One of the most damaging things our culture has done is disparage those who ask questions.
Questions of any kind.
If you question the status quo (on both sides) you get sidelined, cancelled, or de-platformed.
How is that common sense and logic are deemed racist? Colonial? Or part of the patriarchy?
How would someone even know what those terms mean? You would have to know history in order to, yet the mob has erased all of it…
How does using your brain make you a bad person?
Stop letting those who possess zero facts resort to name calling to shut down debate.
Society goes nowhere but in reverse with humans acting like this.
Respond with some form of Chris Voss (former lead FBI hostage negotiator) negotiation tactic of:
It seems like…
It feels like…
It looks like…
It sounds like…
This way you are “labeling” their name-calling, then stop, and let them speak.
You very well may defuse the situation and create some more believers.
People like to speak, and if you just stop to let them talk it out, who knows they may come to the conclusion on their own.
We know the way of the world now won’t work much longer.
Time to try a new direction.
We’re in a very dangerous place when good and decent people can’t speak their mind, or feel scared to.
The most important thing any citizen or human can do is ask WHY?
Why is it the media is telling me this?
Why do we keep getting the same results over and over?
Who stands to benefit from this?
Why are we endlessly printing currency, spending more than we take in, and complaining about higher prices?
Why is everyone telling me to think this way?
Why do these pharmaceutical companies have commercials that spend an entire minute only going through side effects?
Why do we have such an opioid crisis?
Why are we indiscriminately pulling out of Afghanistan?
Why are we going to war all of a sudden with a nuclear power?
Why do we have a revolving door of political elites who leave office just to take a board positions at “big Pharma” or the “military industrial complex?”
Every coin has 3 sides.
We want to be on the edge so we can see both sides, as Robert Kiyosaki eloquently states.
There is a growing segment of society that disparages anyone who expresses any opinion that goes counter their own.
We can bitch all we want about the problems in the world, but how can WE benefit?
One of the things I attribute my success to whether it be in hockey, in real estate, or my investing career is being contrary.
It’s asking the questions that aren’t obvious.
It’s working out a different way.
Being unconventional and bucking what’s “trendy.”
Our portfolio of investments (real estate, bitcoin, gold/silver, cash, commodities, businesses) have grown considerably over the last handful of years.
It’s not because I’m Warren Buffet (he’s actually underperformed the broader market in the last decade but that’s a story for a different day) but instead because we have positioned ourselves outside of conventional opinions and “group think.”
Wall Street makes their wealth by milking you to death through fees in your pension, 401k, index funds, mutual funds, etc..
Financial planners are salespeople for Wall Street. They only make money if they put you in the paper asset class.
You are missing the 4 other asset classes (commodities, bitcoin, business, real estate.)
Simple questions of WHY will go a long way and those connected to Wall Street won’t have answers for you. (Other than investing with them is good for them, not you.)
There’s a time and place for dividend paying stocks once the ratios make sense and the market is on fire. But we don’t need to be paying all of those fees to have others do it for you.
There’s an old saying that goes: “the wealthy invest their own money and pay others to do their taxes. And the middle class and poor do their own taxes and pay someone else to invest for them.”
Remove yourself from conventional wisdom and you will be handsomely rewarded.
Just ask WHY.
You may not always like the answer but at least you can gain some hope that you are one step closer to taking back control from the “chief-deciders” and “do-gooders.”
Stay strong,
Brandon
Ps. Tomorrow we continue our theme on “thinking and biases.”
Friday we have the last in our 4-part beginner’s series on bitcoin. The last section is about advanced bitcoin learning. The assets I have used to shortcut my learning and study bitcoin over the last handful of years.
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Author Brandon Gentile
