A Lesson About Wealth from Ted Turner
Jade McBride, Ted Turner Reserves President, recalls a moment with Ted that reframed the way he thinks about true wealth. It is a lesson in presence, perspective, and a feeling that can’t be bought.
What Money Can’t Buy
In the spring of 2022, I spent several days at Vermejo with Ted.
One morning, after breakfast, we got in a truck and headed out to drive the property, something Ted has always loved to do. I was driving, and Ted was in the shotgun seat. Ted always makes you drive slow, and I mean really slow. Just rolling along that dirt road with his window down, taking it all in.
As we made our way up the Vermejo River Valley, the landscape shifted around us. At times we were tucked down along the river, and at others we climbed higher, where the views began to open up.
At one particular point, we reached a rise where everything came into view at once.
I stopped the truck.
Below us, the Vermejo River moved quietly through the valley. In the distance, Culebra Peak, the highest summit of the Culebra Range within the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, rose snow-covered against the horizon.
We stayed in our seats, looking out through the windshield.
Then he added, “Money can’t buy this.”
A few minutes later, I turned to him and said, “You know, Ted… money did buy this. Your money bought this land. You made this possible.”
He paused and said, “I wasn’t talking about the land. I was talking about the way we felt in that moment.”
That response has stayed with me.
Because he was right.
The land can be purchased. It can be protected. It can be restored.
But the feeling we experienced in that moment cannot be bought.
The feeling of stopping long enough to truly see something beautiful.
The feeling of sharing that moment with someone else.
The feeling of gratitude that comes from recognizing it in real time.
That is something entirely different.
It requires presence.
It requires perspective.
It requires a connection to something bigger than yourself.
That moment reshaped the way I think about wealth.
True wealth is not found in what we own.
It is found in what we are able to feel.
The ability to slow down.
To recognize beauty.
To connect with the land, with each other, and with ourselves.
That is the kind of wealth that matters.
And that is what we have the opportunity to create every day through the work we do.