Mel,
Regardless of which political or social viewpoints you identify with, I think we can all agree that there's an unprecedented level of insanity in the world right now.
Washington DC… pandemics… riots…
"…but wait, there's more!"
It's fair to say few of us have ever lived in such a vortex of uncertainty.
But let's put this in perspective - - - >
Chris Hurn sent me a book, The Bonanza King, which is a biography of John Mackay, the Irish immigrant who made more money in the Gold Rush of the 1850s and 60s than anyone else alive.
Mackay's story is interesting… but not nearly as interesting as all the chaos that was swirling around at that time:
- The Irish potato famine was killing six million people and desperate immigrants were FLOODING the ghettos of New York and Boston on a daily basis.
- Overt, bitter racial and ethnic prejudice was the norm
- Massive rates of unemployment
- There was an outbreak of {cholera - typhoid - ________ - enter your scourge of choice} somewhere in every major city literally every week, with festering mud puddles and sewage in the streets
- The U.S. Civil War was brewing, then underway, with thousands of soldiers being cut down by their own countrymen
- The transatlantic cable with morse codes transmissions from Europe was set up, worked for 9 days, then suddenly and inexplicably failed - then didn't work anymore for years
- Low-wage workers were swinging sledge hammers to build a transcontinental railroad
- In the absence of a railroad, it took weeks and even months for news from the East Coast to reach the West Coast
- The mining towns of California and Nevada were lawless dens of chaos
- Civic life was mob rule, and extremely common for miners who stole gold or violated others' property rights to be instantly hung from nooses without a trial
- Prostitution, alcoholism and organized crime were rampant
- Native Americans were being driven off their land from coast to coast (and weren't too happy about it)
- Most people don't know the California gold rush generated the money the North needed to win the Civil War
- The completion of the railroad massively disrupted local economies - in both good and bad ways
- Immigrants and fortune seekers often had to sail around the bottom of South America to get to California, a trip that took months
- Many, MANY mining accidents, fires, cave-ins and deaths
- Gold seekers sometimes made glorious amounts of money, only to be bankrupt within days or weeks
- A "Pineapple Express" tropical storm from Hawaii = "Category 6" storm that only happens once every 200 years, struck the coast of California in 1862, washing out entire VALLEYS (not just towns) in one fell swoop. The new governor was sworn in on a raft.
So... we're sweating Day 304 of a global pandemic and you can only talk to your kids on Zoom (in 2560x1440 resolution with noise cancelling headphones) and the only restaurant food for the last 2 months has been takeout.
And the US presidency is a freaking circus…
I contend it's still better than waking up to megaphones, sirens and flashing lights and raucous banging on your front door at 3:34am in Stalingrad, then the Secret Police give you three minutes to pack and say goodbye to your family before they ship you to a gulag in Irkutsk.
It's also better than "Born in the USA" in 1862.
"OK Perry," you say. "Appreciate the historical perspective. I solemnly promise to bitch a little less this week. But what am I supposed to DO?"
Let's start with what you should NOT do.
I would greatly discourage you from spending any time trying to figure out which one of the 578 available political narratives you're going to glom on to, then use as a cudgel for smacking everyone else on the head.
In fact a much better idea - which a whole bunch of my Roundtable members are doing - is a SOCIAL MEDIA FAST where the only social media you participate is positive, business or spiritually focused constructive activities.
With NO politics and no bitterness, anger and vitriol.
AND, above all:
STAY
IN
YOUR
LANE.
Period.
Innovate your company. Serve your customers. Fix your broken systems. Better yourself.
Get educated.
Solve problems.
Invent new things.
This is what I'm doing.
Two days ago I just submitted my first scientific paper to a peer reviewed journal. It took 7 months and probably 2-3 hours of work per day.
In the last month I've onboarded a C-level person in my company, started a nonprofit corporation and initiated a new foray into cancer research.
My 20 year old came down with C0VID last week and since I have 20+ Roundtable members coming to Florida next week, I'm quarantining in an AirBNB 2 miles from home to make sure I'm safe for everyone.
I am VERY VERY VERY focused.
And I am NOT watching CNN. At all.
People who behave as I am behaving…. will literally own the world in about five years.
People who have their head stuffed in the current political drama may not own ANYTHING in five years.
Once again.
STAY IN YOUR LANE.
Over and out.
Perry Marshall
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