I have often wondered about the source of human intelligence and the ability to do something.  After decades of observation I have found that  most humans have decent innate ability, however some are made to push this innate ability into true ability more than others. 

The to make it easier lets look at the human brain like a computer CPU chip. Not all CPUs are made the same, some have less processing power, more or less cores and operate at various speeds.  There can be powerful CPU’s with the ability to do deep instructions but they could be at a slow speed.  There can also be very weak ones that do one thing very well, but most of the rest not too well, but can do it very fast, more like a CUDA core.  But to keep the CPU metaphor there can be strong and powerful CPU’s that just run idle most of the time.  Think of the genesis stuck in a third world nation, who does not have access to information or higher education.  

Humans in general rarely live up to the potential within them.  Most are far lacking, and for most it is not their fault, they simply are not challenged, they are not pushed hard, they are not confronted with ideas that cause them to grow.  The true sad part is that many are never even given the chance.  Some need to spend their mental energy just to survive.  How successful can you be if you must spend hours each day to get food and water?  Some live in a rigid culture that does not allow them to grow outside of the box, their rank, or families rank in society does not give them the opportunity to move up.  Others are given everything to them on a silver platter, and even then many don’t have the innate ability for success. 

People observe the world around them and rarely think about why it is that way, or even if it is changeable, they simply operate within the rules they are given.  They do what they are told, they strive to learn, get good grades, maybe get higher education and then get a good job.  That is exactly what society needs them to do.  If not enough people do this track then society could start to break down, we need people to do many millions of various jobs.  So society entices them, shows them a standard of living that is beyond what their station can provide, and puts them in the bondage debt trying to get that.  Debt is the is the strongest tool of modern society to keep people in line and keep people working.  People want that dream house, that nice car, the nice phone, to eat out almost daily, and for that they give up the majority of their waking hours.  It is a never ending cycle for most people of trying to earn more so they can buy more and look more successful to their friends and live what society has shown them as a happy life, but the more they buy to be happy, the more they owe, and the more time and energy they have to give to pay for this.  It is getting worse year after year, and the younger you are and the lower you started the harder it is for you.  Now half of our workforce can not even afford housing, they cannot afford the lifestyle that they wanted for themselves.  They blame the system for not providing enough of an opportunity for them, but not the system that wanted to put them in bondage in the first place, causing them to live beyond their means. 

There are many people who have taken the red pill, who have seen the world for what it is and have opted out of this world.  There are two main paths that these people take, one is highly destructive, and the other leads to success.  Many have chosen to just give up, let the system destroy them, give up on the dream, give up on being more, being better.  Our new society lets them do it, with free money, easy government assistance and endless entertainment or chemicals to keep them numb about their situation. 

Then there are the others that also reject the system, and they rise above it, looking at how to use the system as a tool to get what they want in life.  The first step is usually to reject the idea of working for others.  Then to find a way to make massive profits, to buy themselves out of debt and bondage, and then to live their dreams.  Unfortunately these people are quite rate, and the ability to do this has much to do with the origins of the person trying to do it.  If you are born in a nation like North Korea, Nigeria and even most of China you have very little opportunity to rise up, you are given a set of rules to work with and all the tools you need, even basic tools like being able to buy and sell something are taken away. There is little way out and little hope.  In other places like India and most of Africa the vast amounts of poverty, and cast systems, make it very hard to get ahead.  For this reason, when people are desperate they resort to breaking the rules in a bad way by scamming people.  Therefore, many people in places like India and much of Africa are so eager to scam the rest of the world. They see is as their way of rising above a very broken system that keeps them down. They have rationalized the idea that the rich and the “West” owes them, and that we are open prey for them.  They use the internet and phone system against the “West” to get ahead.  They are so in need of money that they are willing to say and do almost anything to take their success, mostly because they are in a position where earning it is almost impossible. 

Most everyone in the world sees on their TV’s and on their computers that their best hope for success is to get to the successful places in the world.  For many decades this was mostly America and western Europe.  America, keenly aware of this has severely restricted access, there are 100 times as many people who want to come to the US each year than are actually allowed to do it. Most waiting lists to get the USA are decades long, so out of desperation, and exhaustion from the process, for the hope of a better life and a better system people take the arduous task of coming to the US without permission.  In recent years other bastions of freedom have popped up in places like South Korea, Singapore and the UAE, however in many of these places you must be a member of the right race, or the right religion to be given full access to the success the place offers. 

In the last 15-20 years there has been a great shift.  Many people in many places have pulled up from squaller, and pushed up to a lower middle class life.  If they can’t go to a different place they will make the place they are in better.  Bold and eager people all across the world are trying to rise up, and take their countrymen with them.  The sleeping giant of America has had their middle class eroded because this is the greatest transfer of wealth the world has ever seen.  America is trading its success around the world by buying the worlds resources and products.  We are giving them our currency, something that still has values, not because it has been protected, but because we are just slightly better as managing it than the rest of the world.  Yes, America prints money, and is in high debt but the world economy works as a comparison and America is printing less and is more able to manage its debt than most of the rest of the world.  For this reason places like Taiwan, Philippines and China have pulled up millions of people from poverty and have put them into a lower middle class existence, and a few into even better levels.  They have had great building booms and the health, education and tech level of these cultures is vastly improved.  There are whole cities popping up all over China, all over Africa, the middle east and other places with new modern places for people to work live and shop.  American, 60 years ago was 60%+ the GDP of the whole world, now it is under 24%, still not bad for being under 4% of the population of the world, and anyone knows who has been to America that most of that wealth is in the hands of the top 20% of the population.

However not all nations have done this with the same eye on freedom that America has.  Many nations have done it this fast by using force, and totalitarianism to make it happen.  China is the prime example of this.  There is very little you may do without the government as your partner.   Many other nations are starting to reject the ideas of freedom, fairness, and capitalism.  They are looking at a socialist version of capitalism.    Different nations do this to various degrees, and even the US does it at different times.  The freedom to be successful is also the freedom to fail, but we do not want to see people fail so if someone is close to failure think that it is best to step in and save them.  We have entire nations that have taken this to the extreme.  They have decided that no one may be to successful and no one will be too unsuccessful, they are trying to build a nation where everyone is middleclass.  Nations like Denmark, Norway, New Zealand or more recently Germany come to mind.  Where there are high taxes on success, to the point that beyond a certain point there is no reason to try.  But on the other hand there is a basic standard income, so even if you don’t work you still have money.  There is free health insurance, housing allowance from the government, free college education, massive spending on clean energy.  The goal of life in most of these places is to just get along, be happy, be content and live a good live.  Which, for most people on earth sound like a great idea.  But for someone who is driven, freedom loving and entrepreneurial, this idea sounds like torture.  And that is the fundamental difference in America, you have half the nation looking at Norway and wanting to move us in that way, and the other half looking at freedom and our past and wanting us to keep that and go back in that direction.  That, to me, is what the fundamental difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in America is.  As someone who has looked at Macro economics and the fact that if we do a Norway style entitlement program, we will no longer have the strong currency that we have grown to use as the blank checkbook we buy everything we need with.  If we go that way, and hurt our currency along the way, where will that leave us?  Is that a risk we are willing to do?  So how does Norway do it, well they pump and sell massive amount of Oil.

For all these social economic reasons the experience and opportunity for one person to another varies considerably across the globe, and even from house to house within the same city.  So this forms the input on the mental health and the brains of each person.  The ability to create success, and to rise above this system that we have built is mostly determined by the mindset you carry.  The thoughts and ideas that come to your head.  With different inputs you get different outcomes, and the differences can be staggering.  I often talk to people about topics such as this, and I can tell in a few seconds if they are someone with their mind open or if these concepts are beyond them.  

You need to start early in the life of most people.  Where people invest their time is usually where they will go.  Some spend countless hours reading, studying and trying to figure out the world.  Recently the entire world of knowledge has become available online, with just access to YouTube you can learn almost anything you want, but what do the vast majority of people do with such a powerful tool?  They use it for entertainment, for watching the latest dance craze, for watching mind numbing entertainment.  For most people there is not eagerness to learn or to grow.  I see this as the biggest failure of the education system.  Education is not there to teach you facts, it is there to give you a passion for life long learning and for knowing how to learn the best, then you will learn for the rest of your life.  A third of Americans have not even read one book after leaving their last year of school. 

There are only so many hours in a day, and so many days in your life, what you choose to invest these hours into will define what you become.  If you need to spend half your day trading manual labor just to earn enough to pay for food and water, how can you ever spend enough time to gain the skills and knowledge, this is where over half of the world finds itself.  They are in a system that eats up all their time, and takes whatever is left and focuses on entertainment, games and socializing.  If you are a female you may easily spend an hour a day trying to make yourself look better to the world, trying to keep up with cultural beauty norms that zap your time and earning and learning potential.  Many systems discourage advancement, and if you try to get ahead people pull you down.  Many places are too hot and people spend their time just trying to stay cool.   There are cultures, even within the USA, that are destructive to their members, they tell people to not get ahead.  They encourage poor choices, getting into debt, taking drugs to fit in, being drunk daily, spending all your excess on entertainment.  No matter what you say to fit in an be successful in America you need a good grasp of English, yet millions in our nation are so embedded in their “community” that they have handicapped themselves by refusing the learn English.  The more they shelter themselves with the community and the larger the community the worse it gets.  There are non-assimilated groups of immigrants all over America.  Very few other nations have this problem at all, and none as bad as America.  This causes distrust and putting the ideals that that community over the ideas of being an American.  America needs to melt a bit more, to mix, to not focus on these communities.  In recent years the melting of America has been significantly slowed.  We need to stop doing things to address these communities and focus more on helping everyone melt into the American culture.  These culture differences are one of the primary things that are tearing America apart.  It if find to love your culture, and embrace it, but you also need to function well in the greater America.  So many people are willing to divide the cultures and find anything to put a wedge between people.  There is so little unity in America, so many want to define themselves by this identity culture, and it has been common to ask people about their identity.  It has even moved to what sex you feel like you are at that time, and who you choose to love, and of course their race.  All these things have become part of the conversation because identity has become the thing that defines us more than what we do in life.  This is tragic for the evolution of the American society.  If you want true success you need to reject this pull, and focus on your dreams.

What you focus on you get better at.  If you want success in life first you need to define what success looks like for you, if success is having a home, a spouse and a few kids then that is all you need to focus on.  If success is just getting by then you have sent a low standard and can probably get it.  If success is being a self-made deca-millionaire, then you got to get working, less than .1% of the world’s population will ever reach that goal.  If success is to have all your bills paid, just figure out how much that will take and work to get that much in cashflow or assets.  Once you figure out what success looks like to you then you need to have specific goals and make a plan to getting to them.  You need to free up your time and your resources to focus on these goals.  So many people don’t do this, and by just doing these basic steps you are far ahead. 

Most people take the lazy, or comfortable path, they don’t plan, they just let the world loft them around with little firm goals or plans as they move.  They don’t take the time to learn every day, to meet people to make them better, to stive to do what it takes each day to gradually get to the next level.  They want to do what is fun, what feels good in the moment, time is of little importance, they have no drive.  Maybe having fun all the time, is their definition of success. 

I think that most humans have the innate mental capacity for success. There is a small part of the population that have a mental defect, that will make it much harder for them to have great success.  There also another small part that have great mental abilities and for them things just come easy.  It does not matter your race, or your sex, humans are given brains that are capable of almost anything from the start.  But then the environment kicks in.  For many this happens even before they are born, they grow based upon what their parents consume, maybe nutrients are scarce, maybe the culture encourages drugs or alcohol.  But once they are born the differences from the environment have massive differences.  The economic situation of their parents, the time their parents have to nurture them, the ability to get quality food, quality housing, the ability to send the kids to a good school, to provide educational tools, the mindset and culture of the family, the town, the nation….all these things have great effect on the development of the brain of the child.  Early development is the key and quite often things start getting engrained, making it harder and harder has times goes on to reject the system the child is born into.  A high level of travel and exposure to different cultures is shown to vastly improve the life of someone later on.  But again how affordable is this, and if you come from a country with little power you are not even allowed to leave.

The fundamental problem is time, very few people use their time to reach their goals.  So many spend 40 hours a week working a job they don’t like, and usually 10 more hours getting ready for the job and getting to the job.  That same person could use their spare time, learn a few new skills and move way up in life, be a leader in their company, or even start a whole new company.  But most people are exhausted, they don’t look at it this way, have no drive or vision to move up, and spend their time in ways that don’t move them forward.  Time if your greatest asset and choosing how you spend it each day, each week, each year is one of the most important decisions that you will make in life, it is a decision that we make daily, and it takes the dedication and will to make it happen.

Because of this I have tried to expose my children to as much different information as they can.  They have already been to many different nations, we focus on education in our home, watching videos of other places.  One child has taken a deep interest in Japan, and has done countless hours of study into the culture of that country.  One told us he wants to spend his next summer traveling to the Philippines. 

When you learn you need to not learn in a bubble, you need to get knowledge from people who actually challenge your current thoughts and concepts. You may move your position, or you may better understand your position. Try to get your news from different sources, try to listen and follow people who you don’t agree with. 

Another hugely impactful thing to remember is the 80 20 rule, this is a shortcut to doing so much more in the short time you are hear on earth.  It is quite easy to become decently good at something very quickly.  There is a saying that it takes 10,000 hours to master most things.  If you want to play the piano very well 10,000 hour are needed….but with just 2,000 hours you can play decently and enjoy the piano.  The same goes for almost anything you may want to learn.  You want to make videos, or be a web designer, a coder, a graphic designer, or good at almost any task, you don’t need to master it, you simply need to understand it and be proficient.  You can probably be a good drone pilot in just 100 hours of practice.  You can start a great career in sales with 100 hours or less of training.   There are very few things that you need to master to be good at them.  They key is that you can be broad, learn a ton of different things in your life, and soon you will start seeing patterns in how the world works. 

I see how business works, I and see patterns in how marketing works, but also how systems are important so that you can duplicate your self and buy your time back.  If you create a good system than any capable person should be able to step in and run that system to a adequate degree.  Once you do this your goal is to make systems for everything, replacing yourself out of every aspect of your business that you want to.  Soon you have bought back almost all of your time, and can go onto other ventures, repeating the process.  Finding out what works, making systems and finding people to run those systems.  That is how someone like Elon Musk can run 5 different companies and they are all successful and on the fast track to success.  This is exactly how someone like Warren Buffet is able to buy companies that are in distress, and quickly turn them around and make them successful.  It is simple get them to focus on what the company is good at, relieve them of most debt, make everything a system and implement the system.  Running a business is not too hard when you understand how it works. 

Well 4000 words later, hammered out in 2 hours in the middle of the night, it is good to get my thoughts into the internet, I hope they inspire someone down the line, I hope that someone gets some good out of it.  Thanks for reading my ramble and I hope to do more soon.