Today is a bittersweet day. I’m watching the news of the mass crowd gathering for the Charlie Kirk memorial in Arizona. Historians say that this is the first time in U.S. history where our President and Vice President both are attending a memorial from someone who was not a politician. Charlie lived 31 years before he was assassinated for his political views. That was just long enough to start and grow a successful business, get married and start his family. Charlie is being remembered for his college campus political debates that attracted thousands of young adults into the political process. Charlie is also remembered for his Christian faith. He found uncanny ways to insert the bedrock tenets of Christianity when debaters or listeners peppered him with their most difficult questions. Listening to Charlie do this made life sound less complicated and more “livable.”
I want to redirect from Charlie’s passions to some non-political advice he shared about success. Two months ago, Charlie sat for a different kind of interview on The Iced Coffee Hour podcast. The hosts interview popular businesspeople to glean habits, choices and principles that will make their listeners successful and rich. While he has achieved success as a small business owner, this isn’t the power stroke of Charlie’s life calling. At LeConte Wealth this is what we do for our clients, so I tuned into the interview to see how he handled it. This segment is only 10 minutes, so I encourage you to click through and listen.
A person speaking into a microphone
AI-generated content may be incorrect.
If you’re too busy, here is the surprising takeaway:
Host: Do you think that that is essential to be wealthy in America?
Charlie: “That’s a good question. I don’t think being wealthy is that important. Like, do you want to be wealthy of the soul or just have like a bunch of money? You want to be rich, I can tell you how to get rich. Like, that’s actually not that hard. I mean, how would you get rich? Like work relentlessly and solve a problem for people and like dedicate your entire life to it and like become an insane person basically.”
“I just challenge the premise of like what is the most important like I think if getting material wealth is the most important thing. I think there actually is a playbook for that. … It depends also what you define as rich. Like there is a way forward for if it’s your number one reason for living to, you know, earn $500,000 a year. Like that’s very conceivable in America. But if you’re like, “Hey, actually the most important thing is to have kids, which I actually think having children is more important than having material success.” And I have both and I can tell you kids are way better than having money. Like honestly, not being poor is awesome. That’s like the best thing I could tell you. Like being super rich, and I’m not super rich, but I’m considered to be successful under, you know, American terms which is great, but up to a place it’s kind of like, you know, you’re blessed, you’re wealthy, it’s fine.”
He delves into wealth inequality (his answer will surprise you), Billionaires like Elon Musk, the absence of financial literacy for young people – “Why is that? I mean, if you want like an actual conspiracy theory, that’s the best evidence of a conspiracy. If you want to like have people remain super poor and dependent on the government, don’t teach them financial literacy. It’s like it’s inexcusable.” “Cuz I I deal with the next generation. They know kaput about financial literacy. Like very little to nothing.” Charlie references Warren Buffett and how he calls compound interest the 8th Wonder of the World.
Hopefully you are interested enough to hear the practical side of Charlie and will go back to the whole interview. Charlie accomplished so much in his 31 years. He did it by focusing on his passion and his purpose. That is also exactly what we do for our clients. Get that right and everything else aligns together.
As these crowds gather in Arizona to honor Charlie, my family is celebrating my son’s 32nd birthday today. I wish Charlie could celebrate his. You will be missed but remembered.
