Learning the Right Life Lessons

A conversation about the value of the past

with David Melnik, Q.C.

CG: The famous philosopher, poet and novelist Georges Santayana said: those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. How is this point relevant today?

DM: To have a good view of how you should live your life, and how best to contribute to your community and avoid some of life’s large pitfalls, you should learn a much as you can about what happened in the past. About what made and makes the world go round.

That’s why the study of history and philosophy are more important than anything I can think of. Whether you do it formally or informally.

CG: When you look at your own life, how did this serve you?

DM: Over my life I learned a great, great deal about the past, and it helped me move forward. I took aspects of it I felt were workable, worth copying or following, and used them in new and constructive ways.

When we look not just at individuals, but also at companies, we see opportunities to take what worked well for others in the past and use it to improve the present and future.

However, the problem with business today is you’re often dealing with political instead of purely economic agendas: driven by getting votes instead of doing the right thing. An environment where politics rule or overrule common sense.

As a result, we have witnessed the insolvency of a company like GM, once one of the world’s great industrial giants. And, its ownership being forced by the US Government onto the shoulders of America’s taxpayers.

CG: What can we learn from this?

DM: Several things. That governments have powerful agendas of their own, like getting re-elected, and because of this they often forget or ignore the wisdom of the past; which was to have businesses run intelligently and profitably, or let them fail if they didn’t succeed on their own merits.

That we have to take careful note of what our leaders say and do, then hold them to account.

And, that Santayana was right.

I served at one time in my 50+ year career as a senior advisor to the Premier of Ontario, Canada, so I have both an outside and a very inside perspective of government and politics at work; likewise of law from leading a law practice, and of business from running a bank and serving on many corporate boards.

CG: But we don’t need university degrees to glean the wisdom and folly of the past.

DM: Well I have five degrees, but I still have to pay to go on the streetcar as they say. The key is working throughout your lifetime to acquire meaningful knowledge and experience – and the ability to seriously analyze and discuss issues.

CG: In your view, most governments are operating more from self than public interest, and exerting counter-productive control over the marketplace. So where does capitalism fit in today?

DM: I don’t have many heroes, but the great economist Milton Friedman was certainly one. Years back, he gave an interview. When asked if capitalism was a selfish thing, Friedman, like Adam Smith before him, said no, that private, free market achievement was the basis of creating wealth for more people than would otherwise be the case in any dictatorial or totalitarian state (like Stalinist Russia).

I think it’s still true; and more essential than ever that we work to restore a free market.

CG: What one book has influenced you most significantly?

DM: Perhaps British economic historian Robert Skidelsky’s acclaimed three-volume biography on John Maynard Keynes. Fifty years later, we’re still struggling with the effects of Keynesianism. In essence Keynes theory was when things go down, let the government print and pump money into the system and all will be well. Which isn’t the way a free market should work, and we – especially you in the U.S. – have paid dearly for it: tens of trillions in debt and obligations.

I did not admire Keynes in any way, because I think his theory of government involvement in the economy is wrong…but I had to study him to really understand this.

CG: Richard Maybury, publisher of the always insightful and compelling US & World Early Warning Report, has a lot to say about the crushing losses that have come from Keynesian economics -- and about what 2,500 years of economic history tell us to expect ahead in our markets.

But why aren’t we thinking more about these essential issues?

DM: When they’re working all day long, most people are tired and want to relax. The last thing they are likely to do is read Skidelsky’s biography of John Maynard Keynes, or study the meaning of history or carefully analyze where their country is heading.

CG: Yet don’t we all have a higher responsibility, to learn life lessons? To be mindful and helpful, and do the right things in our world by and for each other?

DM: Yes we do. Socrates felt virtue was the most valuable of all possessions, and that the ideal life was spent in search of the good. His ancient wisdom is as timely as ever. It’s something we can seek every day.

CG: You may remember the conversation piece “A Time for Questioning” I did last year with world performer/director/ethical business catalyst Yannis Simonides about Socratic wisdom.

DM: On a larger plane, people also have to be free to make their own decisions about how to conduct their affairs, with as little outside interference as possible. When you go back to the past, you’ll see it was the free market that worked – when it was allowed to work; while government-run or government-influenced economies were not so successful. You’re seeing these dynamics play out again in the present.

CG: So what’s your best advice?

DM: Study. Read. Think. Find people you can talk and exchange ideas with, who will listen…and respect what you have to say; and will offer other viewpoints you can appreciate.

Learn. And keep learning.

I have traveled to over a hundred countries in my 78 years; worked in business, academia and government, and sought out other ways of thinking that helped me evolve my own. I have never stopped learning.

I believe our individual capacity in modern times to transform knowledge of the past, of history and philosophy, into vital new ideas and action for tomorrow, is as great as it ever was. But we have to seize the opportunity, each in our own best way. Our own lives and our future well-being as a society depend on it.

CG: Thank you so much, David.

Colin Goedecke is a strategic story developer and senior-level interviewer, with a 25-year history helping leading and emerging companies worldwide platform and tell their marketing stories. Learning the Right Life Lessons is the 22nd in a series of thought pieces to help us think, act and communicate in wiser ways. Others can be found at www.tenowls.blogspot.com. Colin's Linked In profile is www.linkedin.com/in/colingoedecke

David Melnik, Queen’s Counsel, is a leading international legal and financial consultant; who sits on many company boards. Former CEO of Canada’s Vanguard Trust, he also served as policy advisor to the Premier of Ontario, and as professor at both the University of Toronto and York University business schools… dm1976cp@allstream.net

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