Reaping in Recession

We all have that one uncle, the one who has travelled the world, is well exposed and has made it in life as compared to his contemporaries. Mine is Uncle Lebanon - his real name - who has made a rather sturdy profile for himself in the business and inventions world, right up to national awards. Over a cup of tea at his workshop I happened to query as to what this past year has been like for him, and unsurprisingly it has been good, considering his balanced perspective of life and his relationship with money. We don’t always end up with blood relations that we can appreciate, so I count myself fortunate.

This man has some of the simplest salient tenets with which he plays the game of wealth, and I was lucky to get an abridged version.

Salience. Let me paraphrase:

·?????? Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep; passive income. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.

·?????? Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible; you don’t have to steal to get rich. If you secretly despise rich people or regard wealth with disdain, it will elude you. As soon as possible establish the right relationship with money so you can hang around each other comfortably and for long. Discard that historically negative perception of money today.

·?????? Ignore people playing status games; they gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games. Real wealth moves in silence and respect; it is not thrown around cheaply chiefly because it is not acquired cheaply. Coins clatter and clang; notes whisper.

·?????? No unless you’re at the top of the totem pole, you’re not going to get wealthy renting out your time; your limits are set by the value that the renter has placed on your time, down to the cent per month, week, day, hour, minute. To get wealthy you must own equity, a piece of a legitimate business that enables you to gain your financial freedom.

·?????? Pick an industry where you can play long-term games with long-term people. Learn to hang around long-term people. It’s hard to live life as a TikTok video; there’s a new one every second.

·?????? The internet has massively broadened the possible spaces of careers and created a field where everyone can play. Everyone. Most people haven’t figured this out yet, and AI developments will impact many of their careers.

·?????? Try and play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth or relationships or knowledge, come from compound interest at rest. It still rings true: a rolling stone gathers no moss.

·?????? Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy and above all integrity. This applies to life partners too. Heck, be a person of intelligence, energy and integrity.

·?????? Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can sell, the builder and other innovators will keep you relevant. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.

·?????? Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity and leverage. Avoid hiding behind other entities and persons. Have some belief in yourself and stand up to external scrutiny; the elements will help refine you.

·?????? Labour means people working for you. It’s the oldest and most sought-after and fought-over form of leverage. All the layoffs and talent wars are centered around this.

·?????? You should be too busy to just ‘do coffee’ while still keeping an uncluttered calendar. If your time means nothing to you it will mean nothing to others as well. Your attitude towards your time should positively influence those within your circles so that everyone elevates when dealing with such finite resources.

·?????? Work as hard as you can. Even though who you work for/with and what you work on are more important than how hard you work. It is impossible to work smart when you don’t know what hard work is.

·?????? Determine to become the best in the world at what you do, or at least the best within your network. Keep redefining what you do until this is true. Keep improving the quality of your network too so that you can keep improving your skillset and value.

?

Considering the unique fact that majority of the wealthy read widely, he had to quote one of my favourite writers:

“Isn't it strange how princes and kings,

and clowns that caper in sawdust rings,

and common people, like you and me,

are builders for eternity?

Each is given a list of rules;

a shapeless mass; a bag of tools.

And each must fashion in life as it flows,

A stumbling block, or a stepping-stone.”

―?R. Lee Sharpe (1872-1951)

We can beat the hard times, Uncle Lebanon reiterates: Notes whisper, coins jingle. Nice one.