I remember sitting around the dinner table one Christmas, back when our family still gathered for the holidays, before the big court case that ended all that.

"It takes one generation to make it, one to spend it, and one to lose it," my uncle said, his voice carrying the weight of experience.

The table fell silent.

At the time, I thought my uncle had created our wealth. Later, I learned that he had built upon the wise investments our great-great-grandfather had made. Still, his words stayed with me, a reminder of wealth's fragility and the pressures it brings.

A narrated essay from The Pressures of Privilege.
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