Let's say that you were designing the best possible curriculum for a billionare industrialist, now emerging as a politcal funder, to help him go on to achieve great things in philanthropy for the good of humankind? What would be the three most important books or articles you would want him to read as he contemplates a journey from Success to Significance? I assume, given how busy successful people are these days, that short books are best. So I am not including Tristram Shandy in my ideal curriculum, but maybe the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius? Maybe a musical like The Beggars Opera? Or something inspiring like Tom Swift and the Race to the Moon? I would ideally include utopias and dystopias and some kind of true/false test on which is which. But then again, getting the super wealthy as clients has proven a significant challenge. I should probably have gone into private school teaching, where the scions of wealth are more readily shaped. Aristocracy is formed one young mind at a time. Without that all we have is rich people. Not that it is a bad thing, mind you, as long as they are job creators. I could certainly use a steady job myself. Given the austerity to which our society is subject, the lunatic asylum in which I reside at state expense may well be defunded. Back on the streets, aged and toothless, my market value is much diminished. But my attitude is certainly more positive than it was before my recent lobotomy. There is now very little I won't do for money. The doctors say I am almost normal. I will soon be able to restrain myself, rather than relying on the nurse. I wish I were rich, though. I could make the whole world my asylum. And no one would call me crazy or I would scoop their brains out like they now do mine. Then we would all be normal, just like now, only better, from my perspective.
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