One of the most important things any human should know, is that life is a marathon and not a race.
We all have activities which we know we enjoy, and there is substantial neurodiversity among humans. Some humans are natural mechanics, while others cannot understand machinery in the slightest. Yet, if we leave a dozen children together, it is certain that in sufficient time their natural talents will begin to show, with one choosing to draw, another choosing to write, and maybe another choosing to invent.
Unless you enter a vocation which you enjoy, well suited to your particular skills, success will be difficult to find. When humans love something, we naturally obsess over the best ways it can be done, and this is what enables a passionate individual to see opportunities that others cannot.
After finding your passion, it is ideal to put yourself into a place where you are most able to see it develop. Much like how a hotelier cannot find as many guests in a small town as they would in a large city, the development of your talents will be accelerated if you surround yourself with people who are wiser and willing to teach.
It is important to place yourself into an environment where resources are sufficiently available to make best use of your passions.
A big fish in a small pond, is unaware of opportunity in the great oceans.
Young folks starting off in life should avoid accumulating debt. Money is paper that governments issue to preserve social order, and people have found all ways to do evil with it.
You may be dressed in nice jewelry, have a large house or office, and take pride in all that was acquired through debt. You may look upon these things as if they were given to you, and if you pay the piper, maybe, you will be entrusted again with more debt —and make it a habit.
Such a way robs you of your time, as your lifestyle becomes dependent on appeasing creditors and this hurts your ability to define yourself as an independent person.
It’s often said to go into debt to purchase a small amount of land, with the advice that, “if you only take on enough debt to acquire land and find a partner, these two things will keep you a straight arrow in life”.
While this may be safe to a limited extent, going into debt for what you need to eat, drink, and stay warm is a fragile lifestyle best to be avoided.
The exponential function is amoral, and will do exactly as it is told, day and night, in both cold and warm weather. A life on the negative interest will result in compounding misery, while a life on positive, will compound kindly.
Human societies historically forgave debts every 7 or so years with jubilee, but this stopped happening after influential churches became for-profit.
When on a truthful path, perseverance is all that is necessary to find success. I say this because there are some humans are naturally lazy and possess no self-reliance. Fortunately this is not fate, as these qualities can be cultivated.
A “just do it” attitude prevents worries and dread from taking possession of your mind, and in cultivating self-belief, you will find that it becomes confidence.
Confidence and self-actualization is the best defense against depression.
Perseverance is in many ways synonymous with self-reliance.
It is the natural state of a human to have no self-reliance, as humans are born incapable. However, as they grow, many will instinctually look for simple answers in life and borrow trouble —asking for advice from others, while not knowing if such advice is even good to follow. In doing so, they will be governed by the wind and tides of the time, which are forever changing.
I have known humans who have committed suicide because they were unable to see that with perserverence, misfortune can be overcome. Had they believed that grass grows greener where it is watered, maybe they would have continued to grow as well.
The world around you was created by humans who are no different than you. No human is so exceptional that, with enough perseverance, you couldn’t achieve the same as they have achieved.
Whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well.
Many times, prosperity is elusive because a person has no belief that their work is worth anything, so they do a poor job, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Meanwhile their neighbor, who has made it a habit to have fine attention to detail, will find prosperity which was elusive to the other.
Fortune always favors bravery, and rarely comes to people who do not look for it themselves. It won’t do you well to spend your time waiting for “a perfect opportunity”, as opportunity exists everywhere and is regularly found by talking to humans outside of your immediate circle.
It is always more reliable to depend on your own personal exertions than it is to depend on fate.
Yet to be brave, you must be cautious as well. It may seem paradoxical, but best results are found by exercising caution in laying down plans, then boldly executing them once those plans are understood to be true to nature.
It is this way, bravery is not just aimless confidence but rather, the result of a life of listening intentionally to the needs of all those around you, such that you are aware of the needs of others. Once you are certain you have listened well, only then can you offer bravery. Bravery without truthful data is not bravery at all —it instead, is evil, and misleading.
To be an effective leader, bravery must be based in truth. Evil is the denial of truth, and it’s easy for an experienced human to see —and avoid— evil.
The insight of a leader is often worth more than the hands of a dozen followers. Many leaders can recall instances where even the best followers have overlooked points of importance, only seen by the leader who has fully invested their heart.
It is so, because years of generic instruction is never a replacement for hands-on experience. It is experience that helps a leader identify things which are not written.
Experience is best found by fully investing your love into your passions.
A teacher should understand that time is the only thing which cannot be purchased!
It is never a poor decision to use the best tool for a task if that tool will save time, make the task simpler, or more fun.
The same is equally true of humans. A good human will learn something new every day, and is benefited by the experience they acquire. They are more capable every year than the last and are never “too expensive”, as you will be unable to recoup the knowledge they learned, without spending more time educating another person.
You may see “help wanted” signs frequently in places of business, but hands are not very functional without an excellent mind to tell them what to do. It is scary to always see this sign in an organization, as turnover suggests that its leaders are not respecting their students.
Often, when a human completes an apprenticeship, instead of pursuing their talents they will rest on laurels, and lie about doing nothing.
They may say,
“I have learned all that I need to succeed. Now I will not be an employee, I will be a leader. After all, what is the purpose of training if I am not an independent person?”
I may say: “Have you any resources to start?”
To which they may say: “No, but I will have it”
I ask, “How do you plan to accomplish this?”
“I will tell you now, that venture capital is plentiful, and I expect it to be available”.
There is no greater mistake in believing that you will learn how to be consistently successful, than by relying on borrowed money. It is difficult to understand the value of money until you have understood its value by experience.
Money easily gained, is easily spent. While it is possible to succeed using borrowed money, the avenue to doing so is full of chance, and on borrowed time. Yet it is possible to avoid chance and fate entirely, by learning how to consistently find value where others cannot.
Without patience to learn what is valuable, how will you ensure that you will have consistency in your success?
The road to learning is royal, as it enables a human to expand their knowledge until they are able to solve profound problems, analyze the universe, and make measurably correct decisions.
Such is true in regard to prosperity. Human nature is unchanging to such an extent that history repeats —and in studying history we can see that patience, love, and kindness, always lead to a good life.
You will find that in practicing empathy, the experience you gain allows you to have consistency in making decisions that lead to a life of prosperity.
We find as a trend, that folks who grow up with scarcity tend to focus energy on accumulating wealth. Conversely, folks who grow up with wealth, often have difficulty in recognizing habits that maintain it, and prosperity fades from life.
No profession is too crowded for good leadership. A showroom may be crowded, but there is always room on stage for humans who excel in honesty and intellect. These humans have no shortage of patronage from others interested in learning their ways.
Every human should learn a useful trade, skill, or creative pursuit, so that in times of volatility where the world rapidly changes, you may always have a duty you can perform to keep yourself fed.
Though specialized skill may be highly valued, it is only valued if there is demand at that point in time for your skill.
Learning a diversity of skills inherently builds resilience, and lets you adapt to a changing landscape. Discoveries are often made at the boundaries of discipline, with some, quite valuable.
Many humans are kept in poverty because they are too visionary. Every idea looks like a certain success, and the human gets trapped into following the trends of time and making uncertain bets about the future.
Counting chickens before they hatch is false thinking, yet ever persistent in human nature.
Visions of the future can be motivating and help keep you thrilled as a leader, and your followers engaged. Teaching sailors to yearn for the open sea is the most thrilling way to encourage them build a ship.
It is of profound importance to never let your imagination perish, as imagination is what helps you see what the future holds.
It is poor reasoning though, to discount the value of what has already been accomplished in the world, to pursue something that could be “perfect” with “just a little more effort”.
You may find that in this habit, perfection always remains elusive, and with it, prosperity.
Engage in your passion and stick faithfully with it until you find success, or, until your experience shows that it is rational to abandon the activity.
A sure way to install a screw is to consistently turn it in the correct direction --not to first turn it left, then right, and hit it with a hammer when it’s turning too slowly.
When you dedicate your focus to a mission, you may find that your mind is always occupied with suggested improvements that would otherwise be lost, if you were engaged in too many things at once.
It is a cruel irony of human nature, that focus is one of the rarest skills among highly motivated and creative individuals.
Fortunately, like all skills, it can be developed.
Being systematic in your practices will help you accomplish twice as much as a human who is not. Much time is saved when you have dedicated tools, processes, and procedures for the work that you choose to take on.
The development of procedures allows you to rapidly educate a second human about how to perform a function, and makes it unlikely that mistakes will be made.
Societies at large, are functional primarily because the humans who contribute to them are following established procedures. It would be inefficient for everyone to create their own procedures from scratch — and it is the mission of a leader to help prove new procedures that are viable for others to believe in.
Staying informed through trustworthy news sources, and through the words of trusted people, keeps your perspective broadened, and your mind awake.
It is difficult to ensure that any source of information is accurate —especially when the orator has something to gain through dishonesty. Thus, it is important to fact check your information and seek out measurable data to prove or disprove your information.
Careful application of the scientific method throughout life will steer you away from falsehood, and into a world of truth.
Sometimes we see humans of fortune become destitute suddenly. Intemperance is frequently the reason for this, with bad habits such as gambling and drug abuse common causes.
When a human has become prosperous, it is not unusual for them to gather the attention of speculators. These speculators may pretend to be friends and make promises of grand opportunities, claiming that the prosperous individual has a Midas touch and is certain to succeed in the opportunity.
Frequently, such speculation leads to poverty. Engaging in speculation you do not have understanding of is unwise.
If you have persons who depend on you for economic security, then by engaging in speculation you are not only endangering your own future, but the future of your dependents as well.
It’s not possible to promise a certain future, if you are uncertain yourself. It must be the case then, that speculation leads to the denial of truth, and is thus a manifestation of evil.
It is unwise to invest more resources into a project than you are comfortable losing entirely. The future, as predictable as it may be, is not entirely certain, and carrying all your eggs in one basket is a fine way to stumble into a mess instead of a healthy breakfast.
We all depend on each other for support.
We trade with the baker for bread, the shoemaker for clothing, and the technologist for photography.
In dealing with these persons of the public, it’s important that what goods you offer are genuine, valuable, and will give satisfaction.
Sometimes humans have a particular genius, to advertise in such a scandalous way as to have the story spread like wildfire. Others rely on paying the news sources for spreading word of their existence.
In either case, when you have something to offer that you know will be pleasing and satisfactory, you need not worry if the recipient will feel unhappy. You will have no one to trade with though, if you do not consider it a good use to time to make the public aware of your services.
The means by which you advertise must be truthful and honest. You may offer a good in a spurious way —perhaps it looks great at first, but, years later, it breaks in a way that requires factory service. This may be very profitable even, with a captive audience who must return for your service.
Yet, the public will gradually realize this scheme, consider you a swindler and leave you with no attention, and no further prosperity.
Kindness and politeness can never do you wrong. Fancy buildings, clothes, and other signals mean little if you and your friends treat people abruptly.
The truth is, the kinder and liberal a human is, the more love and patronage will be bestowed upon them.
Like attracts like, and the humans who provide the best service and kindness to those around them, will generally fare well in the long run.
This is nothing more than a manifestation of the golden rule of human nature — “treat others as you wish to be treated yourself”
It is self-evident that humans should be charitable, for it is not only good duty, but brings the soul a sense of happiness and fulfillment not reliably found in other ways. Even with no incentive, you will find that the charitable human will be surrounded by kindness, and the miser will be avoided.
Uplifting other humans is the quickest way to ensure that the world around you improves faster than the improvements you could have made by yourself. For even if you set yourself free from turmoil, if your friends are still struggling, life is not very enjoyable.
The best kind of charity is to uplift others who are eager to uplift themselves, as promiscuous donation can do more harm than good if the recipient becomes dependent on the gifts. But it is never a poor choice to buy a young machinist new tools to accelerate their learning, or the musician a new instrument to perfect their art.
Some people have a silly habit of passing rumors, or sharing grand plans that never come to fruition. They may talk poorly of other humans, or greatly of others in decidedly unfair ways.
Nothing good can come from gossip.
Integrity is your most valuable asset.
It is popular advice to say, “fake it until you make it”. This advice is not only wicked, but it is distilled stupidity.
It is not any different than saying, “If you can’t find success honestly, then find it dishonestly”.
Poor fool, who takes this advice to heart!
It is one of the most difficult things in life to find prosperity dishonestly, and prisons are full of humans who decided to follow this fate. Not only is nearly impossible to be dishonest without eventually being found out, but once your lack of integrity is discovered, many doors to prosperity become nailed shut. The public has no patience for dishonest individuals.
Uncompromising integrity of character is priceless. It secures the human a sense of inner peace and joy which cannot be purchased with any amount of money or material goods.
Further, a human known to be strictly honest, has all resources of their community available for no money at all, as whatever they borrow, is trusted to be returned. Thus it can be said — even as a matter of selfishness— “honesty is the best policy”.
Fulfillment is not always equivalent to business or academic success. There are many wealthy humans who are poor in other aspects of life, and many more humans that have not seen more than a pittance, who live rich and fulfilled lives of love and happiness.
Love is acceptance, and forgoing your fears and prejudices, is a sure path to a prosperous life.
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