WHY YOU’RE NOT RICH

A lot of people envy the rich and the intellectual elites of the modern world of technology and automation. You’ll probably wondering why despite of having good grades at school or people you know that are valedictorians and achieve a lot of academic recognition and yet they are struggling financially.

If you’re not wondering, that’s a greater problem.

Getting an academic recognition or achievement is the actual motivation of those people who achieve such accomplishment. Though they want to be rich or acquire substantial amount of wealth is their ultimate goal, not everyone are on the right track despite of their diligence and determination it will not bring them to their desired destination.

The ultimate formula for financial success is solve the problem of enough number of people then the money would follow. Solve a problem of a billion people and charge them $1 each then you just made yourself a billionaire.

One of the obstacle of those people who dream and fail or at least not yet there yet is that they are limiting their options to those things that they enjoy or comfortable with with their current skills and intellectual aptitude. This applies to myself, despite of my “perceived” awareness where the world is leading to because of AI and automation, I should be learning coding or engineering to make myself relevant to the different world we’re gonna live in the future.

An average American reads a book a year and an average CEO reads 50+ books a year. This is the reality that people are conveniently dismissing, it’s probably because it’s easier to protest and complain than to pick up a book. However, reading book is not a direct causation for financial wealth. I know people who reads more than one book a year but not significantly ahead of the game or at least vs those who only read one book or no book.

The problem lies, which i’ve noticed in the quality of books they are reading. To be rich you have to serve other people but when you consume materials to get you through boredom or for purely entertainment and pseudo intellectual stimulating activity, you’re being the market, someone is solving your problem instead of the other way around with no financial return on your side.

Even materials about self improvement can harm your progress financial success if it consume so much of your time than necessary. Time that you could have used in execution towards your goal. This probably the reason why some billionaires end up making stupid mistakes like Jeff Bezos sending his nudes, and some would have failed or failing family life. These people bury themselves with work to the state of obsession which is necessary to achieve such success. But just like anything in life, everything has a price. The inevitable dichotomy we are all subject to, even the ultra rich.

On the other side are those who mastered self-improvement, the person with lots of friends, the authority of TV shows and classic novels etc, but broke. but that’s all in history on the rise of these influencers who looks like having the best of both worlds, but not really. The price that they’re paying if they not being authentic is the false sense of self and the unsustainable lifestyle that they set up for themselves that would bite them in the butt when the tide turns around. And there are some trading their privacy for fame and ephemeral adulation.

The constrains of time always put us in a situation that we have to choose between things. Study and pursue your goal or go out and have fun? Sleep or party? Work or be with your love ones?

In the it is a matter of prioritization and the narrative that runs inside your million years old brain. Non negotiable.

THE TRUE LEISURE IN LIFE

When you talk about leisure to anyone, the first things that would come in their mind would probably lying on the the beach while listening to the waves and getting their tan lines under the bright clear day with some piña colada on the side. Or traveling the globe and seeing different countries and continents and the exotic places one can only dream of. Or a staycation in a luxury hotel or resort.

Those are just some of the many definition we can derive from leisure and what’s in common to all those is that they all require a good sum of money in order for those leisure to materialize. Sources that provide ephemeral satisfaction, funded by compensation you get from labor and trade of your precious time.

All these would fall short to be considered as leisure in a stoic standard.

“Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only they truly live. Not satisfied to merely keep good watch over their own days, they annex every age to their own. All the harvest of the past is added to their store. ”

Seneca

Contemplation is how you make time for philosophy. Ledgering your life through reflection on your decisions that lead you to where you are at present. This practice doesn’t require special place or ambiance and time and most importantly, doesn’t cost you anything in order to do it, however, requires an unbiased view of previous events and the openness to accept shortcomings or faults as they unfold.

Only through an honest evaluation of one’s life can anyone find true wisdom that would enable them to make better decisions in the future in a way making them a better person.

It is inevitable that life will be not just very short but very miserable for those who acquire by great toil what they must keep by greater toil. They achieve what they want laboriously; they possess what they have achieved anxiously.

Seneca

The more time you make for philosophy the better you become. The objective eye that sees events as they are and unvarnished by emotions and personal interest requires time and consistency to acquire and can only develop through test. Hardship gives everyone the opportunity to test wisdom and resilience that they developed through philosophy. Knowing wisdom is not wisdom, only through action can anyone showcase their wisdom.

Anyone who preaches wisdom but unable to put their words to action are no better than a hypocrite. Although it doesn’t cost anything to contemplate, acquiring wisdom can be painful. To confront one’s belief towards the betterment of one’s life and the people around him. To challenge the validity of the status quo and live contrary to the existing culture granted that that culture is inconsistent and does not promote wisdom.

Life spent on any other leisure than the pursuit of wisdom is time wasted on earth. His existence does not count for living, for his time only benefited himself in striving to fill his insatiable appetite for pleasure and does not help improve the world around him.

Anyone who has the desire to make the world around him better would have to strive to be better. Time spent on philosophy is time well spent, and only through philosophy will anyone know how to live.

HOW TO LEAVE YOUR PAST BEHIND

I intentionally did not put any negative adjective before the word “past” since it’s usually if not always connotated with negative experience, otherwise you won’t have to deal with it and reminisce would be the preferred word instead

The first step from moving on or dealing with your past is answering this question with full honesty; “do you want to move on from your past?”. It may appear as stupid question at first but in reality whether people admit it or not, some people who had to deal with terrible things in their past do not want to move or separate themselves from that story, consciously and subconsciously.

The event or story, how terrible it may be makes the victims significant or different from the rest, that attracts attention from other people. The battered wife, he who got cheated on, the rape victim, the adult with abusive childhood etc. Victimization makes people significant, it automatically makes then the protagonist in the story, they stand out by default and their lives more interesting than others and sometimes they use it to justify their under achievement and misbehavior as if they’re demanding for impunity from the society.

Most people ask “why” and that’s the same reason why people even those who really want to move on fail. Because they’re asking the wrong question. Knowing the reason why will not change the fact and will not reverse the damage either. Most people would only accept what they want to hear anyway, and sometimes even if the reason is logical and acceptable, people could only accept within the limits of their intellect and understanding. Seeking for answer is desperation in disguise.

A person can suffer and find pleasure at the same time. by playing victim in a way fulfilling the narrative he/she create inside his/her head on how people in that situation must behave and feel. The reward system activates and intoxicates the person with feel good dopamine for following the script while feeling miserable at the same time. Like going to the gym and enduring your sore muscles afterwards just to do it again the following day, why do people punish themselves like this? Because it makes them feel good as well, the narrative of a responsible person goes to the gym or workout and takes care of his / her body, the invisible source of pleasure strong enough to convince you to do it and actively seek for pain day after day , after day.

SUFFERING IS TOO MUCH FOCUS TO ONESELF

Elevate yourself from the situation and let your experience be a lesson not just for you and the people around you but also for the generations to come. Let not the lessons from tragedy be put to waste by whining and engaging on a blame game. Let not your ego nurture your weakness and story that will eventually lead you to unproductive and sometimes detrimental activities.

There is no shortcut to resilience. Only through hardship can you truly test and develop your resilience which is a pertinent skill to survive in this chaotic world. Nietzsche was right after all. ” what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” So instead of defending your past, let it defend you to the present and the future.

HILLARY | UNEQUIVOCAL

I just finished watching the documentary about Hillary Clinton on Netflix from her beginnings, trials and triumphs and I must admit that it did change my perception of her. I was one of those people victimized by fake news and black propaganda about her that took that email controversy against her without knowing all the facts and rules around it. And i’m convinced that she could’ve been a good POTUS but people in United States are just not ready for a female president and leader of the free world despite of her impressive credentials and achievements.

Her greatest quality became her greatest weakness. She’s smart, articulate, hardworking and most of all unequivocal when she speaks her mind. She would’ve been elected as president if the decision was not up to less intellectual and egotistic people she had offended unintentionally during her career that unfortunately dictates the outcome of the election.

She was perceived as radical and idealistic by the same group of people. Early in her career, her excessive public exposure was questioned, and this was during the time when women had lesser voice and options compared to what they are enjoying today. In one incident when accused of profiting from government for herself and her law firm thanks to her then governor husband, she mentioned that it’s not her fault that she chose to pursue her law practice and dreams instead of baking cookies at home. A lot of stay home moms did not like it and perceived the comment as derogatory and offensive.

But if we were to look at the contribution of the stay at home moms vs Hillary championing women’s rights, the prior only serves themselves and the latter serves more people and worthwhile cause. But of course it was hard and almost impossible to suck the truth then and now, but that’s the truth. Non-negotiable.

Infidelity. We all know the back story and how it ended the Presidency of Bill in the 90’s. It’s interesting how hard it was for the world especially some women to accept that she didn’t leave him after everything surfaced. Even women who have been in her position or dealing with unfaithful husband and sucking it up put their aim at her when she chose to stay.

It’s not that I’m justifying extramarital affairs, but attraction towards the opposite sex doesn’t stop after the wedding. Marriage and the whole concept of it was a product of civilization and attraction towards more youthful and sexually desirable human beings are ingrained in our DNA both men and women. Although the society is convincing us that having sexual relationship outside marriage is a product of poor judgement, unbecoming and immoral, for me that notion is a deliberate inconsideration of our primal nature to conform our egotistic claim of supremacy in the animal kingdom. We may deny our association with other animals and our affiliation in the animal kingdom all we want but facts would remain the same, other animals don’t get married that’s why nobody commits infidelity.

What’s lacking in weddings vows are the lines that “we commit to be sexually exclusive to each other as long as we live “, and if this line is included and yet one partner committed something contrary to what was agreed upon verbally and in writing then and only then was there a betrayal of trust and with my blessing you should leave your partner. The problem is that we rely on the unspoken rule, the common knowledge that people in relationship should automatically exclusive to each other in all facet of their lives and that is what the meaning of commitment for them. However, as we progress as a race in the cosmopolis, more and more couples and engaging in ployamory (is the practice of, or desire for, intimate relationships with more than one partner, with the informed consent of all partners involved), does this mean they don’t really love their partners? Does it make them immoral? What is the parameters of morality? Hillary was very attractive in her younger years plus she’s smart, no wonder that the Kansas debonair fell for her, but beauty fades and sex is all about physical desire.

She was a first lady, a senator, a secretary of state, a first female nominee of major US political party and many others. The question is where is the drive and desire for presidency coming from. Why would you put yourself in that kind of scrutiny and personal assault for that position? I guess it’s the dilemma that high achievers suffer from, when is the time to hang the gloves? It is easy to say but if we can only out ourselves in their shoes and live their lives without prejudice, only then we would understand. What seems to be toil for regular people is just a regular day for people like her. Perpetual learning is part of daily life, and it’t not negotiable, what regular people finds optional. They indeed live in a different world or different reality compared to their mediocre counterparts that they happen to share this world with. Few were born with these curse but most were a product of their previous conditions and conditioning that they were able to capitalized on, that equipped them of different kind of resilience and tools to get ahead later on.

click here to buy her book: Hillary Clinton

EXTREME OWNERSHIP: ISOLATION

Hours before I board my plane back home I received a message from my family expressing their concern about my return and the current situation and policies being implemented. Anybody coming from outside the province must observe 14 days isolation including the people in the house to avoid spreading the virus in the event of positive diagnosis or showing of symptoms.

This virus is no joke and should not be taken lightly and this is not the time of unconditionally giving people the benefit of the doubt regardless of the relationship because this virus has proven to threaten not just people’s livelihood but also their lives.

I must admit that initially my planned was to go back and live with my relatives and isolate myself in a room and disinfect my things immediately once I arrive and limit close contact and observe 2m separation.

Then I received that message which I found initially too short of a notice and quite frustrating to me as I labored to find a place to stay once I get back. As I contemplate and channeled my higher self, I realized that I can’t get mad at them and if there’s any one to blame that’s got to be me.

The idea of ignoring the advisory of self isolation can put my family’s lives and livelihood in jeopardy, an act of negligence rooted from selfishness. Initially my argument was that they should’ve told me ahead of time so I could’ve prepared better then it dawned on me, “why didn’t I prepare for it ahead of time too?“

As it turned out, renting for a place for 14 days would cost me more than a thousand dollars, money I can’t afford since I stopped working and focused all my resources to my aviation odyssey. The lack of security and certainty of resources blinded me and triggered my primal tendencies of protecting my personal interest first above others.

I’m not their responsibility and each day I live with them is a privilege that I should be grateful for and they can take away at any time. I’m just glad to caught myself first before doing anything that could damage my relationship to my family, which I’m sure to regret eventually.

The perceiving eye is weak, the observing eye is strong.

Miyamoto Musahi

Now more than ever, we should be mindful of our action as this pandemic threatens and scares almost everyone around us. Make sure to see things objectively for the greater good of everyone and not triggered by the uncertainty and difficulty of the situation. No one’s life is more valuable than others.

Whether you were able to prepare for this event or not, it’s your fault. Playing victim and pointing fingers will not ease the severity of the situation. Protect your relationship with others, because this virus may take everything from you and your relationship will be your salvation.