LJ asks for my advice on marriage:

“Somewhere around 2011 or 2012, you gave a talk at AWAI’s copywriting conference. Funnily enough, what stuck out most to me was your advice on marriage. Specifically, your decision to stop being preoccupied with making money and enjoy spending time with your wife.

“First, how has that gone for you? Second, if it’s gone well, how did you do it?

“I’m 35, love being married to my wife and spending time with my daughter. I find that I often get spun up on a moneymaking idea, though. I don’t want to miss some of the best times of my life because I’m daydreaming about conversion rates.

“Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.”

My Response: Good question!

Here’s the answer, such as it is.

When I was 33, I decided to make “getting rich” the number one priority in my life. It worked. I became a millionaire within two years and a deca-millionaire four years after that. I retired at 39, thinking I had all the money I needed. But my lifestyle (and my family’s lifestyle) had been upgraded considerably by then, and I wasn’t emotionally willing to scale back. So I went back to work at 40. Financially speaking, I could have retired when I was 50 – but I was loving what I was doing, so I changed my priority hierarchy and took “getting rich” off the top. In fact, I erased it completely from my ambitions. Instead, I paid attention to whatever I wanted to, which included my family. I realized pretty quickly that even though I could stop working entirely, I didn’t want to. I did stop doing work I didn’t enjoy, work that previously I was doing only to increase my wealth, and I focused on other interest and goals, such as writing a blog and 24 books, producing three movies, and starting three non-profit enterprises.

So, the answer to your question, the honest answer, is that I never did that thing that I said I was going to do and politicians say they are going to do when in fact they are trying to escape their jobs. I never spent all that extra time on my family. I spent some extra time with them. I wish I had spent more. But I continued to work at least eight hours a day on my projects, which included a half-dozen businesses I kept consulting for over the years.

I can say this, though. I managed to give my family enough time and attention that K didn’t divorce me, my kids and their spouses seem happy to talk with me, and I’m enjoying the company, whenever I can, of six fantastic grandkids.