STEP 1
BUILDING YOUR BASE

If I could have lunch with anyone, whom would I choose? Shakespeare, for sure. Cleopatra, to see how compelling she really was. Sojourner Truth. The historian Henry Adams. Jon Stewart (Jon, call me). Archimedes.

Okay, Archimedes isn’t someone you would think of right off the bat. But I have a special feeling for the Greek mathematician. Aside from his theoretical work, he constructed ingenious mechanical devices. He showed that great weights could be moved with small effort, provided that the lever was long enough. “Give me a place to stand,” he said, “and I will move the world.”

Our world could stand a little shove, especially the world of money. Each new generation staggers forward under the weight of old ideas. We “know” too much that isn’t true, or isn’t true anymore. This is a pressed yet hopeful time (as I would explain to Archimedes over sandwiches). The stock boom lies behind us, and so does the real estate boom. Peering forward, we wonder where to light next. Our minds need moving, as well as our money.

That’s a job for a lever. This book was written to help you find a place to stand.