The late Leonard Read, founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, was fond of relating a story which I would like to paraphrase here and apply to myself: I’m terrible at golf, but I golf anyway. When I show up at the course, not surprisingly, no throngs appear. No one watches me to see how it’s done. But let a Palmer or a Nicklaus or a Watson or a Trevino show up, and instantly the crowds gather, seeking their tutelage. The British statesman Edmund Burke once said, "Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other." I especially like the way Mark Twain said it, "Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."

I am sure that no one here is entirely happy with the world the way it is. To some extent, all of us are would-be reformers of the world, whatever our personal philosophical inclinations may be. What we sometimes forget in our haste to reform the world is that we must first reform ourselves, one at a time, and none of us has yet done all we can in that regard. We are probably chronically underestimating how much influence for good we can be by being better ourselves—not pontificating about doing good, but actually doing good—and doing it with your own resources, not someone else’s—living it, serving as an inspiration for others. We underestimate our ability to shape the future of society by shaping ourselves first. In the process, we sometimes meddle in the lives of others while allowing our own to fall into disrepair.