“I often joke that 100 years from now I hope people are saying, ‘Dang, she looks good for her age!’”
– Dolly Parton
“Just because you live 20 years or 100 years doesn’t make it less meaningful. They’re both short amounts of time. So all we can do is just live in that time, whatever time we’re given.”
– Ansel Elgort
“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”
– Blaise Pascal, 1657 (and a few score other later attributions)
Welcome to the new, improved, faster-to-read, better yet still-free Thoughts from the Frontline. My team and I have been doing a lot of research on what my readers want. The reality is that my newsletter writing has experienced a sort of “mission creep” over the years. Bluntly, the letter is just a lot longer today than it was five or ten years ago. And when I’m out talking to readers and friends, especially those who give me their honest opinions, they tell me it’s just too much. There are some of you who love the length and wish it were even longer, but you are not the majority. Not even close. We all have time constraints, and I wish to honor those. So I am going to cut my letter back to its former size, which was about 50% of the length of more recent letters. (Note: this paragraph is going to open the letter for the next month or so, since not everybody clicks on every letter. Sigh. Surveys showed us it’s not because you don’t love me but because of demands on your time. I want you to understand that I get it.) Now to your letter…
This week I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you and your children will probably have much longer lives than you currently imagine. The bad news is that you’ll have to pay the bill for them.
I’ll explain what that means in a minute. First, let me thank everyone who helped produce this year’s Strategic Investment Conference, as well as all who attended. I know it sounds trite to say that this one was the best ever, but it really was. Every speaker brought a unique and valuable perspective, which the panels then mixed into new and even more interesting blends. Attendees asked probing and sometimes uncomfortable questions. I think everyone left Orlando bearing loads of new ideas.
If you missed SIC, you can still get our Virtual Pass. It gives you audio recordings of all sessions, all the slides that accompanied them, and written transcripts. It’s the next best thing to being there. Click here for more information and to place your order. We will close this offer in early June, so don’t wait too long.