Time Is Precious...Just get in the game!

[Ben Leybovich]

Happy Thanksgiving, first of all - hope you took it to heart!

Now, many of you are here because you are looking for a better (or any) way to retire. Good! 

But, please try to not forget that all of this is just a game, and when it's over - it's over.

My Thanksgiving was a bit strange this year. Let me paint you the picture:

First, I spent a week with my friends, @Darren Sager and @Brandon Turner in HI. This was a good mastermind. We talked a lot, and somewhere in the middle of all of that Darren turned 50!

50 Years Old. Do you guys comprehend this? At best, throwing out all of the stats, this is 50% there - that's the best case. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Darren! I love you, man. 

Darren looks great, and thinks clearly. Very inspiring.

Not a few days go by once I get back home, and I get a call - you've got to come now, or you might be too late...

My good friend, mentor, partner, investor from my Lima OH days is on his deathbed. I got there just in time. Two days later he would no longer be able to recognize me, and a few days thereafter he was no more... 

Ted was young. He'd been quite ill for a long time. But, he always loved life and kicked it in the teeth. But, that moment came when even Ted had nothing left...painful!

I was only in Ohio for 2.5 days, and in the morning of the second day I found out that my wife's oldest sister passed away. She was only 50...WOW

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In the Leybovich household, we are thankful for another chance. We are thankful for there being more time. We are thankful not for the year that was, but the year that will be...

I learned many things from Ted. Not so much technical REI stuff, as I think it's fair to say that I play this game today on a much higher level than he did, but the big picture stuff.

"Forward ever, backward never." - Ted S.