You hear what you want to hear. Those who are not persuaded by these ideas may never be. Those who are sold have work to do. Developing assets is time consuming, so it may be time to set this book down and do it. There are more tips to share on the “asset development” stage, but they mostly pertain to getting through the inevitable rough patches. The key for now is to head to the lab and come out with something you want to market.

Next comes the issue of how to bring those assets to market, and how to make the most of the time you do spend in corporate environments. We’ll get there soon. At this point, I’m going assume that the readership is now divided between those who are ready to give this a shot and those who aren’t sold yet. There may be a few sitting on the fence. If you fit that bill, my next installments could be for you.

The things ‘m going to hammer away at might strike you as odd. I am not opposed to them because they are bad ideas, but because they don’t go far enough. People fall into a false comfort zone because they think one of three assets is going to take care of them: their home, their 401k, or their career snapshot, otherwise known as a resume. (I could probably throw in wealthy spouses and/or kids who can dunk a basketball, but I’m not going there).

Some of you may wonder why I am picking on these “assets” when they are a much better use of money and time than addictive vices. Here’s the problem: those who are truly scraping the bottom tend to know they are. For that reason, they have a puncher’s chance of getting out. As a society, we may have a moral obligation to alter those odds, but that’s a different book. The folks we’re concerned with here face a different kind of danger: they think they are set for life, when in fact their financial fate is precarious. The Enron employees who lost their 401ks are the poster children, but there are countless other examples.

We cannot find the right future without an exacting look at the illusions of the present. Not many of us are willing to do that. So if I won’t change anyone’s mind, why bother? I bother because I’m still trying to purge these misconceptions myself. If I end up dragging a couple others along, so much the better.

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