In Eye of the Moon, John Dodge tells Percy:

“Money is such a paradox. To make great sums requires taking on tremendous risk. To keep it requires the opposite: taking very few. Most people can barely do one or the other. The great fortunes, ours for sure, were built by paradoxical people who excelled at both. They could also muster the mental hardness and iron discipline needed to cut expenses to the bone and preserve what they had built.”

Those who have inherited great wealth are often viewed as lazy, weak, and without the mental brilliance of those who created it. In many cases, this is true. Fortunes are built, only to disappear within three generations. It is said that the first makes it, the second preserves it, and the third spends it. Then again, there are those fortunes that continue on and on. In some cases, that wealth has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries. There are not many instances but more than are visible. Often, those who guard such wealth shun the spotlight. You won’t find them on the Internet. Their presence is assiduously scrubbed. One sees only what is visible, not what lies hidden, and they prefer anonymity.

Because it is so rare, it is difficult to appreciate the persistent ruthlessness required to preserve great wealth. It is not just in managing the details (looking after the pennies) and avoiding reasons to squander it on depreciating assets, but also in taking the necessary precautions to avoid giving it to various tax authorities.

One of the reasons the Royal House of Windsor became so wealthy and influential is that it had tax-exempt status until the Queen gave up that extraordinary gift soon after the Windsor Castle fire in 1992, Annus Horribilis. I wonder what went on behind the scenes. There is a story there. Should the House of Windsor fall, others will point to this and that, but for me, that would be the beginning. It started there.

Holding wealth is much like viewing a typical nature film. An osprey might catch a salmon in its talons only to lose it to a bald eagle or some other opportunistic creature waiting on the sidelines. Keeping what one has can be just as difficult as catching it.

One might also imagine that conversations at an elegant dinner are always elegant and polite. Not so. Men get old—women, too—and they get crusty. Tempers flare and patience thins when one listens to what passes for wisdom in later generations and that has been the case for as long as there has been any wealth at all. A picture of the miser comes to mind, but I might ask: Who came up with that particular rendition of frugality? I bet it wasn’t someone who was actually frugal, let alone wealthy.

Fortunes are made every day. We hear and read about them often but how many are kept? Like success, amassing a fortune is difficult. Maintaining success for an extended period is rarer still. That feat takes extraordinary skill—so does maintaining great wealth. I much admire those who manage to do both.