How does one generate wealth?
I admit that I’ve asked this question a lot but haven’t really defined the terms of the question very well each time I’ve asked. A lot of the murkiness had to do with a natural tug of war between the philosophical question (if you’re happy, aren’t you wealthy?) and the economic one (increasing net-worth). Since I’ve spent the last five years (maybe longer) searching and discovering nuggets on philosophical side, I want to develop some answers on the economic side.
According to wikipedia, the economic definition of wealth is: the value of owned assets minus the value of liabilities owed at a point in time. That is quite dry - like a mouth full of chalk, but whatever. Our job is to make it fun and tasty.
For starters, what I think is most important about this question is its scale. If you’ve got (or had) a job, then you already know how to generate wealth. But I’m talking about wealth on the scale of financial independence. It is a sweet spot. It is when assets are spawning assets to such a degree that I no longer have to “do” things to create additional income to sustain a preferred lifestyle.
Now let’s get to the business of the necessary mindset. I figure why re-invent the wheel. The great thinkers of our time already blazed a trail and seem to share the following traits:
1. A ravenous curiosity
2. A good selection of source material
3. The will to find answers
Is it really this simple? Will this be all I need? We’re going to find out. I’ll ask guys by the likes of Da Vinci, Einstein, Buffet, Etc. when I get a chance.
Let’s take a little inventory and see how I stack up. 1.) I’m lucky enough to have been endowed with a hungry curiosity, but I’ll need to bump it up a few notches to hit the unstoppable level of “ravenous”. That’s cool. I’m looking forward to that growth process. 2.) For source material I’ve got the internet – these provide a severe over abundance of knowledge to draw from. I mean seriously, it’s pretty sick – not only in terms of how much information is actually out there now but how easy it is to access it. Other humans gets lumped in the resource pool too. For number 3.)…well for number 3.), let me give you an example of the kind of “will to find answers” I am using for context.
I’d like to draw your attention to a Mr. Barry Marshall. You may remember him as the Australian gastroenterologist who proved an interesting theory. Many still believe that ulcers are caused by stress, spicy foods, or too much acid. Thanks to our good man Marshall, we now know that most stomach ulcers are caused by the common bacteria Helicobacter pylori.
A discovery of this nature should be commended; and it was! But what I find most interesting is not what Barry discovered, but how he discovered it. Barry had long maintained that H. pylori was the cause of ulcers but was ridiculed by his colleagues at the time because it was thought that the stomach was too acidic to allow bacteria to live (this is in 1982 by the way – only 26 years ago). After failed attempts to infect piglets in 1984, Marshall decided to do the only reasonable thing. He demonstrated the will to find answers by drinking a Petri-dish chock full of a happy and bustling colony of H. pylori.
God bless the Aussies.
After some funny-terrible things happening to his digestive system, he discovered that H. pylori can live in your stomach. Seeing that first swig through Barry’s eyes, I can only imagine what it must have been like as he held an infested petri-dish up to his lips knowing some bad juju was about to happen. Men of will. Amazing. Barry Marshall and his colleague, Robin Warren eventually shared the Nobel Prize for this research in 2005. Who knows what Warren had to do.
John Hunter, an 18th-century surgeon and anatomist who put himself through a series of highly risky experiments, including taking various strengths of poison. He performed other shocking experiments on himself too, but I don’t want to write about them lest I make myself nauseous (two words…syphilis and gonnorhea). The same thing with Hunter though – he knew how bad this stuff was, before he pushed the “go” button.
English-born physician William Stark wanted to discover whether we needed a varied diet or could live on very simple foods. He subsisted on a diet mainly of bread and water until he became “dull and listless”. He ate better until he recovered. By November 1769 he was living on nothing but pudding (though he did have some black currants sprinkled in there) when he died three months later — almost certainly of scurvy at the age of 29 (ironically fresh fruits and veggies were on his list but he hadn’t made it through honey puddings and Cheshire cheese yet). I’m sure this will be argued by many as dumb but I absolutely love that story for his sheer tenacity.
For other amazing stories check out this interesting page.
Having balls and being stupid are probably going to be eternally linked in some way depending on who is making the observation. However, I think it is far too easy to sweep actions of great self-experimenters into the stupid bin – especially considering the discipline involved in some of the methodical research these guys (and gals) performed. For me, I love the “Fuck it - if I’m gonna learn, I’m gonna LEARN” attitude. I think we forget that the bold humans have been doing this ever since we were monkeys. Don’t accept the accepted wisdom of the day until you discover it for yourself.
The real point is that I don’t need to starve myself to death or drink bacteria or swallow poisons to find the answers that lead to self-perpetuating wealth. The level of will-power required to discover the so-called “hidden” secrets of creating net-worth don’t have to be that grand; the sacrificial consequences nowhere near as great.
Curiosity, information, and the will to find answers. Let’s see what happens when we put them to the test.
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create,
creation,
Economics,
Financial Independence,
money,
off the grid,
wealth
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