18. Conclusions

In this section we summarize William Kyro’s life and see what lessons we can learn from it.

William believed in the value of education. When his own father put him to work as a field hand, it made a powerful impression. With one year of college and excellent fluency in two languages, William acquired an education far beyond the average for his time. His education helped him to achieve some of the many successes in his life.

* Helping to establish the Finnish Labor Temple in Port Arthur.
* Settling the strike at the Port Arthur shipyard,
* Winning the election to become the youngest councilman in the history of Port Arthur
* Getting established in business at a young age
* Learning the art of salesmanship
* Earning an above average income throughout his life.

William encouraged his children to become well educated. He paid for two of his children to graduate from college during the Great Depression when money was tight. All three of his children eventually became college graduates and one earned a doctorate. He sold encyclopedias with sincere enthusiasm in their educational value. He gave one set to his grandchild and thus accelerated John Dixon’s intellectual advancement.

William continued to develop himself throughout his life. He was constantly studying the art of salesmanship, even after many years of earning an excellent income as a salesman.

Even the most successful men suffers some setbacks. Perhaps the greatest difficulty in William Kyro’s life was the failure of his pulpwood business. A businessman must take some risks, but he should not take on more than he can handle. He ought to look on the dark side and ask himself “what is the worst thing that could reasonably happen?” A prudent man should prepare for the worst case scenario as well as the best case. A man like William Kyro, bubbling with enthusiasm and optimism, finds this hard to do.

With the advantage of hindsight, we can see what William should have done. He might have hedged his position by selling futures contracts on the Chicago Timber market. Or he might have tied the contract price paid to the farmers to the market price of pulpwood at the time of sale.

The failure of the Kyro Music store was primarily caused by the Great Depression. The depression was caused by faulty government monetary policy. We cannot blame William for that disaster.

William was disappointed that his plan for a movie theater in Farmington was carried out without his being cut in on the deal. It appears that William assumed that other men were as fair and honest as himself.

Although William earned an excellent income throughout his life, his wanderlust probably prevented him from becoming wealthy. Many of his business activities were quite successful. Men who knew him well have remarked that he would have become a millionaire if he had picked out one business and stuck to it for many years.

William probably could have lived many years longer if he had taken proper vitamins and minerals. However, in the 1960s little was known about the role of vitamins, minerals and chelation therapy in heart problems. Books such as “Reversing Heart Disease” by Julian Whitaker, MD were published many years later.