That's what Chris Hughes, the 32-year-old billionaire Facebook co-founder, wrote just a little more than a year ago about The New Republic, the century-old magazine he acquired in 2012. On Monday, Hughes, said, in effect, "Nah, forget about all of that."
He put the magazine up for sale, throwing up his hands in frustration. "I underestimated the difficulty of transitioning an old and traditional institution into a digital media company in today's quickly evolving climate," he wrote.
Welcome to the age - and whimsy - of the new billionaire class and the precariousness of vanity projects. With so much money sloshing around, and more and more of the super-wealthy pushing into areas beyond their expertise, it is likely we will see more headlines about the failure of some of these fanciful investments and philanthropic experiments.
Just over the weekend, the Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov completed a major shake-up of the Brooklyn Nets, a team he bought five years ago that has struggled both on and off the court. It lost a reported $144 million last season.
Of course, there have been success stories. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought The Washington Post, which so far has had success under his stewardship and he appears to be a long-term investor in the business.
Yet, some are learning as they go along. The Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, recently pledged to give away his more than $40 billion fortune, but an early $100 million investment in the Newark public school system was largely squandered.
Dov Seidman, the founder of LRN, a firm that advises companies on their cultures and how they can translate them into better performance, said that earning gobs of money could often give billionaires a false sense of omniscience.
"Sometimes if you create wealth and value quickly in one domain with one set of skills, however gifted and talented you are, it can give you the sense that you can apply it to any domain," Seidman said.
That's not to take away from some of the most successful philanthropists, like Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft who has spent years devoting himself to learning everything about polio and malaria, for example, and working towards eradicating them. (Though, in truth, he has spent a lot of money on projects that didn't work along the way.)
Still, as more billionaires are minted amid a ferocious debate about inequality, and the super-wealthy continue to buy up trophy assets and seek to sway public policy, it has created a backlash and some are questioning whether they are amassing too much influence.
"The mega-rich increasingly use their foundations and their celebrity as philanthropists to mould public policy to an extent not possible for other citizens," Joanne Barkan, who has long been a critic of big philanthropy, wrote in The Guardian.
That could turn out to be true for new money coming out of Silicon Valley, which has created a generation of young, idealistic entrepreneurs who want to get involved in transforming businesses and institutions at early ages. There are about 40 men and women under the age of 40 who are worth at least a half-billion dollars, according to Forbes.
"A lot of young people aren't waiting their turn to lead," Seidman said, suggesting that successful executives used to wait until retirement to try their hand at new projects. He added: "Their intent is going to get revealed. Are you deeply committed? How will you act when the path isn't linear?"
And praying for a wealthy benefactor to save a business is also a flawed business model. John Henry, the billionaire owner of the Boston Red Sox, bought The Boston Globe in 2013 from The New York Times Company. He has invested in The Globe, though it continues to struggle in the challenging newspaper business. Last year, another round of lay-offs hit the newsroom. Of course, Henry can afford to take a risk on a declining business that requires a turnaround.
For Hughes and The New Republic, that may be what happened. He seemed well intentioned. He talked about reviving the publication and restoring its glory, and yes, even making it profitable. He sought to remake the magazine for a digital age. But in the process, much of his staff left the publication and today the business is worth less than when he started.
"I bought this company nearly four years ago to ensure its survival and give it the financial runway to experiment with new business models in a time of immense change in media," he wrote. "After investing a great deal of time, energy, and over $20 million, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for new leadership and vision at The New Republic."
Margo Howard, a former advice columnist, wrote on Twitter: "Ah, the rich kid bought a toy, broke it, & wants to sell it. Sigh."
© 2016 The New York Times News Service