By Russ Hill, CFP®, AIFA®, Executive Chairman
George Clooney once observed that you can take a good script and still make a bad movie, but never the other way round. And yet, in comparison to movie stars and big-name directors, screenwriters are generally not a particularly celebrated bunch.
Aaron Sorkin is one of the few writers to acquire a meaningful level of fame in his own right. Whether you are a fan of The West Wing or not, the guy knows how to write a good line.
Of all these lines, the most famous is – almost certainly – the thundering riposte of Colonel Jessup, ‘You can’t handle the truth!’, in the military courtroom drama A Few Good Men. Strangely, this was not actually written by Sorkin, but adlibbed by Jack Nicholson (replacing the far less memorable original wording ‘You already have the truth.’).
Key Takeaways
- A meaningful life requires knowing what is worth pursuing.
- Resilience matters when life inevitably brings failure and setbacks.
- Purpose can make us less vulnerable to life’s changing circumstances.
- Longevity is not only about living longer, but about having meaningful reasons to keep living fully.
- Identifying your own “big fish” can help shape how you approach the years ahead.
The Old Man and the Sea: A Story About a Life Well-Lived
I was listening to an interview with retired four-star US Navy Admiral James Stavridis the other day. He was asked to name the single greatest misconception civilians have about the military. He said that it was the image that most military leaders are, to a greater or lesser extent, versions of Colonel Jessup: harsh, arrogant, and domineering. In reality, such leaders are incredibly rare.
Stavridis is himself a superb illustration of this point – a modest, quiet-spoken intellectual with a personal library of 5,000 books.
The broader topic of the interview was one of his all-time favorites, Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. As you may remember from high school, the book traces the story of Santiago, an elderly fisherman who embarks on a daring voyage to catch an enormous marlin, only to see his prize slowly eaten by sharks on his journey home, until only the skeleton remains.
What Does “Destroyed But Not Defeated” Mean?
The book has many layers, but is ultimately about the meaning of a life well-lived. The conclusion of the old man’s struggle is summed up in the protagonist’s realization that ‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated’.
My reading of this is that once you know what you want out of life, you’re a whole lot less vulnerable to its vicissitudes.
Santiago didn’t set out on his expedition because he had a real taste for marlin, or because financial pressures compelled him to. He set out to prove to himself that he could accomplish something extraordinary – which he did.
This message is important to learn when you are young. A good life doesn’t come from taking it easy and drifting, but from figuring out what you are capable of and taking some risks in the pursuit of it.
Finding Your “Big Fish”
It’s also important when you are not so young. Most of us will live long enough to experience profound failure of one kind or another. Then, it’s important to realize, as Santiago did, that the things that are really worth striving for are not things that can be taken away from us.
Longevity planning isn’t only about extending the number of years we have. It’s also about thinking deliberately about what we want those years to contain. As we age, the question becomes less about accumulating more and more about identifying the experiences, relationships, challenges, and pursuits that make those years meaningful.
Correctly identifying our ‘big fish’ is the first, and arguably most important, question we will ever have to answer.
Russ Hill is the Executive Chairman of Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors, LLC (“Halbert Hargrove”). This blog and his book have been authored by Mr. Hill in his individual capacity. This blog is provided for general and educational purposes only. Nothing in this blog or his book should be construed as investment advice. All opinions or views reflect the opinions and judgment of the author as of the publication date and are subject to change without notice. Nothing contained herein or his book should be construed as an offer to provide investment advice through Halbert Hargrove.
