Sabedoria

Wisdom Not Taught in College

Ten life lessons from a long-time warrior in the battle of ideas

MAY 28, 2014 by JOHN BLUNDELL

About 30 years ago, I was sitting in a rural roadside diner outside Milwaukee. My host, a wealthy businessman, had chosen the spot close to one of his factories. It was an all-day breakfast type of place.
I was there to pitch him for around $10,000 per year for The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS), and I was batting on a good wicket—to use a cricket term from my native England. I knew I was aceing the “ask” and the food was so good I started tossing easy pitches his way, which allowed him to talk and me to eat.
Out poured a ton of deep frustration with his alma mater. He agreed straight away that he would start giving us $10K, and while he deeply resented the same amount going to his Ivy League alma mater, he felt obliged—not happy—to do so.
On my flight home to Dulles I mulled on this, and back in the office next day I dictated (I realize this dates the incident) a letter thanking him for his $10,000 pledge. I went on to suggest that he also give us the other $10,000 currently reserved for the alma mater for my colleagues to invest in the few good free-market students and faculty we knew there. He loved the idea! (The college involved howled.) Other donors got wind of this and we soon had several college-specific funds.

Now, I could talk about making the same philanthropic dollar do two or three jobs all day long (see in particular the business model of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty) but the lesson here is this:
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