As I get older I value relationships and friendships more and more. I recently read Tuesdays with Morrie for the second time,  and I highly recommend it. A dying teacher is sharing life lessons with a student. The core message of the book: nothing matters more than relationships in this life. After I reread the book I even called my mother-in-law and volunteered to drive her to the airport at 4:30 in the morning. (She is still recovering from the shock of that phone call.) I’ll put a few excerpts from Tuesdays with Morrie at the bottom of this email.

When I created the VALUEx Vail conference in 2010 I thought it would be nice to have an idea-sharing event in the Colorado mountains. Somehow, over the years VALUEx Vail has become something bigger and deeper than I ever imagined. It has spun into a still-growing circle of several dozen friendships. We constantly share and bounce ideas off each other. We go to Buffett’s Omaha shindig together. VALUEx has become as much about friends getting together as it is about value investors  sharing ideas.

I limit the conference to only 40 attendees. Of this year’s attendees, 32 had attended the conference at least once before (and probably half have joined in four or five times). I stopped mentioning the conference in my emails because the number of applicants greatly exceeded the number of available spots, and I hate saying “no” to people.

Here is the good news for you, my dear reader. Some of the presenters have allowed me to share their presentations with you, and I’ve posted them to http://valuexvail.com/presentations. (They are free, but the website will require you to sign in.)

Here are some excerpts from Tuesdays with Morrie:

“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

“Most of us all walk around as if we’re sleepwalking. We really don’t experience the world fully, because we’re half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do.”

“Even I don’t know what ‘spiritual development’ really means. But I do know we’re deficient in some way. We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don’t satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted.”

“There is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t the family.”

“In business, people negotiate to win. They negotiate to get what they want. Maybe you’re too used to that. Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else’s situation as you are about your own.”