Every powerful, legendary relationship to ever exist has always had two things called by different names, but we’ll call them love and fear
Leaders and followers
Children and parents
Armies
Lovers
Employers and employees
Preachers and congregants
Death and survival
“The desert is a capricious lady, and she drives men crazy”
The Alchemist
“Treasures are uncovered by the force of the current, but they are also buried by the same current”
Melchizedek, the King of Salem, the Alchemist
Lucky
“Luck is like a bus that comes to the same stop every day, and if you can’t catch it today, you can catch it tomorrow, but until you have the right fare, you will never get on”
Lu Qi
The water that nourishes, drowns
The same air that gives life, can take it away
We know this, we know that the person who makes you feel as light as air can make you feel like a boulder in the ocean
And the friction of that love and fear, that hatred and admiration, that feeling of them being the Sun: you admire them for all the life they give and nurture but you know that if you can too close, you will get burnt
And that there’s nothing but millions of stars, and billions of rocks between you and the sun, who you would have to become to overcome all those obstacles just to get near the sun might leave you beyond recognition
“The alchemist gave the monk a piece of gold and said:
“This is for you”, he said holding out the piece to the monk, “it’s for your generosity to the pilgrims”
“But this payment goes way beyond my generosity” said the monk
“Don’t say that again, life might be listening and give you less the next time” said the alchemist”
–Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
It’s such a strange phenomenon, isn’t it?
To think that a person can profoundly fear things going well
So much so that they would consciously (or subconsciously in most cases) sabotage themselves to confirm the suspicion that it was “too good to be true”
Disaster Rehearsals
Have you ever found yourself replaying an argument uncontrollably in your mind?
Have you ever wanted to say something so harsh and cruel to someone that you started rehearsing how the argument was going to go?
What you would say?
What you will say to their response?
Have you ever found yourself rehearsing the argument so much that you unwittingly cause it?
Like buying a red BMW and all of sudden starting to see them everywhere?
The Lotus
Ever looked at someone in a power of position and asked yourself “how does a moron like that get to be in a position where they are in charge of me?”
In the ghetto more times than not, you’ll either find people listening to the most ignorant but musically catchy song you can ever imagine or mellowing out in the most rhythmic soul or RnB music
They call it Epigenetics
Where an organism’s life trajectory is determined not by its genetics but by the environment it grows up in
So you’re either listening to music about booties, fucking, balling, drinking, or just going wild at the club or you’re listening to music about love, missing each other, the works
How likely is it that you’re gonna think entrepreneurship, the cultural impact of the media, how likely is it that you’re gonna scoff at reality TV and critically learn something from those who fail?
What the fuck are the chances that you’re gonna pick up and book, learn something and use it to advance your life?
Then people tell you that those who do not grow, change and do amazing things with their lives chose not to do great things with their lives
This is like planting a seed, pissing on it every day, and then saying that it is choosing not to become a tree
Or eating junk food every day, and saying that your body is choosing not to be slim, fit and sexy
We all know or have known someone who is no smarter than us, has less experience, less knowledgeable, and less qualified, yet holds a position of power far beyond ours
This is not because of racism, nepotism, corruption, sexism or any of these other things (though some of the times it is) this at times is simply because they grow up in an environment where it is not okay to just be an employee
They grew up, or still live in an environment where it’s okay to have only one source of income
THEY LIVE IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE YOU CAN’T EVEN HANG WITH YOUR PEERS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO OF SOME KIND
The Outliers
Sometimes the most destructive thing about the special among us is that they perpetuate the myth that it’s as easy as choosing to do something different
And even though the choice is truly simply
It is by no means easy
Many people start way further from where the starting line is, many people on this earth still live on less than $1 a day
And part of what makes this reality continuous is because if you go into any ghetto, essentially any community, most of what informs our decisions about what to do next, what to do for the day, what to do with our lives is what our peers, our community, our society praises and condemns
This matter gets worse when you fall in the “as long as I’m doing better than X” kinda thinking
“And a person that only does better or worse is the easiest type of person to control,
they are like a mouse in a maze that only finds the cheese, but the person who knows about good and bad will realize that he is in the maze”
-Dave Chappelle, Allen University Speech
It truly is easier to walk the well-worn path and become the manager of an international company
It’s certainly less riskier than starting your own company, it’s safer to go get a degree and work for the next 40 years then it is to self-educate and create your career in the next 40 years
Final Thoughts
The maze is truly safe because you know there’s cheese at the end, you know this because other mice like you have found the cheese but is finding the cheese the beginning and end of your life’s desires?
Do you truly believe that it is possible to have a truly passionate and love-filled relationship for the rest of your life while playing it safe?
And if you believe that it is possible, do you believe that you deserve it?
Are you in an environment that’s filled with people and symbols that signal to you that it is not only possible but that you deserve it?
Sometimes we look at a truly spectacular life on television, movies, Instagram, Facebook and say “damn, that’s really nice, which I could have that”
And simply consider it something that would be “nice to have” but is not really necessary, not because we don’t deeply yearn for it
But because we honestly feel like we don’t deserve it, our environment tells us that, our peers, friends, family and colleagues tell us that, every time they want to attribute another’s success to crime, cheating the system or just a bubble that will pop soon
We become the frenemy because we hate to admit that we’re afraid of wanting what others have because we deeply feel undeserving
It’s called the inferiority complex: where no matter how qualified, competent or how much you’ve earned something you can’t help but feel like you don’t deserve it
And that is a set point you must reset if you are to grow
Voice Of Mechanics 