Top Highlights

• To make any kind of gain in life – a gain of wealth, personal stature, whatever you define as “gain” – you must place some of your material and/or emotional capital at risk. You must make a commitment of money, time, love, something. That is the law of the universe.
• No creature on earth is excused from obedience to this pitiless law. To become a butterfly, a caterpillar must grow fat; and to grow fat, it must venture out where birds are. There are no appeals. It is the law.
• And when I was in college and the army, trying to make choices about future careers, Frank Henry would say, “Don’t just think in terms of a salary. People never get rich on salaries, and a lot of people get poor on them. You’ve got to have something else going for you. A couple of good speculations, that’s what you need”.
• Adventure is what makes life worth living, and the way to have an adventure is to expose yourself to risk.
• As the plain-talking Gerald Loeb put it, “All investment is speculation. The only difference is that some people admit it and some don’t”.