ThereвЂ™s been some tough stuff mixed in, but sitting here right now, my dogs resting at my feet, my wife, Molly, asleep in the next room, my little girl, Claire, safe and secure in her future, itвЂ™s easy to feel like I can be satisfied with the things IвЂ™ve accomplished. I bowled a perfect game at my local bowling alley and my name is still up on that wall to this day. IвЂ™ve met three presidents and respectfully told them all how they could do their job better-and they listened. IвЂ™ve seen parts of the world my daddy never even heard of. She says please and thank you and she means it. Together we raised a little girl who grew up blessed, yes, but has been taught to appreciate the value of a dollar. HereвЂ™s the real truth: I met the most beautiful woman in the world and convinced her to marry me before I had a penny to my name. Or, more important, one thing has nothing to do with the other. Wells, you are worth $304.9 billion, which makes you the richest man in America, and the fourth-richest person on GodвЂ™s green earth, so of course youвЂ™ve lived a good life. I hope itвЂ™s a good story because I feel like IвЂ™ve lived a pretty good life.

From my line of work, I can tell you: guesses are rarely educated. I want you to hear it from me, rather than from someone looking for a buck, making educated guesses. A blog seems pretty fitting, doesnвЂ™t it? I havenвЂ™t been sleeping much lately, so this gives me something to keep myself occ upied at night.ДЄnyway, sleep is for people who lack ambition.ДЄt least thereвЂ™ll be some kind of written record. I donвЂ™t have time to write a book about my life, like everyone has been telling me I should, so thisвЂ™ll have to do. I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth or shapes it into a garment will starve in the process.ДЄ lot of men make it to the end of their life and they donвЂ™t know theyвЂ™ve reached it. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available upon request.Д¬over images: (sky) f9 photos/iStock/Getty Images (cardboard boxes) malerapaso/E+/Getty Images (drone) Andrzej Wojcicki/Science Photo Library/Getty Images Published in the United States by Crown, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.Д¬ROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authorвЂ™s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Tig soa you ever crack open a cold one