I just read this: Debt Man Walking.
Well Damn. It sort of reinforces my distrust for large organizations (big business, government, etc). Is there nothing they can’t screw up? Seriously, people with the arrogance and hubris that think they can build huge complicated systems that are going to last hundreds of years – piss me off.
First, these systems don’t last very long. When they come crashing down they usually aren’t the ones who get to belly up to the big bowl of suck they just made. The CEO’s and other people on Wall Street who helped put together the housing bubble aren’t going to get fucked over in this. The Senators and Representatives in congress won’t be thrown out of office for this. The lobbyists won’t be going to jail. Instead people who want nothing more than to have a decent boring life are going to get to have some stomach acid for a while. I really hope that is all – just some sleepless nights.
What will our genius savants come up with next? I guarantee it won’t be any better. Frankly – it will be worse. More government, more regulation, more people with their fingers in the pie.
My advice to people like myself:
1. Spend time with your family. Hopefully they are the main reason you are working the equivalent of 3 jobs. If not, then I really don’t know what to tell you.
2. Get a vision. You are building something for some reason – get real clear about it. I’m not building myself another job. I want a business that will allow me to pursue my pashions.
3. Pay off debt as fast as you can. Don’t worry about saving some for later. You gotta make it to later in order for their to be a later and if you are carrying debt around there won’t be a later
4. Do it yourself. Looking for some VC *** to fund businesses is one of the things that brought us here. Start small, think long term; build something that will last more than 3 years.
5. Keep your friends close. Help your friends build their dreams too. I have friends doing their own thing. I help when and how I can when asked. I don’t expect them to pay. In return they help me out. It’s fun seeing your friends kicking ass and it will inspire you to kick some ass too.
6. There are no short cuts. no get rich quick scheme is going to work. When things get dicey the sharks show up. They offer the weak all sorts of promises for cheap. “Buy my $99 course and I’ll show you how to sell Viagra online and make $10,000 dollars a week!”. It aint that easy and their courses don’t really tell you everything. I know – I’ve gotten to see a lot of them in my research.
7. Try to have some fun. At this point nobody is shooting people. It’s all abstract records in a database. There isn’t enough gold in the world to exchange for the money supposedly being destroyed. None of it ever existed anyway. To a degree that is what this is all about – those houses were not worth what they were sold for, the loans aren’t actually worth what they were written for, the stocks are actually worth what they were being traded for. Its all a bunch of crap. If nobody is being physically harmed – so what? Have fun, build something cool and valuable.