Or as I put it previously, wealth is a state of mind not a state of money.
Being happy is to each his own. For me, it is achieving what I set out to accomplish, a moving target of conveying to the world how we must improve the operating systems of humanity to adapt to nature’s entropy. A responsibility I assigned myself because I put a child in this world, soon having to face the machine of human fabrications so fundamentally incompatible with nature, I came to discover.
To Each His Own
My happiness comes from overcoming many obstacles, suffering fools, and being patient, realizing not my proximal development is in question but the proximal development of others stuck in societal foregone conclusions. The world will slowly turn in my direction and will need to adopt my operating system, for my direction is nature’s truth that cannot be denied for too much longer. Grand scale ignorance is killing us.
And yet, I realize, putting all this time and effort into improving humanity means nothing if you cannot share the small and big victories with the people you love. Even when that love is sometimes as hard-fought as the victories you shoot for. People who shun confrontation in life and in stunning irreverence walk away will never achieve anything meaningful.
You don’t know peace if you don’t know storm. You don’t know light if you don’t know dark
Esther Perel
Suck On It
Having money to some extend can act as a pacifier. I have been there. Spending lavishly on people who cannot seem to get enough of it. Eating up my money, mind, and runway to achieve their satisfaction, rather than mine.
When you have been to a few places in the world, you realize that a beach with a palm tree won’t really make you happy. On the other hand, having an impromptu take-out dinner in fold-out chairs on the beach with your woman does. Connecting with curious people in person who can expand your mind does. Talking one of the most prominent bankers in the world under the table does. All the things money (or the internet) cannot help you develop. Only your inquisitive mind can.
In a country calling itself the freest country in the world, it amazes me how many people feel a need to (often over the backs of others) amass money that buys them the very freedom they appear not to have. A rush to freedom igniting Kardashian-style debauchery of consumerism that harms not helps humanity and clouds the sincerity of relationships so crucial to personal growth and calibration.
Go Far Together
I leave you with some of the last words of Apple’s founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs’, dying at the age of 56 from pancreatic cancer, with a fortune of $7 billion:
“At this moment, lying on the bed, sick and remembering all my life, I realize that all my recognition and wealth that I have is meaningless in the face of imminent death. You can hire someone to drive a car for you, make money for you – but you can not rent someone to carry the disease for you.”
“As we get older we are smarter, and we slowly realize that the watch is worth $30 or $300 – both of which show the same time. Whether we drive a car worth $150,000, or a car worth $2000 – the road and distance are the same, we reach the same destination. If we drink a bottle worth $300 or wine worth $10 we’re drunk.”
Concluding:
-“Do not educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy. – So when they grow up they will know the value of things, not the price.
-Eat your food as medicine, otherwise you will need to eat your medicine as food.
-Whoever loves you will never leave you, even if he or she has 100 reasons to give up. They will always find one reason to hold on.
-There is a big difference between being human and human being.
-If you want to go fast – go alone! But if you want to go far – go together.”
Happiness is not a cause but a consequence of special bonds engaged in an improving dance that challenges and expands your horizon. The achievement of overcoming leads to happiness that can never bankrupt you and releases you from the fear of defeat that makes you truly rich.
