It’s common for people to switch from one strong belief to the opposite, and to proselytize each belief as the only true possibility.
I used to be a bit of a hippy. I’ve lived in a Buddhist monastery where anti-materialism was a given, and the monks had taken vows of poverty. I’ve long thought that status was a gerbil cage, complete with wheel. I thought that the reason to have money was so that a person could have free time.
Now I work 16 hours a day, every day. No lunch breaks – the laptop is beside me as I wolf down my food. Videos are mostly educational. If I go out it’s to the gym. Even this blog post is a strategy to power.
The mentor of my twenties told me that when people came closer his mid-forties age, they started to think about having kids, even if they never wanted them before. He told me that older gentlemen naturally switch their focus towards gathering power. “It becomes all about the power”.
As a young guy who only wanted to meditate and fuck, it was inconceivable to me that I could ever become stereotypical.
Power and wealth coincidentally become much more important to the older mans sexual strategy. And many guys switch from a sowing oats full time strategy to tree farming. Maybe with a little oat scattering on the side. It’s as if our sexual strategies were evolved, and different strategies become more relevant as predictably as biological clockwork.
If you want to get rich, you have to choose that item from the menu, to the exclusion of other items. It takes focus. The more wealth you want, the more focus you need to give.
Necessity is the mother of mental stamina.
I’ve fired one staff member, and another I was about to fire quit. My personal assistant wanted to do a good job, she just happened to be incompetent and unable to focus. There are strong labour laws in Indonesia, and I have to give the girl about 4 months salary in recognition of her two years work here. It’s worth the expense to upgrade.
I’ve hired four smart, talented and well educated people for the marketing team. One of those is a video producer. I could use a hundred more on the marketing team, just for the current businesses. Hired a very skilled 3d artist, and will train him in 3d animation. Hired 3 skilled fabricators. I’m still interviewing for more engineers, and more for the marketing team. I’m putting out a new ad for more web admins and designers. I’m working to build a team of western educated copywriters.
But I can’t afford them. Not really. I’m running business expansion on sales profit, with no investors and no line of credit. There is no cushion, other than my untouchable savings. There is nothing left over at the end of the month.
That is how I manage to have the mental stamina and focus to work 16 hours per day, every day. I’ve put my self into sink or swim situations for decades, and now I’m way out in the ocean, with the direction to land only visible through old time maritime navigation. Stars, the sun, and the waves. I’m not afraid, I’m motivated. I know how to swim, so I’m swimming. It’s not a mistake that I’m out here in deep water. It’s exactly where I need to be.
I can’t afford to increase my marketing staff. But I can’t increase my sales without them. I can’t afford to hire new engineers. But I can’t develop new products and diversify my dangerously narrow income stream without them.
I could have easily chosen the Rich Dad/Poor Dad philosophy of limiting expenses in order to save for a future. Instead of investing heavily in potential businesses, I’d have a retirement egg.
I’ve been having recurring dreams of losing everything. My old jewellery vendor boards are empty, my inventory all gone, my sales gigs dried up, my transportation confiscated. It’s not entirely comfortable being so far from land, even if I do know how to swim.
And yet I know that this is the only path to greatness. This level of risk, this level of focus, and this level of work is the only menu choice for me, at this stage in my life. My work is not a burden, it is my driven passion. I don’t want to do anything else. I don’t wish for any time off, and turn down all invitations to do anything other than work.
In ages past there were leaders of small tribes, leaders of regions, lords, and kings. People got their power through politics, the sword, and trade. Often all three. Slavery has been common to the social set-up for all of recorded history, and wealth has always moved up the classes. Labour and their fruits aggregated from the lowest classes of slaves owned by slaves up to slave holders, to chieftains, to regional lords, to kings.
The old hierarchies are just as active today as they have been for all of known history. I have my own group of slaves and tribe members, and am a sort of small tribal chieftain. As a chieftain I can see higher ambitions. I am literally conquering new territories, in real estate acquisitions. I am expanding my labour and trade bases.
I’ve spend time at a Rainbow Gathering, where hippies lived in the woods off of donations. The ethos was that materialism was a trap, and the wise forest hippies had happily escaped it. There was much love in the air, and it was emotionally healthy.
That’s one menu choice.
Wealth and power is another.
Real wealth is attainable, for those with talent and drive. The drive required is so extreme that it can look like a disease. The focus required is intense. Every fifteen minutes counts.
I’m managing something like 15 staff now, and this is just the beginning. That’s a very small company. I will need 50 soon. Some people have hundreds. Thousands. Tens of thousands.
Once I’ve consolidated my current positions, people will look to me with envy, and say “Wow, you’re so lucky. I wish I could live like that”. They will say “I want to be in his position once I get to his age”.
But very few people want to go through the process.
The process isn’t actually that bad. Over time you get used to it, and learn to take real pleasure from work. Work is challenging and fun.
