How To SURVIVE & THRIVE In The Upcoming Financial Crisis! (PREPARE NOW) | Ray Dalio

it's the same for every individual, the same for every company, if you understand this, look at your income expenses and your savings and then do a stress test to make sure the same things are happening over and over again over time basically for the same reasons. A lot of these things happen once in a lifetime, you know, and if you don't go back and see how they worked over time, then you're in trouble, so there's a pattern. I could describe the pattern, but there is a pattern that happens. over and over again and we are at a particular point in the pattern and then understand it not just because it happened before but understand mechanically how it happens and then one has an idea of ​​how to deal with it, talking about the Mechanisms What is influencing this the most when you started to look back in history?

Are you looking for this kind of moment in the cycle of death? Are you looking for pandemics? A collision of the two. What do you think influences us the most? Pandemics come around from time to time, but whatever is important, let me tell you the three most important circumstances that existed before we had the recession caused by a pandemic, but any recession would have produced the same results. The three most important things happening in the world right now are: "we are." We are at the end of a long-term debt cycle in which central banks cannot control monetary policy in the same way that they cannot reduce the interest rates they have, they cannot get money to many people who need it, um in the traditional way, so like in 1929 to 1932 there was a debt

crisis

that arose as a result of an excessive amount of debt in the boom years and then when you have that in 1932 we got to zero interest rates and when they hit zero interest rates at 32 like in 2008 Central Bank Prince money um and buy Financial assets when talking about

financial

assets this is something that even I found myself a little confused about what is a good

financial

asset, mostly bonds , okay, the Central Bank is allowed to buy bonds and mainly government bonds, so if you were to describe what a bond is like, what is the easiest way to think of a bond, when someone borrows for several years and has to pay it back , makes a promise to deliver currency. that's a bond and therefore one man's debts are another man's assets, what we call a bond and that is a promise to deliver currency, so what happens in these cycles is that normally central banks can stimulate the economy by lowering interest rates, but when you hit zero interest rates that doesn't work, so the last time you hit zero interest rates was in 1932 and what they did in 1932 was the same thing they did in 2008. and it is that central banks print a lot of money and buy government bonds. and so we're doing that now and to be clear, the reason they're doing it is because someone bought a government bond, the government is basically saying, "hey, dear person, lend me the money.

I'm going to build something, roads, whatever." but I'm going to pay you back in a year, two years, ten years, whatever it is plus interest, I guess that makes it worth it, and the reason the government is coming in and buying them is to give liquidity back to the people who have lent. They tell them that money does, because think of it this way: the central government and also companies and individuals do not have the ability to create money, so the central government has the right to determine that they can tax people, that they can get money from people and that they can spend. money on anything they want to spend money on, but they do not have the right to print money and create money and credit like the Central Bank does.

The central bank is the Federal Reserve. Similarly, the Federal Reserve does not have the right to spend money and determine. how it's spent, that's for Congress, okay, like this, before, because this can get very confusing and I'm going to play the role of the layman here and just make sure that we look at things so that the Federal Reserve (I think most of people think that it is the Department of the government, but they are not, they are a private bank, no, they are part of the government that the government that the system has implemented to take the creation of money out of the political system, okay, well it sits. kind of outside the political sphere of the government um it's inside Congress but it has a set of rules like the Supreme Court has a set of rules that means the president can't control it, Congress can't control it um that's it. operating in a sense separately, so the important thing to know about this

crisis

and what happened in the 1930s is that to get the controls that we need, you know a lot of people, a lot of companies, um, they need checks now where will those checks come from so that there are checks from the government the type of support that we are going to receive are two types of support where does all this money come from so that the government when it says that I am going to pay more for unemployment insurance, so I'm going to give him a small business loan or something.

Where they get the money from, well, they tax it, but if they tax it, that's bad, so the government can. borrow it, that's what a deficit is, the government has a deficit and then the question is who is going to borrow it when everyone is in financial trouble and the Federal Reserve says they have the power to print money and they will say: I will borrow and lend. you the money, so the Fed is lending the money and they are also lending the money to others, when they print money they literally send a Brinks truck with bags full of cash and distribute it through local banks, no money is digital , OK?

They are literally just making adjustments to the ledger in a digital file somewhere. The important thing to know is that everything we think about money is not limited in any way, as if there is a certain amount of money out there, it is all a fantasy. Everything is digital. Then they could change the digits and then they can create money. That's an important consideration because if they can create money so easily, how do we know it will be of value when they're creating a lot of it? That's one of the considerations that we face today, but the main thing we need to know about this or take a step back to see the bigger picture is that every individual, every company and every government has a certain amount of money coming in. in the form of income, a certain amount of expenses that and then a certain amount of savings that you do individually and all your listeners do and it works the same way for everyone so that if your income drops and then it is less than your expenses, they will be in trouble unless they have good savings and then they go to savings, so around the world there are many entities that have problems like that, so the government, the two parts of the government, the government of The US, parts want to give checks to people, now it is difficult to decide who gets who doesn't, but if they don't give checks to people or companies, those people will go bankrupt because they may not have enough savings, so you saw J.Crew went bankrupt, it just went bankrupt and you will see others. they go bankrupt because they don't have enough and when they go bankrupt and that is a completely different process, to prevent them from having to give money and so they print money, we call it printing, there is not even much paper, it is creating money digitally. and then that comes in the form of loans, so they're basically creating money digitally that they're allocating to the government and then the government decides how to disburse those funds.

Yes, the Federal Reserve will buy government bonds, so it's a transaction of buying it and they will also buy private bonds, okay, they could pick a company, um in many companies, and they will say, I will buy your bonds, which is the equivalent that I'll lend you and that's what happens, okay, and that happened through In history, what we're going through is the same process that happened in the period from 1930 to 1945. As I said, there are three important things: one, the second, a large wealth gap. The third is that we have growing power in the world.

China is rising to compete or challenge the leadership of the United States, so when you have these three things together, it is a challenging combination and it has happened repeatedly. A less effective monetary and credit system means they have to print a lot of money. It can threaten. the value of money secondly, uh, when there's a big wealth gap and there's an economic downturn, people are more inclined to have conflicts, so how do you handle that, let's reconsider how we're going to divide the wealth and what We will change taxes and relationships and then the third is that we are no longer in a world order where the United States is the only dominant power.

These three things existed in the most important things and then we had the terms of the recession in terms of the virus, so you could think of the virus as if it was a tsunami that came and if it left and if we didn't have more, it would still have left a lot of economic damage, so in all the different ways, economic damage has to be understood and treated, yes, so understanding and treating is exactly why I wanted to talk to you, so I think the people who They are familiar with financial institutions and how the economy works and all of that will find their way through this. but for the average person who doesn't understand a lot of this, like when you look at this historical perspective, I mean, they find a certain level of comfort in that because of the notion of another one of these rights, so maybe we've seen this before. we haven't done it in our lifetime, but historically people have, so what can the average person take away that they don't have ties, they don't think like that, they may not even understand what their 401K is or they may not even have? a 401k, so how do you navigate?

This is just heads down, do your best to weather the storm or is there really something they can learn from a historical perspective and move forward now to make it easier for them. Yes, it is the same for every individual it is the same for every company and you, if you understand this, then you will understand that there are three things, the first is to look at your income, your expenses and your savings, and then do a stress test so that you are sure if you were to lose your income or if the income fell beyond a certain level and you go over it, maybe that means you get unemployment insurance, but or whatever, how long can you live an acceptable lifestyle and do you have adequate savings for Okay, so what you do is you calculate if I lived a simpler lifestyle and had this amount of income.

How many months? How many months or years could you live acceptably? Then you look at what you put the money into. You say don't worry then? There's a level of financial literacy, so you're getting the basics right and there's no question about how to properly block and address before you start trying to get fancy, but, Ray, I. I legit started losing sleep over how we help the average person get through this. I'm not a guy that I don't lose a lot of sleep over, but when I stop and think about most people, I think the statistic is the average American if they hit a surprise Bill 500, they can't make it, they're living month to month. month, you have over 30 million people now, um, out of work, you know, trying to figure it out, definitely.

The basics, right, you got it. sure you are spending lesson, first you do austerity, reduce, reduce, reduce your expenses to the minimum possible 100 um, what I hope is that there is um, I don't know, there is something that we can see in this type of transition where you have a new rising power and there is an opportunity with that. I'm trying to find that kind of glimmer of hope so that people can do something to be proactive or generate more income if they've lost their income or been more proactive in their 401K. I think about personal finances the same way I think about health and right now I'm worried that people are outsourcing everything to someone else, to the government, they have to wait and see.

I'm approaching um and what I'm desperately trying to figure out for myself is what level of proactive learning about their health can they be in trying to weather this storm because other than just saving and cutting expenses, and maybe that's it, maybe there is something. They can't do more, but I guess that's my direct question: is there anything else? I mean, you know the parts well, it's income, expenses and savings, okay, now you can go get the money, maybe the money for the weapons will come and you say. Okay, my unemployment benefits will be this or my this is, but those are the parts, so the problem is, how smart are you to deal with them?

Let me ask it another way and then who should you vote for, like when he talks about a beautiful deleveraging which one should you probably um Define that so you've looked at these things so many times it's really impressive um that there are ways to do this right there are ways to do this wrong uh You I know we're in an election year, I consider myself the most apolitical human being on the planet, but when I stop and think, well, if I'm an average person and let's say I'm really doing whatbest I can I'm doing blocking and tackling I'm saving what I can save um I've cut my expenses I'm earning you know what I can let's hope they kept their job or were able to get another job quickly um how should they think what's the right way to do this leverage on a political level maybe politics is the right word, but on a higher level, well, you know, I don't know what you want me to say.

I think every person has to understand that there is a certain level of basic understanding, first take care of yourself and then you know, you hope to have smart people who I think the most important thing is that they are smart so that they can design an economy that increases the size of the pie and I divided it well and then also, um that. This is done in a non-adversarial manner. Smart people working together in a bipartisan way have the ability to manage this wealth, so if I were giving political advice, and that's not what I do, but if I were giving political advice, the most important thing.

I think who can do this, who has the intelligence to do the engineering and also do it in a way that we don't fight among ourselves. What history has shown us is that when things get difficult, people get stressed and angry. they can get angry and everyone could fight each other and that produces the next stage of a terrible economy because the economy will not work efficiently if people fight each other, the system does not work well, then one would have to say uh you know who is going to unite the country behind sensible programs, I would say bipartisan, because if you don't have that, then you have a form of revolution and you don't have good management, and that is the biggest risk, I would say, politically.

In the historical perspective, who has done it well and then what have been the mistakes that have led to a literal revolution when you say who has done it well, what do you mean by which countries or in what periods of time has this been done? type of crisis? It was managed well so that we come out on the other side with this little bit of possible pain and suffering. An example of good would be the differences in the way Roosevelt did it. So again between 1929 and 32 interest rates went to zero, they printed money. You had a huge wealth gap and then they sat down and figured out how to keep it straight and how to change the circumstances, whether it's taxes or how to rearrange them so that the system works well, there's a risk.

Also at the same time, because the world is going through a risk of conflict, so in Germany Hitler came to power in 1933 and came to power in 1933 because there were many internal struggles to try to produce water because everyone, the left and the right , they know the communists and the fascists and they are all fighting for wealth because everyone is fighting against them for wealth when there is a recession and then they need it, they were democracies, there were then four democracies that chose not to be. democracies because they became so disordered that they wanted some strong leader to take over and rule the country and then of course we had a bunch of straw, those kind of leaders and then they had a war, that's how World War II happened, so when you look at that, you know, that's the political landscape, but going back to the average man in terms of his finances, I would say the important thing is those three elements to have a plan and maybe have a plan with both, your family , You already know how.

Do you get depressed when things get tough and you know it and then you have to look? You know what happens in politics. Well, the policies depend on the person. Some people would understand more about politics than others if you knew. So it depends on what they should do, it depends on what they are able to do well, as we take a step back and start to take a broader look at this. What role did UC education play? Until I was supposed to go to college, I went to college and for a long time I would have told everyone that they should go to college, now I've calmed down in terms of debt. what people are getting into I know you and your wife are working a lot in the school system there in Connecticut um how do you think about that?

What is the importance of education? Do you know when? When we start thinking about protecting successive generations. As? a lot of it comes down to education, uh, education is the most important thing, um, I grew up with a very modest economic background, my dad was a jazz musician, my mom was a housewife, um and I was lucky to have uh parents who took care of me and I went to a public school and I got a good education and I came to a world of equal opportunity and I think those are fundamental needs that you have to know how to have an education of You know facts like, you have to know how to read, writing and arithmetic, but you also have to know how to behave well with others to be a good citizen and operate in a civilized manner so that you can then get jobs and that Ju that education um can be um anything that works I think the most important thing is that you know three important things about what I think work should be um um make your work and your passion the same and make it affordable if it works I love your job you'll probably be better at your job um and then you find the um so you want those things and then there's economics and then it could be anything from learning um trades um um whatever education certainly doesn't have to be college, there's too much emphasis on college and having a good, productive career when I look at these remarkable people who are in the front line in dealing with this virus situation and I look at them as some of the best people.

They are the people who have the ability to do certain things that have nothing to do with going to university and they are on the front line and they are contributing a lot and that is how we are in education and civics, but that means that there has to be equal opportunities, so yes, what my wife and I have done is we are particularly heartbroken or disenchanted with the poverty that affects children and high school students who have equal educational opportunities, so our particular focus on Connecticut, we did a donation, a large donation, a donation of 100 million dollars to the state of Connecticut to match and they are working to get those students through high school, but it could be trade school and get jobs and be able to be. productive, then you look at all societies and these are the things that matter most: society becomes a more just society when there is equal opportunity for education and it also becomes a more productive society because opportunities, when extended to the entire population, it means you get more people based on Merit right now that system is not working in a good and effective way, for example, people in the top 40 percent of income will spend about five times more money on the education of their children than those in the bottom sixty percent and that's not That's neither fair nor productive, so I think these types of questions are going to have to be examined by policymakers in a bipartisan way as we move forward on this. , but yes, in answer to your question, you know that it really starts with a good overall education. good parenting of children in terms of their actual formal education and their informal education and then going out and having an equal opportunity environment.

What's up, my friend Tom Bilyu? I have a big question for you: how would you rate your level of education? personal discipline on a scale of one to ten, if your answer is less than ten, I have something interesting for you and let me tell you right now that discipline, by its very nature, means forcing yourself to do difficult things that are stressful, boring and that It's what kills most people or is possibly scary or even painful. Now here's the thing. Achieving big goals and pushing yourself to reach your potential requires you to do those challenging and stressful things and stick with them even when it gets boring and it will get boring to build your personal discipline levels aren't easy, but let me tell you, it's worth it.

In fact, I will tell you that you will never achieve anything significant unless you develop discipline correctly. I just posted a class from Impact Theory University called How to Build. Iron discipline that teaches you the process of developing in this area so that you can strive to do the difficult things that greatness will require of you, right click on the link on the screen, register for this class right now and let's get to work, you I'll see inside this Impact Theory University workshop until my friends are legendary, peace, so one thing that I know you've leveraged to tremendous effect and this is what I took from the principles that changed my life is stress testing. your ideas to post them and ask how do I know I'm right, so like I said, I've really been losing sleep thinking about how I can be more helpful in helping people navigate everything that's going on and I've come to a La conclusion could be pure wishful thinking and I would love to know what you think it is in the field of education, that's why I was asking about that, so my obsession is skill acquisition.

I think that's the advice that I've been giving people whether they've lost their job or not, as we've spent probably the last 10 years, maybe more in a comfort market for employees, they've really had this choice, they've been able to put a lot of pressure on employers and now you are seeing a turn and you are seeing that this will be an employer market, there will be a lot of people, obviously there are more than 30 million, now there will be a lot of people looking for work and my thing is if you want to get it. your dream job you want to make your passion something you can pursue, you have to be able to outperform other people and I would say the same thing to a kid who is about to graduate, someone who is about to graduate like you.

You have to be better than anyone else, you have to develop a skill set that allows you to excel and my thing is that you are living proof of one simple thing: if you can outperform people, there really is no limit to how far. you can go you put your money where your mouth is when it comes to an investment strategy obviously with Bridgewater you guys just outperformed people it really has been quite extraordinary and yes people need to save yes they need to focus on where do they know they are. They're making their income from um, they need to practice austerity measures, all that, but ultimately people can propel themselves forward by being out there, learning, growing, improving, pushing.

I would go so far as to say that they are even aggressive in trying to continue. move up, but it all comes down to recognizing that skills have utility in allowing you to do something that allows you to invest. Someone lets you build a better house or a better bridge. So what I want people to do right now, I just think. most people will be mentally destroyed, they will be scared, they will panic, they will not be able to think clearly and they will not be on the path to excellence, so I wonder what I am missing. there because I know people don't say that, that's not a popular thing right now, it's not something that gets a lot of negative comments from people, it's basically pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, so I'd love to understand where they are. the flaws in that thinking, um, where when you talk about um, they're not providing equal opportunity, what can people do to write that ship on a personal level?

I understand, I get to the top, systemic, the way we address it through policy. and things like that, but on a personal level, is there anything that people can do well? I think you're absolutely right. I think though, the details are missing and you know that particular action and the question is, who can? Help them so yeah um if they're Wiley, hardworking and smart enough, they still need triangulation and help to figure out where the training program is, what that skill is, they can't do it alone, they have to do it with the health I um and I would recommend you know that I made two 30 minute videos, one is the principles for success in a 30 minute YouTube video and it's about an approach to life that a lot of people are like 14.

I don't know a lot of people. I've seen this and I would say it's worth spending 30 minutes on I think in terms of approach to life and then if you're interested in economics I made a 30 minute video on how the economic machine works in 30 minutes and that . It had a lot of views, over 14 million, I think, and they liked it, so I can't tell you in this short interview how we're going to know exactly who will give them that training and that capability, but I think you're right. The skill that you love and that sells is what you need now, each person has their own particular way of getting to a case.

It can be a low start in an organization and work its way up in some cases. It can be a government. training program for some K, in some cases it may be a relative or a friend who can help you move forward, etc., as I said, one of my main principles is that there is always a path out there, you just don't see the path. Now you have to find the way,If you find that path and you can't find it alone, the way you find that path is to talk to other people, get a lot of ideas from other people and then you know you have to stick with trial and error, you have to keep at it, like when you get a job or acquire a skill, you have to try hard and that requires a certain amount of discipline and if you have a discipline problem, get help with the discipline problem and have someone kick you out. from the bed or whatever you can get there there is a path you just don't see the right path right now many aspects of life are rather opposite conventions like Comfort is comfortable well look life teaches you over and over again you want become stronger, okay, it's not comfortable, you want, okay, so stronger doesn't necessarily go with comfortable pain, okay, pain plus reflection equals progress, pain is a teacher, you want to eliminate pain from your life, you go to have a better life, no, no no, because it's giving you messages, okay, there are so many different things that are the opposite of what we're taught and it even comes down to the education system, okay, you failed, hey, that's it the beginning of a discovery process, that's a good thing, okay, now how do we do it?

I look at failure and learn from failure no, you are stupid, you failed, how do people discover their nature? Do you think we all have some kind of true nature and then from that how do people decide paths of achievement? or taste and what to define them for people, yeah, there are a couple of concepts in there, so I'll post them, first of all, about nature, it's really a self. -discovery process, discovering what you want, discovering what you are like, as if you are describing your various cases in which you are discovering what you like and that you go through that discovery and the best way to do it is to want to do it. right, it takes an hour and it's a matter of self-discovery, you created it yourself, yes, and we have used others, we have used the Dimension workplace inventory from the Myers-Briggs team and others, and then we go beyond that, The main thing is if you want self-discovery, then you will find your ways to get self-discovery, they will appear around you and yes, you have your nature, that which the Pope is not, you know, around a peg in a square hole, find your nature is what is going to flourish and let you know, that's why I said when you were talking about your development, mine too, make your passion and your work the same, I know what your nature is, yes, so I believe in terms of that nature in particular, then we get down to the nitty-gritty of one of the big decisions in life is to savor life or achieve like we have a lot of choices in our lives and they're almost mutually exclusive sometimes, you know, I just want to go to the ball game. and I want to watch a movie and I want to do that and I just want to sit down and on a good day and smell the roses, well, simultaneously, I want to change the world, okay, I want to change the world and I have this or um, the question of the balance between the work and private life and all of us who are faced with those kinds of choices, so um, it's really important to go above yourself and reflect on that and also, by the way, realize that um, the choices They're not, you're getting close to making the wrong choice when you often see it as some kind of trade-off because the truth is that you can have a lot more life and you can have a lot more if you know how to get more out of a minute, how much do I get per minute? ? per minute or how much I get per hour, do you have secrets about that? because I will, there are several of them here but and we could talk about them, but the ability to do it, instead of doing it, we all have to face our decisions, but also realize that you can expand how much life you're going to get out of life. and to what extent, if you really do it well, then there are those options, what those options are and we face them and then you have to decide how. to do them well, give me a couple of things that I can do to get more out of a minute, first of all, if you do your passion and you work on the same thing, then that's great, because your passion, whatever it is.

Whether you're a painter or an entrepreneur or whatever and you find it more fun than going to a ball game, let's say, then that becomes something exciting and the second thing is knowing how to work with people who can do it. things very well to get the most out of people, okay, thirdly, how do you actually get what the right work habits are? um, you know, anyway, there's a lot of that kind of stuff where you just do what you say, like? I do it without me doing it who is the best to do it and how do I come in oh suddenly you open yourself up to all the different possibilities of how you can do it well in no time I think Tim Ferriss wrote that the four minute or four hour work week , work week or something like okay for our work week, okay or okay, there are approaches, all those ways to be able to do that, so I just gave you, uh, you know some. are the elements of fighting well, what does it mean to fight well and how do we do it well first, that's why I use the phrase fight well or tough love, okay, put those words together because that exemplifies the fact that people don't I don't think they go from the hand, so if you start to realize that fighting is what will get you what you want, instead of avoiding the fight, that is what I am trying to convey, so, if you realize that, then you will go to the fight you won't be averse to the fight and you'll think, and then underneath that in the book I wrote all these different ways of what it means to fight, well, how do you have a thoughtful disagreement?

How do you listen to maybe or you? Are you not good at it or not, how do you learn, how do you navigate all the paths through it to become stronger, because if you don't fight, you won't get stronger, okay, so, fighting, go above that, You know, okay, fighting well, a big element is going above your fight just like you did. You look back and say, "Okay, I'm fighting well instead of being in it and doing those things." There are many different ways to fight well, but if you know it, it's okay. That fighting is a good thing, it's okay, if you want to be strong, it's a good thing.

I'll give you another example. I have a saying: if you worry, you don't have to worry and if you don't worry, you have to worry, okay? because what I mean is that if you worry about what can go wrong, you will most likely create the protections against that and therefore that is a good thing and if you don't worry about things that are going to go wrong, so now probably things you never expected will come and hit you, so it sounds counterintuitive, if you worry, you don't have to worry, don't worry, you better worry, but what it means is that process of " okay, go to the Go to it and enjoy it look at these things like puzzles your personality will change you will enjoy it okay because life is a puzzle is to go through the jungle okay, that's it I'll tell you a story yeah so, um, I crash and I imagine that oh, risk and reward go together, you want to have a great life, okay, and you want to be safe at the same time, they sound almost mutually exclusive, okay, so I looked at it like okay.

It's like sitting on. one side of the jungle and that if I can get to the other side of the jungle safely I will have a great life, but that's fine, but if I cross the jungle all kinds of things will happen, what am I going to do? choose whether I'm going to be on this side of the jungle and have a normal life or I'm going to have what I think is the best life possible, but I can get bitten and all that stuff and that's the nature of life and then me and I We said it's my nature.

I have to have the best life I can have, so I have to go to the jungle. Now the question is how can I get into that jungle and be successful at it. I could tell you the answer, the answer is first to worry about what I don't see and what I might be wrong about and do it with people who see the things that I maybe don't see and we are all doing and as a mission to get through that jungle well together and when I got through that jungle and we did it together, what I discovered that is so wonderful is that I don't want to leave the jungle, I don't want to get to the other side because I want to be with those people on that mission and that whole experience becomes great, so I found a way from succeeding in the jungle to get to the other side and I discovered what really is a great reward and that is extraordinary and that resonates. with me for really enjoying the fight and that's what makes you stronger B there's something innate certainly with a certain type of personality that that's what you're going to love is fighting and reaching your limits and pushing beyond them now.

I'm curious to know if there will be a fight for you in the third phase. Is there a new jungle you're going into so you can quickly define it for people? You said uh in Phase One. You depend on others. essentially you are a child and you are learning phase two, you go to work, other people become dependent on you and then at the end of phase two you pass it on to other people, you want them to

thrive

without you, you give them the knowledge and the media. and then in phase three your savior uh um you save your life um what that will be like for you is the freedom to do what you want without obligations is the understanding that you shouldn't and it's not good to control anyone it's just savoring the life that you have , you can do whatever you want, you go from freedom, you go to freedom, um, if there is an arc of life, yes, there is an arc of life, and in um, I

prepare

d this book, it is a 600-page book, I also then, huh.

A lot of people asked me to do a simpler version, um, on the principles for success, and it's a little book that's going to go on sale, or I'll put it on newsstands, you can actually pre-order it on Amazon, um, and on that book, I Show a Life Arc and I track what the different phases of life are and what the happiest phase is, what the least happy phase is and how that works. I could explain all that to you if you're interested. I'm very interested oh okay, well, it doesn't depend on how much time we have, but okay, maybe in a nutshell, okay, the short version is that you start and it's very, very, it's a really nice phase in the life you start to I've started to experience responsibilities like third year, okay, will I get into the school I want to get into or whatever?

That's pretty common. College is great, it's exploratory. Coming out of college, there is the most freedom you have to transition and school. Now the new phase of life is totally different from the first phase of life because what it means is that you are not following any trace throughout the entire process, you are following the defined trace and in the direction of others and now you can live in any place you want. you want you can choose any job you want you can do whatever you want you have complete freedom there is no guide you can do whatever you want you have that freedom and you go ahead with it and then you start making decisions and you start making decisions about obligations, you could get married, you could having kids, having jobs and taking that on, and the least happy period in life according to happiness surveys is between 45 and 55.

It's okay, because then you have the work-life balance and the obligations and too many things that do and then maybe it's not as idealistic and idyllic as you want, you know, you get into marriage and whatever and then maybe it's not the marriage you expected or the things you're having. and all those things that it's a difficult phase of life that middle part of that phase of life 45 to 55 and so on um and then people make the transition is interesting and opposite to what I would have expected the happiest phase of life is between 60 and 80. and you know the funny thing about this, which is very funny, they ask people, um, how good do you look, and they rate it as the highest at that age, that's not right, right, but what happens is that people at that point become more comfortable with themselves in a number of ways when you make that transition you're eliminating all those obligations you're eliminating all those things you're giving yourself away for free I don't have to take care of that.

I savor ah, my family is fine without me or whatever, since I have free time, I can do whatever I want, that doesn't mean life isn't exciting. I find life very exciting. I am very vital. I like that kind of stuff. but totally free of choice and you also taste life Arc, you know, even when people approach death, they approach death in a completely different way than what death seems to be like for people in their early years, right Oh, you're a terrible, terrible thing, no. It's just part of that particular process and how do you make that life?

Arc and ah, the curtain comes down, you know, and that's a different phase in life, so you know, my responsibility now is to convey what I'm doing, right? I have a lot of money, so I'm not working for money. I'm donating a lot of money because it helps and whatever, and I'm just passing it along. I'll keep him away and then I'll leave quietly and I'll go and save his life and you'll leave. I could just love nature, so I go out into nature, okay, that has a big effect on me. I love it, this is what the third phase of my life looks like, yeah.

Man, I think the whole notion that you're living an arc that there are phases is really important and I don't think enough people recognize that your frame of reference will change as you go.that you advance from one phase to another and what was important to you. in one phase it won't be important to you in the next and because I was thinking while you were talking, I personally don't think you can skip a phase, I don't think so, certainly not with my personality and probably not with yours, it's not like you can skip the achievement phase and go straight to the savings phase and I thought about that, you know, my wife and I have made enough money to buy an island, retire and be done with this and When I really thought about how that would make me feel, it didn't seem like that made me feel how I want to feel. 'cause I still want to be in the jungle, but when I hear you describe how to taste it's like yeah, I understand how my life could get to a point where that's what I would crave, yeah, you see what I hear, what you do well, right?

You're looking down again you're describing I'm looking at how I feel I'm looking so you're connecting the feelings with the thought and I then that's true and in terms of no, of course, there's a sequence To that life, what I did in the book, which would be fun for people, is to show all the different markers in all the different phases and little boxes next to them, and what they can do is check where they are. knowing exactly where they are and then also showing them that I'm showing them what they can expect because if they're here in that Arc, they can probably expect these things as they go to check, check, those are the things.

Now you can start to imagine where I want to be in 10 years and also where the people that I love and care about are or what their relationships are, where they will be, where my children will be in 10 years and what they will go through. or that we are not parents, where they will be in 10 years and how that will relate to how I want my life to be, because it is the same thing that you will see the same things happen over and over again in all these lives. They're basically the same thing, and when you put that in perspective and you step back and look at it, it's a really cool notion that it's another one of those like the and I say that in a way designed to eliminate fear and uncertainty. which is something that paralyzes so many people and I think one of the things that you have really given me and anyone who has come into deep contact with your work is that sense that there is a higher perspective that shows that you are not the first one. person to have a child.

You're not the first person to be publicly shamed. You are not the first person to go through whatever heartbreak or pain you are going through and when you can contextualize it, then you move on to something else. you have said which of course Buddhists have been saying for a long time, this too will pass as if any difficulty you are in or any joy you are in is part of a cycle and therefore everything It will eventually ease up, so yeah, and your preferences will change. Realizing how it works is cool because what you love at Penn is different than what you love at 20 or 30.

We can all think about what it is that you love. I love reaching 20 or 30. That was fun and then you reach 40. And you reach 50. And they change and you realize how they will change and you move Beyond, it's beautiful and it's useful. I think the most important thing is to know your nature what is your nature what are your strengths and weaknesses and your likes and dislikes and once you know that then you also think what are your fits oh I would like that job and the job could pay me well and Then you figure it out, okay, how do you do it?

How can I reach him? But there are different people in different circumstances, so I can't answer them all now. Yes, I agree with you, so I want to go back. Thanks for the feedback that I was being super vague, I think it's really helpful so let's start being as specific as we can knowing that people are going to be in very different places as they hear this, but I think this is helpful so watch the video that you're talking about and I'll speak for you and correct myself where I'm wrong, but I watched the video a few times and I think it's really extraordinary and basically to put it simply, it's basically go.

Trying things, failing a lot, learning and continuing to progress and that's basically, if I remember correctly, you have a kind of circular ascent and it's from failure and learning that you finally make progress, but if you put your head down, you don't. . You don't want to see your mistakes, you don't want to see the flaws in your thinking, you're going to get stuck in a rut and you'll never be able to move beyond that, so you have to look for things that don't confirm you. evidence that you have to look for where you are weak and in fact there is one thing I don't agree with.

I understand what people mean, so when you say know your nature, I'll say by nature before I get to the second part, let me tell you. What is is the loop and learning from mistakes, but another part is realizing that you don't have to make your decisions in your own head. It's okay now that you're starting to realize that you know what you're good at. and what you are bad at, a power comes to you when you start to know, okay, who is the best person to give me the advice or who is the best person to guide me through this or when you start to know that you can go further ? what you think and your stubbornness so you can triangulate.

I call it triangulating with others so that you find three people who are really capable of giving you good advice and who will argue with each other and argue with you so you can see all sides. and you work so that it is not only your eyes that look for the path, but the eyes of other people who look at the path knowing that you are going to have successes and failures, but that power of that collective learning and triangulating well with humility. It's a great power as you go through that cycle. I love it so I'm going to take it a step further and say this so I'm going to be super direct with anyone who's watching right now and Ray if you think I'm wrong I trust you to step in no one's coming to save anyone and that It's the hard truth, and if I look at history and even if I listen, I've heard literally every word you've said publicly on the subject anyway. that this is going to suck, that there is going to be a level of brutality that most of us have not experienced in our lives, companies are going to go under, people are going to lose their jobs, there are going to be people struggling to find their next food and what I want people to understand is, like you just said, you can triangulate, you can get people to help you think carefully, but I want them to understand that they can do it in a book in a library. they can do it online if they still have access to the internet, which from now on, even just going to the library, you can have access to being online.

You changed my life before you and I met. I read your book. I had never done it. I didn't even know who you were at the time and someone just said hey, you have to read this book. It has really powerful ideas about trust and creating these strict principles from all your mistakes. I read it immediately and recognized that it was aligned with what I call the physics of Being Human, it was very much in line with eliminating my blind spots, getting people to recognize that other people are better than me at certain things, and that's why I do a small exception because I think you can't say what. you're good and bad at until you've been at this for a long time you've been trying you've been trying you're trying you're learning you're failing because by nature I'm lazy I'm not very bright I think there are people who can process raw data much faster than I can, but I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong.

I'm willing to admit that I don't know. I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong and why because I get into that cycle where you talk about making a mistake, looking at it openly, not pretending like I wasn't wrong, asking people to point out my flaws and then saying and now I'm going to having to do what is called deliberate. I practice to get better at it and I don't just ask and I don't think people have the luxury right now to just say oh, what do I want to do? Work for many people. This will be Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

You need safety, you need security, you need food, shelter and I think it will come to that, so recognizing that there are people right now who know more than you, you are going to make a mistake, but those mistakes are huge learning opportunities that you have. To admit that you made one, you have to find people who can help you eliminate those blind spots and then you have to work to improve. Does any of that sound crazy? Without a doubt, that is totally correct and then it comes at once. You are afraid of making mistakes, but you still have the audacity and courage to move forward.

You are much smarter than the person who thinks they know there is a quote that Jefferson says. He who knows that he does not know, he is closer. the truth is that the one whose mind is full of falsehoods and when you know that and with and then with your character and your determination you move forward, the smartest people I know are the most humble, the more you learn, the more you realize oh I can't wait to take it in , so that's true, but going back to your audience, I think your audience ranges from um, you know, there's a wide range that you have in your audience and I would say there's a lot of people in your audience that can plan. for a simple lifestyle that can be wonderful, sometimes we acquire these needs that are not as great as we imagine and you know, do you have a bed to sleep in? do you have food to eat? having basic healthcare, okay, if you start thinking, what are my needs that I really need and am I okay?

How can I make provisions for those needs? So once you keep that in mind, you will be free. Okay, you can go beyond that, you can say, listen, oh, I can do that for a year or two years, a month or whatever, but I think we visualize too much of the things that we're used to, one of the good things. this exercise is that you can bring, it takes you back to the basics, you can be brought back to the basics and, like I say, if you have a bed to sleep in and you have food, etc., and you have those basics and good. relationships with people who care about you and basic healthcare, so if you budget for that and think about how you have it, maybe it's not in the fancy place you're in, maybe it's in the country, and so on. successively once you view it. and you put it in your head and say, oh, I can understand that, then your stress will go away because, when you visualize it, in many ways, it's a happy life, it doesn't take much for there to be stimulation, there's nature, there's fundamental relationships.

Wonderful things, the most important things can be had and for many of you, I think if you look at that and budget for it, I see several people who are going broke and I have observed this. many years and it's really just the process of adaptation when once they get to that point where you know they've settled, they're okay, it's the ambiguity, it's the worry, it's the stress, so if you do that from the beginning and you have that developed in your head, then you know everything from there that you can play with and it's your, it's the icing on the cake, so I want to emphasize that you can budget for that, you can look at that, find that scenario, find what it looks like. that you know you've got it down then you know you're safe once you're safe everything beyond that is luxury.

I forgot who the Greek philosopher was maybe you remember he used to go and he slept on the street like once. a month or so in ratty clothes because he wanted to remind himself oh this is what I'm afraid of and this isn't so bad. I mean, I always found it interesting. I take a slightly different approach. I think that's really it. powerful and I think it's an important anchor for people, so my wife and I always say to each other because look, we've been very poor and now we've been very rich and throughout the whole journey we've always said to each other, look man .

If I have you like everything else I'm fine so there are literally only two things I'm legitimately afraid of there are things I don't want but there are two things I'm legitimately afraid of: brain damage because then I can't build my It's been a long time no I can have the level of satisfaction and joy I want and lose my wife because a shared life for me is of the utmost importance. Having said that, I'm going to put all that aside and hope people listened to you. And I hope that they are serious about painting a lifestyle that they can love and that is beautiful but that is simple.

And you know they don't have all this weight on them, but I know yourself, like you were saying, do you know what you know? You are good at what you are not I have always told people that if you want a calm and peaceful life I am not your guy there is someone else you can go listen to and follow that journey if you want to be aggressive. and you want to build something you care about. I don't need it to be big. I don't need it to be a business. Whatever. Just people who want to express themselves, who want to be great, who want to become extraordinary at something.

That's what I'm much more interested in and from what I see, now is a time where economically the board has turned, but at that time opportunities will be created for people that and this. My central thesis is what I said before. Panic is the problem. People can't afford to get intopanic. That's why I like what you say. Don't worry if you lose everything as long as you have the things that really matter to you and I think that's important so that people don't panic, so that they can have a clear head and they can figure out where the opportunities are and then they get the skill set that they need to capitalize on that opportunity, which for me is like when I and that's why I keep saying I'm losing sleep, like how can we get information out?

I've done a lot of work on inner cities and how to get information to someone who can correctly triangulate that that's not wealth. high class exercise, the information is out there, it's been put in books, on a website, on a podcast, like the number of the greatest thinkers in the world right now that you could take this information from, but you have to be willing to try it. I have to be willing to take it in and actually act on it and do something, so I'm not clear on what your question is about that's not so much a question.

I'm presenting what I think are ideas that I want people to execute in part, I hope that if there is an error in my thinking, I want them to point it out, so going back to the need for specificity, then we are talking about not There is equality of opportunity because there is no equality of access to education, which I will take as the core of your thesis to advance generationally in a useful way. It's true, it's a centerpiece, yeah, okay, so what I'm saying is I really hope that gets addressed and I'll certainly do everything I can.

Obviously we're doing a lot there, but I also want people to not wait for someone to make that change. I want them to realize right now that they can go and learn something that they can educate themselves on. You said it's not about college, it's about acquiring a skill that allows you to live a full, fulfilling, meaningful life, with a meaningful career, which is why I want to see people perform, but if there's a flaw in that thinking, I want to know, no, no, of course not. It's totally true, I think the problem goes to the next step for the details of actually helping someone and there is a combination of not only what they can do themselves, but also finding others to help them hold their hand. and help provide that guidance, to be able to do it well, so finding a job, let's say you know you think well, how do you find a job?

So, you have to be specific, so what we could say is great, find a skill, okay? Great, but literally, how do you find that skill we're going to talk about? One thing we've talked about from an investment standpoint is when this starts to happen and monetary policy starts to unravel. I won't spend much time describing. a fiat currency, but essentially money that is not associated with anything like gold, so you broke it down and said it is reassociated because gold has intrinsic value or rocks because it is used to build things, so what is it to look at from the historical perspective? things that are safe bets in terms of this job will be here in five years, that this is a good place to start developing that skill set, you're talking about the skill set, not the investment, I guess so, skill set I think that's maybe more helpful to people if they just lost their job and you know right now they're just trying to make ends meet.

Well, in terms of um, I think in terms of any environment, the lessons that we get over and over again. Again, you can't be sure what the next environment and twists and turns will be. What you don't know is greater than anything you do know, so if you were in the airline business or the hospitality business, um and that. It was wonderful and you liked it and everything else suddenly changed in a major way, so the important thing is more or more General skills in terms of investing, what that means is that you need to know how to diversify well, that's the most important thing .

In terms of any aspect of life, knowing how to deal with what you don't know is more important than anything you know because the world is much more surprising than you can really be sure of, so in a general sense, for skills , I mean. I think skills are part of you. What is your environment? Know? Discover those things that are self-sufficient and maintain flexibility. You have to know how to stay flexible and change well if your career focuses on one area. um you have to know how to this, you have to develop the skill to change careers and it all comes down to knowing how to find your way to knowing how to triangulate well with others.

I want to talk about it, so you've done something so extraordinary. work Ray I I'm really amazed that I was able to go and learn a new area, a new element of the world when you announced that you were going to take this Historical View and that you were going to go back, I mean something like a thousand years or however far back you went How do you start that research process? So for someone who wants to spend my time wisely, what's a high-level way you approach learning in general? Its a lot for me. um the alignment of the three things that I said before what my passion is um so you know knowing my nature what my passion is um and I can align my work with my passion and then uh does it pay me adequately to take care of my needs and for me, um, I do it because it's my passion, um, you know, so when you find your passion that's aligned with your work, yes you can do that, but how do you go about learning something new? historical context of what we're going through now is picking up books is um good for me, you see, it's been my nature, I'm extremely curious, okay, and I love my game, my game is learning about the world that I interact with. the world and Bet On It and I'm really curious so it could be whatever your game is like you have a game okay that's why you're interviewing me because that's your passion that's your game and if you can align those three things, but you know your nature because if you know your nature, you can find your role, you want to find the right role for you, it's not just about going and looking for a job and you know what I could say.

I would like to be an architect, well I mean you have to know your nature and then you can find your role, so I hesitate to say that what is true for me is true for someone else, so when you ask me. what you know, well those are my big things, meaningful work and meaningful relationships, like relationships, are very important to me, so if I can have a job that feeds my curiosity, that I'm passionate about and that pays me adequately , you already know. and I do that with cool people, those are the things that feed me, so you have to know those things that feed you like I like the big picture, someone might like the details, you know, you know, you have to pick those things that are by their nature and align those things that I'm talking about and how did you specifically go about starting this big research project?

Did it start with a book? Did you start by contacting historians? No, no, I mean, in a sense, the journey began. When I was 12, I carried and um and then I took my caddy money and I put out a newspaper and I did various things like that. I took my odds and ends and put them in the stock market. and you know and um and then I and I got hooked on the game, do you have anything about that nature of questions in that process like that? So I think it was Tony Robbins who said that if you ask a better question, then you get a better answer and basically the questions will control the outcome.

Do you focus on the question he is asking and trying to answer or is it something completely different from the questions? Correct questions. It's the hunger to know what will happen. notice it's different in people, there will be people who surprise you, you listen, good question, good question, good question, then there will be people who can't ask questions and are just telling you what they think, you almost think they are acting intelligently . I think they are acting smart and they are the stupid ones, the smart ones are an old question now, how do I find the answer to the next question? because the questions, the power and attraction to answer those questions, etc., are what drag you forward and it is the emotion do you have an attraction? what is your attraction?

Know? So, yes, it's all in questions. I think everything is a journey. Life is not a journey, an adventure. That's why I'm trying to say. in principles and uh for success or you can understand the principles um of any of these principles are also principles in action is an app that is available in the I store and it's free and it has all these things, but and so I don't know. , because we will separate. I think people can like that but you don't have to know your attraction and then along the way you will have your adventure and learn and then you go through the phases of your life and each phase is different like you talked about your face you are in the middle of your phase of life you talked about your wife and your relationship with her is fine, that's a phase of life and when you go and put it in perspective it's helpful um at the end of that book uh principles for success there's a life arc chart and if you know where you are in that life arc and you know what the next 10 years typically look like and you know what the people you care about are in their life arcs, you can almost know what's in store for you and then you can start thinking about it, so it's at that level of knowing yourself and knowing how these things happen over and over again that you can make it your way don't be surprised most of life it's the same thing that happens over and over again you were born you probably have parents who take care of you maybe you have one maybe you have two but someone has them teach you that you have your first phase of your life in which you depend on them and you are learning, then you move to the second phase of your life and then you are working and others depend on you and then you have that So these things happen over and over again and you just have to know that path and know how to approach it very quickly before it lets you go.

You're working on a new book, The New World Order, which I find very fascinating. I've been posting some of the chapters on LinkedIn What do you think the chances are of actually getting back to the financial side of this? What do you think are the chances of the United States remaining the Reserve Bank and reserve currency? not us, who do you think it will be? Well, all currencies will eventually die and all empires will eventually diminish their other empires and the question is essentially the pace of how that happens. I think so, but for most of your listeners, it's most likely going to happen.

It happens in a way that is tolerable if you can handle it well, think about the decline of the British Empire and see if there are people living in London and so on, it's not that the world is exploding, it's that they have to readjust and they know it. how to readjust and then I think we are going to go through more difficult times. I think the next three to five years will be difficult times in ways that haven't existed in your lifetime but have existed in other Epoch periods like the period from 1930 to '45, so being able to adapt well, invent yourself anew, adapt and browsing, maybe with the perspective of knowing what those other times were like is the best thing you can do, so the reason I'm doing that.

The series on LinkedIn is to help people understand what those times are like and then help them

prepare

. The reason I wrote the Principles book is to make it a particular approach because the same things happen over and over again for basically the same reasons and once you understand that and you have the self-discipline to know how to play well, then you will be fine, so where can people connect with you right now? So I have one last question I want to ask. um, like I say, I'm on social media and um, um, and I will interact with people on social media by the standards you know, LinkedIn, Twitter, uh, Facebook and Instagram in general, um, but the more, the more things. valuable are if you go to uhprincipios.com you can get the whole bunch or I would say some of those places that you know, so in the next three to five years, part of the cycle hits us, what is one thing that people can do ? which you know from a historical perspective will further insulate them from probably emotional and maybe financial damage, whatever you think is more important, well, the things I thought about some of the things I mentioned earlier, the plan for the worst. case scenario and making it fantastic is one of the things, that is, understanding how to triangulate well to deal with any problem that you are going to face and how to work on that to find the PATH and find your nature, but also one thing that is It helped me A lot of it is meditation, which uh um, meditation gives you calm and equanimity so that you can almost look at your circumstances and you can navigate with clarity of thought without all that stress.

It's healthy because it reduces stress and it also makes You are smarter if you make good decisions, so I would say that would also be something that I would recommend because if you have the equanimity, that centering that comes with centering, you have your plan and you triangulate well with the others to be able to get everything. the best advice and you don't have toaddress it in your own head, you know you're far away in your mind, we think about what do you want and the reality is, when you look at neuroscience and psychology, there are different parts of your brain that want different things and then in the In the simplest sense, there is the logical part of the brain that you are aware of, it is called conscious and you think that you are being logical and you want to make those decisions and then there is the subliminal below, the part of the brain of the limbic system, which is the emotional and not It is so conscious to you, but it has more influence on you than logic, so they are not aligned, so when you experience that pain or let's go. say ego, there are two main things: you have an ego barrier and a blind spot barrier, if you can overcome the ego barrier and overcome the blind spot barrier, you can achieve anything because you also know that you don't have to. do everything yourself you don't have to figure it out yourself you can learn from other people the different ways to approach things in the best possible way and thus realize that we are all really struggling with ourselves and think who is who in control, the Meditation helps deal with the alignment of those two things because they are both valuable, in other words, intuition, imagination, the things we really love come from our subliminal uses, our needs, whatever they are, come from here, that is subliminal, they can be valuable.

You may be afraid of damaging yourself, you don't know the difference, so when they come up and you look at them with your logical mind and you can line those things up, you're probably in good shape if you can make that alignment between things. subliminal and the logical and you can do that with other people so you can triangulate with other people and say if that makes sense and align yourself. That alignment is the way of the future because you just have to know what the best things to do are. They don't all have to come out of your head and for the love of God don't be too opinionated because just because you have that opinion doesn't mean it's true, so that's where the two U's and alignment really are so important.

Importantly, I want to talk about the process of aligning those two things by linking this to meditation, so in my own experience, meditation is a stillness, it is a silence of the chatter of the mind and, perhaps more deeply, I can feel that my brain switches to a different computer, so maybe it's less linear thinking, it's more lateral. I'm making connections I wouldn't otherwise be able to make, so it's in that silence where you can look at what's bubbling up from beneath the limbic system. your emotional life you can look at that without judgment and then say okay, but this is what I'm consciously trying to do, these are my plans and all that and now how can I alter either one? them or you're starting to say: I need to understand whether this is a helpful emotional driver or a destructive emotional driver.

What is that process? I think it describes it very well and when you dig deeper into it you literally enter your subconscious. So you are creating a connection when you transcend. I do Transcendental Meditation when you transcend. I am neither conscious nor unconscious. I'm in the subconscious. I'm not conscious. uh, but if someone doesn't make a little noise like. that boom, I would do it, I would do it, so it's not like being asleep and that's also where creativity comes from, you know, it's like if you were to take a hot shower and a great idea comes up not because you're exercising it, so when you're having that, then you are calm and in your natural state and then these things bubble up and help that alignment, so you say, okay, let me look above myself, let me go above myself and look at myself within the context of my circumstances what's around me how that works how reality works well if I do this what are the consequences and then go above and beyond that and just say that I'm responsible for my decisions in my life and how I navigate things where I can. pulling the levers of who I get how I do it how I deal with it and getting through it in that calm way is really what it's all about and when you get it right with others then triangulate that's why have radical truthfulness and radical transparency when you have that radical truthfulness and radical transparency you're triangulating with others, you're going above that with them and you're just looking at that circumstance and saying, well, we're at we have the same goal or we're and then how do I navigate them to get to where we want to go?

Because if you are forming your company, you have your company, we are together on the same mission right now, so now let's all go. go above ourselves what your strengths and weaknesses are how we get it what's true and how we do it with transparency and that's it, yeah oh man, so powerful and putting it into action. I'm really seeing exactly how it starts to allow and I think the truth is probably what you call hyperrealism: coming to such an objective view of what is true and going back to a kind of objective look at that emotional state which I think is where a lot of people fight one of the biggest and greatest Deep, probably the only lightning rod moment in my life where it's like my life could be divided before that literal, instantaneous recognition and then everything is completely different and that was the first time I realized I was being driven by something I hadn't yet recognized what it was: I was telling everyone I wanted to build wealth in my life, but I was acting like I just wanted people to tell me what it was. smart and therefore the friction between those like this collision hit and so on.

At that time I was just a copywriter and the guys who would later become my partners at that time were my employers and we had a big fight over something stupid and I was arguing in favor of my idea. I needed my idea to win because they were much further ahead than me, they were smarter than me and they could process data faster and that's true, they could think things faster than me, so I felt like I had an inferiority complex about what They think so fast and they're like 15 years ahead of me as entrepreneurs, so I always feel like a buffoon and I'm starting to feel really bad about myself and that's why I'm defending this dumb idea, arguing, arguing, arguing, and finally I wear them down and they agree and I was like I know this is the wrong idea, like there was a voice in my head screaming, you know, this is a stupid idea, stop arguing about it, but I needed to win, so when They left I thought, okay, whoa. what's real I just need to know what's real don't judge me if what you want is to get rich you have to change the way you act immediately but if what you really want is to feel smart you have to leave this company because having budding heads with them every day and feeling inferior will never get you there, so I realized that, wait, there is actually a third option where I could fully value myself for learning and if I changed my identity of being intelligent. right to be good to be worthy of I just learned that that's what I do, then everything will change and it was literally like that, as I remember that day so clearly, so to me what you're describing is just another one of those right, you have to go.

Going deeper into that concept, the notion that everything is a loop that history repeats itself because I think people learn it like in a US history class, but they don't necessarily understand it in their own life; In fact, there is practically nothing that hasn't happened before if you look at the topic, so when I take up your particular case I can deviate from it, but I won't. I'll come back to that in a second. Almost everything that happens has happened many times before and, as I described, there is the hero's journey. and there's this and that, there's that particular path and it all happens over and over again, so my reaction to what you're saying is um, yeah, that's absolutely true, it's a winning strategy, so if you stay away from that and you write, okay?

What happened? What happened? That's what we're talking about. You went over yourself. Well, so exemplify it. Alright. Here are the things you overcame yourself. Now you could have had the ego, the Big O barrier. The ego barrier is going to be the thing that's going to kill you in some way, then in reconciling what your subliminal desires were, okay, I want to be the judge like that. intelligent and then connect that with your intellect and say, "Okay, now intellect, what's really going on here." Okay, and then to be able to get out of it now, you just did it alone, but you could do it with others better and then you realize, oh, okay, these are the options, this is how reality works, so I .

I'm just saying you did what we were talking about right and if everyone understands that and really understands how to do it, the number one two most important things is how to achieve alignment of your lower level with your higher level. How can you overcome your ego and your blind spot and do we know what the ego barrier is like? I have to be right or whatever or I'm not good at this. The blind spot barrier is the realization that people really see things. different, they see different things, like someone sees the big picture, someone sees the details, they focus on different things, almost like a spectrum of colors, and if you realize that, you will see a part of that spectrum and other people will see . the other part of the spectrum and so that when you go above yourself you really need to orchestrate all those ways of seeing, because you are not just one of those people who has to do it yourself, your way of being the Success is to go beyond and being the orchestrator and knowing what you're good at and what you're not good at, so it's almost like you want your life to be successful and you won't allow yourself to do certain things because you're not good.

It just doesn't work for them once you master that image, then you can find the past wherever the paths are. You have an open mind because now you have abandoned the barrier of your ego and the barrier of your blind spot, so your particular case was simply another. one of those, yeah, the concept of yet another one of those, I think it's strangely easy to miss in your book, so I want to pause on this point for a second and it's funny because people ask you this question all the time and you give the same answer, you are so consistent and yet people don't put in the time that you put in, so let me sum it up, you've done so well as an investor, it's a little crazy and needless to say, people like, okay, what's the strategy and your answer is usually not specific, your answer is understanding the historical context, understanding the historical context and having smart people around you so you don't make decisions for yourself, so the notion that is another one you are looking to invest in.

The Human Condition, looking at your own life as something that has these repeated elements, every dimension of every whole, the path is another one of those and this is how you could, if I can make people think what I want, convey what that means and So I want to understand how to think at the principle level because then life becomes a lot easier because if you have the principle and what I mean by that is you could look at all the things that are coming at you and them. It's just the things that come at you, if instead you think of each thing as if it were a type of species, think of it as an animal species or something, what is that and how do I deal with them? your principle to deal with them, so you have the species that come in, you have a principle that aligns with the species, yeah, so now there's no guesswork or reimagining it.

I imagine it's like, um, I don't know, it's some kind of snake that comes. but it's all another one of those, so when you start thinking about how to deal with it, how reality works and how to deal with it, the way it seems to me, I'll speak figuratively to help convey the Image of what I mean by that maybe there are something like 50 different personality types. I don't know the exact number and they all live the same scripts. They jump around and maybe it's just 50 different scripts and then through the ones you know. maybe there are certain things It's like taking a step back and just saying okay, okay, what is it and it's happened before and it's happened to different people, so let's say for example you have a child and you think, okay, now I'm a child and you could just say, "Okay, now you're a parent, but whatever it is, you can say, Hey, it's happened before a million times and in those particular circumstances, so when you realize that everything happens again and again again for the same kind of reasons, okay and you get it." that and you can almost see who's been through this before who knows how it works how I navigate it best what my principles are for that so it's cool the reason why I discovered this accidentally I discovered this accidentally is because I got into the habit that I would suggest that you acquire and that other people acquire, and that is that whenever you are in a situation where you are making a decision, an important decision,just pause and write down what kind of decision it was and why I made it.

Making that decision that way, writing down your principles, it's kind of a recipe for success and we could talk about it and then every time I'm in a situation, I'll write down why I made that decision and we could discuss them. Did it make sense to make that decision that way? You would have different criteria, etc., and you would do it over a period of time. Okay? then you have your principles and then it's just your reasons for making your decisions and what matters to you well when you do it, that's why I encourage you because you're going through this and then you've found a path in life I saw your story What you just told me is just another one of those now if you keep doing it it will become obvious to you that everything is another one of those because what will happen is that next time you are going to find I don't know let's say you're firing someone use that as an example you would say this okay now I'm firing someone again okay now let me reflect on if and how I would modify that principle and then Well, maybe you're firing someone who's been with you for 10 years and who you love, and that's not the same as firing someone. someone's son you want to get rid of, so then you refine how I should deal with that one. and that and why it makes sense because that reflection why it makes sense why it makes sense and really want truthfulness you know don't worry about embarrassing yourself by making mistakes we're just in the fight with all of you together it's a good Yes, so how do you define a species?

How do you start coding all this and go, because I think it's very easy to get lost in the hole. This isn't another one of those, it's not just about firing someone. that's saying goodbye to someone that I love and then no, you know, this is so different, it's simple because all you really have to do is say if you start thinking that everyone is someone else and I was someone else, when I'm making a decision I just have to. than writing why I made the decision I don't care what you title it Okay, just write it down Okay, uh, okay, what's what's your criteria?

Do it, write it down, well, you'll see they're close cousins, you know. say if you're saying it's different because it's a close relationship that you've had for a long time or someone is new, well you'll see those two things are very close together, but it's another one of those things and it changes the way you see things okay, change your perspective again I want to repeat because then life becomes easier because it's not all these pieces okay, okay it's another one of those it gives you an equanimity and like a ninja okay, it's another one of these comes, hey, okay , how do I address that and then you can have a conversation?

It's just reality, how should you deal with that reality? And if you do that, then you'll think in a completely different way, okay, you just want to come up with the best way to deal with your realities, you've talked about about 30 percent of people can't do radical honesty. It would be great for you, I call it radical transparency, but whatever, it's fine, radical transparency. Define what exactly that is and then what it is about. that 30 percent like they can't get rid of the ego or what it is, it's just what you're talking about, the fight is between them as you engage in a conversation and, uh, and you're looking at that, um.

They find that everyone says very harsh, very direct, nice and clear, they are not good at this, yes, and at the same time they say: I don't know if that's true, in other words, if I say no, I don't believe you. You're good at it, I'm being honest, but also who knows if you're good at it, right? So how do we get from you thinking you're good at it? I don't think you're good at it and how do we go through a process to find out together if you're good at it or not? How are we doing?

Well, one of my key questions. Okay, the best way to do it is to do it the agreed way. Okay, the idea is good. we say, “okay, John, you're not that good at that, I don't think that's right,” and then we look at how we would judge. Can we ask other people? We go through this or that test, how do we find out what is true? If you can find out what is true, your life will be better. Do you want to know what you're not good at? If you know what you're not good at, your life isn't a problem because you don't even have to get it. good at that, you just have to work with someone who is good at what you are not good at, so there is a way to go when you forget that you have to do that, so the only basic notion is when we are if If we had a relationship, and by the way, it's not hierarchical, you could say, Hey Ray, I don't think you're very good at that and I'm going to be the same way I said it. because I needed it because I'm worried I'm wrong so you come to me and say I don't think it's very good, how can we find out in an objective way without ego restrictions?

Whether I'm good at it or not, do you really set criteria like oh yeah, yeah, we'll do it, yeah, absolutely? Do you know how you arrive at that criterion? Would you do this individually? Would you do this individually? group, how do you start to unravel those things? First of all in terms of the group. I like to make everything transparent so that everyone can see the same thing that happens with anyone, so I thought you would do this in front of a large group of people, no, I would say that with recording we do a lot of traditional transparency because that way people see if it is fair, if it's a good process, so I like to have that discussion, but anyone can do it with anyone, right, etc., but I would like to have that conversation if it's like I don't think you're good at something and I'm relevant to your life or vice versa we have to figure it out we have to figure it out together do this with your wife in In every relationship, one way or another, you have to figure out how you are going to make decisions, there will be agreements and disagreements, and you have to have the art of disagreement thoughtful.

Now people find your domains differently, maybe someone says, "Okay." I'll take care of these things and you'll take care of that. I don't know some people you know, the traditional household might say, "Okay, I'll take care of making money and the guy goes out and makes money in the world." then when women say, "I'll take care of the kids," we're not there anymore, but every role I try to say in some way, you have to figure out how to do the art of thoughtful disagreement, it makes sense and then also know what it is. Well, what are you good at and what are you not good at, it's good to know what you are good at and what you are not good at, what do you do? and your wife realize, oh, we actually have something we don't agree with about how to do with the kids and that's a lot at stake, if you do something wrong it could have a material impact on their psyche and the way they that address the world, so there's a sort of There's a lot at stake and there's only two of you, unless you had a way to attract other people, would it be reduced because you said don't care so much about what the person says?

Think about the process by which you got there. If then. I'm saying that whenever there's a disagreement between two people where they can't get along, they should pause and they should get over it and they should say, how should we treat each other when that happens? In other words, what do we do? our protocols to, um, work on that ourselves so that we can then go further and make a decision, and a specific protocol in a marriage would be something like if it has to do with children, you have more credibility than me, for Therefore, if I cannot reach an agreement, we will accept your decision.

That could be one of the protocols. The main thing I'm trying to convey is that when people are normally in an argument, they just argue and they and they don't. They don't know the ground rules, they don't have a process in place, so if you look further up and find whatever your rules are, you might be able to have dominance, you might have a mutually agreed upon part you would say. okay let's plead our cases too and let them mediate there could be many different paths to say ah I think that's a good path when we have a disagreement about how we plead our cases and then we go further but you need to have the path and that's what I mean by thinking at the principle level going above it how it should be instead of knowing these kinds of things well we all need that to have successful relationships it's a fundamental right when you have this and you're not going above it and saying why you have this or how it should happen then you have problems the key is you want to connect with them you want them to fall in love with you you want them to be inspired you want them to feel better about themselves when they are around you than when they are not and if you can achieve it, they will go to war for you.