People are tempered by experience, blades are sharpened on stone; so-called resource advantage is not a fortress, but merely a head start in time.

People often mistakenly believe that "insight" or "street smarts" are inherited, and it's a mistake every generation repeats. We tend to think these capabilities are largely determined by family background — a natural castle, a Maginot Line that others struggle to breach no matter how hard they try.

But this logic doesn't hold up. You take your kids out to fine meals, stay at hotels, travel the world — and suddenly they've "seen the world" and gained insight? No. There is an enormous gap between witnessing something and actually being capable of doing it yourself.

People sharpen their skills through action, just as blades are honed on stone. So what is that so-called resource advantage, then? It isn't a fortress at all. What it really is, is simply a time advantage. Because you got there first — like how gunpowder and porcelain were invented first — you get to enter the iteration cycle ahead of everyone else.

All harvesting is built on the foundation of maintaining sustained advantage. A rich family's true advantage boils down to one thing: time advantage, first-mover advantage.

Taking action is not a punishment. Taking action is an opportunity.

The more things you've actually accomplished, the more opportunity your descendants will have to take action themselves.