I lost a friend and a business associate the other day. His name is Ernie Kessler.
When I first began speaking on the lecture circuit, I was talking about things like legal documents, legal correspondence, methodologies of protecting yourself in legal transactions, and the like. My background as a lawyer allowed me the opportunity to know just a bit about legal protections. And my penchant as an entrepreneur and investor motivated me to share those insights with others similarly situated.
In the mid-1980s, I came across another speaker who was sincere, well-spoken, obviously educated, and actually in a very subtle way, downright funny. His name was Ernie Kessler.
He was idiosyncratic to the nth degree. He had the Massachusetts accent. He was a Dartmouth graduate. He was understated in the way he expressed himself. But he was obviously incredibly knowledgeable and a very deep thinker. I thought him pretty droll in his style, but I nonetheless appreciated his whole being. I left the circuit in the 90s and lost contact with Ernie.
Years later, however, I had the opportunity to come across him again and realized the over all these years we had been apart, he had continued to ply his trade as a preforeclosure specialist in real estate and a speaker/mentor/coach/consultant/trainer to the investor entrants into the discount real estate field.
I was delighted to meet him again, and he was, in turn similarly appreciative of the world we created at Dynetech.
He explained to me that, as talented as he was, and at the age of 47 he was restricting his activities to occasional lecturing around the country ongoing activity as a preforeclosure specialist in the Mid-Atlantic states had a substantial portfolio to which he had to attend, but he loved the opportunity to share his knowledge and understanding with enthusiastic students nationwide.
He shared with me that he had a heart attach some 10 years prior— in his 30s and as an employer of some 35 people—which gave him a serious look at what his future life might be about. Based on the heart attack and some serious assessment, he decided to outplace his staff, simplify his life, and focus on what he enjoyed. That downsizing on his side represented Dynetech’s opportunity to support and expand his operations.
When I found out just prior to May 2003, that he was found slumped over on the other side of the door of his luxury condominium, I was shocked and, quite frankly, sick to my stomach. At 48, and with no time or ability to call anyone from the cell phone ever-present on his belt, he had apparently had a heart attack.
All kinds of thought have continued to ruminate through my mind over these past weeks.
First, and of course, what a tragic loss to all of us, as well as to his family and friends.
Second, what an enormous loss to the industry as a whole.
Third, can any of us ever conceive, unless we have personally experienced it, the special loss that occurs when we are cut off from someone deprived of his or her vitality so very young in their lives?
And fourth, this thought cropped up for me. All of us in the field of income production, income motivation, seeking to better ourselves in our own lives and others in their lives, operate within a sphere of optimism that suggests that all is possible in this world.
And, you know, everything is possible—in this world and/or the next!
But for someone like Ernie, rich beyond his needs and proficient beyond his requirements, wealth did not buy Ernie health.
A heart attack and a bypass surgery bought him years, but it didn’t buy him health. In his second attack, not only did he not have the health, but he ended up not even having the opportunity to correct the problem. It was over in a few minutes, if not seconds!
Every single one of us will die—some more prematurely than others, regardless of how much we have in the bank.
What occurred to me is that wealth does not buy you health. And because health is so much more determinative and frankly dispositive of the quality of your life, is it not far better to focus on our health as we continue to focus on our wealth? People who have money die just the same and just as quickly as those who do not.
Let’s not stop focusing on our ambitions or our motivations. And let’s also not stop focusing on wealth or prosperity. But when the chips are down, I’ll bank on health, happiness, and love any day of the week.
Ernie Kessler was a teacher when he was alive. And thank you, Ernie, for being a teacher even as you pass on.
Original writing date: July 2003