In this chapter, two friends who had not seen each other in years joined a wildlife rescue team to determine security of bald eagle fledglings in a vast natural recreation area. After the work was complete they went camping as a reward. What happened that evening in the rugged wilderness taught as much about nature, as it did about strength, precision and determination, in a man named Peter Churchfield. Who made a fortune while all those around him were losing theirs. Continuing the conversation from last time…
Bernie was stunned. “How does one succeed even in the hardest times?”
“I owned everything outright,” Peter said. “And if my house was suddenly worth half of what I paid for it, so be it. I didn’t owe anybody anything. Yeah, I was outraged about what had happened to the global financial markets. But personally, I was okay.”
Leaning on a tremendous amount of faith in himself—being okay regardless of what violated him—had been a long-standing trait of Peter’s, thanks to his desire to keep things simple and maintain his magnificent and tenacious resilience.
“Hey you over there, what are you thinking about?” Peter asked me.
“I was thinking about all those conversations we had during that time. Remember?” I said. “Three months after Lehman Brothers fell, President George W. Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act into law, creating the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to purchase failing bank assets. We wondered about this so-called benefit. We knew the reasons behind the TARP bailout, but it went against everything you and I were all about. Bailing out people after they made their own careless, greedy mistakes wasn’t the way we were raised.”
“That’s for sure,” Peter said. “I grew up with blue-collar parents in a working-class neighborhood, guided by values that provided a litmus test for right and wrong. I learned from my mistakes without blaming others. There was a kind of ‘your conscience will guide you’ philosophy that cut to the chase of many issues. I learned to listen to my conscience and then move on to accomplish things without wasting time. I was impulsive as a kid—spoke without thinking first. Childhood is a great time to learn how to keep calm, drop the drama, and talk through issues. My strong family unit supported me and taught me a work ethic that I used to every advantage.”
Continued here next time.
Read the complete story in the book, The Quiet Rich: Ordinary People Reawakening an American Dream.
Kevin J. Palmer, Author
