Jim Brumm: Long-Term Thinking for a Short-Sighted World

Until the worst happens, we tend to consider ourselves immune to catastrophes. However, sooner or later, you may have to face a critical situation in your life. Sickness, loss of a job, a flood, a car accident, or poverty can happen to anyone.

Misfortune may knock on your door without warning. If it catches you unprepared, it will inflict you more damage than the absolutely necessary. When adversity takes the upper hand, you won't be able to prevent all negative consequences, but you should at least strive to minimize them.

How can you remain alert and detect danger before it grows to threatening proportions? What measures can you take to cut your losses and stabilize the situation? Which qualities should you cultivate to strengthen your forces and resources?

In difficult times, there are three assets that prove particularly valuable: psychological resilience, the ability to view problems in perspective, and the willingness to take continual action.

To be continued in Part 2

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Anxiety and depression, the undesirable companions of modern times, are spreading their nets over growing segments of the population. If those problems have not been solved yet, we can certainly not blame it on the lack of trying:

Unfortunately, from the many pharmaceuticals in the market against this predicament, none has proven universally effective, it is unclear to what extent therapy helps and which sort is best, and furthermore, special diets and exercise often consume the little energy that people have left.

Like for any other problem, treating the symptoms without correcting the cause brings about little improvement. Smoking or eating chocolate might improve your mood for a while, but in the long run, those approaches are unsustainable for your health.

If we look around these days, we can not fail to notice how psychological problems aggravate in times of recession. When the economy was growing, have we not all witnessed how optimism rendered people happier? Should we not conclude that there is a direct link between economic security and mental well-being?

You will find many books that argue that the best way to face difficulties is to change your thoughts. Those books will tell you that you can become positive and motivated by means of repetition and suggestion, even though the reality around you sucks like a vacuum.

Although the cheerful approach does work for some people, for many others, groundless optimism shows little success as a method of improving their life. Luckily, there is an alternative method for those who prefer more down-to-earth solutions.

The theory is that we can be happier if we improve the level of economic security in our lives, since that would eliminate a good part of the reasons for anxiety and depression. Irrespective of any positive thinking, people who are able to cover their living expenses for the next months tend to worry much less when they lose their job.

Can anyone accumulate enough savings to achieve a reasonable level of economic security? Is there a way for all of us to reach the peace of mind and well-being that come from feeling in control of our own life? Yes, this is indeed possible, whatever your personal situation. The guaranteed way to achieve economic security is to live modestly.

If you make little money, you should spend even less, so that every month you can save some. If you make a lot, you should spend with caution and regularly put aside part of it. Rainy days don't bring the blues to those who are depression-proof, so forget about psychological tricks and focus on the facts of reality.

It is up to you to adopt a lifestyle that will allow you to accumulate sufficient savings and enjoy the self-confidence that goes with them. Living frugally might not make you popular, but it will sure make you wiser.

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"To persevere in obstinate condolence is a course of impious stubbornness," wrote Shakespeare in his play Hamlet in the year 1601. Persistence is often presented as the key element of entrepreneurial success, but this approach misses 99% of what makes a business viable and prosperous.

A man can waste his life digging holes on the ground without achieving any positive results. No matter what goal we choose to pursue, our energies and resources will be always limited. Overemphasising persistence can lead to commercial arrogance and blindness. Success is one, but errors can be infinite:

• Repeatedly asking people who are obviously not interested.
• Continue to use distribution channels that have proven inappropriate for certain products.
• Sticking to formats or contents that customers don't like.
• Adopting a communication strategy that alienates the best prospects for your business.

The key element of successful entrepreneurship has nothing to do with persistence. Starting and growing a business has little to do with stubbornness and everything with flexibility. It is a psychological trait that is stifled by rigidity and enhanced by change.

Entrepreneurship is a skill that has everything to do with perception and vision. It is an ability that goes far beyond the sphere of commerce and that can be applied to all areas of human life, from cooking at home, to repairing old clothes. If I had to give the shortest definition of entrepreneurship, I would propose the words "realistic double vision."

What sets entrepreneurs apart from the rest of the population is their capacity to link current problems to potential solutions that can be implemented realistically. While many devote countless hours to complain about problems, the entrepreneurial mind is steadily focused on figuring out solutions and assessing their feasibility.

Such double vision, when exercised systematically, conveys powers resembling a higher level of awareness. This skill, which is half-psychological and half-material, is the only characteristic present in all entrepreneurs.

Double vision is a talent that dwarfs the role played by persistence. The bridge between perceived problems and realistic solutions can be built in ten different ways:

1. ASSEMBLY: Changes in design that make products easier and cheaper to manufacture.
2. SPACE: Moving products from low-demand to high-demand territories.
3. PACKAGING: Repackaging old content into highly attractive new products.
4. HUMAN: Organizing or motivating people in ways that dramatically increase the value of their output.
5. TIME: Figuring out how to increase dramatically the speed of delivering a service.
6. MATERIALS: Replacing old materials by new ones that increase the perceived value of products.
7. STORY: Associating a story to products that renders them popular.
8. DISTRIBUTION: Finding more efficient ways to use existing distribution channels.
9. FINANCE: Identifying ways to fund a venture that previously seemed unfeasible.
10. MERGE OR SPLIT: Splitting, disaggregating, or uniting elements in ways that make them more valuable to consumers.

Entrepreneurs dig holes on the ground only if they have good reasons to believe that this is a feasible solution to a burning problem. Their psychological energies and material resources are focused on identifying viable responses to perceived opportunities.

I propose "realistic double vision" as optimal methodology to define, teach, and develop entrepreneurship, or as Shakespeare put it in Hamlet, "making more matter with less art."

[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]

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Penguins don't care how long it takes them to catch their daily fish quota. Year after year, they go through the same routine, hardly improving anything. Their survival is entirely based on the expectation of zero change. From the 32 million estimated living penguins, none gives a damn about productivity. They don't save for the future and often remain unaware of the existence of predators until it is too late to do anything about it.

Contrary to what is portrayed in cartoons and children books, penguins are neither creative nor funny. This is proven by the fact that tourists going to the Stewart Islands in New Zealand rarely devote more than a couple of hours to watch penguins. "I had never realized that penguins were so passive," Japanese tourists frequently comment. "They just stand there for hours and do nothing."

Practically without exception, tourists return home with the conviction that being a penguin is not really that much fun. Luckily, most humans come to a similar conclusion by the time we grow up. Hanging around, squandering our life away, is not a viable option for those who aspire to happiness. Only purposeful action and continued achievement fulfil our psychological need to feel in control of our future.

Irrespective of the field involved, personal initiative is a major element of happiness. It matters little whether you choose to devote yourself to growing your company, writing music, searching for an effective treatment of cancer, or raising your kids to become great human beings. Our rational nature takes pleasure in every achievement. No matter how small our victories, we all love to tell our friends about them.

• AT WORK: when you figure out a way to complete a task quicker than anyone expected.
• AT HOME: when you manage to fix an old appliance that was considered beyond repair.
• IN SPORTS: when you succeed at running faster and score additional points.
• IN INVESTING: when you see the value of your assets go up and feel your strategy vindicated.
• IN YOUR LIFESTYLE: when you achieve simplicity and eliminate waste.
• IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS: when you focus on honesty and creativity
• IN YOUR PHILOSOPHY: when you view life as a flow of actions that can be continuously improved.

Consider that there is a good reason behind the passivity of penguins: although they know how to catch fish, they don't realize that, one day, they are going to die. None of us, however, can hide behind that sort of ignorance. Understanding the link between personal initiative and happiness represents a major step towards a brighter life.

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At a time when computers did not yet exist, the scope of such project could have exhausted the resources of any publishing house. Hundreds of words would have to be indexed, definitions would have to be written, quotations revised, and references organized.

The Bible Concordance was a gigantic enterprise, but Alexander Cruden carried it out alone. He did the complete work on his own, from beginning to end, without any help. It took him 12 years to complete the book, which he published himself when he was 38th years old.

The project demanded the very best of Cruden's talents: his knowledge of classical languages and his extensive Bible expertise. The book, which sold slowly in the beginning, became a success after its second edition in 1761. During the last decade of his life, Alexander Cruden was able to enjoy the well-deserved success of his labour.

Since its first publication in 1737, Cruden's Bible Concordance has remained uninterruptedly in print. It has sold a large number of copies around the world and remains a testimony of how much an individual can achieve by following the right strategy.

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When he was in his fifties, Alexander Cruden gave himself the surname “the Corrector” and petitioned the English Parliament to appoint him “Corrector of the Morals of the Nation.” Despite Cruden's sustained efforts to convince Members of Parliament to grant him this title, it was all to no avail.

Cruden's fixation with correctness reached such an extreme that, when he went out of his home, he carried a sponge with which he deleted any signs that he found in the street that he considered against good morals, grammar, or spelling. Such attitude led him to conflicts in which he defended his views with emphasis and determination.

His activities as self-appointed public corrector did secure Cruden a place in the list of History's great eccentrics, but contributed little to exploit his talents. Even if the man possessed genius, his obsession with righteousness did not produce a successful outcome.

To his advantage and that of posterity, Cruden simultaneously pursued his writing ambitions. When he was in his mid-thirties, he conceived the idea of a dictionary that would explain every concept in the Bible.

To be continued in Part 5

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[1] Stabilize the situation: While he figured out how to make the best of his life, Cruden took a job as a tutor in London, in the house of wealthy family. After a while, he found a position as proof corrector, supervising publications. These jobs allowed him to put some of his knowledge to good use.

[2] Identify the best opportunities to exploit his talent: Eventually, Cruden realized that he would be better off working for himself and began a book-selling business in central London. In parallel, he started to write, hoping to attain recognition and financial success.

Alexander Cruden's plan was impeccable and, given enough time, it would have produced substantial benefits with limited risks. Unfortunately, in addition to adopting the best possible strategy, he also chose, at the same time, to embrace the worst.

For reasons that nowadays are difficult to fathom, Cruden became obsessed with righteousness and language. Single-handedly, he undertook a campaign to protect the morals of England and efface bad spelling from public life. It was a bizarre crusade which, in the eyes of many, made Cruden look quite mad.

To be continued in Part 4

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Cruden was born in Scotland and studied in Aberdeen with the goal of becoming a priest. During his training, he acquired a deep command of Greek and Latin, as well as detailed knowledge of the Bible. In his early twenties, while he was preparing himself to be ordained, he fell in love with his professor's daughter, who apparently was already involved with another man.

The problems that ensued blocked Cruden's ordination and forced him to move from Scotland to London in order to find a job. Since he could no longer become a priest, the question was how he could exploit his talents in the best possible manner.

Undoubtedly, Cruden must have experienced his failure to attain ordination as a major shock. His studies in Aberdeen had allowed him to acquire extensive expertise but only in areas that had little application outside the church.

His natural path to personal growth was obstructed and his employment prospects were bleak. If you had been in Alexander Cruden's shoes, what actions would you have undertaken to turn around the situation? Which strategy would you have adopted to exploit your talent? This is what Cruden did:

To be continued in Part 3

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Everybody has talents waiting to be developed. Education may give you the opportunity to move into your chosen direction provided that you take the right courses.

Similarly, the labour market offers many different positions; if you obtain suitable employment, you will learn and thrive; on the other hand, if your job is unchallenging, you will not have much fun.

This principle, which seems so obvious and forceful, is extraordinarily difficult to implement. Most people are aware of the desirability of personal growth, but few individuals manage to exploit their talents to the maximum. Is this phenomenon due to lack of ambition? Would the problem be solved if those persons possessed greater determination?

If acquiring a stronger psychology was the answer, obstacles to personal growth would be easier to overcome. Those who wish to further their career would just need to attend a course on motivation or listen to an audio-book on the subject.

Even if there is no shortage of such courses and audio-books, the results speak for themselves. People's lives are affected for a short period of time, a few days or weeks, before they return to previous patterns.

An intense desire for personal growth does not guarantee a positive result. People fail in such endeavours because they lack any of the three indispensable elements: either they have not identified their specific talents, or they fail to develop them, or they cannot figure out how to exploit them commercially.

Those three factors, if applied consistently, can result in phenomenal accomplishments. In contrast, when any of those three ingredients is missing, little will be achieved. If you do not focus on your best qualities, education will hardly increase your effectiveness. If you labour in the wrong field, you will experience boredom.

Readers who live in the United Kingdom have probably heard of Alexander Cruden (1699-1770). His life provides us a compelling example of the results of adopting brilliant and mistaken strategies for personal development.

Like many talented people, Cruden attempted to improve his station in life through personal initiative. However, his well-intended actions did not always produce positive results.

To be continued in Part 2

[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]

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Everybody has talents waiting to be developed. Education may give you the opportunity to move into your chosen direction provided that you take the right courses.

Similarly, the labour market offers many different positions; if you obtain suitable employment, you will learn and thrive; on the other hand, if your job is unchallenging, you will not have much fun.

This principle, which seems so obvious and forceful, is extraordinarily difficult to implement. Most people are aware of the desirability of personal growth, but few individuals manage to exploit their talents to the maximum. Is this phenomenon due to lack of ambition? Would the problem be solved if those persons possessed greater determination?

If acquiring a stronger psychology was the answer, obstacles to personal growth would be easier to overcome. Those who wish to further their career would just need to attend a course on motivation or listen to an audio-book on the subject.

Even if there is no shortage of such courses and audio-books, the results speak for themselves. People's lives are affected for a short period of time, a few days or weeks, before they return to previous patterns.

An intense desire for personal growth does not guarantee a positive result. People fail in such endeavours because they lack any of the three indispensable elements: either they have not identified their specific talents, or they fail to develop them, or they cannot figure out how to exploit them commercially.

Those three factors, if applied consistently, can result in phenomenal accomplishments. In contrast, when any of those three ingredients is missing, little will be achieved. If you do not focus on your best qualities, education will hardly increase your effectiveness. If you labour in the wrong field, you will experience boredom.

Readers who live in the United Kingdom have probably heard of Alexander Cruden (1699-1770). His life provides us a compelling example of the results of adopting brilliant and mistaken strategies for personal development.

Like many talented people, Cruden attempted to improve his station in life through personal initiative. However, his well-intended actions did not always produce positive results.

To be continued in Part 2

[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]

[Image by Antonio Fiol under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us]

"Never trade a risk for a lie," is a sound investment principle. Placing our hopes on uncertain possibilities is a better approach than believing apparent truths that rest on false premises and unrealistic promises. If you look around, you will find no lack of recipes for happiness. Here is a list of methods that don't work, never have, and never will:

• Dubious or unethical practices.
• Abusing people in any way.
• Seeking short-term gains that wipe out future progress.
• Complaining about deficiencies.
• Trusting luck.

Even under the best circumstances, attaining peace of mind and happiness requires substantial work. Without the right principles, those endowed with prodigious gifts by heredity will just bury themselves in sorrow through mistakes and inconsistencies. You can find evidence of this by opening any newspaper.

What is the essence of happiness? How is it determined? How can we steer our life in its direction? These questions can be answered only by pointing out the main difference between human and animal psychology.

Animals' moods are indissolubly connected to their immediate perceptions. For humans, this link is immeasurably more complex. Since ancient times, philosophers have wondered why different individuals react to the same event with anger, fear, anxiety, or happiness.

Relativism does not explain anything and serves only to obfuscate truth. "Anything can be good or bad," is not a valid proposition, in particular when one faces catastrophe or personal tragedy.

Arbitrary valuations of events are nothing but sophisticated lies aimed at manipulating the naive. What really creates contrasting levels of happiness is how individuals interpret events according to their convictions about the past, present, and future:

1.- ABOUT THE PAST: No matter how painful, past events can often be reinterpreted as learning experiences. When this approach is unfeasible, preceding mistakes or bad luck must be simply accepted stoically. Each human life is unique and must carry its own past, whether positive or negative. From old days, draw lessons if you will, but above all, develop your acceptance skills.

2.- ABOUT THE PRESENT: Difficulties and, in particular, boring or unpleasant work are much better accepted by individuals who link them to their long-term personal objectives. Men and women of high ambitions know that performing daily routines well is a requisite of progress. The contentment of those who look beyond the present remains incomprehensible to short-term mentalities. This is why the same work can be experienced, depending on individual goals, either as dead-end or as a step forward.

3.- ABOUT THE FUTURE: Progress derived from focused routines leads to achievement. The path to success might be irregular, advancement slow, and results below expectations, but you can always find another road that will take you father. Animals cannot assess their actions by linking them to long-term objectives. Human happiness is, to a great extent, the result of making such connection and anticipating those goals.

Routine, progress, and achievement constitute the sequence of happiness. Viewing the unique thread that links our past, present, and future is a fundamental gift of philosophy. Peace of mind and happiness start and end with personal responsibility. May all your present routines fit well your chosen destination.

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According to the tradition, Confucius resigned his job when he was 55 years old and devoted the next 13 years of his life to preaching his ideals. During those 13 years, he wandered around different provinces of China, accompanied by a few disciples, looking for elevated souls who would appreciate his philosophical ideas.

In this respect, Confucius was following one of his own precepts: "Seek out companions who are honest, truthful, and knowledgeable. Avoid those who are arrogant, lie, or compromise their principles."

In the year 484 B.C., after the long pilgrimage, Confucius returned to his old town. He was tired of travelling and disappointed with the people he had met. His long search for perfect associates had been a failure. In all places he had visited, he had only met scorn, ignorance, and disdain for knowledge.

When Confucius settled down again in his town, he was already 68 years old. Since he knew that he would not live much longer, he asked himself how he should devote the remaining time of his life. A lesser man might have become sorrowful and bitter, but not Confucius. He was honest and clever enough to look at his previous 13 years and recognize that he had made a mistake.

He had been searching for something that did not exist. He had been wandering the desert in pursue of a mirage. "Perfect places and perfect people do not exist," he concluded. "Those are not the result of nature, but of our own making." During the next 5 years, until the day of his death, Confucius changed his strategy.

• He gave up all attempts to preach to strangers.
• He decided to focus his efforts on teaching those who were willing to listen to him.
• He avoided heated arguments with anyone who disagreed with him.

Accepting that many men have no interest in philosophy or truth was not easier for Confucius than for anyone else. "Each man has the right to believe his own foolish ideas, to refuse to face the facts of reality, and to make his own mistakes," is an insight to which many come only after a long series of disappointing experiences.

For Confucius, that process of discovery took 13 years. Luckily, he made up for the wasted time during the remaining 5 years of his life, which he devoted to writing and to teaching a few loyal disciples in his own town. Those followers were the men who would later spread Confucius' teachings across China, setting up the basis for transmitting his writings through the centuries.

None of us needs to repeat Confucius' mistake. The lesson has been taught and should be learned forever. Nobody has to waste 13 years of his life preaching in a desert of ignorance.

If you have something valuable to say or something worthy to sell, there is no point in devoting your energies to convincing those who do not care. Instead, seek out those who can appreciate it and forget about the rest. Life is too short for chasing what cannot be achieved.

[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]

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"Luck is the result of a previous action," wrote Aristotle in his essay Physics in the year 329 B.C. "In this respect, one can also say that happiness and good fortune are the result of previous good actions." Few would dispute that living to become 100 years old is a particularly appealing sort of good fortune.

Many would be ready to pay a fortune for such privilege, but contemporary medicine still has major difficulties to extend a man's life beyond his eighty-fifth birthday. In the course of the last three decades, scientific studies on longevity have outgrown the status of fringe curiosities.

Today, trying to figure out how human beings could live longer occupies a central place in medical research. "Time is a measure of motion and change," observed Aristotle. "Growing old shows the effect of time on living entities." When researching longevity, the approach taken by the great majority of scientists has been based on the following five steps:

1. Seek out very old people in different countries.
2. Talk to them and to their families.
3. Organize the information in four areas, namely, genetic characteristics, environment, lifestyle, and food.
4. Compare the details in each area.
5. Identify patterns that explain why those people live much longer than average.

In the late seventies, a population survey in Okinawa, a group of islands located between Japan and Taiwan, discovered an unusually large population segment that had reached an age beyond ninety years old. The scientific investigation conducted with Okinawan men and women led to the same results as studies carried out in other areas of the world.

No one can modify the genetic characteristics of human beings after their birth, at least for the moment, but researchers agree that we are able to influence the other three factors that determine longevity. These are some of the ways of turning those factors in our favour:

• ENVIRONMENT: If possible, move to live in an unpolluted area, free of smoke, industrial fallout, and with abundant green areas for relaxation.

• LIFESTYLE: Try to spend a good part of the day outside, cycling, gardening, or simply walking. Live close to friends and see them often. Pursue long-term interests in fields that require continuous learning, skill development, and intellectual concentration. Follow your passions.

• FOOD: Eat moderately and seek to maintain a stable weight. Food affects people in various ways and there is no universal formula for youth. In general, it seems that legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fish tend to further essential biochemical processes at cellular level. Find out which precise diet works best for you by observing how your metabolism reacts to different foods.

"Virtues are actions that move us in the direction of happiness," defined Aristotle. "In order to find out the right direction to follow, a man should think of the likely effects of his actions." Let us learn how to live properly by learning from reality. The more we learn, the longer and happier our life will be.

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Raphael, who many consider one of the most talented painters in History, only lived 37 years, but authored more than a hundred paintings. In contrast, Leonardo, who lived to become 67 years old, only produced a few dozen works. How many other brilliant paintings could Leonardo have created if he had focused on this line of activity?

We know that Leonardo was perfectly aware of this problem, since he spent his life moving from one project to another. At 28, he interrupted his work on his painting “St. Jerome” and never found time to finish it. At 29, he went off to Milan and abandoned in Florence his half-way completed painting “Adoration of the Magi,” which he never retook.

At 40, Leonardo obtained a commission for an equestrian monument in Milan, but the project also remained uncompleted. Leonardo did manage to produce a horse clay model for the monument, but by the time the horse was ready to be cast in bronze, Leonardo's client decided to use the bronze to manufacture cannons.

Long-term achievement requires stable purpose. Zigzagging can also lead to success, but such success will tend to be of sort duration. Personal efforts, like investments, go farther when they are compounded through time. Each step of a career should consolidate yesterday's accomplishments and prepare the next. Permanent improvement requires psychological stability.

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Fair enough, but if you look at all those projects with the cold eye of a tax accountant, you will be forced to classify most of them as “work in progress.” My point is that, if Leonardo da Vinci lived today, he would probably remain unknown or attain only modest success.

In our days, innovation and competition are fierce in every field. As a group, artists, scientists, physicians, and inventors never rest in the age of internet. The global economy guarantees that someone, somewhere is about to overtake your achievements or take over your company.

There is so much to learn in every field that contemporary artists and professionals can rarely afford to engage in unproductive ventures. The market wants perfect products and reliable services. Nobody cares if you are a genius. What counts is whether you are able to deliver extraordinary value to paying customers.

More often than not, zigzagging will slow you down and waste your opportunities. The difference between Leonardo da Vinci and his contemporary Raphael da Urbino (1483-1520) provides a striking illustration of this principle.

To be continued in Part 5

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Except for a few dozen paintings, the fact is that Leonardo da Vinci almost never finished anything he started. He made copious notes about inventions which never took off the ground. He spent two years making drawings to illustrate an anatomy book that was never published in his lifetime. He also made designs for churches that were never built.

If you have a talented son who leads his life in imitation of Leonardo da Vinci's, your patience might not outlast your disappointments. You will come to regret your son's inability to focus on a specific field and further his career. You will also have to endure the sight of your son's being surpassed in honours and wealth by others who possess less talent but more determination.

Reality is structured in a way that rewards constant work and stable purpose. Zigzagging can be psychologically rewarding, but seldom leads to extraordinary achievement. Even highly talented individuals need time to acquire expertise and establish themselves in the market. Customers pay for products and services, not for unfinished designs.

When you study History, you will hear many great things about Leonardo da Vinci. Art teachers will tell you about Leonardo's genius, physicians about his prodigious knowledge of human anatomy, and engineers about his visionary design of a flying machine.

To be continued in Part 4

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