We have all seen this Wyoming guy.
He doesn’t
look rich.
But if you
examine his life and measure his level of happiness, there is a compelling argument
he could very well be the richest man in the world.
This is a man
who loves the outdoors. He loves to hunt
and fish. He loves to explore. He just
happens to have a few gadgets around (his wife calls them “toys”), which are
not necessarily new, but he keeps them in good repair. He loves tinkering on them.
This rich man
lives in Worland or Cheyenne or Laramie or Rock Springs or Evanston or Riverton
or any other Wyoming city or town. He
gets up early each morning to greet the day with a big smile because he is in
total control of his universe.
The day starts
off with coffee with his buddies. They
meet every morning, rain or shine, and spend an hour telling tall
tales to each other and occasional off-color jokes.
Let’s call
this guy Joe. With all due respect to
the University, we might even call him Cowboy Joe because he is a big fan of UW
and is rarely seen without some kind of brown or gold apparel that reads
WYOMING or COWBOYS.
Joe does odd
jobs and controls his schedule. His wife
has a good steady job with good benefits and good retirement. They are pretty
frugal and have saved up a little money. They enjoy Wyoming’s outdoor
experiences together.
It is
well-known that Joe married “up,” which means he found himself a very good
wife. People say his wife should not put up with all of Joe’s hobbies, but she accepts
them with a smile, because she likes them, too.
They are active in their church and people count on them to help out
during times of need. They are always there for others at such times.
These folks like
Joe are among the richest people in history.
Jeff Bezos, Bill
Gates, or Warren Buffett or some Arab sheik may think his life is better than
Joe’s, but do not try to convince Joe about this. He would not trade his place on the planet
with any of them.
He and his
wife encouraged their kids to study hard and qualify for scholarships because
extra money was hard to find. The kids qualified and they also worked during
their years at UW. They graduated almost debt-free. They taught their kids to
be thrifty and to appreciate the resl finer things in life, such as the joys
available in Wyoming’s great outdoors.
Joe and his
wife are the best grandparents in the world. They take them fishing, hunting,
and camping. They have lots of time to spend with them and are never in a hurry. They listen to the kids’ problems because
often the kids’parents are too busy trying to make a living.
At some point,
one of Joe’s kids will lecture the old man about how if he had worked an extra
job or invested in the stock market, he probably would have ended up rich. And
when he is 70 he would have time to do all the fishing and hunting he might
want to do.
Joe looks at
him and shrugs. You can almost tell that
he is thinking “It’s time to go fishing.”
The Cowboy Joe
described here is a stereotype of a lot of people I know in Wyoming. I wish
that I could have been more like him. In
business, my wife Nancy and I have tried to get it all done but I missed out on
a lot because of pressures associated with running a number of companies. Sure
would have liked to spend more time hunting, fishing, and camping.
Perhaps the
closest I ever came to the perfect life was when I aspired to be a newspaper
publisher at a young age. I made it at
age 24 here in Lander, which was sort of incredible.
A friend back
in those days invited Nancy and me to dinner where a third man showed up and
gave us a pitch about how we could make all this money with some kind of
multi-level marketing sales scheme. I think it was Amway.
“Just think,
Bill,” the man exclaimed. “If you make all this extra money, you can be
whatever you ever wanted to be!”
My answer to
him was: “Sorry, but I am what I always wanted to be.”
Now that is
what Joe would have said had he been asked that question.
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