Quote Meditation #3

“Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.” – Donald Trump

In book 4 of The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith talks about the attempt to increase wealth through the acquisition of more and more currency by any means possible. During his time this is how wealth was believed to be achieved, acquisition only. As he speaks about this he likens currency to pots and pans. This idea of money being like pots and pans has the potential to shift anybody’s views when it comes to money. Imagining your bank account to be full of pots and pans really takes away the emotional confusion money often brings. You only need as many pots and pans proportional to how much you cook. The amount of money you need should be directly proportional to the projects you have going plus living expenses. I think the phenomenon Adam Smith touched on is what Mr. Trump is talking about. He realizes the value in having a nearly endless supply of pots and pans but that’s all they are, tools. He’s less concerned about amassing tools than he is about using the tools he already has to win. He’s less concerned about his amount of pots and pans and more concerned about what those say about him as a person.

You can say what you want about Mr. Trump but one thing you can’t call him is stupid. The mental dexterity necessary to amass $10 billion is unhuman. Maybe even more dexterity than is required of a President (haha). It’s also worth noting that if he were in this for the pursuit of money he would have stopped accumulating a long time ago. The fact that he has kept going shows that he’s in it for “the game” and perhaps his mindset is one we should attempt to emulate. If you’re playing to win you’re going to be willing to take a lot more risks than those who are just playing for cash. We already know that risk is the key to self-improvement. The truth is that we really need very little money to live. Living frugally is worth winning your game of choice. That frugal living frees the rest of your energy to be expended on “the game.”

Often times it seems people are overly obsessed with money for the sake of money. They don’t really think about what money is or why it exists. They just want it because society has deemed it valuable. It seems like every rapper ever has put that quest for money at the top but fails to give any legitimate reason about why they want it other than the fact that others want it. Remember that money should be a tool or a measuring stick with which you can improve or measure your performance. When speaking, Warren Buffet sounds as though he accidentally amassed his wealth out of the pure desire to improve his own performance. Bill Gates wasn’t pursuing wealth when he created the Windows operating system, he just happened to stumble upon a cross-section of something that he enjoyed and a lot of people needed.

In showbiz there is a saying: “One for The Man, then one for the soul.” Michelangelo is a good example of this saying. He did work for The Man (Mr. Medici) before he could branch out and do his own work. That is what we much do. Step one, serve and escape the man. Then prepare your place at the table and prepare to play the game with Mr. Trump. Not for the money, but because you love the game.

Quote Meditation 2

“You eat what you kill.”

“You eat what you kill.”

“You eat what you kill.”

“You eat what you kill.” In all of human history, even today, we have only ever eaten what we kill. For almost all of history, to provide, hunters would go out and bring home food for the tribe. They would hunt many different animals because they knew food was imperative for survival.

That long standing fact has hardly changed today. In the past men would kill animals to survive. Even back then hunters solved the most common problem: hunger. The people in his tribe were hungry so he went out and found food, filling the need and answering the problem. The tribe rewarded him for it. Historically the most respected man in the tribe was also the best hunter.

In the present we still kill problems. Solving the problems of humanity provides us with the money which we need to survive. People need light, so Thomas Edison created a new way to provide it, solving a huge problem. Still today those who are most respected in society are those who are best able to answer our problems.

Solving problems always has been, and probably always will be, the lifeblood of man.

In the past the most experienced hunters would go after big game. They knew that the big game could feed their tribe for days. A 200 pound deer could feed their tribe for a very long time. It takes skill and patience, that takes years to accumulate, to hunt down a big deer. The least experienced hunters would go after small game because they had not yet developed the skills to tackle the bigger game.

It is the same today. The most experienced men tackle humanities biggest problems and they are adequately rewarded for it. The least experienced men practice on smaller problems, dreaming about the day when they might be able to bring home a big kill for their tribe.

So when you work, remember that humanity will never be able to get anything that really matters for doing nothing. Those who can afford to live big do solve big problems. They provide value to humanity. They solve problems allowing humanity to live at a higher level, just like the ancient hunters used to do for their tribe. “You eat what you kill.”

“You eat what you kill.”

Quote Meditation 1

“Risk is the key to all self-improvement.”

“Risk is the key to all self-improvement.”

“Risk is the key to all self-improvement.”

“Risk is the key to all self-improvement.” For humans to grow we need to improve. To improve we have to risk. We have to put ourselves on the line. We have to put ourselves in situations that can hurt our ego. We have to place ourselves in situations where we are vulnerable.

To hit personal record in the weight room one has to put themselves under more physical stress than they have been under before. They risk dropping the weight, or injury, which never satisfies.

To engage with attractive women a man has to put himself in situations where he will be judged. He risks having his masculinity rejected. While that rejection hurts what he learns from it can be used to improve himself.

To reach for a promotion one has to work aggressively in situations everyone in the office is too scared to work at. That person risks not succeeding. By doing that work and succeeding they have a better chance of promotion. However, if they do not succeed they can look back on their experience and learn from that, which will help them succeed at the job next time. As you can see, they are closer to the promotion even if they do not succeed.

To start a business one has to put their name, their money and their dreams on the line. They risk rejection of their business and themselves. If their business does not succeed at least they learned from that experience and can use that information for the rest of their lives.

For a musical artist to become listened to they have to release their music to be heard and judged. They risk the rejection of what they have put so much time and emotion into.

The most basic form of risk, is risk among friends. To be truly accepted one must be their real selves. They can not pretend to like things they do not just so they can have friends. That is a recipe for unhappiness, they would not be doing anything that makes them happy. By being their real self they might face the harsh rejection of the social world but they might also succeed in being truly accepted.

One thing that is true about all these instances is that it is always better to not succeed than not try at all. If the man is rejected by the beautiful woman he uses the experience with the next beautiful woman. If the person does not succeed at starting their business they take the experience with them to the next opportunity. If the musical artist does not succeed he can take some criticism and use that to write music more true to himself.

If a person dedicates themselves to learning from the situations where they were not successful they come out so much further ahead than those who do not risk at all. Next time they can change their strategy and do even better. In every situation the people who risk, and learn, come out ahead of those who did not. We have to ingrain this ability to risk into our being as quickly as possible. “Risk is the key to all self-improvement.”

“Risk is the key to all self-improvement.”

“Risk is the key to all self-improvement.”

“Risk is the key to all self-improvement.”