The Pharmacy(TM)

Yep folks. We’re moving to better and more stylish premises, to make room for more introspection, more rants, more corporate intrigue, and more existential discussion on friends, lovers, philosophy, economics, why humans will never get it right, and just about anything interesting that Dominic Vincent D. Ligot will dare put on the web.

Also part of the move is to allow non-Friendster peeps to leave their comments and feedback as well as finally put The Pharmacy on the mainstream internet (gulp!).

Maybe make a little money on the side as well.

The new address of the Pharmacy is:

http://thepharmacy.wordpress.com/

This Friendster blog will remain open though to point the lost wayward souls in the right direction.

Cheers and see you on the other side!

I’m a fan of optical illusions. Not only do they illustrate the limitations of human perception, but they’re quite a lot of fun in the process.

Consider the following picture (apologies in advance to the color-blind). Also hopefully your browser can view animated gifs (nowadays any decent PC would).

Now I’ll tell you what you can see:

• If you want to see pink dots, just follow the rotating missing dot.
• If you want to see pink dots and a green dot, just look at the "+" in the center.
• If you want to see the green dot more clearly, focus and concentrate on the "+".

The thing is, there really is no green dot. There’s always just eleven pink dots present. The appearance of a green dot is a color perception driven by the pink dots disappearing against the grey background. Distract your eyes on the "+" and you reinforce the false color perception by making your eyes focus on a different area.

If our sight, being a major part of our five senses, can be easily fooled, our perception is faulty at best.

Add emotion into the mix, and you start to wonder why human beings aren’t quite the rational individuals you were introduced in school philosophy or economics.

Another point: Let’s go back to the list I mentioned above. What I phrased as:

If you want to see the green dot more clearly, focus and concentrate on the "+".

could have been easily phrased as:

If you focus and concentrate on the "+", you will see the green dot more clearly.

What’s the difference? The first (and more correct) phrase is driven by intentions. The second (and more commonly understood) phrase, is an action and outcome driven statement.

It’s a fine point, but bear with me for a second. Most of the time, we view our world and our goals as action and outcome-driven statements:

• If I study, I will pass.
• If I work, I will make money.
• If I leave, I will be free.

Notice the presence of the word "will" in those statements, which also implies a time-driven outcome. (click that link to read what I have to say about time). Let rephrase the three statements above into intention-driven statements:

• If I want to pass, I study.
• If I want to make money, I work.
• If I want to be free, I leave.

Although the former and latter group of statements are similar, you know deep inside that they are not. The first group of statements are conditional–but they do not imply any direct knowledge of the results. The second group meanwhile is more affirmative, being driven by desires and intentions. Invoking the first group of statements implies a person making an action, then hoping the result will follow. The second group of statements implies a person who already KNOWS the result.

Big difference.

Notice also that the time element disappears from the second group. This is intentional, because if we still included it, say:

• If I want to be free, I will leave.

It isn’t quite as effective, isn’t it? By putting a time element into the intention, you effectively nullify it (i.e. you will NEVER leave).

From all the above, the following should be apparent, if not obvious to you by now:

The lies we were raised to believe:

• We see and perceive things as they are.
• We do actions which lead to a result.

The truths that eventually emerge:

• We see and perceive things the way we want to see them.
• We do actions because we want to achieve a result.

Intention is the missing truth. What we see and what we achieve are a direct result of our intentions. If we have no intentions, we see nothing, we achieve nothing.

The question is: what are our true intentions? What do we really want?

I saw the following movie/documentary recently. Interesting stuff.

Although, very similar in content to a previous movie I also saw about two years ago: What The Bleep Do We Know?

Both films touch on quantum physics, reality, and how intentions become actions. (eerily echoing some sentiments I’ve had on this blog for years–maybe I’ve been mishandling the secret for so long).

Anyway, here’s a stern recommendation to get a copy of both films, whenever, or whereever you can.

It won’t change your life. Your life simply begins after watching these films.

If you browse investment websites and forums, chances are you’ve come across the following anecdote:

Once upon a time, in a village a man appeared who announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys went out in the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish and villagers started to stop their effort he announced that now he would buy at $20.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so low that it was an effort to even see a monkey let alone catch it. The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy on behalf of the man.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man comes back, you can sell it to him for $50." The villagers squeezed up with all their savings to buy the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Oddly enough, my father had an anecdote of his own along similar lines which he shared over dinner one night:

I remember when I was a teenager, and a cousin of your lola’s suddenly came to visit, introducing herself as a jewelry agent. She showed your lola her wares. Your businesswoman lola, who was more business than woman, was not really interested. This was until your lola’s cousin made her an offer.

"Ating, here is a newly imported ring with a rare gem from South Africa. This can easily fetch a Thousand in the open market, but I’m offering it to you for only Five Hundred. Who knows, we might find a buyer and you could make some money."

Your lola’s interest was piqued. The jeweler further offered to leave the ring with us for a couple of days so that your lola could have it appraised, as a gesture of good faith. The next day your lola took the ring to some of her jeweler friends, who confirmed the quality and make of the ring and gemstone. Two days later your lola’s cousin returned, and as agreed, she sold the ring to your lola for Five Hundred, which was quite a sum back in those days.

A week passed and the jeweler returned. "Ating! Good news, I found a buyer for your ring. If you’re interested, here is your Five Hundred back, and I will take the ring to Manila and we can split the profits fifty-fifty."

Your lola agreed. And two days later the jeweler returned. "Ating, we sold your ring for One Thousand One Hundred!" And she handed your lola Three Hundred as her share. Your lola was quite happy at nearly doubling her money at so short a time. She thanked her cousin and told her to return any time she might have another deal worth investing in.

And return she did, in a week. This time she showed your lola two gemstones, even larger than the first. "Ating, these two gems newly imported from the middle east. Both are worth One Thousand Five Hundred a piece, but I’ll let you in for just One Thousand for both."

As before, the jeweler allowed your lola to keep the gems for a day so she could have them appraised, and your lola was ecstatic when she learned that the gems could easily fetch Four Thousand in Total. Her share alone of the profit would be One Thousand Five Hundred, more than the value of her original investment!

Your lola waited anxiously for her cousin to arrive. One late afternoon three days later, the jeweler arrived with great news. "Ating! I found a buyer for your gems! An American is leaving Manila tomorrow morning and already commited to buy them for Five Thousand! If I leave before dark I can barely make it before he flies tomorrow."

Your lola, eyes gleaming, quickly gave the gems to the jeweler who left for the nearby bus station running. Five Thousand was a fortune in those days, and her share of the net would be Two Thousand: tripling her original stake in just a matter of days. It was a businesswoman’s heaven!

That was the last time we ever heard of the jeweler, or your lola’s One Thousand. Less the original Three Hundred she paid your lola on the first deal, the jeweler made Seven Hundred in a month’s time, or more than doubling her money in a month. It was a scammer’s heaven.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Of course, the lessons are obvious, about not believing in a sure thing. Or is that the only point of it? For me these two quaint anecdotes are lessons in reality. People dictate their reality, in the case of the villagers and my deluded grandmother, the reality of money. The value of an object–monkeys, gems, or in this case, their own sensibilities.

I recently wrote about how people ascribe value to themselves using mundane measures, such as salary, or job titles, which is downright insane. There are also other, less mutable labels: such as pedigree, place of work, place of residence, college/university attended, age, car driven, race/color, mixed blood, last name etc. etc.

There’s that quote, almost nearly a cliche, but still rings true:

"People can only bring you down if you give them permission to do so.

As a trader, I know that value is relative in the market place. However I also know that for every quote of value, there are usually two parties in a transaction: a buyer and seller. One proposes the value, one takes it.

If you feel your worth as an individual slipping or strengthening, this cannot happen without your agreement. You allow that value to exist. Ultimately it is you who ascribes value to yourself.

Are you selling out at a bargain?

Started the week fantastic with this cool song by Samantha James. Good inspiration especially for people like moi who are learning to let go of the world and allow things to happen as they should.

RISE

You should believe in me
And everything I choose to do
You should believe that I’ll
Always come back to you

In every way
You need to let go
You’ll see all your dreams will follow
In every way
You need to let go

last week, I get an interesting text as I was exiting a long and arduous thirty minutes in the toilet (which I realise as I type this, is a little too much information that people would care to know):

"Read your blog just now. Just want to know, who were the three girls you wrote about in Turbulence. Is <old colleague’s name> the Rica you wrote about in Surrealism? Or is she the fling? Then again maybe I’m the fling? Haha."

I did mention before that I’d be writing about people I know. And there’s probably a good chance that those people will get to read them on the this blog. This doesn’t mean I’m actually writing to them though. I don’t really have a specific message for anyone here.

Although if people do find a message hidden somewhere here, and it hits them in some way, I hope the message has been helpful.

Regardless of my sentiments, any incidental help is intentional on my part (how’s that for a paradox?).

The text continues:

"I really like your writings. By the way I already know who Tupperware Girl is."

To the avid texter (you already know who your are): Thank you for your continued interest in reading my little madness in cyberspace. And although I completely trust your ability to infer real life characters from my writings, I also completely trust your ability to keep those opinions to yourself, or at least just between the two of us (yes we can make it if we try, just the two of us, you and I…).

<pause samba beat>

Cheers and take care!

I was speaking to a dear friend recently about the ability of the body to regenerate itself. Here’s a nice document about it. Although the snippets vary on the timeline, suffice it to say that every so and so years the body creates new cells, new bones, new skin, new blood every time.

Let’s call it seven, as my friend said. Every seven years, you are the equivalent of a newborn. Everything in your body is remade. So by that standard, I and most of the people I know have gone through the equivalent of 5 births (including their original birthday, give or take a year or two), and most people I know are living their 5th life now.

Five lives, five lifetimes, five paths, five fates.

Judging from the trend of my friends’ blogs lately, the illusion of time seems foremost in people’s minds. How much time has passed since point A and now at point B we make a reflection of the multitude of realities that have taken place (or lack of as the case may be).

Repeat process for point C, D, E, and so forth.

Regular updates, although desired, are few and far in between. The reason being, people are too busy living, to take notice. When we do take notice, we are suddenly overwhelmed by the comparative  differences, and hence we ascribe the illusion of time to bridge the gap between then and now.

Point B seems a bit different from Point A, therefore TIME has passed. Time is our ultimate scapegoat.

Going back to the topic of regeneration, we can also blame time for changes in ourselves. Point A: thin waist, fair skin, black hair, smooth complexion, baby teeth. Point B: pot-belly, freckles, graying hair, pocked complexion, permanent teeth (or dentures). TIME has passed.

Time is the road we are crossing, the string we are pulling, the rope we are climbing. It’s a ladder, it’s a bridge. It’s a car, a ship, a plane. It’s our ally or our enemy, our hope or nightmare. It’s our life or death. It’s almost a Carlos Jobim song but without the convenient bossa nova beat.

Time passes, and we cling on for dear life, or it leaves us in the dust. Accumulating regrets, revising our designs, until the next handle in time happens along, and when it does we promise to make a mad lunge for it. Our life depends on it.

Lawrence Fishburne’s Morpheus said about humanity’s survival against the ravaging machines quite succintly: "I do not believe it to be a matter of hope. Merely, a matter of time."

I just realized this blog is getting to be a source of very valuable information for me (which is a weird realization considering I’m the one writing it). Point B: having written the blog. Point A: about to write the blog. In between so much reflection and conversation that occasionally is useful.

On the topic of time, consider this brief anecdote about distances I wrote oh so many years ago. The point is not the post but the snappy and philosophical comment by my friend Naz about Zeno’s paradox. Mathematically, time is expressed as a fourth dimension. So say the physicists, we are not only moving in 3 dimensional space (X, Y, and Z) but also moving in Time (i.e. yesterday, today and tomorrow).

You know this already eh? Well how about this: it’s easy enough to measure our speed in space (say kilometers per hour, miles per hour) over units of time, but are we all in agreement that we move in time in precisely the same speed? One day for me is the same for you and for everyone else. No one claims to have lived two days for every one day that passes for everyone else.

Seven years for you is seven years for me. Same speed in time.

Never thought about that before I bet. Well what’s wrong with traveling in time at the same speed?

Here’s the problem (paraphrasing Zeno’s paradox):

You and your friend have a race. You let your friend go ahead for two minutes, since you are a faster runner. So your friend is now two minutes in time ahead of you. You start running and by the time you close the original distance between you and your friend, your friend has also moved a couple of minutes ahead of you. No matter how fast you run, your friend will always be ahead you, because no matter your speed in space, you and your friend travel in TIME at the same rate.

WTF?! In real life we all know if you’re a faster runner you will catch up with your slowpoke friend. It’s simple. But mathematically, considering Time is a fourth dimension, it’s impossible.

Mathematicians are jerks. And people who also fancy themselves mathematicians (say bankers for instance) are even bigger jerks for putting too value in their work (or math as the case may be).

Fortunately I’m not a jerk. And even more to the point: I’m also no longer stupid. Because ladies and gents, the reason that math problem about time and travel is impossible to solve is easy:

TIME DOES NOT EXIST. It’s all a big practical joke played on us by the frickin (old german for FUCKIN) Greeks. Time does not matter, time is an illusion, and time is the biggest scapegoat man has used to excuse his pathetic existence.

Yes bigger than the Da Vinci Code and the Gospel of Judas and other supposedly mind blowing stuff.

The aforementioned Point A and Point B are the same fricken point!

There is no yesterday, or tomorrow, just an ever changing moment of TODAY. As in NOW, as in right absolutely this very moment.

Change happens now, not yesterday, not tomorrow. It HAPPENS or it doesn’t. Decisions are made NOW, not yesterday, not tomorrow, nor any other fixed moment in time. They HAPPEN or they don’t.

That expensive chronometer on your wrist is a big liar. It’s just spinning around NOW, nothing more. So is that thick planner, that desk calendar, and all other "time keeping" devices. They are all our best and finest excuses for doing or not doing something.

Can you imagine if we all knew this? Knew that time didn’t matter. Can you imagine how many problems will suddenly vanish? How many circular meetings will no longer be necessary? How many promises will finally be kept? How many hurts will finally be erased?

Time is our bogeyman. It has us by the balls (or by the boobs as the case may be), and it won’t let go. Time is a clip, a wrench, a caliper, a vise, a rope around our necks, a nipper on our nipples and guess who’s the one holding it, making it squeeze ever tighter on our oh so decicate organs:

Us.

God created the universe in seven days.

Our bodies regenerate every seven years.

The big bang happened 13.7 billion years ago.

I promise to be thin next year.

I promise to be happily married before I hit 35.

I promise to be a millionaire in 10 years.

I promise to retire before I turn 40.

I will never forget what she said 10 years ago.

I will never forgive what he did to me last year.

I will never understand why they did what they did before I was born.

Time. That guilded cage. That lie. That grand excuse

The biggest farce in creation.

Why are you waiting? How long will you wait?

What are you doing…

NOW?

Essential #5 is Stick To The System

Begs the question: So what’s the system? What’s the plan ‘bub?

Why to be immortal of course, silly.

It’s the ultimate rhetorical question, and interesting point to ponder. Exactly why or what are you doing in this world? What’s your point? Or more succinctly: what’s the point of you?

At this point, it’s very tempting to lapse into a semi-philosophical discourse on destiny, or a semi-theological rambling on the nature of creation, and so on and so forth. But no I’ll spare myself the stress.

What I will do is consult a gamebook.

Yes, a game. Did you realize that as of this writing, it’s the year 2008 while the PC, arcade game, and cartoon revolution was in the 1980s. That means with the exception of a few geriatric dinosaurs, the world now as we know it is being run by the kids of 20 years ago. Kids who watched He-man, Voltes Five, Transformers, played Atari, Nintendo, and Dungeons and Dragons.

It’s not a far-fetched thought now to think that the geo-politics and socio-economics of the world today was as much influenced by GI-Joe, as it was by Super Mario.

Punch up: Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A and you get 100 lives.

Unlimited Continues.

Immortality.

Frank Mentzer of TSR Inc., creator of Dungeons and Dragons wrote interesting rules on achieving immortality. It’s interesting to read this stuff now as an adult considering it was written for a kids game. According to Mentzer, your character in the D&D world can gain immortality through one of four paths:

Dynast

Root of the word dynasty. A dynast is a character who builds a great and powerful empire. The dynasty must be vast, and must stand for a long time.

Hero

A hero (or Epic Hero) is a character who represents the ultimate ideals of heroism. The character must display the traits of the classic Epic Hero in every thought and action. Among other things, the character must travel to far lands and perform great and noble deeds.

Paragon

One who reaches the ultimate in his or her profession. The paragon must invent or discover new skills and knowledge, and must be reknowned as a master professional.

Polymath

A polymath is a character who learns much about everything, not only in the original profession, but in all areas. The character must give up all known skills before gaining others, and live many lives. A polymath eventually integrates all lives lived until the path to immortality is ultimately revealed.

Yeah, the kids of the 80s were crazy reading this stuff (me being one of them). But then again, reading it makes absolute sense now that I know a little more about real life where (sigh), money makes the world go round, not love (although sex comes pretty close).

Wanna live forever, take your pick. It’s not a walk in the park, but each path rocks. Perhaps you didn’t realize it, but your calling is already in one of the paths above.

But then again, I realize most people don’t wanna be immortal. That’s fine too, as long as you’re aware of your role as cannon fodder, just wanna-be-at-the-background kind of person, don’t bother no one, don’t do nothin, don’t matter if I crap in my pants kind of life. Although no regrets at the end of time ok?

On the plus side, at least your funeral queue will be short and quick.

They have small windows were my thoughts as the company’s finance officer led me through doors and corridors filled with tight cubicles and crammed desks. This was many years ago.

This was my fourth interview. In the last two weeks I had spoken to the marketing VP (who was a former colleague), the finance VP (who was currently leading me), and the company president. The job offer seemed like a done deal.

99.99% finished.

Only one thing remained: Human Resource Development (HRD) to discuss the subject of my compensation. Now that was an interesting conversation.

Before I get to that, gotta think: it’s really an odd thing when you’re being pirated by large corporations. You usually go the rounds talking to the line officers, i.e. the people whom you will actually be working with (or working for, as is usually the case), and they will give you the rundown of the nuances of the job, check if you’re interested, if you’re near-schizophrenic personality is a match.

Once you’ve gone through this process, which can either be a walk in the park or a gauntlet depending on your disposition (and how close you are with the president), you’re then turned over to HRD who will discuss the matters of your employment contract, i.e. your salary, benefits, sick leaves, retirement pay, and generally other stuff that you’re REALLY interested in.

Try asking the line officer what kind of package is in store, and they will usually say: "um… you got to talk to HRD about that." It’s weird because it’s almost a corporate faux pas to talk about money. No one discusses salary openly.

The idea of salary is a conundrum. Simply put: it’s how much a company is paying to have you around. However, in most cases, people interpret salary differently: it’s how much you’re worth as a worker. It’s the price of your output, the value of your work.

The formula thus: Cost of Company = Value of Person.

Makes sense to you? Well, it shouldn’t. Because it’s not just a lie, it’s a WRONG ASSUMPTION.

Somewhere in between, something gets lost in translation so to speak. Salaries influence what food you buy, what places you travel to, what kind of car you drive, what kind of house you buy. The idea of a salary self-reinforces that WRONG equation above.

Here’s another strange thing: what salary you’re likely to get elsewhere, oftentimes depends on what salary you already have. This messes up thing further, because now you’re forced to bend over backwards and justify a COST, by explaining your VALUE.

Understandably, that’s why salaries are confidential, because it can be an emotional thing. People are afraid to discuss their packages. It feels like revealing your underwear. Because people mistakenly judge their own personas now by the price tag a company attaches to their work.

It’s a WRONG assumption because companies are paying for a TASK, not a person. You want a better salary, get a better job. Same person, different task, higher pay. Make more sense now?

Which brings me back to that HRD compensation interview. At the time I was pulling about Fifty Thousand Gross monthly. I was asking for a HUNDRED. That’s the price of my stress of changing jobs, pissing off my current employer, the price of forgoing my retirement benefits, and generally the price of my curiosity of whether they would actually bite the bait.

The interesting thing is, the HRD guy didn’t bite:

"Mr. Ligot, this… this is a bit much for the position."

"And exactly what position is that?"

"I was advised that you were told about the job."

"The job, yes. The position, no. The package, no. Which is why I’m talking to you now."

"Yes, and as I mentioned, what your asking for is…"

"Difficult? If it is then we have nothing more to discuss."

"What exactly is your present salary and position in your current job?"

At this point, my brain went into automatic shutdown mode. Call it SAFE mode in Windows terms. Safe mode happens if something critical happened and the system automatically reboots to a simpler mode so that the user can debug and troubleshoot the problem.

"I think that’s irrelevant to this discussion, Wimpy. Let me remind you that it was your President who called me up and asked me to consider jumping aboard. Now you’re talking to me like I’m some walk-in from across the street. I’m sorry Wimpy, this discussion is finished. Give Olive my regrets."

By the way, Wimpy and Olive are characters from the popular Popeye cartoon series and have absolutely no resemblance to the actual names of the characters involved. Although I might add that the HRD guy I was speaking to was really quite WIMPY in his attempt to hire me.

Much later when I got involved doing financial analysis, I just found empirical proof of something I’ve suspected all along: no company will pay you more than the optimal cost that the task you will do involves. A little premium is invested to keep you happy enough to continue working, but generally costs are minimised as a rule.

The lowest bidder gets the job.

Delivering quality for a cheap price. That’s what you’re doing if you are working for someone else. That’s how companies make money off you and your work. Once you become expensive, you are retired to make room for newer stock of cheap labor. It’s not cynicism, it’s reality folks. You’re putting yourself on discount sale every day you work for someone else.

Nowadays I don’t bat an eyelash asking people about their package. It’s really an impersonal thing for me, salary. Since I now derive income primarily from my businesses and investments, the whole idea of a salary is the closest thing to a practical joke (in the Pavlovian sense) I can think of, as is keeping the whole bloody thing a secret. I won’t think any lower of you if I knew that you were being paid a measly Twenty Five Thousand to push paper around.

I might be impressed if I learned that you were being paid Eighty and still pushed paper around–or being paid ridiculously more than what your job entails. Kudos to those who have conned the system! Either your employer is making a lot of money, or is about to go bankrupt due to a negative cost to income ratio.

If you’re still employed your goal is simple and I WILL SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU:

1. Get paid more for same work.
2. Get paid same for less work.
3. Get paid more for less work.

That’s it. Don’t get any more illusions about job security, job rotations, or commit that mathematical BS I talked about earlier of confusing your worth as a person with that price tag your employer has stuck up your ASS.

You’re life will be much better after reading this. I promise.

On an anecdotal note: years later after that fated interview with the WIMPY HRD guy, that company was able to do a mass piracy of a lot of my former colleagues. I learned after that they all got very pricey offers to entice them to come on board, regardless of their current pay. I guess they learned their lesson with me.

I also know that WIMPY no longer works in that company. Tough break for someone who was just doing his job: minimise cost, namely MY COST–the cost of having Dominic Vincent D. Ligot work for them.

Tough break, because they could have gotten quality work.

Unfortunately I don’t come cheap.

And inflation bites.

As an active investor, I love reading Ed Seykota’s Website, which is choc-full of life’s wisdom on markets and just about anything. I picked this up from Ed which I now currently have stuck on my computer monitor(s) as a gentle reminder:

Market traders refer to these as "trading rules" but I’m applying them as a philosophy for living. Like the Tao D’ Ching, the teachings of Confucius or Buddha, these simple statements are essential to living a fulfilling life.

Ride Winners

Second guessing one’s talents I think accounts for at least 50% of "failures" in life. Most people are afraid to fail, they inadvertently fail to succeed. Doubt, especially self-doubt, is quite a dangerous bogeyman, especially if insecurity is tied to the opinion of others. Why people generally avoid recoginition–because they do not believe they deserve it, even if evidence to the contrary already present themselves.

Why fix something that ain’t broke? If you’re doing quite well in something, or even better: if you’re showing some promise in doing something, don’t stop to second guess (like I won’t stop writing crap in this blog to second guess).

Just go ahead and do it. Venture, dream, get it done.

Cut Your Losses

Curiously, the flipside applies to failure. Don’t dwell on mistakes. Commit them, learn from them, and then move on.

How many people, refusing to admit they are wrong, continue to plod on in the same direction, even if it pains them.

That job that will never go anywhere, that relationship that keeps getting sour, that project that can’t simply take off the ground–how hard can it be to just simply shake it off and start anew?

Another definition of insanity (by Steve Buscemi in the movie, Con Air): "Doing something again and again, hoping to get a different result.

People are addicted to failure as much as they are adverse to success. Crazy.

Manage Your Risk

People call me the pessimist, because I always look at the downside to everything. However, folks who think like me regard ourselves as realists. We like to see the worst case scenario–and if we can stomach that, then we have nothing to worry about.

Managing Risk is managing the unknown. For most people, unknown is negative. Anything that cannot be certain, is to be avoided. For me the unknown can easily be positive. Arguably, things can’t get worse than losing everything. However gaining the world is an infinite proposition. Deny yourself the opportunity to gain anything, and you’ve just confined yourself to the limited certainty of a mediocre life.

Managing risk is being aware of your surroundings, your companions, your adversaries and obstacles. It means being an active participant, rather than just simply being a spectator to life’s events.

I sometimes call myself a spectator-speculator. I watch things, and make side bets. To manage risk means stepping in the ring instead. And also knowing that the ring is bigger than you perceive, and that arguably we are all already in it whether we choose to or not.

Use Stops

Draw a line in the sand. Beyond this point you will let go. It does not matter how short or long the line is, nor how thin or thick. What matters is that the line exists, and when it is crossed, you know what to do. And what you need to do, you do without any hesitation.

Stick to the System

Always have a plan, but once you have one, stick to it. Flip-flopping is the most wasteful thing one can do with one’s life. This is a by-product of doubt, and the lack of any conscious effort to manage oneself.

Most people are outcome oriented–they judge things by result, and not by process. This evidently leads to a life where you are at the mercy of the lucky people, who got to life’s spoils early, and now dictate upon you like they deserve the luck.

Luck is a tricky thing. It cannot be predicted. And to a casual observer, true talent and simple luck can appear identical–until failure occurs. The lucky ones do not know how to deal with failure, while those who do become the lucky ones later, regardless of their real talents.

File The News

Two points make a line. A hundred points make a trend. You won’t know where you are going, but where you came from is a 100% certainty. So while we try not to be fazed by events as they happen, we are also conscious of a series of events that can lead to a very logical conclusion.

We read the signs of the times, then file them away. There is no such thing as past, or future, just a continuous moment of NOW. That’s ultimately the problem of most people–living too much in past, or looking to far ahead in the future.

Anyway, thanks to Ed for his essentials. Namaste.