Champagne Tastes...and a Beerbarrel Pocketbook
Posted by Phil Keithahn on Wed, Aug 12, 2009 @ 08:50 PM
Do you have a family member or friend who has a comeback line that works in almost every situation?
If so, you will appreciate my late grandfather's words of wisdom.
"The trouble with you is that you have Champagne Tastes and a Beerbarrel Pocketbook."
Those words hit my ears continually from my teenage years through my late twenties. My grandfather was born in 1900, lived through both World Wars and the so-called "great" Depression. He supported his family and was frugal with his money, yet he was very generous to those in need.
If we are to learn anything from the past twenty years, and especially the last five year, it is that as a Nation, Americans acquired champagne tastes that were funded by a beerbarrel pocketbook.
We convinced ourselves that we were smarter than the markets, we became greedy, we lived beyond our means, and we relied on the greater fool theory. We enjoyed the taste of rising home prices, low inflation, record low interest rates, cheap and available loans, and stock markets and world markets that seem destined to rise forever.
And then the cork popped, the champagne exploded out of the bottle, and we are left with the morning after smell and taste of a party gone bad. The hangover that is globally being felt by people of all ages, income levels, and occupations requires more than two aspirin. It requires "change."
Not "change" from others, but change from within. We must learn to do without. We must become happier with what we do and how it is done, then with how much it costs or how great it looks, let alone how big it is.
And the "it" is the way in which we live life. As a small-town banker, citizen, community builder, people developer, and volunteer mentor, the most successful people I have observed start small. Here is what they do to achieve lifetime happiness:
- They start and end each day with a positive attitude and a capacity to turn each setback into an opportunity for learning and growth.
- They work hard, focusing on what they accomplish (results) instead of what they did (tasks).
- They finish what they start. They remain active and engaged in life, even as they age, even as they deal with trauma, even as they struggle with challenges and setbacks.
- They laugh and smile a lot...especially at their own mistakes.
- They are not satisfied with the status quo, which means that they are always looking for 1% improvement per day.
- They build a support group of family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers who not only keep them grounded in humility, but are their to help them when life gets tough.
- They care. They take pride in doing the right things...AND in doing things right. As a result, they will often be more self-critical than criticising of others.
- They help. Even when they are busy, they find time to invest in other people...seeing these contributions of time and talent as a break from their own workday.
- They bounce. Having built a fearless capacity to fail, they fall down often, but are confident that they can recover...respond to pressure, solve a problem, fix a mistake, correct an error.
- Finally, they live a life of being worthy of trust. These people have taken it upon themselves to change from the inside, rather than asking the world to change for them. They are not optimists, pessimists, or realists, they are "accountablists". They hold themselves accountable, with a tough and fair love that is more exacting on their actions and behaviors than it is on those people whose lives are influenced by their actions.
If you don't believe me, please follow this link: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/06.07/01-happywell.html
All of us are in the middle of a transition period where "change" seems to be the word of the day. I hope you will learn from my customers and friends who started to change their actions and words before they tried to change the world.
Monty's Message: Satisfaction from the journey can be as rewarding as the destination.