This is an important episode. I lay out the ground work for how anyone can set or change their trajectory towards success, by detaching from the herd and facing their own obstacles - their own fear. I get into the weeds of how fear rules our lives and not to our benefit, and how those that have overcome fear are more likely able to get through any adversary than those living in the groupthink of the masses. You need to hear this episode - start to finish, and I would encourage you to share it around to your kids, friends, family members and work mates.
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Quote the movie Dune (1984)
Let’s talk a bit about Free Market Capitalism
It is a reflection of the human experience
- Economics is communication
- It is about comparing what variance there is in human values
Some people are fearful
- Introverts
- Having had loss, it scars them for life
- Self-Confidence is a big problem
- You can’t build self confidence in a world of “every child wins a prize”
If you know the laws of the jungle are there, you must become stronger
- You can train, but only so far
- At some point, you must step out into the world
- Streetwise wisdom cannot be learned in a book, podcast or YouTube channel
- No one is going to give you the solution - you must seek it out
What the rich have in common
- “Buy low, sell High”
- Hypnosis allows them to permeate the opposite thought process
- This provides them with an abundant supply of suckers
If you think you can avoid risk by following in some groupthink (FIRE)
- You can’t
- It won’t last
- There is no such thing as “retirement” from the world
- You must be able to survive with human transactions
If you are using a job because you are fearful of the world
- Stop it
- You won’t grow as a person
- You can’t avoid failures or negative experiences
- You are a willing victim - in this case to your employer & your govt
- If you are miserable, then change your dynamic
- If you find yourself without work, consider it a blessing
If you are anxious about some pending change
- Don’t be
- You are probably anxious more about YOU
- Understand that given the right circumstances, you will thrive
- Understand you will never know this about you, until you face adversity
- If you have never “been around the block”, you are a child regardless of age
- If you live in a sheltered life, you won’t have much fun
- If you don’t pursue a life that has some sort of story to tell, you are not very interesting to others
If you are fearful of what the media tells you
- Imagine what someone from a poverty stricken country would do if they could be in the marketplace of the USA
- Why is it that most new millionaires that got it from business, are immigrants?
- Why is it that you don’t seize the opportunities that are all around you?
- Why can’t you see them?
- Who is stopping you from seeing them?
- The idea of “telescopic vision”
Basic Austrian school of economics approach
- Embrace the free market
- Understand price discovery
- Buy low & sell high will make you rich
- You are responsible for you - no one else
- Stop looking for support from counter parties
- Don’t pretend that there is a magic formula
- The answers to success lie inside of you - not outside
- You must unlock them
- If you fail, you learn - it is ok to fail
- Be responsible for you, and what impact you have on others
- There is no shortcut to success based on some magic formula
- Anytime you give up your responsibilities, you give up your freedom
- The buck stops on your desk
The real state of affairs for the USA is dire. The TV news or your politicians won't tell you that, because it is business & political suicide. But the real economic data matters for your daily life and it is the reason you are and will continue to be constrained.
Maybe it is a generational thing, but the current FIRE entrants didn't seem to get the memo on financial safety, trust and just how dangerous it is out there. I guess until you have been a target of theft, you don't really feel the issue. We talk openly about safety & trust in this article.
The bull market we’ve had will be ending soon. This is just natural. Markets go up and markets go down. The bull market has been active since about 2010, fueled by low interest rate money but with the natural market cycle spurred on by the China Trade Wars, it won’t last much longer. What should those pursuing FI or FIRE do to adjust? Do they have what it takes to handle this?