Authors Explode Myths Of The Elite Wealthy

By Nancy K. Crevier

Newtown resident Doug Harrison, chief executive officer of the Harrison Group, a marketing company based in Waterbury that specializes in brand positioning and market segmentation, has co-authored a book released in early September that explodes the myths of greed and self-indulgence in the truly wealthy in America.

New Elite: Inside The Minds Of The Truly Wealthy is the result of five years of research and personal interviews by Mr Harrison and his associates Jim Taylor, vice chairman of the Harrison Group, and Stephen Kraus, vice president of the Harrison Group, of that segment of Americans who are in the top “half of one percent of the American economic spectrum: These people typically have at least $5 million in liquid assets or have at least $500,000 in annual discretionary income,” explains Mr Harrison in New Elite.

Recognizing a void in the market concerning a tiny but powerful segment of society that they believed was misunderstood, not only by the average American thriving on media exposure of the Paris Hilton and Donald Trump-like rich, but by those companies and businesses catering to the financial elite, Mr Harrison captured information that since has been “rocking clients on things they had not thought of before,” he said. “More wealth has been accumulated in the last two decades alone than ever before and this has huge implications coming into the presidential election. For example, do we tax the wealthy more? Are the wealthy going to stimulate the job force?” said Mr Harrison.

The book also plays to the desire harbored by so many to become wealthy, he said, providing an informative look as to how that has happened for those at the top of the earning heap, and dismissing common misconceptions in a way that appeals to the curiosity of the average person. The book also strives to discern among the wealthy to the benefit of companies hoping to market to this segment of society.

There is a huge assumption that the very wealthy define their businesses on a financial basis, said Mr Harrison. “But what we learned in collecting information for this book is that there’s a huge learning curve with money.”

Breaking down the statistics into a more readable form, Mr Harrison came up with identifying the wealthy according to five lifestyle segments that reflect how even the wealthy differ from one another but differ not always so much from many middle-class Americans. “Neighbors” are extremely comfortable in the role of money in their lives. “Wrestlers” have worked hard to achieve success but struggle with anxiety around wealth. “Mavericks” tend to go for challenges outside of their comfort zone and spend freely. “Directors” place importance on retaining wealth, while “Patrons” value luxury but do not define themselves by it and are apt to spend a great deal of time and money on charitable activities.

Suddenly Rich

He also identified the course of wealth and how that affects those who have found themselves suddenly rich. Those who have entered the realms of wealth in the past five years are “apprentices,” still cautious in spending and living with a fear of that wealth disappearing. “As apprentices mature in their education, they become journeymen,” writes Mr Harrison. “Journeymen learn to appreciate the status value of objects, and they feel the tug of rewarding themselves for the hard work and sacrifice it took to make it.” By the time a person has enjoyed being in the class of an elite financial situation for more than 15 years, they become what Mr Harrison terms a “master,” one who is aggressively conservative, comfortable in their wealth, and fully networked in the upper society.

One of the more startling truths he uncovered in the writing of New Elite, said Mr Harrison, is the predominance of middle-class values among those with enormous financial gain. “Perhaps the single biggest misconception about the wealthy concerns the source of their wealth,” write the trio of authors in New Elite. “In fact, over 90 percent of the wealthy created their own wealth, and fewer than 10 percent inherited it.”

Coming from middle-class roots means that those values with which they were raised tend to remain an essential part of who they are and how they run their businesses, said Mr Harrison. The book, in fact, is very much the story of himself, he said.

“I grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York, but through my marketing business, I have done well,” he said.

Middle-class values define for many of the extremely rich what is right and what is wrong. “It takes a long time to forget where you came from and a longer time to forget what it took to get you where you are,” Mr Harrison said. One of the common threads that all of the wealthy, from apprentice to master, struggle with is the role wealth plays in raising families. Keeping the mindset in children of the middle-class values with which the parent was raised, and which are still highly valued, is a challenge. “The wealthy are constantly weaving the course of teaching their kids, who are growing up in an environment very unlike their own childhood environment, appreciation,” said Mr Harrison.

Wealth Blends In

One of the more interesting interviews that came out of the book was that with Jim McCann, he said, who turned a financially disastrous investment in 1-800-FLOWERS into the successful business it is today. “He’s tough, he’s frugal, and that has helped him to succeed. He came from nothing, but chose to move forward. He is an enormously wonderful person to be around. You would never know he’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Mr Harrison.

And that is typical of many of the rich. “Maybe one out of 200 in the Newtown area falls into the category addressed in the book,” said Mr Harrison, “but they blend in. They don’t want to make others uncomfortable [by flaunting their wealth],” and that is another point of his book, he said. The very wealthy generally practice “stealth wealth,” keeping their good fortune visible only to others in their social strata.

By distinguishing the characteristics of those who have atypical wealth, said Mr Harrison, a better understanding of the wants and needs of this segment can be identified, and identified with. The book is a breakdown of who the extremely wealthy are, the importance of their role in the American economy, and an inside look at how this top segment views itself and the world around it.

“In the final analysis,” reads a statement at the end of New Elite, “we have learned that people of wealth today are children of Middle America, and their values reflect the bedrock values of America in the 1950s and ’60s…This much wealth combined with these values may be the most potent force for good in the history of the world. Or we may be seeing the last gasp of a brilliant ideal.”

(New Elite: Inside The Minds Of The Truly Wealthy, already going into its third printing, is available online at amazon.com and in most bookstores.)