Let's Apply what We've Already Learned to a Bigger Problem...

There's a lesson we've learned in one way or another that a broader application simply applied would leave us a great deal more successful and happier.

That lesson is: when it comes to you and your family's interests, you'd better be proactive. Before I get to the crux of this, allow me a few anecdotes, any or all of which may have happened to you: The question then becomes, what does this tell us about the way things really are so we can thoroughly benefit from the experience?

(1) For many many years, I had an accountant. His was a premier firm in the area, and the guy was aces at his job, his ethics, and being a sincere friend to his clients. Those of us who employed him and his team could sleep soundly at night, knowing that anything sent into the IRS over his name was respected and solid.

Obviously this man was focused on maintaining his sterling reputation, which should come first priority for any client who has a justifiable fear of IRS life intrusions.

Because of this focus, my accountant was extraordinarily conservative, and not one to be seeking out legal 'advantages' for his clients that could come under scrutiny. In his own way, he had a blind spot, a scatoma if you will, to certain legal advantages available in the Federal and State tax codes. After several years of working with him, my own experiences began diclosing this overlooking of possibilities.

I didn't need to be a 'professional' to suspect that I might have an additional legal refund coming, here or there, from earlier filings. Or that I might not have to pay as much, legally, for a present filing. After I would turn over the annual information he requested from me, and he and his team would assemble the 'final' return, I learned that it was up to me to ask him,"But what about this possibility? That?" As often as not I would wind up with juicier refunds, or less painful tax remittances.

The point is, here was an honest professional, tops in his field, well intentioned, even kind. He was someone I met with several times a year face-to-face, and not for sound bites. But that did not mean I could cede my financial well-being over to him entirely. For best results, I learned to stay present and assume personal responsibility rather than engaging in an illusion that I could wash my hands of paying attention and eveything would be fine.

(2) If you've lived long enough, hopefully you've had great medical care from the best doctors and their staffs. Hopefully you feel they have been focused on your well-being, and have given your health the scrutiny you seek. Hopefully somehow they haven't let the paper-pushing foisted on them by corporate and government bureaucracy interefere with their zest for their work in medicine.

I, too, along with those close to me who have undergone severe health issues, have had the good fortune to have professionally focused medical care. It's worth mentioning, as above, that these are people with whom we meet, engage eye-to-eye, and are not merely dispensing sound bites to the faceless masses.

Along the way we have learned the lesson my accountant taught me. Regardless of their degree of professionalism and care, medical care-takers need you to stay involved in the process. How many times has it been we who have uncovered a source of a health issue that the pros have missed? I bet most of us have experienced that!!

Abruptly put, if we shut down our own sense of self-responsibility because we think the pros are all-knowing, it could be fatal. No one but you has your perspective, your desire to survive. Accept no substitutes!!

(3) In your journey through formal education, you find a few gems: teachers who love their subject matter, are eloquent in presenting their knowledge, and actually care that their students learn practicable things about their subject of professorial specialty. These you remember fondly for life and these may have been important contributors to your life and career paths.

Feeling this way about them, would you have said to yourself, "this is all I'll ever need to know about this subject?" Or do you use it as a launching pad to further your exploration of life, as well as hone your effectiveness in the process? In other words, do you retain responsibility for further educating yourself? Of course you do. This is a real softball. But the question is, what can we learn from practicing this on-going self-resonsibility to continue learning and practicing the principles we discover along the way?

(4) One last example before we get to the point. I do hope this is a real softball!! Do you have folks in your life with whom you have a rock-solid trust to exchange services, money, wares? A special car salesperson, real estate saleperson, stock broker, marriage counselor...etc.? These, like the special teachers you recall, are life's gems. Never to be taken for granted. Ever to be grateful for.

Having said that, do you turn over your complete decision-making process to these experts in their field (I said it was softball)? Even though some of these folks you see face to face every day, you know their high level of professionalism and ethics in their field, and you feel a genuine like and trust that their advice and recommendations are intended well, you don't blindly accept their opinions without your own presence (read: vigilance). They get lots of input from you, and you remain the final arbiter.

Okay, okay, we all get it. So what's the point?

Since we wouldn't blindly turn over our financial well-being, health, education and day-to day transactions to the discretion of folks whose expertise we trust, whom we see eye to eye on occasion, who speak with us individually and at length and not in soundbites; why on earth would we trust our life, liberty and property to strangers a great distance away (DC) who have no expertise in the fields they want to govern, a demonstrated track record of arrogant incompetence, and are inarguably the biggest liars and thieves since Satan returned to Earth? Well?