Greetings, and thanks for visiting to our first ten rules for Lucky Sperm Club members. This letter is designed to introduce you to the concept of what the Lucky Sperm Club is, and then explain the first ten of our thirty rules for Lucky Sperm Club members.
The Lucky Sperm Club, of course, is the wonderful club that you cannot join; membership in the club can only be given to you by your parents or grandparents, meaning that you become a beneficiary in one form or another of “privilege”. I will use the term “privilege” to mean inheritances, bequests, designations, gifts, and anything else that may pass wealth or its associated privileges on to the next generation.
This financial privilege does not need to be enormous or noteworthy; it just needs to be a financial privilege which brings with it a certain degree of responsibility. We believe that these rules, many are very general in nature, are designed to provide a thought provoking experience for the parent or grandparent, and to serve as a template to discuss them with your children.
Likewise, in its pure form, the letter that just has all of the 30 rules for Lucky Sperm Club members on it is a training tool for the Lucky Sperm Club members who want to actually learn this on their own. Or Parents/Grandparents that are serious about spreading the word.
This letter is just an introductory letter that goes through the first ten rules, as well as our explanation of them, to see if you agree with our philosophy and how we at the Silver Spoon Coaching Organization believe things should be structured. It also goes into our ideas on teaching or reminding our children and grandchildren the important principles of life they need to learn regarding what makes them different from others.
Should you agree with our philosophy, we invite you to sign up for a free email which will include the remaining twenty rules for Lucky Sperm Club members. You will be able to sign up at end of this letter.
If you would like to purchase the letter we made for the children and grandchildren to share with your family or friends, please sent us an email and well send you the information on how to complete your purchase.
In any event, please do not forget to sign up for the email, which includes the rest of the rules that are not presented on this short letter. In the interest of time and space we have kept it short to provide you with a simple introduction. So thanks again for visiting!
Let's get on with Rule No. 1
Rule No.1: You were born or adopted into this club. It is a privilege, but you have to work to stay in it and pass it on to your own children. (Or you can choose to just blow it all.)
Many privileged young people do not understand that with privilege comes a responsibility to work and to exert energy and intelligence in the management of the privilege that they have been given. This work is necessary in order to add to the privilege and make it grow and continue; otherwise, over time, privileges get worn away by taxes, by emergency expenditures, by all matter of things that will automatically cause them to be consumed or diluted and otherwise dissipated back into our wonderful economic system..
Hence, it is important that you spend effort to preserve it, and in fact, make it grow. Then, hopefully, you will have the ability to pass this privilege on to your own descendants or beneficiaries.
You will find you to preserve this privilege you will need to make conscious effort where you choose to take this responsibility and manage it to the best of your ability so that it isn’t lost in the wind before you have a chance to pass it on. Visiting to these rules is a good start.
Should you not make an affirmative choice to respect and protect the privilege, then more likely than not you are making a choice not to, and that choice means you are going to live off of it and allow it to be depleted, and in no time there will be nothing left for you to pass on to your children or grandchildren.
So the purpose of Rule No. 1 is to get you to realize that this privilege that you have been granted has responsibilities that go along with it, and that you need to make a conscious decision to step up to the plate, accept those responsibilities to the best of your ability, and deal with them in a manner that respects the privilege and financial resources that you have been granted.
Rule No. 2: You are special, but so is everyone else.
This privilege does not grant you the power or the right to act superior or elitist to others.
You did not earn this privilege by your own efforts or your wisdom or anything that is of your own doing. This privilege was bestowed upon and granted to you because of who your parents or grandparents are, and while that makes you special (and you are special - each of us are), that does not make you superior or smarter or more intelligent than others, and it does not give you the right to act like an elitist snob to the rest of society.
You simply have been granted a privilege and with that privilege and its responsibilities makes are different, but you are not better than everybody else.
Should you act like you are superior to others due to this privilege, you might draw undue attention to yourself and that could have serious consequences.
Rule No. 3: Money does not care who owns it and it has no loyalty to you just because you were born with it. It simply doesn’t care; caring is your job.
Money does not love you like your parents do, and it will leave you at the first opportunity.
Many young people who have been granted a degree of privilege think that this is a renewable resource, and that no matter what they do there is always going to be more money in the checking account at the end of the month, or that more stock certificates will be arriving in the mail, or that they will be getting more favorable letters from trust companies and such. This is not the case.
The privilege that you have been granted is finite. It may be very large but it is a finite privilege. It is limited and does not love or care about you; it is your job tend to it.
You can lose the money, you can give it away, you can ignore it, you can treat it incorrectly and it will leave you and never even know that it was ever owned by you. Like water in a swimming pool, should you choose to empty it, the water will just be water for someone else, just as your money will wind up in someone else’s account
Rule No. 4: There will always be someone bigger, richer, stronger, better looking, younger, or more talented that you.
Learn not to compete with these people or with anyone based upon absolutes, but instead compete with how much value you can add to the lives of others in your own unique way.
I know people who have taken years to learn the lesson that this rule tries to teach and that lesson is, of course, that you are not the richest person on the block. You are simply privileged and there will always be someone more privileged than you.
There are people who will be stronger and richer and better looking and more talented and have all these things than you do, that may or may not have your privilege.
Those things- their size, talent, good looks, as well as their wisdom, intelligence and experience, are all separate from the privilege and it is important that you understand that having privilege is not about showing off in the locker room or bragging.
We are going over the first ten rules, and have reached Rule No. 5
Here it is: Keep you friends your friends, and keep your money separate from them.
Many young people have a desire to prove themselves or validate themselves by telling their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, best friends and so forth about this privilege, and thereby try and brag to them or make themselves look different or special in such a way by doing so. Please do not do that.
Once you have told your friends that you have received a gift or an inheritance or a bequest from someone, they will always know that information. You will be introduced as their friend “who inherited a lot of money” or their friend “who is from a rich family.”
This is a bad way to become known . Nothing good can come of it.
Rule No. 6 of our first 10: Money is just stored up energy, it needs to move to grow and create value in our economy.
In our western economy the movement of money is what causes wealth to occur. Now this is not to say that it is necessary to sell your investments and trade them everyday; in fact, that is quite the opposite. The money that is well invested is, in fact, moving already.
It is the non-movement of money, like keeping it in poor investments or converting it into cash and putting the cash in the basement that we are addressing here.
It is not that the money needs to change hands everyday. In doing so, frequently it will leave your hands altogether. Rather, money needs to be active and it needs to be working; it does not need to be passive and standing still. This is a very strong rule and it has to do with not only understanding investments in general but also trying to keep your money up with inflation and with the purchasing power that is needed to in order for it to be passed on to the next generation.
Rules No. 7 relates to the above rule: Never use rule # 6 just to justify spending money.
Many people will use the movement of money approach to try to convince you your money needs to move in their direction in order to create value, and that therefore you need to spend your money on things that do not create value for others or for yourself.
On the surface that can be a conventional sales pitch, but the bottom line is that not only should the money move, but when it is out there moving and working it needs to be moving and working for you or your family's benefit. Getting money to work hard is different than just spending it.
Rule No. 8 or our first 10: You NEVER get a vacation from the responsibilities that the privilege gives you.
That is not to say to young people that you do not get to take vacations, but it does say that the responsibilities of this privilege are permanent; you do not get to leave them aside and act stupidly or unwisely with regard to this privilege.
This is important; you have the ability at any time, day or night, to do serious damage to your “privilege,” either by acting foolishly and generating lawsuits for yourself, or telling your friends, or spending it unwisely, or losing it in a casino, or making unwise investments. We must always be on guard and be vigilant against something like that, and by that it means there is no vacation.
You, given your position in your social circle, may very well be the trend setter, with others taking their cues from your actions. Should that be the case, it’s unlikely that your friends will stop you from going too far, because you are likely the trendsetter. Hence, even if your friends see the danger they might not stop you; they anticipate that you see it too and have it handled. Disaster can happen in situations like this. Worse still is when your friends, from envy or jealousy, convince you in a weak moment to take excessive risks or make bad choices.
Many people who have no privilege can, and do, take a complete vacation for their entire life; because they have nothing to lose the world lets them act foolishly. Such is not your position.
They can run down another county and marry someone they just met because they feel like it.. Or they can bet their entire fortune in a casino because it’s measured in the hundreds of dollars; your is not measured that way.
The fact is that you do not get to take a vacation from your privilege, and you especially do not get to take a vacation from the responsibilities that it gives you.
(you are about done with the first ten rules for our privileged “Lucky Sperm Members.” Do you see anything the strikes home yet?)
Rule No. 9: Life is not fair, never was, never will be. Others might think it is not fair that you have this privilege but they are unaware of the responsibilities that come with it.
I think it has been said to you your entire life that life is not fair and that certainly is very, very true.
Life is not fair. You are in no one else's shoes and no one else can be in your shoes. This privilege that has been granted you is yours; perhaps it belongs to other family members as well, but this privilege is yours.
Other people, might think it is unfair that you have this privilege. The important thing I want you to consider, (and keep to yourself) is that your privilege comes with a responsibility.
These first nine rules are but a taste of the responsibly that is, and will continue to be, required of you. Other unprivileged or unaware people of privilege may not know the other side of the wonderful coin you have been given.
Rule No. 10 of the first10: Once you tell someone your situation you can never un-tell them. Be smart and do not tell them in the first place.
We alluded to this rule earlier but it is so important that we wanted to speak of it again, and deal with it directly.
Once this cat is out of the bag, you can never put it back in. Once the news is out, you can’t recall it and no one will ever forget it. Please keep your mouth shut. This is all about protecting you and you relationships with your friends, co-workers and associates.
There are people out there that will think you don’t deserve to win a prize, get a raise a work or
Get credit for you accomplishment if you are from privilege.
This has been the first 10 of the 30 rules of the lucky Sperm Club member. I hope you have enjoyed them, if you would like to get a letter with all 30 of them or sign up for a free e-mail with the rest of the 20 rules just go to our website, the address is on the letter.
I hope that by visiting to and thinking about these ten rules, as a parent may do a better job and be more equipped to talk to and train their youngsters to take their place in a world of privilege. Further, that they may be more aware, and when the opportunity arises, be able to teach or discuss these issues with their children or grandchildren at any age; that the concepts are fresh on their mind and they are able to have those discussions with a goal and point in mind
Discussing these sensitive issues is akin to discussing sex with your children; when the time is right and their mind is open, they will bring up the subject, you had better be ready.
The letter itself, which includes all 30 rules, includes a laminated card that it can be used as a teaching tool to slowly bring up the subjects it addresses and discuss the responsibilities that lay hidden and disguised in the privileges you give them.
This of course is just a one small piece of our Silver Spoon Coaching program. This fun and educational program is used to help parents deal with all the aspects of having privileged children.
Thanks for visiting.