If shit really hits the fan, what do you think is a good country for a young American to move to? –@M-Knopf
I have a scarcity complex. When I sold my first company it was 1998. I woke up one morning at about 4am in a panic. In about 28 years I was going to go broke, I thought to myself. And that’s after I would make sure my parents and kids had millions of dollars. I got out of bed and walked all over the city. I think I circled the entire downtown Manhattan within about two hours. Just pacing and adding up numbers and always coming up short. 28 years, 30 years if I cut this corner, 27 years though if I fall down this alley.
Downtown Manhattan became a map of my scarcity, my feelings that I was never good enough to make money, that I would never be good enough to hold onto it, that I didn’t deserve it in the first place, that eventually I would lose it all.
And guess what? I lost it all. Every single dime. Again and again, since I’m always good at coming up with more ideas. But for me, that feeling of scarcity is the hardest thing to deal with. Why do I have it? I don’t know the answer even now.
But let me tell you: nothing is hitting any fan. As Pinker shows, there is less violence in the world now than ever before. Heck, we have toilets, we have literacy, we have the iPad.
Are there people suffering? Yes. And our goal is to make the world better and help them. We can all do that by people the best people we can be first. As I’ve written before, “Occupy Yourself” first http://bit.ly/snVZZr.
Don’t spend your day worrying about whether some bank in Europe is going to default to another bank in Europe. Let’s not forget in 1981 that almost the entire continent of South America defaulted. What happened after that? A 2 decade boom in the American economy plus the widespread acceptance and rollout of the Internet, which changes peoples lives every day.
Is there contemptuous behavior in the banks? In government (insider trading rampantly abused by members of Congress where it is surprisingly legal).In all the alphabet city of agencies in between the banking world and the government?In the lobbyists?In the candidates? Of course! But Occupy Yourself first.
Don’t run scared to another country. They aren’t better. They are, for the most part, far worse. When Havel became leader of the Czech Republic in the “velvet revolution” I was inspired by his first official talk where he suggested change comes from within. He was right, but it still didn’t necessarily mean people would listen to him or that the Czech Republic would flourish under his rule.
Focus on every day improving the energy you emanate out to the rest of the world. Then you can live anywhere and be happy and successful and a beacon to others.