After taking a quick vacation we’re back to posting. The two most vouched for items were a fitness routine and belief systems. Today, we’ll start with the latter.
Girls:
Overview: The first tenet that applies to both men and women is that you cannot make a person do anything. You can only sell them on doing something. In addition, the older a person gets the more set in their ways they become.
Given that backdrop, the ideal girl for you is going to be different from the ideal girl for person B, C and D. You look at the mosaic of the girl and bucket her as you wish. Maybe she’s relationship material, maybe she’s only good for a one night stand and maybe she’s simply someone who is going to dislike you upon hello. Nothing can be done about this.
Once you recognize that you can do nothing to change the initial woman you’re meeting, your fears of rejection will go away. As an example… If you’re well dressed and well groomed when you approach a woman and her first reaction is to tell you “Go away you’re ugly!”… Is that really a person you want to meet in the first place? The answer of course is no. You should have a good laugh because someone is going to pick her up and become disappointed in his choice later on. You won that war.
No Woman Is Perfect: Once you stop looking for a perfect woman you’re going to broaden the set of women you approach. Dramatically. If you like 80% of her you’re in great shape, if you like 90% of her you’re in better shape and if you like 50% of her then you’re looking at a one-night stand at maximum.
American Women: They are a function of the environment we live in. The USA is incredibly prosperous and no one is in dire need of food or shelter (relative to other countries) so they have no reason to *need* a man. Simply accept this as part of the territory. You cannot change how American culture operates. You’re better off improving yourself and ignoring all the doom and gloom about the USA. If it gets bad enough go ahead and ex-patriate.
Cheating: If you decide on the relationship route, do not spend a split second worrying about your girlfriend cheating on you. It is a waste of your valuable time. Simply assume she is not (unless your social cues catch on).
If she is cheating? Simply leave. Do not give her the war by showing any emotions. You explain that she did XYZ and that you’re leaving. Emotionless and cold. You do not return any phone calls, text messages or emails. You are gone. If you become emotional or cry when someone disrespects you, you’ve already lost as it implies you cared about their opinion in the first place. There are no second chances.
Women are Hyper Competitive: You’ll find that women are quite catty. They will compare the status of other women who are similar to them in some way and become jealous incredibly easily. Jealousy truly is a female trait. This is fine and appears to be part of human nature. Under no circumstances, however, should a man become jealous of another man.
Women are Fun: No man with good game can possibly debate this. A girl you find attractive who is entertaining, bubbly and fun is going to put you in a state of calm quite quickly. If you are speaking to another man and he does not find women to be both fun and relaxing you’re speaking to a man with very poor people skills or minimal experience.
Marriage: Under no circumstances do you get legally married in the USA. The court is against you and she will have no reason to be loyal to you. At most you give her a ring, give her the ceremony, but you do not sign the contract. At the end of the day, if she is in love with you, she’s going to be okay with this arrangement.
Cliff Notes: With the belief system summarized above here’s the cliff notes: 1) you need game in order to sell a woman on going on a date, 2) there is no ideal woman only a person who fulfills your list of needs – example list: Loyal, Bubbly, Size C Chest, Age 21-24, enjoys swimming, 3) American women need you the least so your search is likely harder, this would happen in every country around the world if given the same GDP, 4) Don’t waste time on stalking a girl’s every move – it reeks of insecurity, 5) Women get jealous of other women quickly, 6) women are a lot of fun, so if you’re not having fun meeting them you’re in the wrong place or taking it far too seriously
Work
Overview: As we have stated before, retirement is a scam because work is only work if it is something you don’t want to do. The fastest way to avoid doing something is to have enough cash to work in any profession you wish. Cash flow is king.
Careers vs. Jobs: A career is something everyone should have, a job is something everyone should do when they are in high school to become more motivated about their future careers. How so? A job trades time for money and a career has leverage. We have beaten this one to death so we’ll leave it there.
Law of Positivity: Under no circumstances do you say anything negative about an individual. None. You simply say nothing and shine the light on something positive instead. No one gets credit for bringing another person down. Repeat that one many times over. If you bring someone down and they become aware of it… There are quite a lot of people who will do far worse to you than yell at you. Avoid any negative associations as it is not worth the risk.
On the same topic, the implied message is to bring as many people up as possible. If you know person A is better than person B, you do not say anything about person B. You simply phrase your opinion as follows “I believe person A is ready for that task at this time”.
Co-workers are Not Friends: Absolutely everyone who competes directly with you is not your friend. Do not make this mistake or suffer the consequences. The only co-worker friend relationship you have should be 100% unrelated to your job function. If you are part of an investment banking associate class and believe another associate on that floor will help you… Get ready for a pink slip if it means he can make an extra $5K getting you fired.
Go High Up the Chain: If at all possible always develop a positive relationship with a top tier manager. This does not mean your boss, but two levels above him. If you can obtain momentum from a person 2x more powerful than your boss, it is going to be significantly harder for him to view you negatively (hint hint you’re helping his pocket book as well with this positive association). While not fun to talk about office politics matters a lot.
Savings Improve Performance: Another reason you should save aggressively? The more money you have in your pocket the less stressed out you become and the more efficient you are at work. Don’t believe us? See how you feel when you have your first debt free day or first $100K net worth day etc. You’ll focus much more on the task at hand as the back of your mind will no longer be clouded with financial worries.
Cliff Notes: We have written a lot about work in the past but some small items were added above. The short of it is as follows: 1) always choose a career, 2) do not bring down any employee – large or small, 3) positive momentum will apply to your career – eg: help a low end employee get promoted implies you’re a good manager, 4) directly competitive co-workers are not friends, 5) reach for the juggular at all times – develop as high up the chain as possible, 6) politics matters a lot, 7) cash in your pocket will improve your performance and finally 8) the more money you have the less likely you have to do anything you dislike.
Investing
While the commenter did not specifically ask for this one (we’ll have a few more) it is an important one. The best piece of advice we could give is the following: “When it comes to investing you should be a machine”. Anyone can get rich over a long duration.
95% of People Will Fail: That is a startling and negative comment. But, it’s the truth. By 40 years old most people do not have $100K to their name. This is hardly a drop in the bucket. The positive side? It is incredibly easy to find mentors in their 30s and 40s. Just look for someone who built their net worth from zero.
Doom and Gloom: Every single doom and gloom prophet is of no value. If you listen to the media, they have correctly predicted 25 recessions out of the last 2 we have had over the past 25 years. If you do not get that comment then you’re in trouble! You’re going to be perfectly fine if you simply invest in assets and never sell.
Financial Statements: If you cannot read them or build them you should never have exposure to a single security. Under no circumstances.
During a Recession: In short, nothing changes. You already have cash on the sidelines as we have outlined previously so you continue to buy. “Fear is a bigger driver than Euphoria” what this means is euphoria will drive a security to high prices but fear will bring it down below the actual value. The mathematical fact is you’ll gain from fear. Fear is opportunity for the mechanical investor.
Macroeconomic Predictions: Even Warren Buffet who runs $80B+ has no predictions for the macroeconomic environment. Neither should you. Anyone who tries to predict the world is playing God and is likely broke. Just smile and nod.
Cliff Notes: Summarizing the section 1) most people won’t invest or will simply fail at it, 2) Doom and Gloom prophets are of no value to society, 3) if you can’t understand the financial implications of a company you shouldn’t invest in it, 4) fear is opportunity for the intelligent investor, 5) macroeconomic predictions are a waste of time.. Don’t believe us? When the S&P hit 1,700 we posted this idea yet people simply still asked about the macro… we’re at 2,000+ now.
Friends and Acquaintances
Overview: If you have more than 5 real friends your life is already set. Do not worry about about having a lot of friends as your standards should raise dramatically each year bringing your true friend count down over time. Once you realize you have 5 friends you’re a wealthy man. You should however, have hundreds of acquaintances which will serve as valuable networking tools for you in the future.
Friends: A friend is someone who will actually help you financially and physically if a negative event occurred in your life. This does not mean a brawl at a bar (leave this to the fools who fight in bars), it means a true life changing event. They should be willing to drop what they are doing and help you regardless of the near-term cost. The number of people you will meet who can either 1) afford both of these tasks and 2) be willing to do these tasks will be less than 0.01%. You should return the favor as well. This relationship is not written as a contract but is well known by both of you, under no circumstances would either of you flinch if a real problem arises. Cost and time are not issues when helping either of you recover. If you think about the underlined section you’ll realize how little friends you truly have.
Acquaintances: This is the difference between healthy social skills and unhealthy social skills. While a club owner may give you free entrance and free drinks you know it is still a tit-for-tat arrangement. You’re going to help bring attractive girls in from time to time, or you’re going to leave a heavy tip as a thank you for the “boost in status” when you’re at the venue. This tit-for-tat arrangement is great for both parties, he makes slightly more money as you bring in girls and you know how to leverage the perceived status. Under no circumstances do you confuse an acquaintance with a friend, keep them separate.
Managing the Friendship/Acquaintance: This is quite easy with a friendship, if you’ve known each other for 5-10+ years its easy to keep them happy. You simply keep improving. On the acquaintance side they are usually more interested in how they feel in your presence. In short, you keep them happy by allowing them to use the perks of other acquaintances you’ve established. See how positive momentum applies to friends as well? Ideally they become acquaintances.
Have a Spine: You will end many acquaintances and friendships over the course of a couple of decades. In short if someone insults you there are no second chances. An insult is clear where as a typical ribbing is not. As a rule of thumb if people consider you petty you’re ending too many relationships. If people believe you’re a happy-go-lucky person… but you feel insulted… It’s likely time to walk. It bears repeating, only a fool would give second chances since there are too many talented people out there.
Cliff Notes: You do not need many friends, a handful is more than enough and remember 1) do not confuse friends for acquaintances, 2) have clear separation between the two groups, 3) maintain a positive tit-for-tat relationship with acquaintances, 4) have an extremely strong spine and walk when you realize someone is dragging you down – no apologies.
Life
Overview: Now for the bulkier part of the post, if we think about all of the sub sections written above we can now form an overall thesis on how to evaluate your life. The goal of life is to maximize life-time happiness. If you can spend 100 years out of your 100 years of life in a state of happiness, you’ve won. The chances of this is zero percent of course, since everyone will have a bad day, but it remains as the number one goal.
Grind Through Your 20s: Why do we recommend this? It works. That is simply the best answer. As you move into your 30s you will notice that your body is slowing down relative to your 20 year old self. Even athletes who take performance enhancing drugs cannot compete with men in their mid 20s. In addition? All of the fun activities that can be done at age 25 can be done at 35. Therefore it makes a lot more sense to work hard in your 20s and find what makes you happy… Then spend your money on fun in the following decade.
60 years: This is another reason retirement is a scam. If you go and work in healthcare you will find that most people are not functional by 60 years old. What can you really do with $10M by 60? The answer is practically nothing. You want enough money to take care of basic needs and should not have any regrets about the past 20 years. Think about the 60 years as a weighted timeline.
At age 20 you should spend 15% of time on fun (chasing girls, drinking, socializing), 85% on improvement (sports/health, career/business) by the time you’re 30 this should shift to a 25%/75%, 35 years old it should be 45%/55%, by 40 years old 75%/25%. Then likely maintain that ratio for the rest of your life.
25% of your time with a successful career/business should allow you to reap what you have sown. The sad part is most will be unable to live this type of life.
Avoid the Herd: We got a few questions about being stressed out while in your early 20s after making all the right decisions. This is a funny one because it is mentally taxing to do the opposite of the herd. That is half of the reason why this blog exists in the first place. Make no mistake to everyone who made the right decisions, by the time you’re 3-4 years into your career you’ll be too far ahead of your peers to be caught. You can take that to the bank.
It is painful watching everyone else have fun but they will be the exact same people asking you for advice from 25 years old and beyond. Get ready to walk away from a lot of acquaintances, some may even attempt to drag you down.
Always Learning: Under no circumstances do you allow your brain to rot. If you are not reading something with your spare time, go and buy a book today. Anything. If you cannot think of a book we recommend several. This is the easiest way to remain interesting in conversations. Finally, you learn nothing from television – nothing, use it for entertaining guests but it should not interest you in the slightest.
Confidence is Built Overtime: Absolutely nothing good happens over night. If you are able to stay the course in life, making the right decisions consistently, it will snowball. Confidence just like knowledge, just like investing, compounds over time.
Cliff Notes: Everyone is going to have a different belief system but we believe this posts outlines some good ones to get you started.
1) Do not expect women to be anything besides women. Asking them to be men is absurd.
2) You build your life up over a long period of time, since decisions compound, the earlier you get started the better off you will be
3) Cash is your friend as it buys you time. It buys you life.
4) Only a fool will not work hard in his 20s, he will not be able to catch you in his 30s since he simply won’t have the energy
5) “What is everyone else doing, it is probably a bad idea”
6) Walk away from life cancers immediately, have a backbone
7) Say nothing or say something positive, you gain nothing from dragging someone down. The only thing that is gained is anger in your heart and mind.
8) It bears repeating, if you have 5 friends you are a lucky man
9) Health > Wealth
10) Finally, balance. The best way to find balance (entire post objective), is to find people who are older than you that are living the life you wish to live (or a similar life if you already won!)
