Chapter 1
True Capitalist?
You think you know what capitalism is, how about what capitalism is not?
Circles mountains to waters deep
Circumvent the immobile tomb
The status quo and eventual doom
To understand capitalism, we must understand both what it is and what it is not.
Capitalism is financial freedom in its purest form. Participation is entirely voluntary and without coercion or manipulation. It is the minimum of rules and the best of the rules at once. For asymmetric power is not only cast in absence, but also born from complexity.
And it is also a journey where you own the outcome. Both failure and success have value; lessons to learn, where failure humbles you and success rewards you in kind. And throughout, we must internalize and celebrate all failure and success. That we extend this to all others because jealousy and stubbornness are the worst human traits. We must not confuse jealousy with aspiration, nor shall we confuse stubbornness with determination.
As we engage with others, we must be clear and careful with agreements. And we must do due diligence that we are not tricked and robbed. We must at least try to manage our risks, such that survival is possible even if we are robbed many times. Of course, criminals should definitely face justice but equally, as sovereign individuals, we must also feel the joy and pain of our decisions as this is how we grow, learn and prosper.
Where we cannot find agreement, we must let our money do the talking by going elsewhere.
When we allow others to “protect us”, we rarely face the challenges we need to learn. And these lessons are ideally learned at a young age, that we gradually build a society that restores personal agency, strength and resilience for the benefit of everyone.