“Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.”

t

After running 33 Financial newsletters since 2008 and seeing millions come and go, speaking to thousands My God are human beings weak.

They lie mostly to themselves They cheat and steal (yes, you chargeback pathetic liars you are thieves you steal our Talents and because you do not possess the courage of your convictions you never take responsibility and then turn around and blame us. You are not men but scared little boys in short pants pissing all over yourself)

Here is my last ditch effort to try and Inspire you to get responsible and to be honest with yourself.

[

 There is no faith

and no courage and no sacrifice in doing

what is

expedient what do you say to those

 that don't pursue their dreams

and are locked in their careers because

they're too afraid to take risks and

pursue something meaningful well the

first thing I would say is well you

should be afraid of taking risks and

pursuing something

meaningful but you should be more afraid

of staying where you are it's making you

miserable you're paying a price by

sitting there being miserable you might

say well the devil I know is better than

the one I don't it's like don't be so

sure of that the clock is ticking yeah

and if you're miserable in your job now

and you change nothing in 5 years you'll

be much more miserable and you'll be a

lot older but isn't it a luxury to

pursue what is Meaningful people 

have more they have children they have

payments and Loans it's a luxury to

pursue because we we like to resources

well I don't think I don't remember now

I'm not talking about what makes you

happy it's a luxury to pursue what makes

you happy it's a moral obligation to

pursue what you find meaningful and that

doesn't mean it's easy it might require

sacrifice if you need to change your job

too let's say you have a family and and

and and children and and a mortgage you

have

responsibilities you've already picked

up those responsibilities you don't just

get to walk away scot-free say well I

don't like my job I quit that's no

stress strategy but what you might have

to do is you think well this job is

killing my soul all right so what do I

have to do about that well I have to

look for another job well no one wants

to hire me it's like okay maybe you need

to educate yourself more maybe you need

to update your your curriculum V your

resume maybe you need to overcome your

fear of being interviewed maybe you need

to sharpen your social skills like you

you have to think about these things

strategically if you're going to switch

careers you have to do it like an

intelligent responsible person that

might take you a couple of years of of

of effort to do

properly we're built for struggle us

human beings we're built to contend with

the world we're built to contend with

reality you want a challenge and the

best way that you can take on a

challenge because a challenge fortifies

you so you don't want to be secure you

want to be strong and you get strong by

taking on optimal challenges and so you

lay out your destiny in the world and

you take the slings and arrows of fate

and you make yourself stronger while

you're doing so and you might fail and

Fortune might do you in but it's your

best bet and you know people have have

extracted unbelievable successes out of

catastrophic failures and so and I'm not

saying that in a naive way I know

perfectly well what happens to people

you know you're doing fine in life and

then you get cancer and then 6 months

later you're dead and all the heroism in

the world isn't going to save you at

that point but that's not the point

that's not the point life is bounded by

mortality but that doesn't mean that you

don't get out there and contend and you

develop by contending and you minimize

the net amount of suffering in the world

and that's something man that's

something to

[Music]

do compare yourself to who you were

yesterday not to who someone else is

today because you need to have a a

hierarchy of improvement you need to be

aiming for something and that means

you're going to be lesser than people

who've always already attained along

that

Dimension so the question is who should

you defeat in the final analysis and the

answer is you should defeat your former

self you should be constantly trying to

do that and you're the right control for

yourself too because you're the one

who's had all your advantages and

disadvantages and so if you want to

compete fairly with someone then you

should be competing with you if you're

improving yourself then what you are

doing is competing with your lesser self

and then you might also ask well what is

that lesser self and that lesser self

would be resentful and bitter and

aggressive and Vengeance seeking and all

of those things that go along with

having a negative moral character and

those are things that interfere with

your ability to progress as you move

forward through life so it's very

necessary to understand that this is why

you know I've been stressing this idea

of personal responsibility it's like

well personal responsibility is to

compete with yourself is to be slightly

better than yourself the next

day and it's better in some way that you

can actually manage and that's humility

like well I'm a flawed person I've got

all my problems could I be as good as

person X it's like not the right

question the right question is could you

be slightly better tomorrow than your

currently flawed self and the answer to

that is if you have enough humility to

set the bar properly low then you could

be better tomorrow than you are today

and you might say well what's the right

way of being in the world if there is

such a thing and it's not acting

according to a set of rules it's

attempting continually to transcend the

flawed thing that you currently are and

what's so interesting about that is that

the meaning in life is to be found in

that Pursuit so I've been laying that

out in these disc discussions too

because I say well the the fundamental

issue is that life is tragic and

difficult very tragic and difficult for

everyone and it's also tainted by

malevolence because no matter how things

are tragic and difficult but there's

always some stupid thing that you could

do or someone else could do that could

make it even worse than it has to be and

so that's life and you need an antidote

to that because that can embitter you

constant contact with that just the

tragedy but the tragedy combined with

betrayal and malevolence that makes it

even worse especially if it's

self-induced okay so you need something

to set against that so you don't get

bitter and resentful what do you set

against that doing something worthwhile

by your own definition say you need some

reason to get the hell out of bed on a

terrible day because you've got

something good to do well what's the

best thing you can do transcend your

current wretched and miserable self

there's meaning to be found in that and

that's a meaning that's associated with

responsibility one of the things that

I've been trying to lay out clearly is

that

life is hard it's tainted by malevolence

and betrayal that can make you bitter

you need a meaning to offset that

where's the meaning to be

found not in rights not in impulsive

pleasure but in responsibility you take

responsibility for yourself so you take

care of yourself if you're good at it

you have some excess left over to take

care of your damn family if you're good

at both of those then you have some

excess left over to take care of your

community those are heavy burdens you

pick up the burdens you find that's

meaningful the best way to pick up the

burden is to Contin continually improve

yourself and that's where the meaning is

to be

found and so that meaning is in the

continual self Transcendence that's

letting your old self die and the new

self be

reborn even if things are going really

well for you now there's going to be a

time in the future where things are

rough you know you're going to be ill

family memb going to be ill a dream is

going to fall apart you're going to be

uncertain about your employment status

like the the flood is coming right the

apocalypse is coming it's always the

case in life and and you have to be

prepared for it and the question is how

to prepare for it and the answer to that

is to find a way of being that works

even under the direst of

circumstances you've got the possibility

to slowly raise yourself out of the Meer

you've got the the possibility to do

just what the fighter does when he's

defeated which is to say well regardless

of the circumstances that might have led

to my defeat like even if there were

errors on the part of the referee this

is no time to whine about it this is a

time to take stock of what I did wrong

so that I could improve it into the

future and that's the right

attitude the point is your best

strategic position is how am I

insufficient and how can I Rectify that

that's what you've got and the thing is

you are

insufficient and you could rectify it

both of those are within your grasp if

you aim low enough and I I don't mean

don't aim and I don't mean don't aim up

but you have to accept the fact that you

could you can set yourself a goal that

you can attain and there's not going to

be much glory in it to begin with

because if you're not in very good shape

the goal that you could attain tomorrow

isn't very glorious but it it's a hell

of a lot better than nothing and it

beats the hell out of bitterness and

it's way better than blaming someone

else it's way less dangerous and you

could do it and what's cool about it

it's one step on a very long journey and

it starts to Compound on you so a small

step today means puts you in a position

to take a slightly bigger step the next

and then that puts you in a position to

take a slightly bigger step the next day

and you do that for 2 or 3 years man

you're starting to

stride I don't know how many people have

come and told me it's so strange they

said well I started making my bed and

that made all the difference it's like

well yeah you decided to aim up man and

the first concrete instantiation of that

was that you made your bed and you think

well that's nothing heroic it's like no

but aiming up is heroic that's something

and then lowering yourself to the point

where you're not above the mess in your

room you know you're not superordinate

to that you lower yourself so that you

straighten up you you're grateful for

what you have right in front of you and

you take care of it you put it in order

it's like all of a sudden things start

to get better and one of the reasons

that audiences are responding to what

I've been saying in my lectures and what

I've been writing about is that I don't

tell people that they're okay the way

they are now I say no no you could be

way more than you are and they're

relieved about that you see because if

you're in a dark and terrible place and

someone says you're okay the way you are

then you don't know what to do about

that it's like no I'm not I'm having a

terrible time and I'm hopeless you're

okay the way you are well then what what

that's it that's where I am and what do

you want to tell a young person you're

17 you're okay the way you are it's like

no you're not you got 60 years to be

better and you could be way better you

could be incomparably better across

multiple dimensions and in pursuing that

better that's where you'll find the

meaning in your life and that will give

you the antidote to the suffering this

is the trick though you have to pay pick

a path of discipline whether what path

of discipline you have to pick is a

different issue so there could be a rule

the rule could be the rule might not be

follow this rule the rule might be you

have to follow some rules so it's a meta

Rule and The Meta rule is you have to

discipline yourself and the issue is

well how that's not really the relevant

question you can pick a disciplinary

path it's why I often tell my clients

especially young people they say well I

don't know what to do it's like that's

okay nobody does go do something do the

best thing that you can think of put the

best plan you have into practice it's

not going to be perfect and it will

change along the way but it will change

partly because you become disciplined

pursuing the path and as you become

disciplined you become wiser and as you

become wiser you become able to

formulate better and better plans so you

can start vaguely and confused and

develop a plan that's not so great and

you start to implement it and then you

you acre incremental wisdom as you

implement your flawed plan and that

enables you to fix the plan PL and so

that's part of that process of

incremental self-improvement as

well imagine you only got 100 you only

have $100,000 to go buy a

house and so you go by you go look at

this house and it's like Jesus this

house man it's like it needs a lot of

work it's like well that's all you've

got well are you going to pretend that

the house is okay the way it is or you

going to look for where it's rotten and

where the plumbing doesn't work and

where the stove doesn't work you have to

go and look and see where everything

needs to be fixed and that's like that

is Harsh man

and then in order to do that properly

someone has to have taught you it's look

you aren't your problems you're most

fundamentally that which if it confronts

its problems can solve them and that's

the hero myth in a in a in a nutshell by

the way the hero is the person who

confronts horrible chaotic potential and

tames it and makes something of it right

that's the that's the fundamental human

story but the problem is is that you

have to face what you don't want to face

in order to fix it so you look at all

the things about yourself that need to

be burned off that that need to be

dispensed with and that man especially

at the beginning especially if you're

screwed up that may be like 95% of you

it's not pleasant but if you know that

you're the thing that can transcend your

problems most fundamentally if you know

you're the thing that if it faces the

problems can transcend them then you

have the faith that would enable you to

take stock of who you

[Music]

are my daughter was very ill when she

was well when she was a kid but well

particularly when she was a teenager had

a very terrible time of it um she had

juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and when

she was between the ages of 14 and 16 it

first destroyed her hip which had to be

replaced and then it destroyed the ankle

on her other leg which had to be

replaced and she walked around for 2

years on broken legs and she was taking

massive doses of opiates and could

hardly stay awake and you know and as a

test of your faith there's almost

nothing that's more direct than a

serious illness inflicted upon an

innocent child right and so the chapter

is a meditation on that and also on well

what to do in a situation like that

because everyone is going to have a

situation like that in some sense you

know because you'll be faced with

illness in the people that you love and

in crisis and so it's a practical guide

to coping with those sorts of things

like and one of the things you do when

you're overwhelmed by crisis is you

shorten your time frame you know it's

like you can't think about next month

maybe you can't even bloody well think

about next week or maybe not even

tomorrow you know because now is just so

overwhelming that that's all there is

it's like and that's what you do you cut

your time frame back until you can cope

with it and if it's not the next week

that you see how to get through then

it's the next day and if it's not the

next day then it's the next hour and if

it's not the next hour then it's the

next minute and you know people are very

very very very tough and it turns out

that if you face

things it turns out that if you face

things that you can put up with a lot

more than you think you can put up with

and you can do it without becoming

corrupted you have to be alert when

you're suffering you have to be alert to

the beauty in life the unexpected Beauty

in life and you know you have to look

for those little bit of that little bit

of sparkling crystal in the darkness

when things are bad you have to look and

see where things are still beautiful and

where there's still something that's

sustaining and you know you narrow your

time frame and you'd be grateful for

what you have and that can get you

through some very dark times and maybe

even successfully if you're lucky but

even if unsuccessfully then maybe it's

only tragic and not absolute hell and

you can do that you know in the worst

situation you can make it only tragic

and not hell and there's a big gap

between tragedy and hell you know

there's nothing worse at a deathbed than

to see the people there

fighting the death is bad enough but you

can take that as terrible as it is and

make it into something that's absolutely

unbearable and maybe I think in this is

sort of what I closed the book with is

this idea is that if we didn't all

attempt to make Terrible Things even

worse than they are then maybe we could

tolerate the terrible things that we

have to put up with in order to exist

and maybe we could make the world into a

better

[Music]

place

it's a constant storm to try to figure

out what you're about and you change at

26 you're all about the hustle you're

going to be a billionaire this and that

and then you go to the bar one night and

you fall in love and it changes what you

care about right and then you have a

child and then this happens and then

that happens things change you just have

to always consistently try to figure out

what's driving you and not because other

people are watching and not because

that's what your dad wants and not that

because that's what you said was going

to happen and it doesn't look like it

and your family's going to judge you you

just have to be as real with yourself as

possible and that is a very difficult

struggle but when you're not you create

enormous vulnerability and

unhappiness truthful conversations

redeem people cuz if you come to a

clinical psychologist whose worth is

salt you have a truthful conversation

the conversation is well here's what's

wrong with my

life and here's what caused it you know

maybe it takes a year to have that

conversation and here's how it might be

fixed here's what a a beneficial future

might look like and so it's a completely

honest conversation if it's working well

and all that's happening in the

conversation is that the two people

involved are trying to make things

better that's the goal let's see if we

can have a conversation that will make

things better I think one of the factors

in the resistance to these ideas of

discipline and of taking responsibility

for yourself is people recognizing that

that they're not doing that in their own

lives and they get upset and instead of

looking internally they try to attack

the thing that's upsetting them they

they attack your message they attack the

philosophy behind it rather than look

internally and objectively and having

some sort of introspective point of view

where you go okay am I uh reacting to

this because this this resonates like

I'm I'm missing this aspect of my life

does this diminish me or is this guy

pointing something out that I can

benefit from very few people are willing

to do that very few people are willing

to take that critical moment to look at

their own behavior and look at their own

thought process and wonder if the actual

adverse reaction they have to this

person's message is because they know

that they're

wrong start the process of becoming much

more honest with yourself it will help

you make much better decisions and it

will help you in the long run it may not

taste as fun or as glamorous in the

short term but it will put you in a much

better

position stop doing the things that you

know are

wrong that you could stop

doing right so it's it's a fairly it's a

fairly limited attempt first of all

we're not going to say that you know

what the good is or what the truth is in

any ultimate sense but we will presume

that there are things that you're doing

that for one reason or another you know

are not in your best interests there's

something about them that you just know

you should stop they're kind of

self-evident to you other things you're

going to be doubtful about you're not

going to know which way is up and which

way is

down but there are things that you're

doing that you know you shouldn't do now

some of those you won't stop doing for

whatever reason you don't have the

discipline or maybe there's a secondary

payoff or you don't believe it's

necessary or it's too much of a

sacrifice or you're angry or resentful

or or afraid who

knows but there's another subset that

you could stop doing it might be a

little thing well that's fine stop doing

it and see what happens and what'll

happen is your vision will clear a

little bit and then something else will

pop up that you will also know you

should stop doing and that you could

stop

doing and you could do that repeatedly

for for an indefinite period of time and

and you know that doesn't necessarily

mean that you're going to ever be able

to formulate a clear and final picture

of what constitutes the truth and the

good but it does mean that you'll be

able to continually move away from

what's untruth and what's bad and you

know that's not a bad

start discipline it does start with

waking up early it really

does but that is just the

beginning discipline is the root of all

good

qualities but you have to absolutely

apply it to things outside of just

waking up early it's it's everything

it's working out every day making

yourself stronger and faster and more

flexible and

healthier it's about disciplining your

emotions so you can make good decisions

it's about doing the tasks that you

don't necessarily want to do but that

you know we'll help you and that's what

discipline is discipline means taking

the Hard Road the uphill Road to do

what's

right