In the short term

We track

• returns

• status

• net worth

But in the long run the scoreboard changes. The real question(s) get complicated:

Will the next generation respect what you built (or are building)?

Will they carry your name with pride?

Or with shame?

Naval Ravikant has a modern version of the same truth: “Play long-term games with long-term people.”

Family is the ultimate long-term game.

There is no exit.

The great multi-generational firms understood this instinctively.

The Barings built a banking house that lasted centuries by treating reputation as the real capital.

One generation’s integrity became the next generation’s starting advantage.

One generation’s short-term grab became the next generation’s handicap.

Character compounds like capital

Slowly at first.

Then exponentially.

Lack of character compounds just as reliably.

That’s why Solomon calls grandchildren a “crown.”

A crown is not just decoration. It is visible proof that the long game worked. It is the public result of private decisions made decades earlier.

Two practical questions

For anyone building something meant to outlast them:

1. Will the people who inherit your name be proud to carry it?

2. Are you making decisions today that will still look wise when your grandchildren are watching?

Most people optimize for the short-term.

The rare ones optimize for the next generation.

That difference is the gap between a temporary win and an actual legacy.

The longest games are the ones that actually matter.

Best regards,

Adam Oxsen

Listen Now

Capon, an Episcopal priest and passionate amateur cook, invites us to rediscover the sacred in the ordinary —

• through the humble onion

• a leg of lamb stretched into thirty-two servings

• the joy of sharp knives

• the theology of stock

• and the grace found in a good glass of wine.

This is not just a cookbook or a theology book.

It is both, and far more: a loving call to pay attention, to embrace the grand ordinariness of daily life, and to see food, drink, and hospitality as foretastes of the heavenly banquet.

Key reflections include the ferial and the festal, the amateur’s loving eye, and Capon’s unforgettable reminder that “the road to heaven does not run from the world, but through it.”

If you long for a richer, more attentive way of living…

• in the kitchen

• at the table

• and in the everyday

…this episode is for you.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify.

Best,

Adam Oxsen

Sign up for the weekly newsletter www.wealthofwisdom.co

They largely succeeded.

Frank Godwin, Philadelphia Patriotic Scene, 1917 (gouache on board)

Today, in 2026, ordinary people enjoy an abundance that would make any Roman emperor green with envy.

Think about it: even your phone is carrying a supercomputer more powerful than the one that took us to the moon. Whether you’re a kid in high school or a billionaire like Jeff Bezos, you have access to technology that gives you the leverage of thousands of engineers from the past.

As Marc Andreessen wrote in his Techno-Optimist Manifesto, we are living through an explosion of abundance made possible by technology and human ingenuity.

This abundance shows up in the most beautiful ways.

Oddur Thorisson often talks about setting the table with abundance — not just for show, but as a celebration of generosity, beauty, and the good life.

The real miracle isn’t just the technology in our pockets, the produce on our table, or our social media feed.

The miracle is this:

Abundance is available to every person in ways that would have been unimaginable to the most powerful people in history. We have instant access to knowledge, global communication, and opportunities that no king, queen, or Caesar could have dreamt of.

This abundance is the direct result of the bold experiment in self-government that the American founding fathers launched over two centuries ago. Their vision of liberty and self-rule created the conditions necessary for human creativity and innovation to flourish like never before.

So on this 250th Anniversary of the United States of America, let’s not just celebrate freedom.

Let’s celebrate the extraordinary abundance that flows from it. Every time we pick up our phone, drive a car, or enjoy clean water from a tap, we’re living proof that the Founders’ Roman-inspired experiment worked far beyond their wildest dreams.

May we continue to guard the liberty that makes all this possible, and may we use our unprecedented abundance to build lives of meaning, generosity, and purpose.

Happy Abundance Day.