The Virtue of Self-Reliance

Andy Snyder|February 27, 2020

We met a man on Sunday morning who you need to hear about.

He’s a sad soul. He’s in his late 60s… broke… lonely… and desperate.

He was married for 37 years. But she conned him for everything he had. She ran off with her sister, leaving the supposed love of her life confused and in pain.

It’s a horrific story. It’s one we hope to never have to hear again.

That’s why we’re telling you about it today.

We bet parts of this story will sound and look familiar, especially if you dare to look in the mirror.

The man started his story with the elegance of hindsight…

Snookered

“I should have known,” he said. “The signs were there. If I only would have spoken up.”

We’ve written about our gut’s ability to ferret out the truth before. It’s a cavern for wisdom that we so often ignore.

In this case, though, the shy man did more than ignore what his gut was telling him. He blissfully ignored his duties to himself.

“She did everything for me,” he confessed in the sheepish sort of way a 6-year-old admits she shouldn’t have drawn on the walls.

“She paid the bills. She took care of the mortgage. She saved for retirement.”

That may sound familiar. But it gets worse.

“I worked for 35 years and didn’t even know my take-home pay,” he admitted. “She took care of it all.”

She took it all, too.

What a crime.

But we say two sins were committed here. One is obvious. The old lady’s a crook. But the victim committed some felonies of his own.

Again… they may sound familiar.

Listen to This

As usual, the Triad will lead the way.

This poor sap lost his Liberty because he shunned Know-How and relied on a sour Connection.

What happened ties directly to so much of what we muse about. Fighting for the virtues of the Triad and getting others to see the light is our greatest mission.

It’s hard to tell an audience as wide as this one to not trust their spouse or to keep a watchful eye on the person you wake up next to.

That’s good… because it’s not our point.

We’re not saying this fellow should have told his wife to step aside and let him do the books. Not at all.

Our point isn’t to warn you that your greatest love may be conspiring to take your wealth or cheat you out of what’s yours. That’s a much bigger issue.

No. Our point is to remind readers that humans make mistakes. We overlook things. We forget things. We change our mind. We move on. We die.

All sorts of things can and will happen that will leave the ignorant broke and desperate.

But this isn’t a column for marital advice or affairs of the heart. That stuff merely comes along for the ride.

Instead, we remind readers of the grand virtue of self-reliance.

Now Heed This

None of us has to do it all ourselves.

That’s terribly difficult and, flat out, is no fun.

But we mustn’t rely on anybody but ourselves.

That includes our doctors… our butchers… our politicians… our teachers… or our best friend.

It ties straight back to so much of what we’ve penned about in recent weeks.

It’s vital that we know how to invest…

It’s vital that we know the truth about the viral bugs around us…

It’s vital that we know the truth about our food…

And it’s vital that we know how to manage our own lives…

The man we met on Sunday failed at so much of this.

In his heart, he knew he was making a mistake. But he failed to act… until he came home and his house was empty, his bank account was gone and he had no idea what to do about it all.

“Reagan was right,” he finally admitted to us with his head hung low.

“Trust but verify.”

If any of this sounds like you… you know what to do.

Take care of it.