The Stewardship of Wealth: Successful Private Wealth Management for Investors and Their Advisors, + Website

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements often leave me with the impression that I've been lied to.

—Ben Cheever

For anyone interested in a close observation of the more basic human emotions on amusing display, it is hard to beat the acknowledgments section of most books. Here we find inadvertently laid out for inspection such passions as jealousy, ambition, insecurity, unctuousness, feckless gratitude, insincerity, lack of judgment, and, as Mr. Cheever points out in the epigraph, good old-fashioned deceit.

In bygone days, the acknowledgments section of a book was really nothing more than a dedication, typically addressed to a nonentity who happened to have deep pockets and whose favor the author was trying to curry. Insincere, to be sure, but at least with a healthy pecuniary motive.

Today, however, a really good acknowledgment, firing on all cylinders, will list several times as many contributors to the book as there are ideas in it. An even modestly energetic author will not omit to thank his neighbors, pets, sisters-in-law, fourth grade homeroom teacher, and even (in the case of Alice Walker) assorted flowers, trees, and “most especially, the animals.”⁷ We are left to wonder if it might not be a useful improvement to the copyright laws to deny authorship (and royalties!) to anyone who claims that more than, say, two dozen people contributed importantly to the book.

Well, far be it from me to spit into this self-absorbed headwind. I therefore cheerfully admit that everyone I have ...