If you want to achieve in life you must grow somewhat more carefully after each notch of success you conquer. Over time, you'll see the good, bad, and ugly of human nature, and as you do you'll begin to realize how risk and reward works, and also a good deal about human motivation and how Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and free-market philosophy work in the real world, when they are not manipulated by Machiavellian takers.
Achievement is possible, it's just so many people don't understand the simplicity in all the abundance of information, PR tricks, and perceived complexity.
Not long ago, I read a very interesting piece in the New York Times on May 31, 2011 titled "Not a Flashy Investor, Just Successful" by Julie Creswell which talked about Martin Sass and stated that he; "Martin Sass runs a boutique investment firm with $8 billion in assets. He doesn't believe in get-rich-quick schemes and has "a healthy degree of paranoia." After, I read that, and the entire article, I thought to myself, how this is my type of person, how his skepticism, cynicism, and mild-paranoia kept him away from the likes of Bernie Madoff, Allan Sanford, and others over the years.
Do you remember the former CEO and President of Intel, Andy Grove? In his memoirs and biography he wrote a book titled "Only the Paranoid Survive" - and I believe that was the proper title for someone who was president of the largest semi conductor Corporation in the world at the time. Actually, it still is, and for good reason, including the ability to leapfrog the competition, not falling for unproven new trendy concepts, and a good healthy degree of paranoia.
Folks who are well grounded realize that there is no easy way, that all things are possible but require hard work ethic, intelligence, and a bit of integrity. At the same time they must realize that not everyone thinks like that, and there are plenty of "get rich quickers" out there willing to take shortcuts, and do whatever it takes to make deals. Those who've been around the block enough times can spot a phony when they see them, and quite frankly we are smart enough to stay away from them.
Does it make sense to live your life full of paranoia? No, of course not, but you also need to realize that there are others out there who wish you ill, and will do whatever it takes to see to your downfall in order to get the advantage for themselves without working for it. I believe you should take the highroad, and understand a little paranoia is okay, and get-rich-quick-schemes are not. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 23,444 articles by June 4, 2011 is difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off..
0 comments:
Post a Comment