Last week William Shatner – at 90, who knew?! – became the oldest person to achieve space flight. Completion of a 10-minute journey on the reusable New Shephard rocket, including four minutes of weightlessness, was cause for major celebration immediately afterwards.
But notable was that upon disembarking from the space capsule Shatner politely turned down taking part in the champagne shower amongst the crew, Blue Origin promotional people and members of the press.
In what has become an immense waste of champagne (a premium item) at Superbowls, World Series, Ryder Cups and now rocket launches, perhaps an important concept was illustrated by Shatner’s choice to forgo the messy champagne shake-and-spray: an aversion to wasting an expensive or hard-earned asset. Shatner seemed to be more enthralled in recounting the thrill he had just experienced!
Call my reaction boring or over-practical. But from the perspective of a financial planner who guides, and watches clients and friends successfully work to save, invest, grow and protect wealth I saw a display of wisdom and preservation exercised by Shatner – while still truly enjoying the moment.
Here’s the point as it applies to the earthlings reading this edition of TGIF 2 Minutes: the success stories I witness of people with peace of mind who have achieved wealth and those developing wealth, I see mindfulness around spending, less waste on a long list of frivolous items and more awareness of planning and saving for what truly matters. There is A LOT of joy – vacations, things, people and spending — but actions are taken with intention and an eye on purpose. A bit of sacrifice and sticking to a plan in the short-term can lead to “the sky is the limit” in the longer-term – and maybe the intermediate-term too. Now I’ll pop a single bottle of bubbly to that!