Wise Judgment: How a Millionaire Makes Decisions

A man walked into a bank in New York City and asked for the loan officer.

He told the loan officer that he was going to the Philippines on business for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000. The bank officer told him that the bank would need some form of security for the loan.

Then the man handed over the keys to a new Ferrari parked on the street in front of the bank. He produced the title and everything checked out. The loan officer agreed to accept the car as collateral for the loan. The bank’s president and its officers all enjoyed a good laugh at the guy for using a $250,000 Ferrari as collateral against a $5,000 loan.

An employee of the bank then drove the Ferrari into the bank’s underground garage and parked it there. Two weeks later, the guy returned, repaid the $5,000 and the interest, which came to $15.41.

The loan officer said, “Sir, we are very happy to have had your business and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multi-millionaire. What puzzles us is why you would bother to borrow $5,000. The millionaire replied, “Where else in New York City can I park my Ferrari for $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?”

That's how the majority of the wealthy people in America get and remain wealthy. They know a ton more about money management than the average person and they use this specific knowledge to make better financial decisions.

Making better choices is mainly about getting great information and then disciplining yourself to use it.

Wise Judgment: Have Mercy

We just presented at a leadership conference for 500 students in southern Oregon. We had eight of our best presenters working with these students for two full days on leadership and life skills. A good part of the students were respectful, attentive and ready to learn how to get better at life. However, there were certainly a large number of "squeaky wheels" that took our presentation energy and who spent their entire time at the conference being disruptive, disrespectful and, at certain times, just downright mean.

However, I have mercy for those kids. A teenager simply acts in response to their long-term environment. You can take a good kid, put them in a negative environment and, with enough time, they will make poor choices. And the reverse is true, as well. It saddens me as a trainer, speaker, coach and parent to see a young man disrespect a young woman in front of his peers because he simply doesn't know any better. Or to see a kid playing with his cell phone right through a life lesson that could have changed his entire life.

My wish is that every student leadership conference had mandatory attendance from the parents/guardians, as well. I firmly believe we are making a difference in the lives of young people with our Personal Leadership Insight conferences. I believe even more that for some of them, their parents/guardians need it much more.

With all that said, thanks to Asia and Cynthia and Tyler and all your positive peers for leaning into the conference and taking a ton away from the experience. We wish you the best.

General: Grant Me Leadership...

God grant me...


Vision to see opportunity.

Integrity to be what I say.


Innovativeness to create value.

Wise Judgment to choose right.


Service mindedness to be significant.

Processed Goals to live purposefully.


Emotional Maturity to act with control and grace.

Skill Assessment to engage my strength.


Fostered Relationships to experience the richness of life.

Masterful Communication to bring clarity into an unclear world.

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Wise Judgment: Quotes

“Fortune truly helps those who are of good judgment.”
Euripides

“If you're not learning while you're earning, you're cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation.”
Napoleon Hill

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”
Albert Einstein

“The key to wisdom is knowing all the right questions.”
John A. Simone, Jr.

“The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.”
John Foster Dulles

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Wise Judgment: The Stop Light Principle

The Stop Light Principle

"Great decision making is an act of getting emotions and systems to play nice together."

The Stop Light Principle allows millions of drivers to operate safely and securely every day. Every driver that pulls up to an intersection with a stop light instantly knows the recognized protocol for how to make their next decision - red light means stop, green light means go, yellow light means punch it! Effective leaders learn, practice and implement a system for making simple, daily decisions and for making huge, defining-moment decisions.

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General: Understanding the Pitfalls of Missing Links

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The Personal Leadership Insight Blog is built around our ten PLI Essentials. As you peruse through the posts, you will find each post discusses one of the ten. For deeper study into each Essential, click on an Essential in the PLI Tags list in the right-hand sidebar.

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Wise Judgment: Bodyguard

Your reputation needs a bodyguard. Business, school, peers, and even family members can and will ask you to help prop up their shortcomings by looking out for them first and your values and integrity second. This is a basic survival instinct, but is contrived. The best way to mentor and model for others is to stick to your core values on a yearly, monthly, daily, and hourly basis. To do this, your reputation needs a bodyguard to save your life as a leader. This bodyguard is your ability to make wise choices in the face of bad information.

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Wise Judgment: Child Leading a Child

I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning about the current state of our airline industry. With airlines still at "just after 9-11" reduced staff and airline schedule level, the stress produced from the customer and staff experience is at an all-time high. This is resulting in packed planes, delayed schedules and Denver luggage ending up in Sheboygan. The decisions having to be made by the airline leadership are complicated and it reminded me of a decision I was faced with on a recent trip.

Standing in the ticket line at the DFW airport, I had a man in front of me talking on a cell phone. He had a 4-year old girl trying to run around the airport in front of him. I say "a" and not "his" because I hope that he was just transporting a child movie star or helping out his brother and that he was not one of the primary care givers to this girl.

After being repeatedly warned to stay put, she finally made one final dash for anywhere other than the ticket line. He grabbed her arm, literally threw her back into him (her feet flew off the ground), picked her up and proceeded to threaten her within an inch of her life, all while still on the cell phone - obviously not talking to his anger management coach.

My "manly-man" instinct was to find someone four times larger than him, have that person give him the Vulcan death grip and throw him into a wall. Seeing that Andre the Giant obviously wasn't traveling to Dallas that day, I just bit my lip. However, my "leaderly-man" instinct was to not react, have empathy for his impatience and then thoughtfully consider whether I should intercede. Her life wasn't in immediate danger and I was not an authority figure in her life or in his life. In retrospect, I could have carefully asked him if he needed help.

Question - what would you have done? Say something to him? Say something to her? Say something to security? After getting my ticket, I just called my wife and asked if she would have driven to Dallas to visit me in the hospital if I would have said something to him and would have probably been thrown into the nearest load-bearing wall...

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