Image of Bogle at roughly the age he wrote the book enough

Information about the book

author: John Bogle
title: Enough
pages: 250
ISBN: 978-0-470-39851-7

Overall thoughs

The book is split in two parts.

  1. Money
  2. Life

The first is a critique of the financial sector in the USA and corporate america in general. I profoundly agree with his view; so much so that this part did not bring too much value for me other than precise and novel arguments for opinions I share.

The second part is much more interesting and brought with it something that I think I will keep with me for the rest of my life. In this part, he talks about how he thinks you should live your life.
He is not morilizing when doing this, he is also not vague about what he thinks and why though.

Be bold and commit

The idea is simple, commit deeply to doing something bold and the rest will take care of itself. Goethe and Murray say it better.

Goethe’s idea came before Murray. Murray in his book Scottis Himalayan Expedition expanded the idea to include commitment. The quote appears in the first half of the book, he explains that without his commitment to buying passage for the expedition nothing would have happened.

Goethe:

Are you in ernest? Seize this very minute; What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

W.H.Murray:

until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

Some context:

Definition of providence: “the care and control of God or of a force that is not human in origin”.

Companies require animal spirits

According to Keynes, enterprise requires an animal spirit, otherwise it will fade.

This goes hand in hand with the idea proposed by Jeff Bezo’s that companies must fight every day to stay alive. Life is not the natural state of being - it must be earned every day.

Keynes

It is the merest pretence to suggest that an enterprise is based on an exact calculation of benefits to come. [We need] animal spirits, a spontaneous urge to action. If animal spirits are dimmed and spontaneous optimism falters, leaving us to depend on nothing but a mathematical expectation, the enterprise will fade and die.