Bring Brilliant People Together – Phil and Linda Laders’ Worldwide Renaissance Weekends and Walking Tours

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Because my first blog entry this morning is a repeat, I wanted to be sure to share some new ideas with you today.

Let me tell you about how one couple's interest in getting acquainted with powerful ideas led them to an astonishing life.

Phil Lader is a law school classmate of mine. Although we knew each other only slightly in law school, we became friendly while I was heading the tenth anniversary gift campaign for our law school class. Phil was impressed with the many networking activities I had employed during the fund-raising. At the end of the campaign in 1981, Phil invited me to join his wife, Linda, and him for a gathering of a few friends to discuss important ideas over New Year’s Eve. I wasn’t able to come that year, but was free for January 1, 1983 and trekked to Hilton Head, South Carolina with my two sons for a little chatting and recreation. I was the only person who lived north of the Mason-Dixon line, but the southerners soon made me feel comfortable.

From such small gatherings, Phil and Linda developed the world-renowned Renaissance Weekends that are so often described in the press. Since then, my family and I have attended most of the gatherings on New Year’s eve and met many hundreds of fascinating and stimulating people . . . including many of my personal heroes and heroines.

Attending these events has been a high point of my life, and certainly changed Phil’s and Linda’s lives for the better. Through the relationship that Phil developed with Bill Clinton and his advisors at these gatherings, Phil first served as head of the Small Business Administration and later as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom.

While serving as ambassador to the Court of St. James, Phil found a whole new way to network: He spent every weekend walking part of the boundaries of the U.K., stopping along the way to chat with those he met. Now, Renaissance Weekends also extend to the Laders’ amazing network of thoughtful people in the U.K. as well.

Have you considered hosting such thoughtful weekend chats and pursuing such interesting walks? They could open up the doors of the entire world to you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell

Be sure to check out my blog dated May 30, 2005 on Plan Your Best Fourth of July! To find that blog, keep clicking on the oldest blog entry you can find in the right hand column until you find the title "Plan Your Best Fourth of July."