"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have known for a long time what is going on under the hood in the financial industry. The solution seems obvious, but almost no one was taking the correct route. Here is how I arrived here.
In college, I likely studied in the same library where John Bogle, a half-century before me, worked on his senior thesis that invented the index fund. He proceeded to give up enormous personal wealth by founding low-fee Vanguard, which opened for business 49 days before I was born. His adherence to his principles is a point of light in the financial world.
Amazing things can happen when prices go down by an order of magnitude. Craigslist and many Internet companies have demonstrated the explosion of good effects that result when someone comes along and says "I can charge a tenth of what everyone else charges." I'm fascinated by this practice and few things make me happier than cutting prices for customers.
"There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second." ~ Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.
One Day In July is copying this approach.In economic development, there is an ideology known as "appropriate technology," which means that the cheapest tool that still gets the job done is the best one. Appropriate technologies are small-scale, labor-intensive, efficient, and locally-controlled, and do nothing more than meet people's needs. The more experience I gather, the more I believe in the power of this simple concept.
My wife's Vermont medical practice was founded on the premise that patients want their doctor-patient relationship restored. It is a simple idea in a health care industry overloading with complexity. And it has worked extremely well.
One Day In July's intention? To master a simple approach and to discard 99% of what the financial industry has created.And something good to keep in mind:
"My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time."
- Steve Jobs
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