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As the worlds good and great, our glorious leaders, endlessly debate how to bring the world economy back to a “normality” there seems to be a simple fact they they might not have grasped.
We all now know that over the past 20 years or so a few oligarchs have cornered a disproportionate amount of the worlds money and assets. By the World Bank’s own estimate 47% of the worlds wealth is owned by just 215 families (report 2010) and in USA the top 1% own more than the bottom 150 million.
But here the rub,
What the worlds leaders are asking all of us to do is go out and spend, like good little consumers, in order to kick start the economies into action.
Here's what they have not grasped.
Billions of people are living on the breadline and I don’t mean only poor third world peasants. Middle income families in the west are now just about holding on.
The 1% have removed an enormous amount of money from the system and banked it in assets like gold, commodities and other illiquid investments.
For the past 10 or so years the slack in the economy was taken up with debt.
Home equity release schemes, credit cards, bank loans and overdrafts etc have been used to keep the consumer boom going,
not real incomes!
But now that the finance tap has been well and truly shut off, there is no more money to spend on consumer goods, in the west at least. In the far east things are bouncing along at a good rate, for the time being at least until they also realize where they are going!
For economies to work there needs to be a reasonable sharing of wealth with the majority having sufficient disposable income to allow them to be a part of the consumer society.
The advertising industry has done a fine job of brain washing the public that they need more and more “stuff” in order to be truly happy and most of the profits have flowed to the 1%. ( a subject I cover in my forthcoming book, Insidious.
Where do they think the next wave of free cash is going to come from?
Even the so called QE does not flow down to the masses, its given to the banks, for free, who are using it to buy Treasury bonds with a 2% yield and no risk.
Wouldn’t you if you were them? I wouldn’t lend to some small business that might not be here next year.
So if you are hoping that things are going to get better sometime soon , I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
As far back as the days of ancient Greece ( yes I know they could be going back there again but thats another story) Aristotle wrote that man’s single only purpose in life was the pursuit of happiness.
Thousands of books and trillions of words have been written on the same theme and yet it seems that very few people truly tune into how to make happiness a reality.
Of course we all want to be as happy as we can, we know that instinctively, but so many find it a daily impossibility.
The modern world has just exacerbated the problem. The speed at which we live , the demands put upon us by employers and the media and our own expectations.
In my forthcoming book Insidious I describe how one man you have never heard of has dictated much about how you live, your values and your beliefs and how he single handed created the advertising world as it is today, the single cause of some much unrequited desire and unhappiness.
Billions of people have become distracted from what really makes us happy in search of a truckload of “things” that they think make them happy.
Consider the difference between pleasure and happiness. We get pleasure from having and doing things, but pleasure does not last. It is fleeting and the pleasurable effects from the things we have and do wear off just like the hit from any drug.
Just like a great sunset which can make us feel really happy and content, eventually the sun goes away and we are left in the dark.
Happiness however is a state of mind that cannot be bought about by having or doing.
Happiness is internal not external and the contradiction is that in finding happiness you find that less is more. No amount of goodies can make you happy, they can be pleasurable but that will not last,
Happiness is found in valuing the small things in life, valuing what you have, not hankering over what you don't have. Looking for what you don't have is external.
Make a list of all the good things in your life and appreciate them, many don’t have them and the best things are the things that money cannot buy.
Good friends and family, good health, peace of mind, relaxation and contentment.
Yes I know that things go wrong in our lives and I’ve had my fair share. At those time our happiness is pushed into the background, but if you examine what is important to you you will know that those things are still there and will carry you through.
Letting go of the idea that you need more to be happy is your greatest challenge and leap forward in your pursuit of happiness.
We all have within us the seeds of amazing greatness.
Think of any field of human endeavor, business, sport, exploring, helping others and you will find people that have done extraordinary things, seemingly from nowhere.
The same story comes through time and time again. Ordinary people who became motivated by an idea and from that motivation they found extraordinary power from within them.
Take Nick Vujicic, an Australian born with no arms and one foot with two toes. He could so easily have just been another disabled person looked after by others but today he is an international motivational speaker. He graduated with a double major in accounting and financial planning, swims, surfs and plays golf amongst other things. A truly extraordinary person.
Or take Liz Murray. Born in the bronx to drug addict and HIV infected parents. At 15 she was homeless, her mother died and her father went into a shelter. She could have turned to a life of crime and drugs but she didn't. she started to attend the Humanities Preparatory Academy in Manhattan. She started later than others and graduated in 2 years, whilst also supporting her sister!
She was awarded a New York Times scholarship for needy students and accepted into Harvard University. She left Harvard in 2003 to care for her sick father, she went back at Harvard to graduate with a degree in Psychology in June 2009.
Her life became a movie in 2003 and she now works as a professional speaker. A life that should have been a disaster is instead magnificent.
These people and many many others found something from within themselves and we can all learn from them
They are no different from us, all that is needed is the spark that ignites the power within us and this will not be found watching TV and doing endless dead end jobs that do not inspire us.
You may not be disabled or from a disadvantaged background so you are already ahead of the game.
Don't spend you life in mediocrity.
Find out what you love to do, find what you are most good at, discover what motivates you and go in that direction because when we do something we truly love we are always good at it and being good at something is the start of our own greatness.
You may only have one life so don't just sit there and watch it from the sidelines, go out and make it great.
