I think this is superb advice. Worth a careful read:
Michael Milken – Lessons on Money, Family, and Success
(Forum for Family Asset Management, Milken Conference, Mexico City –
paraphrased notes)
Spend time with your kids — you’ll pay for it (for better or worse) either now or
later.
Think about how you measure meaning and success in your children and
grandchildren. Give them purpose.
For children raised in very successful households, it’s often hard to emulate
success — especially financial success.
Most successful people are too busy to see their kids and grandkids. That
absence shows up later in life.
The center of success is the ability to dream.
Real success is the freedom to live your life.
The financial media is obsessed with lists. Forbes today is mostly about
ranking wealth by dollars.
There are countless stories of wealthy people who never had a good day with
their kids.
You’re only as happy as your least happy child — think about that often.
He shared a story about a wealthy Chicago family whose fortune was divided into 1/13th shares after one heir demanded his part. That decision ended up dividing the entire family.
Be careful not to do something that provides financially but destroys the
family.
The most important thing to teach children is financial literacy.
The greatest failure among wealthy families is not providing financial literacy to their members.
Example: an extremely wealthy Latin American family where the
great-grandfather is still alive — his mindset is completely different from that of his great-grandchildren.
In Asia, inheritance traditionally went only to men — that has changed in
recent decades.
Recommended reading: Economic Mobility Program – Invest in America.
Example: Apollo bought the Venetian Hotel and gave all 7,000 employees
stock. They paid a dividend the first year through a recap — everyone saw it as a “Christmas bonus.” The next year, when there was no dividend,
employees were upset. No one had explained the difference between a
dividend and a bonus.
The biggest mistake over the last 50 years has been financial illiteracy — not understanding the business or the source of wealth. Families and employees both need to learn this.
Best example of a united family: an Austrian family that’s 11 generations old. They own a resort used only by the five branches of the family. Ownership
rotates every three years. To be invited when your branch isn’t in charge, you
must get along with the others.
No matter how much you build or earn, what truly matters in the long run is
your relationship with your kids and grandkids.
Define what success means to you — it’s what makes you happy.
Entrepreneurs don’t just build companies; they can build nations or religions.
One of the most successful entrepreneurs in history is Lee Kuan Yew.
It’s not about how many things you own.
If you’ve never been responsible for making payroll, your view of the world is very different.
Hug your kids and grandkids. Let everyone find their own path.
Children growing up around success feel enormous pressure. Remind them
how valuable they are.
Let kids make mistakes when the stakes are low — not high.
New episode: "How Elon Works"
This episode covers the insanely valuable company-building principles of Elon Musk
A few notes from the episode:
1. The mission comes first.
2. Retreat is not an option.
3. A maniacal sense of urgency is our operating principle.
4. Product design should be driven by engineers.
5. You should not separate engineering from product design.
6. Having separate design and production departments is bullshit. Keep everything together and feedback immediate.
7. The leader should be on the front lines. You should be a battlefield general.
8. "If they see the general out on the battlefield, the troops are going to be motivated. Wherever Napoleon was, that's where his armies would do best."
9. Apply The Algorithm constantly. (1) Question every requirement. (2) Delete any part of the process you can. (3) Simplify and optimize. (4) Accelerate cycle time. (5) Automate.
10. Repetition is persuasive. "I became a broken record on the algorithm. I think it's helpful to say it to an annoying degree."
11. You should go ultra-hardcore on deletion and simplification.
12. Camaraderie is dangerous. It makes it hard for people to challenge each other’s work. (Refer to point #1)
13. Never ask your troops to do something you wouldn’t do.
14. Hire for attitude. Skills can be taught. Attitude changes require a brain transplant.
15. Good attitude = A desire to work maniacally hard.
16. The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation.
17. Keep your entire company committed to a common goal.
18. If things aren’t going well, throw away the existing design, start from first principles, question every requirement based on fundamental physics.
19. Find the limit. You want to delete as much as possible and you can’t do that unless you find the limit.
20. If you aren’t adding back at least 10% of the things you deleted, then you didn’t delete enough.
21. Maintain control. Avoid joint ventures. Eliminate middlemen.
22. Have a relentless dedication to questioning every requirement.
23. No work about work, just work.
24. Go to the problem. Get on the plane. Fly to the source. Go to the exact location in the factory. Go to the problem and stay there until it's resolved.
25. The best part is no part.
26. Be wired for war.
27. Do not fear losing. It hurts the first 50 times but then you’ll be able to play with less emotion. You will take more risks.
28. Stay heads down focused on doing useful things for civilization.
29. When something is important and has to be done quickly, have meetings every 24 hours to run the algorithm and check on the previous days progress. You'll be shocked at how fast this speeds things up.
30. Life needs to be interesting and edgy.
31. Delete, delete, delete, delete.
There are 100 more ideas in the episode. I hope you listen to it. 30 years of Elon’s career + 60 hours of reading and research and me just absolutely ripping through idea after idea at 2x speed for 90 minutes.
It will be hard to find a better use of time.