On Finding A Path To Greatness

On Finding A Path To Greatness

Above all, begin paying attention to your mental well being,

whatever is causing you harm, get away from it.

If you think you can't get away from it,

then find a relative that will take you in.

If you don't have relatives,

then you will have to talk to your best friend's parents.

You can't stay in a place that is stressing you out,

you need a place that is safe, a place where you can think.

And then begin thinking about building a company,

or a tiny business, at first just for learning.

Everyone says it is not easy,

people say they get burned out, overworked.

But that is the wrong approach,

you need to be whole.

There is a little passage in the Ranger Creed,

that nobly emphasizes just that.

"Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong and morally straight and I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be, one-hundred-percent and then some.

Mentally alert means, you take care of your mind,

that you are rested, that you are free.

Do not let mediocrity, liars, cheaters, pretenders hurt your mind,

you have to be mentally alert, mentally well enough to easily go above and beyond.

Please allow me to make a note here, I'll make it brief,

people are stressed out by fake education, more and more drugs are becoming accessible.

Furthermore, there maybe schools that in their evil will attempt to diagnose people with states of mind that woudn't exist,

if it wasn't for the insanity of school.

Sir Ken Robinson, called unusually high number of prescriptions for ADHD a sign of a "A Fictitious Epidemic",

and fake schools will cause depression in a healthy mind, that is how it works,

If schools start medicating the kids they depressed,

then even if you want school, get out, get out as fast as you can.

And remember liars are never obvious,

liars always live in the twilight, there will be no proof, no evidence, just better grades and better profits.

Be careful,

it is that kind of a world, I am sorry.

Mental Well Being, is Number One,

number two, is somewhat related, especially if you are in middle school or high school.

The first thing you need is an upgrade on you view of the world,

the way you inherit a more sophisticated intellectual culture is Audio Books.

They are not free,

they should be free for people under 21.

There is no one book, it will take over a hundred Audio Books,

- and you know this, this one is not easy.

With a hundred books, you will create a self-balancing view of the world,

and in the process inherit character traits from many of your favorite authors.

Intellectual Inheritance,

is just another way of saying growing up by reading books.

This is one of the reasons why you need a safe place, a safe space,

so that you may grow up, uninterrupted by things that are not worthy of you.

There is one sure way to accelerate your intellectual growth,

but you need three more friends, at least, and you need to be in your 20s or up.

An that is taking to the trails,

don't do this alone, please.

In United States we have The Appalachian Trail,

and The Pacific Crest Trail.

Bring your Audiobooks, Bear Spray, and an Air Horn (bears don't like loud sounds),

especially if it is four horns going off at the same time.

Ignore people that say you don't need the horn,

just activate it until they walk away.

Bring your journal,

and grow.

The biggest problems you face when you are young,

is a smaller grasp of self awareness.

This is a function of our brain still growing,

and the genetic predispositions to follow orders, to follow what your teachers tell you for example.

You are also building a view of the world,

and stuff that isn't real is polluting it.

So, schools are forcing you into memorization, and each semester you have little to show for it,

especially if you ask yourself: "What if I just spent five months learning how to use a Digital Audio Workstation?"

You would be able to compose music, probably in just a week,

by the fifth month you would be publishing your second album on bandcamp, and with some advertising, you could make probably more than a $100 a month.

Even so, you tell yourself, schools are important,

I need schools, because schools get me to college, and perhaps med school.

You probably don't go as far as pondering the $241,600 average unforgivable student loan debt,

because you can just pay it off after you get the job.

This is why you need a hundred of those Audio Books,

if you want to be a doctor, then in your first hundred books ten will be about becoming one, and a couple about the regrets.

But it is more than just shining light on your career,

it is about shining light on the way you make choices.

You can't jump forward,

you have to move precisely deliberately.

You have to start in High School to be a Doctor,

you have to love it, it has to call to you, you may do part time at a veterinary clinic, and maybe work at a retirement home.

Just waiting for Med School to make you a Doctor is not enough,

you have to love making your way there, it has to inspire you, fuel you, it has to make you happy.

Self awareness means that you know where you are,

and you know a clear and stable path towards the future.

In terms of becoming a Doctor, everything that is covered in the first two years of med school,

you have to cover on your own in the first two years of high school, just as a function of curiosity.

Something in you has to ask, what is MCAT and MLE about... anyways?

and then you go shopping for a microscope, and might as well pick up a stethoscope and take interest in the heath of your gerbil, or cat.

In other words, in terms of becoming a Doctor, memorization is required,

even though it is not effective, and pretty stupid.

And if you take to using what you memorized without double checking,

then you will get in trouble.

Just as a side-note, the right way of doing this,

is not to memorize, but to love so many things about the field that you immediately absorb new information.

Sometimes with tears in your eyes as you deep down know you made a huge breakthrough,

which means you don't need to memorize it, and will never forget it.

And sometimes with passionate anger, at all the idiots that made it too confusing,

because they clearly didn't know what they were taking about.

In terms of a more open future,

where we just say to ourselves I'll just get a good job after I graduate college.

It is a different story, because now you are looking at $32,000 to $50,000 in debt,

and memorizing things that you will forget when you start your job.

You know when Police stops you, and ask you "Do you know what you did wrong?",

to get you to admit to whatever it is, to make their job easier, and a fool out of you.

Jobs do the same thing they will say Entry Position, Experience Required,

so that during the interview, they can say "we can't pay you that much, because you do not have the experience we asked for".

In this situation, Self Awareness translates to asking:

"do I want to work for such a company?"

Do you want to work for a company,

that is already trying to take advantage of you.

After four years of high school and four years of college,

and with $32,000 to $50,000 of unforgivable debt, plus your credit cards, and other tricks.

You are now being insulted,

on your happy interview day.

You need to consider this,

and you need to consider what it is like to work in a cubicle for the rest of your life.

Not only are you looking at eight years of school,

but about 80 years of working in a box, or worse an open space where you can hear all the moth breathers.

Self awareness means intercepting mistakes before they happen,

again only renowned Audio Books by good narrators, written by highly respected and loved authors will help you with this.

At least a hundred books,

there is a video of Stanford Commencement Address that Steve Jobs gave in 2005, that you may wish to see.

Despite what Mr. Jobs says about the dots,

you can connect them, it is the job of you increasing your self awareness with books to connect them.

You do not go forward into the future merely trusting your gut, or destiny, life, karma, whatever,

because the world is full of people that will take advantage of that blind expectation.

So you absolutely need to take care of your mental well being,

and expansion of your self awareness by listening to dozens and dozens of audio books highly valued by their readers.

Even by just watching how Steve Jobs carries him self,

how he talks about college tuition, he is gently and in very classy way pealing apart that fraud.

It is the first and foremost thing he brings up,

because he refuses to be a part of it.

To name a few of my most influential figures:

There is this one talk by Richard Dawkins that I really like,

there is a video titled "Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion Q&A at Liberty University"

Liberty University (LU) is a private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia,

that Q&A was destined for greatness.

A young lady poses a question "What if you're wrong?",

and this is my private opinion: I think she was aiming at Pascal's Wager, but Richard Dawkins response was a lot more elaborate than shooting fish in a barrel.

Search the internet for a video entitled "PHILOSOPHY - Religion: Pascal's Wager" for more information on Pascal's Wager,

which also includes a bespectacled cartoon kitty named Richard Pawkins.

And between you and I the gambit it shutdown with an argument for authenticity,

if someone believes something purely for personal gain then they can't be invited to a serious discussion.

But the Pascal's Wager interpretation of what this humble young lady is asking about, is just my personal opinion,

and Richard Dawkins takes it his own way.

Which resulted in a wonderfully animated Richard Dawkins in a South Park cartoon,

I love that little smile of accomplishment at the end, but more than that, I love the audience.

The sound of the Audience at Liberty University,

tells me that we are still headed for the Stars.

But again the reason I bring this up in no uncertain terms is:

Inheritance of Class, and Culture, and expansion of our awareness of the world, and how we fit in it.

Just observing the way that Richard Dawkins carries him self,

and hearing the cheer and laughter by all the wonderful people in the audience, helped me expand my personal vision of the world.

Here is another side of Richard Dawkins, and even more giggles,

a two part Extravaganza.

Part one "Hate E-mails with Richard Dawkins",

and the second batch "Love Letters to Richard Dawkins".

Search internet videos for Richard Dawkins in 1991 presenting Growing Up in the Universe, a series of five lectures,

held at the Royal Institution in London.

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a great tradition and a great honor,

here scientists present science in a way that opens doors for those who are new to science.

He also created an hour and a half long documentary,

entitled The God Delusion, you can really see what it means to be a great being, and hope to help the word progress forward.

Richard Dawkins is one of many people

who will help you with your awareness..

When you are stuck, cramming for tests, you can ask what would Richard do,

would he sit here pretending to get educated, would he try to change schools, talk to the principal, or give a set of banned lectures on how the school only cares that everyone gets paid.

And if you are into science,

I hope you have a day dream about presenting you science of choice at the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures someday.

Number one, is Mental Well Being,

number two, is view of the world, the view of yourself in relation to our world, and class, and foresight.

And number three, is business,

we all have different interests.

It is tough to give general business advice,

but; setting up a laboratory where you tutor med students helping them see through a microscope or visualization what they are attempting to blindly memorize.

If you are inclined towards science, then programming languages can be used as a kind of a microscope,

you can examine any complex system or theory by writing a tiny simulation, or implementation.

If you are not sure where you are headed, then begin writing a Science Journal, let other scientist publish or peer review,

and you can stay in the field without having to work 26 hour shifts for $300, remember number 1, your well being is most important.

Away from the laboratories, in my private opinion is where the party is,

unconstrained by any field in particular you can do, everything.

For one, 3D printing is awesome, and you can find it as a service online too,

you can sculpt in clay 3D scan it and then miniaturize them and open up a little jewelry store on Shapeways.

You can open up a First Person View Drone Racing circuit,

and perhaps have a yearly competition for automatically operated drones only.

With an Office Projector and some Plywood Sheathing you can begin painting 8ft murals,

follow the Old Masters, create the gray version of your painting first, and then add color glaze to achieve perfect portrait every time.

Remember, to desaturate a color you mix it with the opposite on the color wheel,

there is an exception for the primaries, you mix the full triad, secondary colors already consist of two colors, so you just add the opposite, and that makes the triad.

As with Science, you must be lead by you passion,

everything you do has to be inspired.

When you are inspired, you are driven by enough information,

to have no need for memorization, you simply integrate the new to the great library within you.

While I can't show you the direction you must move towards to create your business,

there is a guiding idea that will help you along.

A self published, full color book,

that serves as your portfolio.

It will contain your design sketches,

and photographs of your complete work.

This will help you get clients,

or get hired by a large company.

I think Eiko Ishioka the costume designer behind Bram Stoker's Dracula, is a perfect example of an Artist and an Entrepreneur,

she published her costume designs in a beautiful book and got hired to work on Dracula, and won the 1993 Oscar for it.

In closing,

your mental well being must come first, and then you have to grow, as soon as you are ready to expand your horizons, read, listen, explore.

Begin making your way into the cultures of great beings,

by reading their books, by admiring their works, by learning from them.

Schools will forever be a prosthetic,

even if they do transform into a personalized education experience.

You need to pursue an independent plan,

on top of everything else that is going on, because only you can guarantee your won future, it has always been in your own hands.

And never forget,

you are meant to be come a great being, do not let anyone stop you.