“The Life I Should Like”: An Endgame from 1818
In 1818, a Massachusetts man named Aaron Fuller sat down and wrote out a description of the life he wanted.
His wife had just died. He had four small children. He hadn’t established himself in farming or any other career.
He was worried about his future.
Most people in his situation would have reacted. Grabbed the first opportunity. Played whatever game was available.
Fuller did something different: He defined his Endgame first.
He called it “The Life I Should Like” and wrote it down.
He wanted to own a mercantile business — large enough to employ two “faithful clerks.”
He wanted to farm “about fifty acres of Good Land.” Not just for income. Because agriculture was “of the greatest importance to the whole human family — it supports life and health.”
He wanted enough income to stay out of debt. But not so much that he forgot to be careful with it — or became, as he put it, “slothfull and indolent.”
And he wanted the right wife. A partner. “Affectionate.” “Prudent.” And a good cook.
That’s an Endgame, with its three components: People, a place and things to sustain it.
Specific. Written down.
Within two years, Aaron Fuller had all of it.
He remarried. He had the business. He had the land.
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Most people never do what Fuller did. They never sit down and write out their Endgame.
They start playing whatever game is in front of them — a job, a business, a relationship — and they evaluate it on its own terms.
Is the job good? Is the business working? Is the relationship comfortable?
But they never ask the deeper question: Does this game lead to the life I want? To the Endgame I want?
Fuller asked it first. Then he worked for it.
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That’s Endgame reasoning. You don’t start with the move. You start with where you want to be at the end. Then you reason backward.
What does the life you want look like?
Write it down. Be specific.
Not goals. Not aspirations. A description.
The way Fuller did it:
A place: Fifty acres
People: A wife
Things: A business
What and who are the people, places and things in your Endgame?
Then look at the game you’re playing right now. Does it lead there?
If it does, keep playing.
If it doesn’t, you now know something most people never figure out.
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Endgame reasoning is one of six frameworks on the Spy’s Guide frameworks page. It works on geopolitics, business negotiations, and the decisions that shape your life.
See all six frameworks → spysguide.com/frameworks
The Endgame framework is from A Spy’s Guide to Strategy.
Aaron Fuller’s story is from Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (Oxford University Press, 2007).
-John Braddock