Home
Search the Site!
Past Columns
Winners & Losers Book
Ernie Fletcher Book
Don's Life Story
McNay Settlement Gr.
Photos with the famous
Write to Don!
Podcast
Podcast Podcast
Full Feed
Polls
Do you feel personal finance should be part of the school curriculum?
 
What is the worst bet for the gambling public
 
Mailing List
E-mail Address:
Syndicate
The happy but unknown lottery winner.
Sunday, 29 June 2008

The happy but unknown lottery winner.

 Baby we can do it, take your time, do it right, we can do it baby, do it tonight

The SOS Band

In my last book,   I told lottery winners four things:  Don’t let anyone know you won.  Set up a trust.  Hire good attorneys and advisors. Take the money in annual payment.

On June 27, someone near Cincinnati collected a $196 million Mega Millions jackpot.  The winner did it exactly the way I outlined.

I feel like I won the lottery myself.   

 I’m not sure if the winner read my book but they followed my game plan.

Unlike most lottery winners, the Cincinnati winner should have a happy life.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the ticket was sold in May, just outside of Cincinnati.    Several weeks later, an attorney from the Cincinnati law firm of Graydon, Head and Richey claimed the ticket on behalf of an undisclosed client

A blind trust was set up and the winner opted for 26 annual payments of $7.5 million each.

Most people can live on $7.5 million a year. 

Because the identity was kept private, the winner won’t have a posse of newfound “friends” looking for a handout.  He or she won’t become a national laughingstock like Powerball winner Jack Whitaker. 

Read more...
 
Ed Prichard, Eliot Spitzer and the Comeback
Monday, 23 June 2008

Ed Prichard, Eliot Spitzer and the Comeback 

I'll always be around. and around and around and 
around and around
 

-The Highwayman by Jimmy Webb 

Author and CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin recently spoke to the Kentucky Bar Association and told a fascinating story.  

Several years ago, Toobin interviewed Donald Graham, Publisher of the Washington Post.  He asked Graham where he got his middle name Edward.   Graham told him he was named for Ed Prichard, who was his father Phillip’s closest friend. 

David Halberstam’s bestseller The Powers That Be, chronicles the friendship that began when Prichard and Graham were Harvard Law students.  

Prichard and Graham were the two brightest stars of their generation but their careers were cut short.  Graham suffered from mental illness and ultimately committed suicide.  Prichard was convicted of stuffing the ballot box in Kentucky.  He spent time in jail and his political career was ruined. 

25 years later, Prichard came back and huge impact on Kentucky’s education system.  

Toobin became fascinated with Prichard’s story and Tracy Campbell biography of Prichard, Short of the Glory.  

Toobin was also a Harvard Law school classmate of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.    

When Spitzer was forced from office, Toobin sent Spitzer a copy of Short of the Glory.   Toobin hoped that Prichard’s story will inspire Spitzer to make a contribution to society like Prichard did.  



Read more...
 
Russert and Inheriting the Blue Collar Work Ethic
Saturday, 14 June 2008

 

Russert and Inheriting the Blue Collar Work Ethic

 

“I'll take those long nights, impossible odds
keeping my eye to the keyhole”

 

-STYX

 

The reports Tim Russert’s death goes back to one theme:  the work ethic that he inherited from his father.

 

It’s the legacy of a blue collar family.

Read more...
 
Winning in Business & Life
Thursday, 05 June 2008
"It's a town full of losers, we're pulling out of here to win"
 
Bruce Springsteen
 
Political advisor and commentator  Karl Rove is an avid student of American history .  I  am a semi avid student of the same subject. 
 
We both studied the presidential  election of 1896.  It is pivotal since the Democratic party nominee, William Jennings Bryan, changed the way that presidential campaigns were run. 
 
 Rove spent his time studying William McKinley and how he defeated Bryan twice. 
 
It occurred to me  that  Rove focused on the tactics of the winner while I  focused on the tactics of the loser. That might be why Rove has supported more winning candidates than I have. 
 
 I have an affinity for the underdogs and "losers" of life. I am a  believer in giving people second chances.
 
I know that the best way to make a person a winner is to put them in an environment where others have positive attitudes.
Read more...
 
Joe Nocera's Good Guys & Bad Guys
Monday, 26 May 2008

Joe Nocera’s Good Guys and Bad Guys

 

Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks

 and I’ve learned much from both of their styles.

 

-Jimmy Buffett

 

One of my favorite business books is Mark McCormick’s What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School.   

 

The 1986 book had a huge influence on me.   McCormick encouraged readers to write letters to people and say what you admire about them.   

 

I always meant to write to McCormick and never did.  I did write to Joe Nocera.

 

In 1994, I had reviewed Nocera’s book, A Piece of the Action, for the Lexington Herald Leader.  I was completely blown away by Nocera’s work.  He did exhaustive research in the style of David Halberstam or David McCullough.  It was combined with writing that flows like Tom Wolfe.   I’ve re-read the book 50 times and still find nuggets of wisdom. 

 

I wrote and told Joe how much I admired him.  He wrote back.   We’ve followed each other’s careers since then.

 

Joe had been writing for Esquire and GQ when we connected.  He went on to be the Executive Editor at Fortune and now a columnist for the New York Times.

 

His latest book, Good Guys and Bad Guys, is a collection of writings along Joe’s life journey.

 

Like the Jimmy Buffett song, Nocera noted that villains of business have good traits and business heroes have flaws.

 

 

 

Read more...