[rubidium]

There's also the deathbed technique. Imagine you're 91 years old, with a few members of your family around, and you're thinking back over your life. How would you wish you would have made the decision?

Admittedly, this only worked really well for me after I sat with a grandparent at their deathbed.

[kemiller]

I recently did sit with my 91-year-old grandfather on his deathbed, and I don't think much in his working life would have even made the list. I'm still working out how to apply that lesson.

[rmason]

My grandfather worked in real estate and owned a number of commercial buildings that he lost during the great depression. It took him sixteen years, but he paid every one of his creditors off with interest.

I always took it as an example of the right way to act. But I have relatives that thought he was a fool not to declare bankruptcy and move on. There will always be people on both sides of that question, but he continues to be my inspiration as an entrepreneur.

[telephonetemp]

Interesting story. Did your grandfather make the money to pay off his creditors through entrepreneurship? How did his career go once he had paid off the debt?

[rmason]

Yes he started a business installing furnaces. He was well respected by the guys who survived in real estate and had no problem finding business. When the war was over he did go back to real estate but never as big as before. He explained that he never would again be comfortable to be so highly leveraged.

[brd]

I think the thing that makes the Seneca/HN approach so effective is that it can be applied to the minutia. No one wants to look bad in front of their mentor, no matter how trivial the act is.

When you're on your deathbed most individual events will be irrelevant. Not to mention that it doesn't really work until you have a visceral appreciation of your mortality, something many younger people lack.

The deathbed concept I had heard frequently with little effect but reading that letter from Seneca had a profound impact on my decision making process.