The Systems Keeping Ordinary People Stuck

Ever wonder how ordinary people do extraordinary things? They move. They don't limit themselves. They learn. They follow their own rules.

The offer letter omits this.

You see the salary. You see the benefits. You see the vacation days. What you don't see is the full cost you are paying in this transaction.

Here are the numbers most people never run. Your labor creates value every day for the shareholders, the stakeholders. That doesn't show up on your paycheck, that shows up in their pockets. The ones who own the system, not the ones working in it. That's not cynicism. That's the reality of a business model.

Then there's the retirement promise. Work hard for forty years. Save in your 401k. Retire at 65 and enjoy your freedom. What they don't mention is that the average 401k participant pays close to 1% annually in stacked fees — expense ratios, administrative charges, marketing costs buried in the fine print. That 1% compounds into nearly half a million dollars over a thirty year career. Half a million dollars that went to the middleman while you were busy building someone else's dream.

It gets worse. Research shows overall mortality increases by 1.5% in the month Americans turn 62 — the moment most people begin reducing their labor force participation. You spent forty years deferring your freedom to the finish line. The data suggests the finish line is harder on your body than the race.

The job isn't the enemy. Trading your entire life for it might be.

They told us fat was the enemy.

No fat opened the door for engineered food. Low fat labels were on everything. What the label didn't advertise was the overly processed sugars, carbohydrates, and formulas designed to make you eat more. The low fat era made us sick. It made us fat and diabetic.

Here's how the science works, how our bodies work. Remove the fat, add sugar, add grains, then tell people it's all healthy. Unfortunately this combination spikes glucose levels and your unspent carbohydrates convert to, wait for it...fat! No wonder why diabetes and obesity are at record levels. The guidelines our food industry and government created weren't for us.

The food pyramid wasn't drawn by nutritionists. It was drawn by people who needed to sell grain. Milk does a body good — except that 68% of the world's population has some degree of lactose malabsorption. That slogan wasn't written by a doctor. It was written by someone who needed to sell milk. Breakfast — the most important meal of the day — that phrase was invented by Kellogg's in 1917 to sell cereal. A carb loaded sugar fest served to you every morning as the foundation of a healthy diet.

This isn't a conspiracy. It's a business model. The food industry doesn't profit from your health. It profits from your hunger. Specifically your unnatural hunger — engineered by ingredients designed to override your body's satiety signals and keep you buying, eating, and buying again.
We aren't being sold to be healthy. We are being sold to be hungry. Unnaturally hungry.

Our path was chosen. Just not by us.
Most people either don't know the path they are on or they don't know there are other paths. They are sold something at a young age and they buy into it. How many times do people ask themselves how they will feel at the end of their life? Did they truly live the life they wanted?

The rich ones. The successful ones. The ones who seem to have it all. How did they get there? Luck? From being assholes? Daddy left them money? Why them?
Turns out those lucky rich assholes — many of them earned the life but not the stigma. Only 21% of millionaires inherited anything. That means over two-thirds of them are self made. Many coming from similar situations as the rest of us.

Rebellion isn't about money. It's about freedom. The same can be said about wealth. The rich can have money yet still be a prisoner of their own life. Money helps gain freedom from many things but not everything. Freedom is no longer being a prisoner of one's own mind, following the script someone else told you to live, or building someone else's dream.

Some see obstacles. Others see challenges. Some hide. Others attack. Everything is how you frame it. You can find a silver lining in most things. Even some of the worst things. They make you stronger. They make you fight harder. They make you realize what you can actually accomplish.

The path is what makes the destination so much better.

Only you can build the life you want.

Reality is strange. Reality is complicated. It's not as black and white as people make it seem. We often get told what we can't do but not what we can do. Who are the people telling us this? Are they people we want to be like?

Think about quantum mechanics. Science at its deepest level is far from simple. The same is true with life. The way we are told to live is the simplified version — handed down by people who needed you to stay inside the lines. If you dig deeper, look beyond the simple minds who tell you how to live, you will find a world of opportunities. Yes it's complicated. But that's where the fun starts.

Building the life you want. The life you dream of. The life you deserve. In all this complexity there is something simple.

You simply go.

Don't wait for permission from anyone. Even from yourself.

The worst decision anyone can make is the one someone else makes for them.

Love the view. Enjoy the climb.

Our ancestors had it hard. Building a business meant capital, connections, and years of labor before seeing a dollar. Today all you need is a wifi connection and the world is at your fingertips.

The bar has never been lower. The opportunity has never been greater.

Why so many excuses?