Dear Family,

I recently watched Highest 2 Lowest, Spike Lee’s reinterpretation of the classic crime story.

Denzel Washington plays David King, a powerful music executive whose son is kidnapped in a scheme that forces him to confront more than just a ransom demand. It forces him to wrestle with power, influence, and the cost of certain decisions. I won’t spoil it, but there’s an iconic moment in the film, where Denzels character( says:

“All money ain’t good money.”

I was thinking about that line on on my walk this morning. When I sit down with our marketing team, they always ask me, “What do you stand against?” And I keep coming back to the same thing:

Get-rich-quick thinking.

In our community the temptation can be real. When you’ve worked hard to get into rooms you weren’t always invited into, when you feel the weight of responsibility, fast money can look like progress. But money always comes with terms, even if they’re not written down.

I’ve seen founders raise venture capital before they were ready, thinking it would solve their growth problems, only to dilute ownership and lose control over their own vision.

I’ve seen friends pursue “passive income” plays that slowly eat away at the very time they were trying to protect. None of those paths are inherently wrong. But they require clarity.

That’s where second-order thinking comes in.

Second-order thinking is the discipline of looking beyond the immediate outcome of a decision and asking: What happens next? And then what happens after that? It’s moving past short-term gain to understand the long-term consequences, intended and unintended.

It’s not just, “Will this make money?” It’s, “What does this money change about my incentives, my relationships, my freedom, my identity?”

Investors like Warren Buffett are known for thinking decades ahead. Charlie Munger spoke often about avoiding decisions that create downstream problems. Jeff Bezos built Amazon around long-term orientation, even when it meant short-term criticism. And Howard Marks literally wrote about the importance of second-level thinking in investing.

That mindset has shaped how I try to lead.

When we make decisions at LUX, whether it’s bringing on a new client, making an investment, or considering outside capital, I’m not just thinking about this quarter. I’m thinking about ten years from now.

Who owns what? Who answers to whom? What tradeoffs are we locking ourselves into?

Building LUX over the last decade hasn’t always been flashy. It’s required patience and discipline. Saying no to opportunities that looked good on paper but didn’t align long-term. Sometimes that restraint feels uncomfortable in the moment. But like Deznel's character stated in the film, I've learned the same lesson:

All money ain’t good money.

And if we’re serious about building real wealth, the kind that includes ownership, peace of mind, and alignment, then we have to think beyond the first win and into the consequences that follow.

From LUX, With Love

Matt

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