they fought valiantly and died to protect and expand those freedoms globally. We are the world’s oldest, large-scale experiment in a government “of, by, and for” the people—the radical idea that citizens should be governed by laws and consensus not kings. We are one of the most racially and religiously diverse places on earth. We are still a quarter of the world’s economy and the mightiest military force in history—a behemoth that has held off communism and Nazism and every violent anti-democratic movement for a century without fail. We’ve made errors, sometimes grave, along the way. But to paraphrase President Bill Clinton, there’s never been something wrong with America that what’s right with America couldn’t fix.

America at 250 is worth celebrating. And reflecting on our past and present might be a fitting way to look forward to the next quarter millennia our generation, and future generations will chart. Over the next few months, I’ll offer a few “love letters” to this country, her people, and the ideas that have shaped her. It’s a big birthday for the American Republic. If we are to reach another 250 years, those who care for this country will have to care for her and help her aspire to new horizons. We’ll have to carry forward the legacy of those who got us here, and commit diligently to keeping America great.

Share

Please consider purchasing my new book, Good Money. If you’ve already bought a copy, stop by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or goodreads and post a review.

I’ve been a writer all my life. I’ve always enjoyed translating ideas into words and communicating them to others. I’ve had the privilege of writing hundreds of articles, reviews, essays, poems, and short stories. And I’ve been fortunate to publish four non-fiction books (one with Crossway; three with HBR Good Money, The HBR Guide to Crafting Your Purpose, and Passion & Purpose) as well as one novel (Miracles).

I frequently get asked for advice on how to write and publish a book. There are many excellent guides to writing well (particularly Stephen King’s On Writing and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style). I am, admittedly, not as great a writer as these men; nor am I a professional editor, agent, or publisher. But I have at least some experience in this process that I’m grateful to offer with those caveats on my own limitations.

Here are my tips for writing your own book. I’ll focus on non-fiction, though much applies to fiction too—it’s admittedly quite different with its own eccentricities.

Read. A lot.

It’s hard to be a good writer if you are not a reader. Before you ever write a book, you should have read hundreds (or thousands!). Avid readers get to know the right way to string words together and create compelling passages. They know what’s useful in different genres. They accumulate great stories and anecdotes that can be woven into their writing to make it rich and varied. They know what makes a book overly long or short, tiresome or cliché.

Articles are great. But there is no substitute for book-length writing. Read fiction, philosophy, history, business, self-improvement, poetry, and biography. Mix a thorough knowledge of the classics with a real familiarity with contemporary writing which can help you to understand what appeals to readers today.

Set reading goals for the year (e.g., 20 books across 5 genres) and join a book group to discuss what makes great writing work. Good reading habits make for good writing habits.

Don’t start with a book

Writing a book is wickedly hard. Starting with a blank page and stringing 70,000+ words together (or more rightly, 120,000 words that you edit down to 60,000-70,000) is the equivalent of running an ultra-marathon without ever having entered a 5k.

Practice first with shorter pieces—articles, essays, or reviews. Ideally publish them, which accustoms you to the standards of editors and readers; a Substack or newsletter works too. Writing shorter pieces does double duty: it sharpens your craft and lets you test ideas that may one day become a book. Almost every book I’ve written began as shorter pieces, and the feedback made my longer-form ideas more effective.

Draft a proposal first

If you are writing for submission to a publisher, you will eventually have to write a proposal—a 10–20-page document that fleshes out your concept, samples your writing style, and lets publishers gauge whether your idea has merit.

I’ve also found it a remarkably effective tool for testing the ideas myself. I’ve published 5 books but probably written 15 proposals, only 6-7 of which I’ve actually submitted. The discipline of writing the proposal helped me shape strong projects and drop weak ones early—saving time I’d have wasted writing books that didn’t have merit.

Different genres and publishers have different proposal formats, but I’ve found a few common elements that have been useful in my own writing:

1. Hook: 2-3 sentence description of the work designed to hook readers (and editors).

2. Synopsis: 1-2 page description of the book that outlines its core focus in greater detail.

3. Origins and background of the project: Where did this project come from and why, based on your experience, are you the right person to author it.

4. Main themes/central message: What is the central message and core themes you will flesh out in the book?

5. Audience: Who is the audience for the book, broad enough to make it marketable but specific enough to give your writing focus? Who is the ideal reader and how many of those readers are there?

6. Benefits to readers: What will readers learn from this book and how will it benefit their lives in a way that make them champions of the book with others?

7. Key companies/people cited: Who are the key researchers, leaders, and organizations you intend to interview/engage with in developing the draft (this is great up-front planning for your own research approach)?

8. Competing books and how yours is different: What similar books are on the market, how have they performed (well, preferably), and how is your book different and likely to stand out?

9. Marketing plan and aspirations: What are your goals for the book and how do you intend to market it? How many copies can you reasonably sell? How can your personal network (socials, email lists, organizations) activate it? And how do you intend to market it upon publication through writing, podcasts, radio, TV, public speaking, socials, or other means.

10. Length: Word length of the final draft.

11. Delivery date: Date for final draft (publishers require this but it’s also good for you to think this through and set your own deadlines, even if self-publishing).

12. Author bio and connection to topic: What is your bio and why are you the person to write this book?

13. Chapter outline: A list of the chapters in the book from introduction to conclusion with a brief 3-4 sentence synopsis of each chapter. This is incredibly helpful in drafting as it gives you a writing plan to chunk what can be a big, overwhelming project into smaller slices. This is “hypothesis-driven” and will change over time but gives you a great starting point.

14. Sample chapters: Two sample chapters that allow you to test out your chapter outline above and demonstrate to publishers the quality of your writing.

15. Manuscript development plan: How do you intend to structure your writing process? This might involve 20-30 interviews up front, independent research or time for literature reviews, and other steps that show the publisher a seriousness in approach and offer you a writing plan.

In non-fiction, this finished proposal is often enough to shop the idea with agents or publishers who may then commission the full manuscript (fiction is different, often requiring a full manuscript for a new writer). It also serves as your drafting plan and a test of the concept and ideas. If you finish the proposal and are no longer confident in the project, it might be right to set it aside. If you’re more excited, this gives you the raw material to push forward.

Find the right software program

I write articles in Word. But I find Word really bad for writing books. You’re stuck choosing between separate chapter files (hard to cross-reference) or one giant manuscript (hard to navigate).

For a project of 30,000 words or more, special writing software is well worth the investment. I use Scrivener, an affordable tool built for longer projects that handles research notes, chapter outlines, and easy navigation. Using it probably cuts my drafting time by 30–40 percent and makes the writing itself better.

Determine your best writing rhythm

Full-time writers like Stephen King often have dedicated times and places they write every day. Some serious part-time writers (like John Grisham when he was starting and still practicing law), follow the same pattern, often writing before work in the morning or after work at night. Many writers suggest the practice of writing every day, and I’m sure that’s good advice.

The truth for me? I have a busy job and four kids, so the “write at the same time every day” practice has never worked for me. I write in chunks when inspiration and readiness align, and I prefer longer blocks—4–5 hours—over daily 1–2 hour sessions, because I find it harder to get into flow in short spurts. When I’m really working on a book, my dear wife will then give me a few 2-3 day weekends throughout the year where I can prepare for them in advance and write as much as 12-14 hours per day.

Which habits are better for you? I have no idea! That’s why practice in the art of writing is important. Observe when you are most insightful and most productive and embrace the rhythm that is best for you.

Get the words out first, then edit

One of the biggest mistakes many writers make is trying to write and edit at the same time, and to feel the need to do everything in chronological order. I find that makes drafting burdensome and intolerably slow. The hardest part of writing is staring at a blank page and creating something from nothing.

My advice is to get rough drafts out rough. Sit down and pour words onto the page as quickly as possible, only taking time to link sources or fill in examples as they come to you. Don’t worry about consistency, copy editing, or perfect wording. Feel free to hop between sections non-sequentially in your book, writing a later chapter in your outline before an earlier chapter if you are more ready for it and inspiration strikes. Editing is much easier than drafting. Get tens of thousands of words out; then comb through them to make them crisper, more compelling, and more consistent.

Leverage artificial intelligence appropriately

Here’s the truth—AI now writes pretty well. Many writers use it as a shortcut—fine in some contexts—but AI is not you. I still draft every word of anything I publish, and many publications require you to attest the same.

Hold to that. Your unique voice will be better. Your work will be yours.

I do, however, use AI in a few ways. For research, it surfaces examples and stories faster than a Google search. If you prompt it to include links to underlying source material you can then click through to the underlying texts to read them fully and gauge their fit with your writing (never, ever, link to research or examples you haven’t actually read).

I also use it for initial copy-editing feedback so I send cleaner drafts to my real editors, and to “fact check” that I haven’t missed key alternative perspectives or misstated something in drafting. Neither use compromises your voice or ideas—they just help you present them with greater clarity.

****

Writing is awesome. If you have ever considered writing—whether it’s keeping a journal, writing a newsletter, publishing Op-Eds, or writing a book—I hope you will give it a shot. And I hope this brief guidance is useful—just one amateur perspective from someone who’s been down this path.

Support my writing: Buy Good Money

This article was posted yesterday at the Daily Wire. Chag sameach and Happy Easter to all my readers!

In December of last year, Michael Dell made headlines by announcing a gift of more than $6 billion to encourage families to take advantage of the new Trump Accounts, and more recently announced a platform through which others can join those efforts. This is an incredible act of generosity and a way for more people to get involved. But unfortunately, it’s counter to broader trends in American society.

Americans are more prosperous than at any point in history, yet strangely less happy and less generous with others. Household wealth has soared, consumer spending is strong, and most Americans enjoy material comforts unimaginable a century ago. Yet we give a paltry 2% of GDP each year, and as many as 4 in ten Americans give nothing at all.

This decline is more than a financial trend; it is a cultural warning sign. Generosity is one of the strongest predictors of human flourishing — as or more reliable than income, consumption, or status. When a wealthy nation and its citizens eschew generosity, it signals not only a shift in behavior but a deeper erosion in meaning, connection, and civic health.

A more generous America would also be a happier America. The gifts we give — of money, time, and attention — create the bonds that hold communities together and the meaning that sustains individual lives. In a prosperous nation still searching for fulfillment, generosity may be the most powerful investment we can make.

I’ve spent years researching how money can enable rather than undermine human flourishing, a topic I explore in my new book, Good Money. Of all the ways we use money — earning, spending, giving, and investing — giving is the one most directly tied to the good life. Yet American generosity is stagnating.

The root of this problem lies in a modern paradox. We are materially richer, but we feel less secure. Psychological studies show that as incomes rise, expectations rise even faster. People compare themselves upward — to colleagues, neighbors, or the wealthy strangers they encounter online — and begin to doubt they have “enough” to be generous. When “enough” is always somewhere just beyond the horizon, giving always feels premature.

This mindset robs us twice. It deprives our communities of the resources they need to thrive, and it deprives us personally of one of the most reliable sources of lasting happiness. The data is clear. Spending money on others produces more joy than spending on ourselves. Generous people report stronger relationships, greater purpose, and even better physical health. And these individuals tend to live longer, experience less stress, and feel more connected to those around them.

So why do we give so little? One reason is that we expect generosity to come from inspiration — a moment of emotional clarity or overwhelming gratitude. But inspiration is fleeting. Generosity, like physical fitness or skill development, requires practice and intention. This is why religious communities that practice “tithing” (setting aside a portion of income each month for giving) are meaningfully more generous than others. Pre-commitment to giving, like deciding in advance to give a percentage of our income, makes giving more seamless.

Another obstacle is the belief that small acts do not matter. Many people assume that unless they give substantially, their contribution is insignificant. Yet history and research prove otherwise. Consistent small gifts, compounded over years, have built hospitals, fed families, supported scholarship students, and sustained countless local nonprofits.

The first step toward greater generosity is to treat it as a purposeful part of financial life rather than an afterthought. The most generous households are not always the wealthiest; they are the ones who decide in advance that giving will be part of who they are. When generosity becomes an intentional commitment, such as saving for retirement or paying down debt, it takes root and grows.

Make giving an extension of identity rather than an obligation. People derive deeper satisfaction when their giving reflects the stories and values that shape them: faith communities, alma maters, local charities, youth programs, or causes tied to their passions or experiences.

Giving has a profound and lasting impact on families, and those in which generosity becomes a shared practice flourish. When parents involve children in choosing causes, volunteering together, or discussing charitable decisions, generosity becomes part of family culture. These habits shape children for life, grounding them in gratitude, empathy, and shared responsibility.

And generosity extends beyond money. Some of the most meaningful giving involves time, mentorship, encouragement, and hospitality. When finances feel tight — as they do for many — these forms of generosity remain powerful. Time spent visiting an elderly neighbor, coaching a youth team, teaching a skill, or simply showing up for others can change lives, including our own.

Ultimately, the best time to start living a life of generosity is now. Waiting for the perfect time is the surest way to ensure generosity never becomes a central part of our lives. The truth is that almost no one feels entirely ready to give. But those who begin anyway discover quickly that generosity does not diminish them. It expands them.

Purchase "Good Money"

Between roughly 1500 and 1914, two revolutions changed the world. The first was the Scientific Revolution, led by figures such as Copernicus, Galileo, and Isaac Newton. It pioneered new methods of inquiry that helped lay the foundation for modern science, technological innovation, and the broader spread of education and literacy.

Beginning in the mid-18th century, the Industrial Revolution followed. It began largely with new developments in textiles and then expanded into steam power, iron, transportation, chemicals, and mechanized production. Over time, it transformed the global economy in previously unimaginable ways.

By Maddison Project estimates, global average GDP per capita roughly doubled between 1820 and 1900, more economic progress than in the prior 1,800 years combined. Over the longer run GDP per capita increased by about a factor of ten between 1820 and 2010. The percentage of the world’s population living in extreme poverty was more than 80% in 1800. In 2025 it was 10%.

This era saw the spread of the steam engine, modern textile machinery, railroads, steelmaking breakthroughs, the telegraph and telephone, mechanized agriculture, and eventually the automobile and modern oil extraction. Food, clothing, housing materials, and consumer goods became cheaper and more abundant for many people. Medical science accelerated as well: Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccine dates to 1796; germ theory was established in the 19th century; and penicillin was discovered in 1928, igniting the development of modern antibiotics.

Human life changed dramatically. Global life expectancy rose from about 32 years in 1900 to 71 years in 2021. Urbanization pulled millions of people from rural areas into towns and cities. Democratic forms of government spread widely. As recently as the 19^th century, famines killed significant proportions of the global population annually, but are now more rare and isolated as agricultural and technological innovations have led to historically unprecedented abundance.

The twentieth century accelerated this progress further. Humans went to space. Nuclear science made it possible to power the world cheaply cleanly, but also gave humanity—for the first time—the ability to destroy itself. Computers revolutionized almost every aspect of human life. Air travel made it possible to traverse the entire world in the time it took our ancestors to travel from one town to another. The “digital” revolution beginning in 1950 extended and accelerated the progress of the preceding centuries in ways that reshaped every element of day-to-day life.

There was great friction along the way. Workers displaced by new technologies often suffered in the short run, and this caused great political upheaval. New technologies enabled two of the most violent global conflicts in history. As the world adapted and exploited more natural resources, pollution increased and vital parts of our natural ecosystem were threatened.

But on whole, human life now versus even 100 (much less 1,000) years ago is unrecognizable: Safer, healthier, more prosperous, and freer than it’s ever been. Many problems and many social ills remain. But no sensible person would choose life in 1726 over life in 2026.

We now sit on the cusp of a new revolutionary epoch that may be even more transformative than those prior. I’ve begun to think of this as the “Reality Revolution,” because this era—more than those of the past—may not just improve human life, but reshape what it means to be human and how we perceive the world around us. The tools that power it are blurring the lines between fiction and science fiction.

I believe there are three core technologies that will shape this revolution:

1. Artificial intelligence

2. Robotics

3. Biotechnology

Driving these innovations are the two underlying capabilities that make them possible: energy and advanced manufacturing. And if successful, they might not just improve human life, but reshape it and disrupt the very way in which we perceive our world.

Artificial Intelligence

As far as we know, humans have always been the only truly intelligent life in creation—possessing an entirely different category of intelligence than other living things. We process information more quickly. We use tools more extensively. Sophisticated language allows us not just to collaborate more effectively but to record our thoughts from generation to generation in a way that has enabled the steady march of human progress. And perhaps most importantly, we possess the still mystifying capacity for consciousness. We have a conception of self. We are reflective. We dream and aspire. We create. We connect with not just the tangible but the transcendent.

AI, of course, is changing that. There is still no “Artificial General Intelligence” that possesses all the characteristics that define human intelligence. The human brain, impossibly, is still the most advanced technology in the world.

But by some measures, large language models are now smarter than any human—at least in their ability to retrieve, interpret, and synthesize information. They are faster. They run mathematical calculations humans could never process. AI in visual media and in sound is advancing so quickly as to make AI creations almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Scammers can now clone a phone number and call someone using the voice of a friend or family members. Moviemakers—or even children on phones using advanced AI applications—will soon be able to create scenes that look and sound like reality. AI programs can already write original songs and do original art. More is coming.

In healthcare, AI applications are or soon will be, exceptional diagnosticians and AI powered autonomous robots may one day make better surgeons and be able to synthesize bespoke compounds that hold the promise of curing previously devastating and intractable disease and genetic conditions.

This may unlock incredible productivity that makes the material progress of the industrial revolution look quaint. There are, of course, apocalyptic predictions around AI, as there are optimistic ones. But it is also changing our fundamental reality in ways prior technologies did not—raising both practical and philosophic questions. What are the near-term impacts of AI superintelligence on work and jobs? How will our self-conception change if we are no longer the most advanced intelligence in the universe? What if AI begins to display signs of consciousness? What happens to us as we lose our ability to distinguish between what’s real and not real?

Robotics

If artificial intelligence is the software side of this revolution, robotics is the major pathway by which it enters the physical world. Industrial machinery powered the Industrial Revolution, but a new generation of robots aims to combine mobility, dexterity, and machine intelligence in far more flexible forms.

Several companies are now developing humanoid robots, while others are advancing specialized systems such as autonomous vehicles, drones, warehouse machines, surgical platforms, and agricultural sensors. Much of this deployment remains early and task-specific, but the direction of travel is clear: more physical work will be automated, and more machine intelligence will move from screens into the built environment.

That shift has social and economic implications. The first wave of generative AI has raised concerns mainly for knowledge workers and white-collar professions—writers, bankers, lawyers, and programmers among others. More capable robots could widen that disruption into logistics, construction, field service, elder care, and other forms of embodied labor. And the scope of this potential disruption is almost limitless.

In frontier settings—disaster zones, deep-sea operations, or off-world construction—robotics may be not merely efficient but necessary. If we are to settle Mars or the moon, it will likely be robots that build the initial infrastructure or terraform the habitat to make it accommodating for fragile human biology.

This could lead to enormous progress. Safer work environments. Massive increases in productivity. Convenience the average person today can scarcely imagine—autonomous chauffeurs and household help, untiring support in our older years.

But people need meaningful work to flourish. In past technological revolutions, our outlets for that work have simply shifted. Six in 10 U.S. jobs didn’t even exist in 1940. That took time, but we adopted new technologies that expanded human productivity and shifted our areas of focus (from agriculture to manufacturing, for example, then manufacturing to technology and services). Will that past trend hold when the technology is not a compliment to humans but a substitute? Will these advances lead to greater equality or inequality? And in the most optimistic scenarios of abundance, will these technologies impede or advance our ability to work with purpose?

Biotechnology

Biotechnology may prove the most hopeful and the most morally fraught dimension of this era. Its upside is profound: gene therapies, engineered cells, neurotechnology, prosthetics, and precision medicine could reduce suffering on a scale that once seemed impossible.

This is no longer science fiction. Gene editing, for example, is now very real. In 2023, the FDA approved Casgevy, the first CRISPR/Cas9-based therapy in the United States, for certain patients with sickle cell disease. Recent reports from Australia say that a tech entrepreneur used AI to develop a bespoke MRNA vaccine to combat cancer in his dog. Neuralink implants are now allowing paralyzed patients to control things with their thoughts, and are trying to offer sight to the blind.

These technologies could eliminate or minimize previously devastating diseases and genetic conditions. Gene therapies, cybernetic enhancements, and tailored pharmaceuticals could cure neurological diseases, paralysis, blindness, or cancer. They could slow aging and extend lifespans in ways that replicate or exceed the gains in lifespans from vaccines and antibiotics of the last century. Treatment could become cheaper, more widely available, and more tailored to an individual’s biology.

They could also take darker shape. The technologies could soon exist to create genetically altered people faster, smarter, stronger than any who have existed (something Stephen Hawking once predicted). They could fundamentally change human biology. They may one day be able do so without conventional human parents (and via artificial wombs). Such developments could make current generations of people less physically or intellectually advanced than new generations. They could enhance the stigma around those with disabilities or compromise the beautiful natural diversity of humanity in ways that make society less varied or more socially striated.

When we can fundamentally change our own biology, the reality of humanity itself shifts. Those of us who adhere to religious faith place the fundamental dignity and worth of a human being beyond the reach of his or her biological traits. But even as the new age of biological enhancement may alleviate untold suffering, it could introduce grave threats which no one society alone can counter.

What All This Means

No one knows with confidence what artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology will look like in two, ten, or twenty years. Some progress may stall because of energy limits, regulation, physics, economics, or social resistance. Some progress may surprise us on the upside. We should be humble about forecasting. Right now thought pieces on the direction and implications of the Reality Revolution are guesses, at best.

Historically, technological revolutions have often delivered large long-run gains while imposing painful short-run disruptions. The challenge for a free society is not to freeze history in place, but to govern change wisely: to accelerate technologies that reduce suffering and expand opportunity; to protect people who are dislocated; and to draw principled limits around uses we judge degrading, coercive, or inhuman.

That task is harder in this era because the frontier is moving closer to the core of human identity. When intelligence can be simulated, labor embodied in machines, and biology deliberately redesigned, the old question returns with renewed urgency: What is a human being, and what gives a human life dignity?

Change is coming. The next revolutionary era may be defined not only by what we can build, but by whether we can pair power with wisdom. The essential challenge is to balance optimism with restraint, invention with moral clarity, and progress with a disciplined sense of what must remain worth protecting.

Buy my new book, Good Money

For decades, Americans have been taught to build their financial lives around one event: retirement. Save early, save often, and one day you can stop working altogether. Retirement has been marketed as the pinnacle of a successful life, the moment that finally belongs to you.

But what if this premise is flawed? What if retirement, as we imagine it today, is not only outdated but potentially harmful? And what if the real goal of saving isn’t retirement, but something more meaningful?

In my book, Good Money, I argue that the traditional retirement model—40 years of work followed by decades of withdrawal from it—is out of step with modern life and with what we know about human flourishing. Americans now live longer lives than any generation before them, as do others around the world, and many can expect 15-20 years or more of retirement. Yet research repeatedly shows that leaving work entirely can sometimes lead to poorer physical health, cognitive decline, and even increased mortality if handled poorly. This is perhaps not surprising given that full retirement can lead to decreased physical activity, lower community engagement, and loss of a sense of purpose and direction.

The problem, in this context, is not retirement per se. It is the way we have elevated it into the central purpose of financial life. Retirement has become a destination in and of itself, an abstract ideal rather than a conduit to achieve greater meaning and broader relationships.

Most people think they want retirement, but they actually want freedom. They want to control their time pursue meaningful work instead of obligatory work, spend more time with family, invest in their communities, and engage in activities that give them purpose. What they want is the ability to walk away from work that drains them—and the ability to run toward work that energizes them. They want agencyand autonomy, not idleness.

Freedom—not retirement—is the real goal. And financial planning makes more sense when we recognize the difference.

Saving for freedom reframes the entire conversation. Instead of asking, “How much do I need to stop working someday?” the more important question becomes, “How much do I need to live the life I want, now and in the future?” Instead of viewing work as something to escape, saving for freedom encourages us to think about which kinds of work we most want to do someday and how to structure our financial lives to make those choices possible. This might look like taking a job for lower pay but greater meaning, or reducing formal work hours to focus on increased community and family engagement. The possibilities are endless but involve continuing to use one’s talents and abilities to impact others and potentially retaining some earnings in the process that mitigate the need to live off savings exclusively.

That goal can be reached sooner than conventional retirement. Using the (admittedly oversimplified) “4% rule,” a person spending $75,000 per year needs to save nearly $1.9 million to fully exit the workforce. A person who continues earning even $35,000 past the age of 65, through enjoyable work, lowers that goal to ~$1 million. If our savings goal is not to quit earning entirely but to enable flexibility in our career choices, that outcome can be achieved more quickly.

Subscribe now

The shift is profound. When people believe they are saving for retirement, they often defer meaning and joy for decades, holding out for a payoff that may or may not come. This is evidenced by statistics showing abysmally low rates of engagement at work, with only 23% of people globally feeling real purpose in their jobs. They stay in roles they dislike because the stakes—pensions, health insurance, seniority, retirement accounts—feel too high to risk change.

When people save for freedom, saving becomes about shaping a life rather than enduring one. It still involves prudent financial management, putting enough into investments and retirement accounts to alleviate some financial necessity. A financial cushion becomes a tool for switching careers, starting a business, working fewer hours, taking a sabbatical, or simply saying no to toxic environments. It enables people to craft a life marked by intention rather than obligation, making them more resilient. Retirement is a cliff—one day you work, the next you don’t. Freedom allows for gradual transitions as we get older: part-time work, consulting, small business ownership, or mission-driven roles that pay less but matter more. It softens the landing and widens the possibilities.

This is what money is actually for. Not to engineer the absence of work, but to enable the presence of meaningful work and offer a wider range of options for the type of work that a person can choose to pursue. Money is a means, not an end. Its purpose is to help us shape lives of meaning, impact, joy, and connection.

This is not a radical idea but rather reflects an ancient understanding of human purpose. From Aristotle to modern psychology, thinkers have argued that humans thrive through purposeful activity. A life oriented around impact is both personally fulfilling and acknowledges the remarkable contributions older people have to offer to our workplaces and communities.

For this reason, some people will choose to keep working well into their 70s or 80s, not because they need the paycheck, but because they find fulfillment in their professional pursuits. Work, at its best, provides structure, community, and a sense of identity. We have an opportunity to work in relationship with others, keep a vibrant schedule, and direct our talents towards impacting and serving others. At its best, work is personally edifying and enriches the lives of those around us.

Saving for freedom makes possible a transition to a more enriching use of our talents: mentoring young people, volunteering with nonprofits, investing in faith communities, deepening family bonds, or pursuing professional passions.

Traditional retirement may still make sense for some people. Health challenges, aging, and years of physically demanding labor can make rest both wise and necessary. But even then, the aim should be, as much as possible, active and purposeful living. A life freed from obligation, not from meaning.

For a generation experiencing longer lifespans, rising dissatisfaction with traditional career paths, and a cultural hunger for purpose, this shift in thinking is essential. Retirement may remain a phase of life, but freedom should be its guiding principle.

Adopting a mindset of saving prudently for freedom, agency, and flexibility in work rather than simply for leisure can be transformative. The real question is no longer, “When can I stop working?” but, “How can I build the financial flexibility for the life I want to live?”

Originally posted this week at HBR.

I’m so grateful for you, and I have a favor to ask. Today is the release of Good Money: Six Steps to Building a Financial Life with Purpose (more on the book below).

TLDR: Launch day is incredibly important for authors, and I’d be so grateful if you would consider a few things:

1. Purchase a copy (and some for friends!) at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Target, or other sites and share this email with others. Launch day/week are essential to helping a book get noticed!

2. Write a review on Amazon or Goodreads as soon as you can. Early positive reviews are essential for new books! Goodreads and Amazon are now open. 30-50 reviews in the first week on Amazon dramatically improve the algorithm (with a goal of reaching 250+ over time). Yours would be important!

3. Consider posting about the book on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, or other channels (selfies with the book are the best!). If you tag me (my profile is in the preceding links) I will reshare!

This will be my only marketing email about the book on Substack. I’ll be getting back to normal posting from here out. But I am hopeful you will consider helping this week as Good Money comes available. If you’d like to contact me directly, my new website is now live or you can reply here.

So what is good money?

I’ve spent 15 years researching and writing about meaning, purpose, and human flourishing. In my day job, I’m an investor privileged to work around remarkable individuals and families who are thinking about money and flourishing deeply; and the firm I help lead has an explicit thesis around flourishing for its investments.

The intrinsic goods that lead to human flourishing are reasonably straightforward in the research: positive relationships, character and virtue, meaning and purpose, impact, engagement at work, generosity towards others, experiences of beauty, positive emotions, and strong mental and physical health. Money is not intrinsically good, but it can be either an enabler or distraction from those things depending on how it is viewed and used.

That’s why I’ve spent three years researching and writing Good Money. This is my best stab at the habits, mindsets, and values about money that can most effectively enable human flourishing while avoiding the unique temptations of money that sometimes throw us off course.

This book is intended for a broad range of people: high school and college students thinking about the future, middle aged professionals in the thick of their most challenging professional and financial moments, and older people reflecting on the time they have left. It can apply to the middle class family attempting to raise kids with the right perspective on money, or the ultra-rich sorting through the unique challenges and opportunities of excess wealth. It’s for anyone contemplating the role of money in their lives and how they can cultivate the right attitudes towards it.

I get to tell wonderful stories in the book of everyone from Jackie Robinson’s son David and the founder of Patagonia, to Mother Theresa and Ebenezer Scrooge. I profile incredible people like Henry Kaestner, Casey Crawford, Davis Smith, and Anand Kesavan. And I attempt to draw on a combination of ancient wisdom and modern research.

But my goal is to help anyone reading the book understand money more fully and think now about critical topics—earning, spending, giving, investing, retirement, and money and kids—in a way that can help them achieve not just financial prosperity but an integrated and flourishing life.

I am grateful to the hundreds of people who contributed to this book in various ways, from Tyler Vanderweele at the Harvard Human Flourishing Program to my wife and kids—who helped me experiment with these practices at home. And I hope it’s something you, your friends, and your family will find valuable in your own journey.

If you’re wondering what others are saying about Good Money, here are a few initial reviews spanning leadership and finance:

“Think bigger and live better with this timely and transformational guide.”
— John C. Maxwell, author, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

“We live in a world saturated with financial advice but starving for financial wisdom. Good Money cuts through the noise and asks the deeper questions: What is money for? How do we use it well? A book for professionals and families alike.”
—Wendy Dominguez
Cofounder and President, Innovest Portfolio Solutions

“John Coleman equips you with simple tips on how to survive and thrive in the financial jungle.”
—Bear Grylls
Celebrity survivalist; star, Running Wild; and author, The Greatest Story Ever Told

“Good Money is a thoughtful and timely exploration of how our relationship with money shapes our humanity. John Coleman invites us to reimagine wealth as a catalyst for connection, generosity, and flourishing.”
—Lynne Twist
Author, The Soul of Money

“A fresh take on a timeless truth: When you do well by doing good, there’s no limit to what you can achieve for yourself and for others. John Coleman provides the tools and guidance for anyone who seeks to apply this lesson and build a good life.”
—Brian Hooks
Chairman and CEO, Stand Together

“Good Money is a profound reminder that how we earn, spend, and give matters. It asks us to look beyond wealth accumulation and toward legacy—to lead lives of purpose, generosity, and long-term vision.”
—Asha Varghese
President, Caterpillar Foundation

“Good Money skillfully draws out the various aspects of our relationship with money, connecting the dots that lead to true satisfaction in our lives and enabling us to smile at the future.”
—Mark Wesson
Founder and CEO, EverSource Wealth Advisors®

Thank you for your support!

According to recent research, nearly 9 in 10 parents want financial independence for their children. But fewer than 2 in 5 have discussed family finances with them, and about half still find themselves supporting adult children financially.

We worry endlessly about our children’s future – about their education, their careers, their emotional well-being. Yet in one of the most important areas of life, we often leave them unprepared. And as a result, we are raising a generation with little understanding of how to build financial mindsets both for independence and a flourishing adult life.

The first mindset children need is an understanding that money is a means, not an end. Kids today grow up in a culture of comparison, status and endless consumption. Social media surrounds them with curated displays of wealth. Advertisers bombard them with the message that happiness is purchased. Without intervention, children absorb the belief that the goal of money is simply more money.

But when money becomes the goal, the pursuit never ends. Kids who grow up believing that money is a measure of worth often become adults who are perpetually dissatisfied, always reaching for a higher income, a bigger house, a flashier car – never quite arriving at the elusive state of “enough.”

A healthier mindset begins with teaching children that money is valuable precisely because of what it allows them to do: Build skills, enjoy meaningful experiences, help others and create lives of purpose.

They must also understand the value of earning it through meaningful work. Earning is not just about accumulating dollars – it is about developing competence, confidence and dignity. When kids understand earning in this way, they begin to value effort, responsibility and agency. At a time when only about 30% of Americans are “engaged” at work, teaching kids the value of earning with purpose is essential to both their persistence in a profession and their enjoyment of it.

The second mindset children need is spending wisely. Spending is not inherently negative. It is how we meet our needs, express our values and enjoy life. But kids must understand the difference between spending that enriches life and spending that simply numbs or distracts.

Subscribe now

The endless pursuit of things – more gadgets, more clothes, more entertainment – rarely brings lasting satisfaction. But spending on experiences, relationships, learning or health can deepen life’s quality.

This means teaching children the value of discernment. Children who learn thoughtful spending early are less likely to fall into debt, comparison or compulsive consumption later.

Third, children must learn the joy and power of giving. Giving is one of the most countercultural ideas in a society obsessed with accumulation. But research consistently shows that generosity increases happiness, strengthens relationships and builds psychological resilience.

Teaching kids to share – whether it’s a portion of their allowance, time with a neighbor or help for a classmate – instills the understanding that money carries responsibility as well as opportunity. Kids who give grow into adults who feel empowered rather than anxious, and who understand that contribution, not consumption, is the true measure of a meaningful life.

Finally, kids can learn long-term thinking through values-based investing. In a world of instant gratification, children must learn patience, discipline and foresight. Investing is not primarily about technical knowledge; it is about character. When kids learn that money can grow through wise decisions, time and consistency, they develop a sense of stewardship. They learn that small choices compound.

They can also come to see their investment dollars, stewarded wisely, as a way to express positive values to shape the world around them and steadily grow into financial independence.

Taken together, these mindsets – money as a means to flourishing, purposeful earning, intentional spending, joyful giving and values-based investing – equip children with a framework not just for financial literacy but for life.

We don’t need to raise kids who are rich. We need to raise kids who are wise. Kids who understand that money is a tool for flourishing, not the definition of it. Kids who will move into adulthood prepared not just to succeed financially, but to live well.

That is the real gift, and the most valuable inheritance any parent can give.

This article appeared last week’s edition of USA Today.

Buy Good Money on Amazon

By almost any economic measure, America is wealthier than at any point in its history. Inflation-adjusted incomes and household net worth are at all-time highs, and the U.S. economy continues to outperform its global peers. There are cracks in this financial foundation, such as housing affordability. But by almost any objective standard American prosperity is the envy of the world. Yet Americans also report declining happiness, worsening mental health, and weaker social ties.

We are facing a new kind of prosperity paradox. The gap between economic success and emotional well-being is measurable and growing. According to the 2025 Gallup report on The State of the World’s Emotions, negative emotions—including stress, sadness, and worry—remain near record highs, even in countries experiencing strong economic growth. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports steep increases in anxiety and depression, especially among young adults.

And recent results of The Global Flourishing Study, a massive multi-year effort by researchers at Harvard and Baylor, finds that wealthier nations like the U.S. routinely score lower on key measures of human flourishing—purpose, community belonging, character development, and close social relationships. Prosperity has made life more comfortable, but hasn’t led to the “good life.”

This country-level data resonates with research on individuals which has shown that after a certain level, money no longer leads people to greater happiness. And in some ways, our focus on money to the exclusion of more meaningful pursuits might make it harder for us to thrive.

A shocking 2023 Wall Street Journal-NORC poll illustrated clearly our increasingly dysfunctional relationship with wealth—showing dramatic declines in the value Americans place on traditional sources of purpose like patriotism, religion, having children, and community involvement. The only things Americans were valuing more? Money.

America’s problem is not that it has too much prosperity. It’s that prosperity has been asked to deliver something it cannot provide: meaning. And a society too focused on material wealth begins to erode its connections to those more impactful human pursuits.

Where do we go from here? It’s time for each of us individually, and all of us as a culture, to fundamentally rethink our relationship to money and its ability to drive flourishing.

We know what characteristics make life more truly meaningful. Research projects like those at Harvard and Baylor mentioned previously, or by scholars like the University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman have identified a number of common themes: close social relationships, character and virtue, meaningful and engaged work, mental and physical health, community involvement, and a sense of transcendence, to name a few. Each of these pursuits is intrinsically valuable. They are “ends” to flourishing, not means. Directing our talents towards something we enjoy that positively impacts others is inherently good. So is living within a loving family or close circle of friends. And we benefit individually and collectively when we are generous—using our time, talents, and treasure to serve others.

Money, of course, is not one of these intrinsic goods. In Harvard’s work on flourishing, for example, “financial and material health” is a measure of flourishing—but only in so much as it provides the means to pursue these more intrinsically meaningful things. And yet many of us live radically out of step with this fundamental insight. Even once we are financially stable, we prioritize money over relationships. We persist in jobs that don’t offer us purpose. We decline to give generously to the people and communities around us. We compare ourself to others, acquiring physical goods that fade, and allow our pursuit of wealth to isolate us from those we should love.

Correcting this trend will require each of us to rethink these behaviors—focusing on “good money” for the good life. This means earning with purpose. It requires spending wisely on our most important relationships, transformative experiences, health, and time. It will mean living generously and serving others. And it should involve investing consciously in ways that have a positive impact on the world.

Americans now have an historically rare opportunity: we can be both wealthy and flourishing. But doing so requires rediscovering what our prosperity is truly for.

Share

Buy Good Money

On Purpose

Thoughts on leadership, investing, and living with purpose.

By John Coleman

.

Money is necessary. But it’s not always good. Modern research and ancient wisdom are both full of cautionary tales about how uniquely tempting money can be, and how damaging it can be to use money poorly. But our culture is full of messages telling us to tie our identities to money and how it will solve our problems. Influencers that trumpet nice watches and expensive cars as the path to manhood. Advertisements that tell us buying more “stuff” will make us belong.

My new book Good Money: Six Steps to Building a Financial Life with Purpose is a comprehensive synthesis of all the best research I could find on the topic: religious traditions, modern social science, and interviews with those using money well. But in advance of the launch in just 4 weeks, I wanted to offer seven short tips on using Good Money to build the Good Life. My hope is you can share this with friends or your family and start a conversation (even this weekend!) about using money well.

Pre-order: Hard-Cover, Kindle, Audio

1. View money as a means, not an end: There are a number of intrinsically good things in life that lead to human flourishing: positive emotions, engagement and meaning at work, character and virtue, positive relationships, serving others, a strong sense of purpose. Money isn’t one of them. And some of the world’s leading experts have told me that while focusing on the intrinsically good things in life is unabashedly good, focusing on money too much can actually prevent us from achieving those other unreservedly positive things. It can keep us from investing in relationships, compromise our character, and cause us to pursue our professions without purpose. Good Money habits start with understanding money is a means, not an end, to the good life—and orienting our identity and values around using it well.

2. Draft a family mission, vision, and values: Using money well means understanding, first, what we believe leads to a truly good life. Most well-run corporations now draft a mission, vision, and values to orient the people within them to their shared purpose and the character expected of everyone involved. But we often fail to do that in the most important organization in life: the family. Have you ever sat down with your family and tried to understand collectively what you think will lead to human flourishing? Have you, your spouse, and kids ever then tried to articulate a set of shared values and a shared purpose that will allow you to pursue the good life together? Until you have, it’s difficult to articulate, together, how to use money well.

3. Set a financial finish line: How much is enough? Studies have shown that after a certain point, more income and wealth doesn’t make us happier. But other research shows that when the average person is asked how much money would make them happy, the answer—whether that person is rich or poor—is almost always, “just a little bit more.” This drive is called the “hedonic treadmill.” As we acquire more things, we quickly adapt to them and want even more—even though those things don’t make us happy. One solution to this is to set a “financial finish line.” This means thoughtfully deciding what lifestyle is truly enough for you (and your family, if relevant), and identifying the income or wealth required to sustain it. Then defining ahead of time that you won’t live beyond that standard. This is liberating. Because once you’ve achieved your goal you no longer feel the urge to increase your lifestyle endlessly, and you can put any additional wealth beyond your predefined point towards generosity, building a business, or in other ways pursuing the more meaningful things in life.

4. Buy experiences, not stuff: Stuff won’t make you happy. Elizabeth Dunn and her colleagues explored this in depth in the book Happy Money. All the research indicates that acquiring clothes, gadgets, cars, and other physical things beyond our needs has little to no benefit to human happiness—and any benefits are often incredibly short-term. Defining your identity by the status these acquisitions confer can actually make you LESS happy. But experiences aren’t like that. A family vacation, hiking trip with friends, adventure overseas, or parent-kid trip to a concert or game builds relationship and enduring memories that don’t fade over time. Some stuff is necessary. But, in general, if you are going to spend, choose to spend on experiences not stuff.

5. Become a percentage giver: Giving to others is one of the two or three things that builds the most enduring happiness and fulfillment in life. In one study, toddlers as young as two get more happiness giving a treat to a puppet than taking it themselves. And the happiest adults are those who live lives of generosity. But Americans give only 2% of GDP annually to charity, and that number is even lower in every other country in the world. As many as 4 in 10 Americans give nothing to charity at all. What’s the answer? Become a percentage giver. Decide ahead of time you will be a person who lives generously, then auto withdraw a pre-defined percentage from your income into a donor advised fund each month. Use the psychological process of “pre-commitment” to build your identity around serving others, and free yourself to live generously and well.

6. Transform your view of retirement: Almost every person is taught to plan for retirement. And for many people, it’s their number one financial goal. But emerging research shows that retirement can actually lead to a number of problems physically and mentally—including loss of purpose, increased mortality, and loss of vibrancy and health. What we really desire is freedom, not retirement—the liberty to pursue the activities that give us deep meaning and purpose and allow us to use our talents well. Redefining our goal in this way—particularly in combination with setting a financial finish line—can transform the way we save and work.

7. Make money a family affair: We often wait far too long to teach kids about money. They leave home with little understanding of how to earn, save, spend, and invest well; and even less understanding of the values that can make money a tool for flourishing in their lives. The answer is to embrace financial apprenticeship—engaging kids in the family’s giving, earning, saving, and investing early (in age-appropriate ways) and teaching them gradually the values and habits of financial flourishing so that when they leave home they are well-equipped to prosper in the ways that matter most.

The book offers a much more comprehensive framework, touching on earning, spending, giving, investing, saving, and apprenticing kids for good money. Whether you are early in your career or approaching your second mountain, I hope we can all take a fresh look at money—and at the habits, mindsets, and values that determine whether it becomes a tool for flourishing or an obstacle to it.

Buy Good Money at Amazon!

Buy Good Money at Barnes & Noble

Buy Good Money at Walmart