People never stop amusing me.
Take for example my own family. When I announced I’ll beat the rat race and become financially independent, they gave me this pearl of conventional wisdom:
“If you don’t succeed, you’ll fail.
Most people do.”
They told me that 90% people fail when they start a business. Showed me a pie chart with all the expenses I was expected to have. My cousin even referenced a coworker of his who failed with his first business. He never mentioned his failures, of course…
I had second thoughts when I listened to them.
Maybe they were right?
But I wanted to believe I’ll succeed and chose to ignore them.
Today, I would make a simple statement:
“Yeah but if I don’t try I’ll be forever stuck in my dead end job, just like you.”
And it would drive them mad.
Why?
Because back then and even now, only a couple of them cared about me.
They warned me since they knew I would be sad, had I failed.
The rest of them? They didn’t want me to succeed because then, I would be a living example of their own cowardliness. I would remind them that they were too afraid to take their own first step. And remained forever just over broke, in a job they hate, unable to do the things they wanted.
Moral of the story?
People behave like crabs in a bucket. When one tries to get out, the other crabs will prevent it’s escape. They’ll go out of their way to grab it and keep it inside. Because they don’t want to see one of them getting ahead in life.
Most people are like that.
They will try to hold you back with their passive aggressive behaviors.
But when they do it, you only have to fight back.
How?
By kicking them in the face and sending them back into the bucket to rot.
Sincerely,
Joseph Smith
P.S. Here is something I never talk about.
I was furious with anyone who told me “you’ll fail”.
A better life wasn’t my only motivation.
I also wanted to prove them wrong.
And I attribute my aggressiveness in business to their lack of faith.
I was always thinking “wait and see” while working.
This type of thinking helped me overcome many obstacles.
So don’t just “think positively”.
If you have negative emotions stop suppressing them.