John Bogle is the founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group, and the creator of the first index fund. Reading his latest book Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life was like listening to one of his many speaking engagements, a distillation of a lifetime of wisdom from a man who changed the way that billions of dollars are invested today.
As Heller famously responded when told by Kurt Vonnegut that a hedge fund manager had made more money in a single day than his classic novel Catch-22 made in its entire history, “Yes, but I have something he will never have… enough.”
Very simply, this book outlines the problem with making how much money we have the way to measure “success”. Such a philosophy affects how individuals invest, how business is conducted, and how lives are led. Bogle warns that this is taking our country down a dangerous road, which may leave our future less bright than the past. As Albert Einstein said: “Not everything that counts can be counted.”
His words about the need for character, accountability, and stewardship definitely ring true. However, I just can’t see the people of Wall Street turning down all this easy money without some “convincing” from the rest of us. Sure, they may feel a tinge of guilt now and then. But as Bogle paraphrases Upton Sinclair: "It's amazing how difficult it is for a man to understand something if he's paid a small fortune not to.”
In my opinion, it all ends up falling on us common folk as a whole to vote with our own dollars by not allowing overpaid CEOs as shareholders and consumers, not investing in high-cost complex investments, and not valuing “stuff” so much. We need to change things from the bottom up, not just with top-down rules and regulations.
Finally, my favorite part of this book is how Bogle acknowledges that his success was largely due to a mixture of luck and the assistance of many other people who believed in him. Too many successful people look back and think they did it all themselves. Sure, they may have worked very hard, but every one of us had help. A loving and supporting parent. A teacher who went the extra mile. A mentor who shared their own experience. Knowing that you didn’t do it alone, makes it easier to stop thinking of only yourself, which helps you find the balance of “enough” that includes thinking of others. At least that’s how I see it.
Read more about Bogle & Enough: Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted…
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