Beyond Wealth (eBook)

ALEXANDER GREEN is the Investment Director of The Oxford Club and the author of two national bestsellers: The Gone Fishin' Portfolio and The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters. He has been featured on Oprah & Friends, Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, CNBC, MSNBC, and C-SPAN and has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes, and many other publications. He currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Winter Springs, Florida, with his wife Karen and their children Hannah and David.

Foreword ix

Introduction xiii

PART ONE: DOLLARS AND SENSE 1

Are the Rich Smarter than You? 5

Are You Losing Your Soul? 10

Impatient Optimism . . . and Radical Generosity 14

You Can't Google This 18

The Only Thing that Really Matters 22

The Principle Thing 25

The One Thing that Changes Everything 28

The Trouble with Happiness 31

The Key to Personal Freedom 35

Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life 38

How Your World Will At Last Be Built 42

The Most Important Job on Earth 46

One of Life's Great Miracles 51

The Power of Negative Visualization 55

How to Reclaim Your Life 58

Why It's One of the Seven Deadly Sins 62

The Ruling Passion of the Noblest Minds 65

PART TWO: WEALTH BEYOND MEASURE 69

Are You Uncurious? 71

The Road Not Taken 74

They Make Us All Richer 77

Are You Ready for the Grand Tour? 81

The Quintessence of Life 85

What Women Really Want 89

An Incandescent Drop of American Fire 92

The Most Civilized Thing in the World 95

How to Eat Like a Zen Master 99

The Sublimest Activity of the Human Mind 103

Drunken Monkey Ice Cream . . . and the Wisdom of Thornton Wilder 107

The Lost Art of Conversation 110

What Success Really Means 113

What Are Your Sins of Omission? 116

The Beauty of Slowing Down 120

When Entertainment Becomes Art 123

Do You Have a Secret? 128

Are You Amusing Yourself to Death? 133

In Praise of Idleness 137

The Tyranny of the New 140

Why You Should Know "The Indispensable Man" 143

A Revelation at 4,500 Feet 146

PART THREE: KNOWING AND BELIEVING 149

Tolstoy's Forbidden Book 151

A Shameless Veneration of Heroes 154

A Path to Personal Freedom 158

Your Greatest Risk 162

Are You Part of "The Great Conversation"? 166

A 2,600-Year-Old Manual for Living 170

If You Knew What Jim Brown Knows 176

The Noblest Expression of the Human Spirit 179

The Art of Living Consciously 183

How to Let Your Life Speak 188

A Legacy of Inspiration 192

The Only Thing New in the World 195

The University on Your Shelf 198

We Are All Greeks Now 202

The Wisdom of Hillel 205

Meditations of the Philosopher-King 208

PART FOUR: MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH 211

Discovering a New Sense of the Sacred 214

The Highest of Arts 218

Emerson: The Quintessential American 221

The Life You Can Save 224

Coming of Age in the Milky Way 229

The Literature of Truth 234

Your Connection to Everything 238

The Difference between Knowing and Believing 241

The Lessons of Haiti 244

Your Trip to "The Undiscovered Country" 247

The Beginning of Wisdom 252

Of Lost Souls and Lucky Stiffs 255

How to Pull the Universe Out of a Hat 258

It Makes Everything Meaningful 262

The Truth about Myths 265

Your Place In "The Great Story" 269

Seven Principles of Spirituality 277

Afterword 285

Appendix 287

Further Reading 289

Acknowledgments 295

About the Author 297

Index 299