Randy Jones | June 1, 2009
It was Jonathan Nelson, the richest man in Providence, Rhode Island, who gave me the perfect phrase for the second commandment in The Richest Man in Town. We’ve all heard the advice, “Know thyself.” Nelson, like many of the RMITs I interviewed, took that very wise advice to the next level. He learned the importance of the second commandment in school—in a course on Beethoven at Brown University—but this lesson was not on the syllabus.
Randy Jones | May 31, 2009
For the last couple of weeks, I have been telephonically touring the country, so to speak, speaking to radio hosts in virtually every market in America about my new book, The Richest Man in Town. I have enjoyed these chats immensely, but I find it so curious that the number one question I expected from all of these local radio shows, “Who is the richest man or woman in our town?” is not their first question.
Randy Jones | May 21, 2009
It’s a cliché I heard a lot while I was writing The Richest Man in Town: “Money can’t buy happiness.” I can tell you that there are a lot of miserable rich people out there, and it is certainly true that pursuing money for money’s sake will not lead to a satisfying life. But for RMITs wealth is not only a tool to achieve great things and add value to the community; it’s also the reward for their hard labor, that allows them to pursue their passions and have a full, well-rounded life. Across the board, I found that having money is indeed related to happiness. And science backs me up: In April of last year, University of Pennsylvania economists Betsy Stevenson and Justin Wolfers presented a study at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., on just this subject. According to the New York Times, Stevenson and Wolfers found that 90 percent of the households in America that have incomes of $250,000 or more call themselves “very happy.”
Randy Jones | May 19, 2009
In a letter thanking me for writing The Richest Man in Town, Jim Oelschlager, the richest man in Akron, Ohio, wrote, “Wow! What a spectacular book! My prediction is that it will be on the best seller-list soon.” Every writer loves to hear those words, and as they say, from Jim’s lips to God’s ears. He went on to say the book should be a textbook for graduate schools of business. That was a big wow for me. Oelschlager, who is unquestionably one of the most inspirational men I have ever interviewed, brought so much power to my book because of his extraordinary personal story.
