Have you ever had a chance to meet someone or to go somewhere that you recognized was a missed opportunity? I have many in my life.
For example, my parents began travelling more a couple of years after all the kids were out of the house. At the same time, they wanted to have family travel with them.
I recall a trip to Israel. My parents invited my bride and me but my bride was unwilling to travel outside of the United States.
This happened again a year or so later when they went to Hong Kong to visit my Aunt and Uncle (the missionary/ hunter uncle should you have read any of my posts about Uncle Herb). Again, my bride was unwilling to travel outside of the United States.
In retrospect, I should have been a chaperone to my parents to help them during their travels and should my bride decide to stay home, so be it.
But it wasn’t just vacations and travelling where the missed opportunities happened.
For example, in 1995 I was in Los Angeles attending a Jay Abraham Mastermind. Jay’s seminars at the time were a rather brutal regime. The day began at 8:30 am and formally continued until 10:30 pm although the talking continued until 2 or so.
During dinner the second evening, Michael Basch, who Fred Smith hired to be CMO of Federal Express when the business was starting, sat down next to me. We exchanged a few pleasantries and after a few minutes, I excused myself as I needed to collect my thoughts and relax a little.
I headed up to the outdoor pool. As I hit the water, I realized Michael was probably feeling the same way and if I would have spoken a little more with him and asked whether he wanted to hit the pool for a relaxing swim after he finished eating, I’d like to have a little time to talk with him one-on-one.
The same year, my brother and his family moved to England as he had been accepted into a doctoral program at Cambridge. A year later, my brother asked whether I would like to visit England with my son for a few weeks during the summer. I obtained a passport for him and was looking into tickets.
Unfortunately, the same person, now my ex-wife, told me in no uncertain terms that I would not be allowed to take our son out of the country. Stupidly, I listened to her rant rather than challenge it. So this son has never experienced the villages and byways of the United Kingdom.
I recall another missed opportunity when I was in high school. A local individual advertised an Aston Martin DB4GT for sale for $2000. I went to check it out – after all, how often was an Aston Martin for sale in central Ohio in the 1970s?
The Aston seemed nice enough save for the peeling paint on the aluminum hood of the car.
I was seriously interested but told the owner I would have to sell my Triumph TR-6 over the next couple of weeks in order to have the money to buy the Aston. He agreed to wait.
A couple of weeks later, he called to see whether I had sold the TR-6. I had not. Then he asked, “Would you like to trade the Aston for the Triumph?”
I began to have doubts as Aston was going through a bankruptcy at the time. Also, I wondered what insurance would be on an Aston Martin for a 16-year old. Then there was the parts – and the expense of those parts. So I declined the offer.
A couple of weeks ago I looked up the value of the Aston in 2022. $1.25 million.
Another missed opportunity with a collector car was a Ferrari 250 PF Coupe. It wasn’t a race car look (like a SWB or a GTO) but the price was right. As I recall, it was $5000 as the engine wasn’t the original engine to the car.
Today’s value – $573k.
I’m sure I have plenty more opportunities that I overlooked or didn’t act correctly on, from girlfriends to cars to travels to job opportunities.
But those are all in the past. And like it or not, the past is past. It has no life.
Which leads to the reason I am writing you – so you don’t have another missed opportunity.
You see, the world has been evolving very quickly the past few years. Things you would think unthinkable are quickly becoming the norm.
Among every change is a chance for opportunity – and a possibility of remorse.
I’m writing you so you don’t have remorse by not taking me up on my offer. You see, I don’t know where the world is going – and I am not sure of the timing of events that will change the way we live. But change they will. You know that. I know that. Hell, let’s face it. Everyone knows it.
But are YOU willing to act?
I’m offering a book – it’s in editing as I write this. I plan to have it out to various marketing sources for the Holidays.
What’s so special about the book?
The book will give you examples of individuals who thrived while living in tyranny. After all, how will you take care of yourself, your family, and the people you love outside of your family should the country or the world continue to march toward global governance.
You may think this will never happen. I hope you are right.
But whether you are right – or I am – or there’s an odd mix of the two – it would be beneficial to have insight on how to thrive, how to prosper, in the worst situation.
Charles Dickens wrote “It was the best of times. I was the worst of times.” And then he went on to tell of the Tale of Two Cities. But he never told how a person or a family would thrive whether in the best of times or the worst of times.
Like I said, the book is in editing.
Do to https://TedLeithart.com and sign up for my email list so you will be the first to be informed of when the book is available to grab a copy. Better yet, grab reference copies for every household in your family. They’ll need these insights as much as you will.
