Welcome! To the Hunger Games

Can you imagine that?

You arrive coming from a hole in the ground.  Once the count down is made.  The game is on.

GO!

Anything goes.  There is no rules.  You have to survive and do what ever it takes to remain alive. This is how the Hunger Games are played.  Isn't it?  According to the book and the movie.

What a harsh game isn't it?  Well my friend.  Doesn't remind you of another game?  A game that is pretty much the same as the Hunger Games... no clue?

Let me refresh your memory.

You come out from your mother.  And as soon as you take your first breath.  The game is on.  And the game goes on until you expel your last breath.  That my friend is the true Hunger Games.  For if you don't do anything.  If you lie flat on your back.  You will suffer hunger.  And you will die.

Of course we gave ourselves some rules.  And we cannot kill each other like savages on the street.  Thank god.  But we prevailed for our instinct to manifest itself.  Its called the corporate world.  In the corporate world you cannot be killed of course.  But you can be fired on a dime.  War can be made among corporations with little to no care on the casualties on the part of the workers. You can be beaten morally (if the law prevents it physically).  People will pass over your head, spit on you, plant a dagger in your back, for the slightest hope of the corner office.

And you have to play the game.  Or suffer the consequences.

So you have to become a warrior.  In the Hunger Games they call it going career ( what a coincidence).

So wake up. Wipe your nose and start to get clever.  Develop your skills just what ever that is: good at politics, have college degrees, tons of experience, etc...

Develop your warrior skills on a larger scale than just the office.  If there were a war tomorrow, a civil war like in Syria.  Would you survive?  Or would you be among the first to die?

Either you want it or not we are all in the great Hunger Games called life.  You have to make the most of it with the cards that has been dealt to you at birth.

Think about it.

Case Study: Dominic

In my whole philosophy of getting independent from the corporate world, I think that Dominic is someone that stands out.

Dominic works in my enterprise.  He works in the telecoms department.  He is the sole specialist of some switches lists of translations for calls to get through... or something like that.  I won't get into any details here but understand that he is a guru in his field of expertise that is in high demand in any large company.

So right there Dominic has been able to ensure his employability to the company.  He has the knowledge that no other has in the company.  So he is indispensable in his department.  He is not un-expendable.  Working for corporation we learn to know that no one is.  But at least he knows that if the company wants to get rid of him, it will have to train someone else for a few weeks before he barely get to speed (not even get to Dominic's level).

This brings a second advantage.  Since no one else can do Dominic's work and that his work is in high demand in the industry, Dominic has an edge in his wage negotiation.

But Dominic was not happy with only that.

In his spare time he decided to start a home business.  He decided to rent portable hot tubs for people who wants to throw parties in their backyard.  He was not able to start that over night.  In the beginning he had a hard time.  He had to deal with the providers, get a place to store the tubs.  At one point in peak periods, he had to hire an employee.  He learned the hard way: his costs went sky rocketing.  So he managed to downsize and finds ways to cut cost, fine tune his processes and do some of the work himself.

It took him two years of trials and errors to get to the current business model he is at now.  And his business is so fine tuned that he can devote to it only a few hours a week and rake in the money.

He told me that at this rate, if revenues continue to grow, he will repay his house loan in about four years!  Not bad at all.

So if I summarize, Dominic has been able in two years to:

1. Become a valuable asset for the company so he is hard to fire
2. Has developed and launched a business that generates a revenue (that he don't need since he has a job)
3. The over and above revenue generated by his business is used to repay his house loan (which means by having no debt he will be even less vulnerable to the corporate world)

Dominic is an example to follow on the road of total freedom.

I rest my case!

I've talked before on this blog about my philosophy of getting out of the corporate slavery reality. But who I'm I really to have an original idea and original thought about the subject right?

I mean I am a nobody. I didn't write anything of any importance, I never atchieved anything of significant national or human scaled value... so who I'm I to question the status quo?

But at last I am not the only one now. Some people more influential than me are getting the point.

Read this: from Seth Godin' Blog.

Now if you want to be a sheap. Well by all means go ahead and be a sheap. But please do know that you are a sheap. Don't fool yourself and don't live in denial. Accept the fact consciously: " I am a sheap. I have no inclination of being my own boss. I follow orders. That's the way I am. Its my nature".

There is no shame about it. As long as you don't try to fool yourself. You might be able to do so. But you won't fool others.

Do you remember my case study Eric? Eric is my friend and I love him dearly as a friend. But there is one thing that is bothering me with him. As per his job, he lives in total denial.

No later than last week he told me that he had to go to his company's head office with the rest of his team. This was the equivalent of going to the slauther house. They told them that they had to cut half of the staff and that the remaining people will have to swallow a pay cut. Know what he told me when he got back? He said:"you know what, I am greatful. I still have a job in these difficult times".

WHAT!

You lick the hand that just smashed you!? I can`t believe it.

I've explained my corporate philosophy to Eric and he rejected it entirely. He prefers to live in the model that we've learnt at school and from our parents:"go to school, find a good job, and work hard until you die".

Now I don't argue with my friend anymore on that subject. But I can`t help it but feel sad for him. A few weeks ago, before going to the head office, he cancelled going to climb mount Kilimandjaro with me because he said that his job was too uncertain to do such travel and make such expenses. I mean is this just me but how can you let an outside party decide for you what you are going to do or not?

And listen. In one way I am no better than my friend either. I still work for someone else for a living. And loosing that job will be a financial blow to me, I must admit. But at least I consider that I am awake. And that I am deploying energies in order to get rid of my employer. Instead of doing nothing.

But getting back to our main subject, don't be fooled my dear readers. You are a corporate slave until the day you get to the office day and realize that, if you still go in there to work, it is because you like it. Not for financial aid. When you realize that you still go to work because you like it and you like the people, and that if you wanted. Or if you were obligated to leave, this wouldn't affect you financially. THAT is when you`ll know that you are not a slave anymore.

And a good strategy of life is to either maintain this state of being. Or gain it back.

Strategic relationship - Break up strategy

Ok for this post lets leave love on the shelf for a while.

In America, a little over 50% of married couples end up in a divorce. I don't have any statistics for unmarried couples. But I would suspect that the rate of broken relationship is higher. This because, I believe that it's a little easier to break up when you're not married. You don't have the legal part to deal with. And what to say about unmarried couples without children? It's even easier.

So lets make the assumption that the overall blend break up rate is around 60%. So you have more chances to break up than living happy ever after when you start a relationship.

And yet what do people do? They move together. They put their assets together. They even go as far as getting rid of one of the two cars in order to save on the expenses. They put their money together, they buy a house together. And all that is good. As long as the premise holds: that you'll continue to live together.

Then, comes the break up. That is when you found that you're cooked. You don't have your own asset anymore. You have to sell the house because you cannot both live in it. You have to buy yourself a car, furnitures and pay for all the expenses for moving and such. Do anyone prepare for that? Of course not. Because we want our relationship to hold. We want, we believe that this one is the good one, and that we will live together for the remaining of our lives. Well think again...

If I would say to you that we are going to move all your assets by plane. But there is one thing, the plane has 60% chances of falling. Would you put all your stuff in the plane? Anyone with the slightest common sense would say no. But yet that is just what most people do when they are moving together. "Oh but us it's different. We love each other" Well good for you and I sincerely wish that it holds for the remaining of your existence. But what if it doesn't?

If one wants to live his or her life strategically, one must plan for the future and make sure that there is a safe nest somewhere that one is the only one that can tap into.

How large should be the safe nest? Well that depends on what kind of life standard you want after the relationship. If you live in a house and use the family car every day. Make sure that you have enough on the side for a down payment on a house somewhere else, enough also to buy a car and furnitures. I've calculated that to make a move with the lowest monetary impact would take between 30 000$ and 50 000$.

Too much? Well then readjust your standard of life for the after relationship. You can very well decide that you want to live in an apartment for a few years in order to assess where you want to go and also to buy your furnitures little by little, that that is another valid strategy. And it takes less money.

So one needs to sit down with a sheet of paper an pen and assess what is one's needs in the case of a breakup. And then, plan for it: open a bank account, start saving money, some even buy small peaces of furnitures that they store (I've been told).

And while it is preferable to work on the success of the relationship, we need not to play ostrich and put our head in the sand. Think about it coldly and plan for it. If it doesn't happen then very well you'll have a safe nest for when something goes bad. But if it does happen. Then you'll be ready.

Physical health as a competitive edge in life strategy

We ear everywhere that it it important to keep a good health to watch what we eat and all. It's all true. But I came to some conclusion at 40 that I could not have foreseen in my 20s.

People my age I see and encounter are mostly all the same: overweight, tired lacking ambitions and energy. When I was in my 20s, all the people around me were fresh, young, full of blood. They were thin with strenght, stamina and energy. People had dreams and ambitions. They were fun people. Now where have they gone? Oh! They're still here! The only thing is that they've lost their polish. Does it have to be that way? Of course not. So why is it? I leave that question open.

What I came to realize is that, beside all the benefits of training and having a good health, since the average people of my age are overweight, lacks energy and stamina, then I'll be better that most people if I train. This statement is true. I live to tell. There is not a week in which I don't receive praise about my body, my shape and my health. "How do you do it?" is the most common question I get. And the answer to that is Nike simple: "Just do it".

My body and health gives me a competitive advantage over most people my age. I get more focus time during the day; I run faster after bus and subways; I get more responses from women. And if I believe the statistics, it is likely that I will outlive most of them.

So you want a competitive edge on people of your generation? Get fit! It's a short term and long term strategy. Not only you will get now the benefit of a healthy body. But in time, you will be better off most of people in your generation.

Take my word for it.