This last week Jimmy Fallon returned to The Tonight Show after an accident that almost tore off his finger. Upon his return he explained a little about the accident and how, during his time off, he picked up a copy of Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning. The audience laughed, thinking this was part of a joke, but Fallon tried to assure them he was being serious – the book helped him gain perspective.
I agree. I read the book earlier this year and found it fascinating. Here is a guy who was in a concentration camp and trying to find his personal meaning in life. This type of book can change our perspective and help us focus on things that really matter.
This blog is dedicated to helping us recalibrate our priorities, especially when many of us are investing and trying to do the right things with our money. I have met many people who allow money, investment performance and the want for more money to consume them. They aren’t happy, and even worse, they focus on things that don’t have lasting value. It is unfortunate, but when it comes to investing and money, we can very easily lose focus on what matters most.
Here are a few of my favorite quotations from the book. I hope you enjoy.
- “Once an individual’s search for a meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering.”
- “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:…to choose one’s attitude.”
- “The way in which a man accepts his fate and…takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity…to add a deeper meaning to his life.”
- “What (Man) needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”
- “Man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes – within the limits of endowment and environment – he has made out of himself.”
- “Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.”
- “Man has both potentialities within himself (to behave like swine or saint); which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.”
What is the meaning of what you do? Why do you invest? Are your decisions and actions in line with the meaning?