Book of the Month February 2025 – Values over Valuables by Harmon Kong

wealth management, family values, integrity with money, success, morals, legacy, raising kids

In Values over Valuables, Harmon Kong, a seasoned wealth manager with decades of experience in helping families secure their financial futures, delves into the importance of passing on meaningful values rather than just material wealth. He highlights how families can avoid conflicts and build a legacy rooted in shared values and open communication. Allowing families to grow together and strengthen their bonds through stories, guidance and actionable items for families to do.

Whether you have little or a lot, Kong provides practical guidance for all families on preparing to not only manage money responsibly but also to uphold the family’s guiding principles, in some cases helping families redefine what wealth means to them. By prioritizing core values over financial details, families can achieve wealth beyond measure and ensure their legacy has a lasting, significant impact.

In this book you will discover how to:

  • Prevent dysfunctional dynamics with improved communication and aligned values.
  • Conduct family meetings that can be used to discuss goals, make plans, and foster unity around a shared mission.
  • Leave a positive and intentional impact on the world.
  • Discover a greater purpose beyond wealth accumulation.

Value over Valuables equips families with the tools to have conversations that matter, align around shared values, and use their wealth as a means to support a positive, multi-generational legacy. Are you wanting more from your legacy?

A Refreshing Take on Financial Wisdom

This thoughtful guide offers a unique perspective on managing money that goes beyond the typical financial advice. The author skillfully weaves personal experiences with practical insights, making complex financial concepts easily digestible. The narrative flows smoothly as it challenges conventional thinking about wealth and success, encouraging readers to align their financial decisions with their core values. The writing style is engaging and conversational, making it feel like a chat with a knowledgeable friend rather than a lecture from a financial expert. What stands out is the balanced approach to wealth creation while maintaining personal integrity and well-being. The practical examples and actionable strategies are particularly helpful for anyone looking to make meaningful changes in their relationship with money. While some concepts might seem familiar, the fresh perspective and genuine approach make this an enlightening read that I’d happily recommend to others seeking financial guidance with a conscience.

-Matt

Book of the Month – July 2024 : The Art and Science of Compassion, a Primer by Agnes M.F. Wong

The Art and Science of Compassion, A Primer offers a succinct, all-in-one introduction to the full gamut of compassion, from the evolutional, biological, behavioural, and psychological, to the social, philosophical, and spiritual. Drawing on her diverse background as a clinician, scientist, educator, and chaplain, Dr. Wong presents a wealth of scientific evidence supporting that compassion is both innate and trainable. By interleaving personal experiences and reflections, she shares her insights on what it takes to cultivate compassion to support the art of medicine and caregiving. The training described in this book draws on both contemplative and scientific disciplines to help clinicians develop cognitive, attentional, affective, and somatic skills that are critical for the cultivation of compassion. With striking illustrations for key concepts and concise summaries for each chapter, this book provides a solid conceptual framework and practical approaches to cultivate
compassion.

Recommended by Sathyam

20 sentences that can maximise your social intelligence

1. To solve an issue quickly, be soft on the person and hard on the problem.

2. Pretend everyone was sent to teach you something.

3. Pause in speaking + eye contact = confidence.

4. Make people feel important with the SHR Method: Seen, Heard, Remembered.

5. A person’s favorite sound is their name, so remember it (h/t Dale Carnegie).

6. “Praise publicly. Criticize privately.” —Warren Buffett

7. To give feedback, first let the other person know you have their back.

8. “Unspoken expectations are premeditated resentments.” —Neil Strauss

9. The best networking strategy is a helping others first strategy.

10. Loneliness is a silent pandemic; assume people want to meet you.

Continue reading

Put Down Those Rocks You’re Carrying

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Imagine that as a child you were issued a large backpack to wear at all times. At first you didn’t know what it was for, but then the adults around you started putting rocks in it that you then obediently carried around. After a while you followed their example and began to put rocks in there yourself. Over time, some of the rocks disappeared, but most didn’t, and by now that pack’s really, really heavy.

            You often pull out some of the rocks and look at them. They don’t make you happy. In fact they make you miserable. Some at the bottom you never pull out—you might not even remember you have them–but still you carry them. This seems inexplicable. Why would anyone voluntarily bear such a burden? 

Unfortunately these rocks are not chunks of shale or granite or sandstone. Those would be easy to get rid of! Instead they are bits of residual resentment, hatred, anger, guilt, and shame from injuries or injustices or mistakes you can’t or won’t or haven’t tried to let go of. The backpack is your mind; the weight of the load burdens not your back but your soul.

What follows are tips for cleaning out that backpack. If the pack’s stuffed full, it’ll take some mental elbow grease to do a good spring cleaning, but trust me, it’s worth it for the sunlight that will pour into your life. After that, there’ll be some ongoing maintenance to keep your pack light and your steps jaunty. Yes, there’ll be surprises. Rocks that you’ll swear you never picked up will somehow get in that backpack, and a few rocks will keep reappearing even after you put them down and down again. Still the effort’s worth it. 

So how to get rid of these rocks? The first step is to realize that anger, hatred, resentment, guilt, and shame are not just weight, they’re toxic, poisonous to a healthy life. They cloud your judgement; they sap your attention and energy. They lead to bitterness, depression and despair. If you feed these toxic emotions, the rocks will grow until they’re all you have left. At its most basic, carrying around these rocks is a form of self-harm.

Instead when these emotions arise, acknowledge them, learn from them. Take action if appropriate. And then let them go. This doesn’t mean you should allow people who’ve injured you to do so again. But caution, wisdom, and courage prevent injury better than anger and resentment.

~Karen Lynn Allen

The whole fragment of the book

https://karenlynnallen.blogspot.com/…/put-down-those…