THE END OF LIFE – As You Now Know It
OK, in this issue I’m going to stretch some of you a bit – well, actually a lot! I’ll be covering a lot of territory really fast. So hold on tight.
Last year I produced a video that I called The End of Dentistry (you can see it here at EndOfDentistry.com). In it I briefly described why I believe that we are on the verge of a major economic correction (read worldwide depression) that will absolutely rock your world. The video was addressed to dentists, but the realities I talked about – the cancer of greed, the resulting collapse of the economy, and the need to position yourself to survive and thrive – are all equally applicable to anyone.
I could write a whole book on why people are predicting that your life as you now know it will soon go up in smoke, but I’m not going to. Others have done a much better job of that than I could (Want more details? Here’s a short reading list that I guarantee will get your attention: The Death of Money
Right or wrong, what we are left with is the big question – SO WHAT? If they are right, what should you be doing to prepare? What, if anything, can we as individuals do to change the seemingly inevitable?
For a rather “cheeky” perspective on how to best change the world, you might want to take a look Russell Brand’s book Revolution
Although Brand would doubtfully be comfortable with my choice of words (nor I with his!), once we got past the semantics I think he would agree that the systemic problem driving this impending collapse stems from the fact that big business has hijacked capitalism, big government has hijacked democracy, and big religion has hijacked spirituality. This is nothing new; society has been through it many times before. The kicker though is that none of it could ever have happened without the our own individual and collective consent, and the only way to get it all back is for us to individually and collectively revolt and refuse to participate in the sham.
So the next question is WHY? Why would we allow ourselves to be so taken advantage of? Why are we so easily manipulated?
The answer is at once extremely complex and elegantly simple. It would take a whole book, a series of books actually, to thoroughly cover all of the ramifications of those questions. I’ve found though that most, if not all, discussions and arguments can and will go on ad infinitum unless dissected and reduced to their core paradigms. Like the layers of an onion, personal and societal actions and reactions all revolve around a core set of beliefs that drive our daily lives. And the only way to reach consensus and affect change is to examine those basic assumptions.
So let’s take a quick look at two core paradigms that are key to driving the wrong headed destructive direction we are going.
SCARCITY (vs. ABUNDANCE)
Google “abundance” and you’ll find a plethora of material on the subject. Ask your friends, and most will claim to believe in abundance. If you believe in an almighty God who “owns the cattle on a thousand hills”, you believe in abundance. Yet most of us act like we live in a state of scarcity. We horde more than we share. We vote to redistribute wealth rather than to maximize opportunity. We compete instead of collaborating. We define “fair share” by what our neighbors have rather than by the value we contribute.
Contrary to so called progressive ideology, it is not religion that drives most wars, but rather its use as a cover for a fundamental belief in scarcity – lack of territory, lack of resources, lack of opportunity. Likewise, capitalism cannot be blamed for the environmental and economic chaos inflicted when consumers and voters choose “cheap” and “free” over sustainability and opportunity.
COERCION (vs. CHOICE)
A couple of paragraphs earlier, I stated that it was only through our individual and collective assent that greed gains power. Scott Peck called laziness the original sin, and we will continue to suffer the consequences of our “sins” until we awaken from our easy, cheap, and “fair” stupor and quit blaming corporations, governments, or creeds for our lack of prosperity ; until we choose to acknowledge that we are not victims, that our personal prosperity is the result of our own personal choices.
No one forces you to give your money to WalMart instead of Mac and Mary’s Grocery. You do that because saving five buck today is more important to you than having more choices, including healthy sustainable produce, tomorrow.
No one forces you to stick with a minimum wage job. You’re there because it’s easier to blame your employer and hang with your buds, to “follow your passion”, than to invest your weekends and evenings in becoming a more valuable person with the money to legitimately support your passion.
No one forces you to vote for career politicians who thrive off of making promises they can’t keep, who would rather point fingers than make hard choices. You do that for the same reasons you shop at WalMart and don’t have a decent job – you would rather blame someone else than take responsibility for your choices.
Ok, I apologize for pointing my finger at “you”. I know that none of you reading this are guilty of that kind of lazy greed. Not, that is, unless you’re like me – human! The main reason I can speak with such confident authority is because I’m so well acquainted with laziness and greed. That’s why meaningful change will require nothing short of a revolution.
So now that we’ve explored the WHY , let’s return to our original question – WHAT? What should you be doing to prepare for the coming chaos? Buy gold and silver? Build a bunker? Horde survival supplies and the weapons to defend them? If scarcity is your operating paradigm, then yes. But if on the other hand you want to operate from an abundance mentality, then what should you be doing?
Here is my list of the three things anyone who not only wants to survive but thrive in any kind of economy must do.
THREE STEPS TO MEANINGFUL REVOLUTION
How to Survive and Thrive in Any Economy
1. Live within your means –
If and when the economy collapses around us, the masses are going to be led to blame the “rich and greedy capitalists”. But that will all be a red herring concocted by the entrenched oligarchies, just the same as Nazis blaming the Jews. And the first step in breaking free of their strangle hold is to get out of debt and live within your means. Out of control consumerism, not capitalism, is the vortex sucking the life out of the economy. So learn to just say no! Become a contrarian, and quit judging “fair” and what you “deserve” by what your neighbors have hocked themselves to get. And the best step-by-step guide to getting this done is Dave Ramsey’s book The Total Money Makeover
2. Start a business and invest –
There are really only four ways to earn money – get a job, make your own job and be self-employed, own a business that can operate without your constant involvement, or invest your money in cash producing assets. These four cash flow vehicles make up what I like to call the Cross of Income.
A thorough discussion of the pros and cons of each vehicle is beyond the scope of this article. In brief though, the first two (which make up the horizontal axis of the Cross of Income) are the quickest but least reliable with the least potential for growth. The last two (the vertical axis of the Cross of Income) take longer and involve more short-term risk, but provide infinitely more long-term stability and growth potential. To learn more I suggest you read Robert Kiyosaki’s book the CASHFLOW Quadrant
And lest anyone think that business ownership is unrealistic, let me quickly point out Kiyosaki’s take on that as well. In his same book he outlines 3 basic business models that are available to choose from.
i. Corporation – this usually requires 12-15 years of corporate executive employment experience to gain sufficient knowledge and experience.
ii. Franchise – allows one to take advantage of someone else’s experience, but will usually require $750,000 to $1,000,000 to acquire a proven franchise.
iii. Micro-franchise – will usually require a part-time investment of 2-5 years to become profitable, but is relatively inexpensive and open to anyone with a good and teachable work ethic.
With these 3 models to choose from, there is a viable business opportunity available to anyone who is serious about taking control of their own economic future.
3. Become a social entrepreneur –
Everyone admires a philanthropist, but relatively few philanthropists ever really experience the success and fulfilment that results from acts of true altruism. That’s because too few philanthropists every really learn to operate from a position of abundance; they’re still stuck in the land of scarcity. For if they truly believed in abundance, they would have been social entrepreneurs with giving as a core value of their entire business, making giving an integral part of their path to prosperity rather than an afterthought. There’s a world of difference between giving from your excess and giving when it actually costs you something.
Waiting until you’ve “made it” and have “enough” robs the present needy of the help they need now, and robs the giver of the chance to experience the reciprocating Law of Abundance in action. For it is only by personal experiential knowledge of this law that a person can ever escape the slavery of scarcity. Besides, “expenses always rise to meet the income” so consequently “enough” rarely comes.
On the other hand, simply throwing money at a problem is too often a lazy response that eases the conscience of the giver and certainly excites the beneficiary, but usually only postpones the inevitable. We all know that it’s better to “teach a man to fish”, but how often are we willing to invest the time as well as money required to become informed and intelligent philanthropists and really make a lasting difference? And nowhere is this more true than in the arena of coerced philanthropy. Income redistribution in any of its involuntary forms is the go-to tool of the impatient and unimaginative, but never results in any more then stunting the initiative of both the purloined and the recipient.
This is why we believe that social entrepreneurship is the key to the revolution that will save the economy, both at home and in your community – from sea to shining sea.
Your life as you now know it is going to change. Will it be for the better or for the worse? The choice is yours.
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
It’s always been a mystery to me, how someone not long for this world could care so much about it. Even now — his voice almost gone — Chris Rosati still has a lot to say about how to make the world a better place. We’ve been following his journey as he lives with ALS. We’ve watched him give away donuts and honor kids for their random acts of kindness. His latest revelation is about the butterfly effect.
The butterfly effect is this idea that a single butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the globe can, in theory, start a hurricane on the other. It’s a physics concept, but Rosati wondered if it could be applied to kindness as well.
“An act of kindness, how far could it go?” he wondered.
A few months ago he decided to test the theory at a diner in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina. He saw two girls at the table next to his and gave them each $50 with one very simple instruction — do something kind.
Rosati says he left the diner and forgot all about it until he got an email. It included pictures from a village in Africa with people holding signs that read, “Thanks a lot for spreading kindness — Chris Rosati.”
“It was the butterfly effect,” said Rosati.
The two girls responsible were 13-year-old Kate Cameron and her 10-year-old sister Anna. They say they couldn’t believe it when a stranger gave them each $50 dollars.
“That makes you want to do something good with that money,” said Anna.
The girls say they already knew about this village in Sierra Leone where their dad had worked in the Peace Corps. They knew the people there had been working hard to fight Ebola, so the girls paid for a feast to help them celebrate being Ebola-free. They say it felt great to help.
“It inspired me,” said Anna. “I would definitely encourage other people to do it,” added Kate.
I asked Rosati what he’ll do now that he’s proven the butterfly effect. “Oh man,” he said. “You get a whole lot of butterflies to flap their wings.”
To that end, Rosati, who’s already done so much for North Carolina, launched his latest campaign last month. He told screaming fans his plan to give out hundreds of little butterfly grants — $50 each — to any kid who wants to start changing the world.
America, get ready for a hurricane. Source: CBS News
Editor’s note: Hurricane = Revolution. Is step 3 above starting to make more sense?
THE OLD TELEPHONE ON THE WALL – HELLO?
I don’t know who the author of this next piece is. I received it in a chain e-mail from a good friend of mine. But it struck a chord in my heart; maybe it will in yours too.
When I was a young boy, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it.
Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person. Her name was “Information Please” and there was nothing she did not know. “Information Please” could supply anyone’s number and the correct time.
My personal experience with the genie-in-a-bottle came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer, the pain was terrible, but there seemed no point in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy.
I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone! Quickly, I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver and held it to my ear.
“Information Please” I said into the mouthpiece just above my head. A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear.
“Information.”
“I hurt my finger…” I wailed into the phone, the tears came readily enough
now that I had an audience.
“Isn’t your mother home?” came the question.
“Nobody’s home but me,” I blubbered.
“Are you bleeding?” the voice asked.
“No,” I replied. “I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts.”
“Can you open the icebox?” she asked.
I said I could.
“Then chip off a little bit of ice and hold it to your finger,” said the voice.
After that, I called “Information Please” for everything. I asked her for help with my geography, and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped me with my math.
She told me my pet chipmunk that I had caught in the park just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts. Then, there was the time Petey, our pet canary, died
I called “Information Please”, and told her the sad story. She listened, and then said things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was not consoled. I asked her, “Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?”
She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, “Wayne, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in.”
Somehow I felt better.
Another day I was on the telephone, “Information Please.”
“Information,” said in the now familiar voice.
“How do I spell fix?” I asked.
All this took place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. When I was nine years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my friend very much. “Information Please” belonged in that old wooden box back home and I somehow never thought of trying the shiny new phone that sat on the table in the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left me.
Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy.
A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about a half-hour or so between planes. I spent 15 minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said, “Information Please.”
Miraculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well.
“Information.”
I hadn’t planned this, but I heard myself saying, “Could you please tell me how to spell fix?”
There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, “I guess your finger must have healed by now.”
I laughed, “So it’s really you,” I said. “I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time.”
I wonder,” she said, “if you know how much your call meant to me. I never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls.”
I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.
“Please do”, she said. “Just ask for Sally.”
Three months later I was back in Seattle. A different voice answered.
“Information.”
I asked for Sally.
“Are you a friend?” she said.
“Yes, a very old friend,” I answered.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this,” she said. “Sally had been working part time the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks ago.”
Before I could hang up, she said, “Wait a minute, did you say your name was Wayne?”
“Yes.” I answered.
“Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you.”
The note said, “Tell him there are other worlds to sing in. He’ll know what I mean.”
I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.
Never underestimate the impression you may make on others.
Editor’s note: Impression = Butterfly. Have you started flapping your wings yet?
OPPORTUNITY
HEART STREET MARKET
This revolutionary online micro-franchise is the perfect business for anyone who wants to build a social enterprise where your prosperity depends on helping others prosper. With literally thousands of top-of-the-line products, we have partnered with a team of coaches that has the unique distinction of having created more millionaires than any other company in the world other than Microsoft!
With Heart Street Market you will –
- Work with some of the most successful business men and women on the planet.
- Have a literally unlimited growth potential.
- Create a secure retirement income that equals or surpasses your working income that you can also pass on to your heirs.
- Be part of the revolution of abundance that is sweeping around the globe!
If you are looking for a micro-franchise that takes full advantage of the Law of Abundance and the Cross of Prosperity, give us a call at 844-263-9015 ext 6 or e-mail Lon@heartstreetmarket.org .
ELITE DOCS ONLINE –for dentists
There is no better way to distinguish your practice as the regional practice of choice than through intelligent social entrepreneurship and cause marketing. With Elite Docs Online you will –
- Plan and strategize with a dentist – not some so called expert who’s never held a handpiece or struggled with managing a practice.
- Become the most well-known and respected dentist in your community.
- Experience the unprecedented staff and patient loyalty that comes with aligning yourself with a great cause.
- Have the added satisfaction of knowing that you are partnering with a firm that is itself a social enterprise.
If you are ready to grow your practice, to position it to thrive no matter what the economy brings, and to do so in a way that harmonizes with the Law of Abundance, give us a call now – 844-263-9015 ext. 5, or e-mail Lon@elitedocsonline.com . Together we can revolutionize your practice!
