Building Vs. Spending Intellectual Capital

Henry Kissinger via Ben Hunt

Author

Matt Zeigler
December 29, 2025

Ben Hunt paraphrased a Henry Kissinger idea while we were recording our top 10 Intentional Investor clips from 2025, and I can’t get it out of my head.

So there's this old line that I like to repeat. It was actually by Henry Kissinger because Kissinger, of course, was an academic for a long time before he went into government. And the line, which I think is really smart, is that he said, “So long as you're in academia, you're building your intellectual capital. Every day you're there, you're building your intellectual capital, and every day you're out of academia, every day you're in government, you're spending it.”

Ben Hunt, The Best of 2025

I really appreciate this idea of storing up intellectual capital before you go and spend it. I like it as a metaphor for school and learning. And I love it as a metaphor for work and life.

The actual Kissinger quote is a bit different - scholars trace these to White House Years and other related commentary:

The convictions that leaders have formed before reaching high office are the intellectual capital they will consume as long as they continue in office.
…
High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it.

Henry Kissinger

Again, the core concept is here, specifically framed in the academic turned political leader way that Kissinger was so good at it. With the extra nuance here, he leans into the role “conviction” plays.

I love that he sources it to a feeling all leaders have prior to power. I love that he explains how you can’t create new intellectual capital once you’re in power, either. You will hone your decision making, but you will not create new ideas, you will only consume and synthesize them.

This makes Ben’s point land even harder as I play with it.

You don’t have a lot of time in life, especially adult/work life, to keep creating intellectual capital. If you want to not just be in action-mode all of the time, shooting off decisions and out of your learning phase, you need a habit to do it.

I have this Personal Archive for this reason. I believe in the power of the Creator Flywheel, for the same reason. I’m an advocate for regular reflection, and developing your own rules of thumb and rules of big toe - for this reason.

I believe the best leaders have this ability to reflect. They may not spend as much time building those convictions any more, and those convictions might be fairly hard wired, but - this is where the ability to be wrong comes from.

I like leaders who can say, “I got that wrong.” I like leaders who can say, “I don’t know.” I like them because they have the courage to act, and awareness to acknowledge their innate imperfection. You can’t acknowledge you’re wrong if you’re not actively building new capital to challenge old convictions. I’ve met those leaders too many times.

Still, both Hunt’s and Kissinger’s ideas are useful.

The older and more successful or - just the busier we get - the more we have to figure out ways to carve out time to save up more intellectual capital as opposed to just spending it.

The biggest opportunities will be in the expensing. That matters and can’t be undersold.

Keep restocking your intellectual capital and retaining your humanity along the way. That’s the life goal.