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Shortcut to Success

Posted By: Randy GageMay 21, 2018

Seems like everyone is looking for a shortcut, hack, or easier way to reach success. The truth is, there are no shortcuts to success.  But there are ways to get there quicker…

A great way to speed up your progress is changing your focus.  Instead of fixating on what you want to achieve – look instead at who you want to become.

Because when you become the right kind of person, you attract people and circumstances that are in alignment with your goals.  And get you there with less effort and time.

Ain’t it great!

- RG

2 comments on “Shortcut to Success”

  1. Or, if you really want to succeed, you could be a rich, white male (What, you are none of these 3? Well it looks like someone needs to kick their parents straight in the ass!) that uses his wealth to rig the system in his favor (you need to go no further than Silicon Valley to see how those privileged tech shit birds are completely decimating the Bay Area for middle-class families, but that's a different story). This, from Time magazine, pretty much explains how our country went from a meritocracy to a system that only benefits a very small percentage of people:

    "About five decades ago, the core values that make America great began to bring America down. The First Amendment became a tool for the wealthy to put a thumb on the scales of democracy. America’s rightly celebrated dedication to due process was used as an instrument to block government from enforcing job-safety rules, holding corporate criminals accountable and otherwise protecting the unprotected. Election reforms meant to enhance democracy wound up undercutting democracy. Ingenious financial and legal engineering turned our economy from an engine of long-term growth and shared prosperity into a casino with only a few big winners.

    These distinctly American ideas became the often unintended instruments for splitting the country into two classes: the protected and the unprotected. The protected over-matched, overran and paralyzed the government. The unprotected were left even further behind. And in many cases, the work was done by a generation of smart, hungry strivers who benefited from one of the most American values of all: meritocracy.

    Key measures of the nation’s public engagement, satisfaction and confidence – voter turnout, knowledge of public-policy issues, faith that the next generation will fare better than the current one, and respect for basic institutions, especially the government – are far below what they were 50 years ago, and in many cases have reached near historic lows.

    For too many, the present is hard enough. Income inequality has soared: inflation-adjusted middle-class wages have been nearly frozen for the last four decades, while earnings of the top 1% have nearly tripled. The recovery from the crash of 2008 – which saw banks and bankers bailed out while millions lost their homes, savings and jobs – was reserved almost exclusively for the wealthiest. Their incomes in the three years following the crash went up by nearly a third, while the bottom 99% saw an uptick of less than half of 1%. Only a democracy and an economy that has discarded its basic mission of holding the community together, or failed at it, would produce those results.

    Meanwhile, the celebrated American economic-mobility engine is sputtering. For adults in their 30s, the chance of earning more than their parents dropped to 50% from 90% just two generations earlier. The American middle class, once an aspirational model for the world, is no longer the world’s richest.

    Most Americans with average incomes have been left to fend for themselves, often at jobs where automation, outsourcing, the decline of union protection and the boss’s obsession with squeezing out every penny of short-term profit have eroded any sense of security. In 2017, household debt had grown higher than the peak reached in 2008 before the crash, with student and automobile loans staking growing claims on family paychecks.

    Although the U.S. remains the world’s richest country, it has the third-highest poverty rate among the 35 nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), behind only Turkey and Israel. Nearly 1 in 5 American children lives in a household that the government classifies as “food insecure,” meaning they are without “access to enough food for active, healthy living.”

    Beyond that, too few basic services seem to work as they should. America’s airports are an embarrassment, and a modern air-traffic control system is more than 25 years behind its original schedule. The power grid, roads and rails are crumbling, pushing the U.S. far down international rankings for infrastructure quality. Despite spending more on health care and K-12 education per capita than most other developed countries, health care outcomes and student achievement also rank in the middle or worse globally. Among the 35 OECD countries, American children rank 30th in math proficiency and 19th in science.

    American politicians talk about “American exceptionalism” so habitually that it should have its own key on their speechwriters’ laptops. Is this the exceptionalism they have in mind?

    Perhaps they should look at their own performance, which is best described as pathetic. Congress has not passed a comprehensive budget on time without omnibus bills since 1994. There are more than 20 registered lobbyists for every member of Congress. Most are deployed to block anything that would tax, regulate or otherwise threaten a deep-pocketed client.

    Indeed, money has come to dominate everything so completely that the people we send to D.C. to represent us have been reduced to begging on the phone for campaign cash up to five hours a day and spending their evenings taking checks at fundraisers organized by those swarming lobbyists. A gerrymandering process has rigged easy wins for most of them, as long as they fend off primary challengers–which ensures that they will gravitate toward the special-interest positions of their donors and their party’s base, while racking up mounting deficits to pay for goods and services that cost more than budgeted, rarely work as promised and are seldom delivered on time."

    It goes on from there, but I think I have depressed you enough. If Randy, or any other Internet prosperity guru, for that matter, tries to school you on how to become wealthy in the current United States situation, he or she needs to be candid with you regarding how you can win in a rigged game, especially if you are a female or a minority. If they do not do this, they are completely remiss in their teachings regarding how to gain wealth and success in the current day financial atmosphere. The touchy-feely posts and platitudes will make you feel better (I call it the kumbaya syndrome), but those in and of themselves will do absolutely nothing to further your financial situation. And although this may offend a few people out there, just remember - I will never tell you what you want to know; I will always tell you what you need to know. I guess this means I will never be a preacher, pundit, politician, or Internet guru but what the hell.

    1. Two thoughts come to mind: First is I think Silicon Valley would be quite surprised to find out it is predominantly white, because it's not. And they and would be the first to share your concerns about the housing situation in the Bay area because they face the same situation. There are many extenuating factors such as limited inventory and poor government decisions.

      Secondly, on the issue of winning in a rigged game, I would suggest everyone watch my Prosperity TV episode on that very subject. See it here: https://youtu.be/A_ohlKi6cjY

      -RG

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  • 2 comments on “Shortcut to Success”

    1. Or, if you really want to succeed, you could be a rich, white male (What, you are none of these 3? Well it looks like someone needs to kick their parents straight in the ass!) that uses his wealth to rig the system in his favor (you need to go no further than Silicon Valley to see how those privileged tech shit birds are completely decimating the Bay Area for middle-class families, but that's a different story). This, from Time magazine, pretty much explains how our country went from a meritocracy to a system that only benefits a very small percentage of people:

      "About five decades ago, the core values that make America great began to bring America down. The First Amendment became a tool for the wealthy to put a thumb on the scales of democracy. America’s rightly celebrated dedication to due process was used as an instrument to block government from enforcing job-safety rules, holding corporate criminals accountable and otherwise protecting the unprotected. Election reforms meant to enhance democracy wound up undercutting democracy. Ingenious financial and legal engineering turned our economy from an engine of long-term growth and shared prosperity into a casino with only a few big winners.

      These distinctly American ideas became the often unintended instruments for splitting the country into two classes: the protected and the unprotected. The protected over-matched, overran and paralyzed the government. The unprotected were left even further behind. And in many cases, the work was done by a generation of smart, hungry strivers who benefited from one of the most American values of all: meritocracy.

      Key measures of the nation’s public engagement, satisfaction and confidence – voter turnout, knowledge of public-policy issues, faith that the next generation will fare better than the current one, and respect for basic institutions, especially the government – are far below what they were 50 years ago, and in many cases have reached near historic lows.

      For too many, the present is hard enough. Income inequality has soared: inflation-adjusted middle-class wages have been nearly frozen for the last four decades, while earnings of the top 1% have nearly tripled. The recovery from the crash of 2008 – which saw banks and bankers bailed out while millions lost their homes, savings and jobs – was reserved almost exclusively for the wealthiest. Their incomes in the three years following the crash went up by nearly a third, while the bottom 99% saw an uptick of less than half of 1%. Only a democracy and an economy that has discarded its basic mission of holding the community together, or failed at it, would produce those results.

      Meanwhile, the celebrated American economic-mobility engine is sputtering. For adults in their 30s, the chance of earning more than their parents dropped to 50% from 90% just two generations earlier. The American middle class, once an aspirational model for the world, is no longer the world’s richest.

      Most Americans with average incomes have been left to fend for themselves, often at jobs where automation, outsourcing, the decline of union protection and the boss’s obsession with squeezing out every penny of short-term profit have eroded any sense of security. In 2017, household debt had grown higher than the peak reached in 2008 before the crash, with student and automobile loans staking growing claims on family paychecks.

      Although the U.S. remains the world’s richest country, it has the third-highest poverty rate among the 35 nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), behind only Turkey and Israel. Nearly 1 in 5 American children lives in a household that the government classifies as “food insecure,” meaning they are without “access to enough food for active, healthy living.”

      Beyond that, too few basic services seem to work as they should. America’s airports are an embarrassment, and a modern air-traffic control system is more than 25 years behind its original schedule. The power grid, roads and rails are crumbling, pushing the U.S. far down international rankings for infrastructure quality. Despite spending more on health care and K-12 education per capita than most other developed countries, health care outcomes and student achievement also rank in the middle or worse globally. Among the 35 OECD countries, American children rank 30th in math proficiency and 19th in science.

      American politicians talk about “American exceptionalism” so habitually that it should have its own key on their speechwriters’ laptops. Is this the exceptionalism they have in mind?

      Perhaps they should look at their own performance, which is best described as pathetic. Congress has not passed a comprehensive budget on time without omnibus bills since 1994. There are more than 20 registered lobbyists for every member of Congress. Most are deployed to block anything that would tax, regulate or otherwise threaten a deep-pocketed client.

      Indeed, money has come to dominate everything so completely that the people we send to D.C. to represent us have been reduced to begging on the phone for campaign cash up to five hours a day and spending their evenings taking checks at fundraisers organized by those swarming lobbyists. A gerrymandering process has rigged easy wins for most of them, as long as they fend off primary challengers–which ensures that they will gravitate toward the special-interest positions of their donors and their party’s base, while racking up mounting deficits to pay for goods and services that cost more than budgeted, rarely work as promised and are seldom delivered on time."

      It goes on from there, but I think I have depressed you enough. If Randy, or any other Internet prosperity guru, for that matter, tries to school you on how to become wealthy in the current United States situation, he or she needs to be candid with you regarding how you can win in a rigged game, especially if you are a female or a minority. If they do not do this, they are completely remiss in their teachings regarding how to gain wealth and success in the current day financial atmosphere. The touchy-feely posts and platitudes will make you feel better (I call it the kumbaya syndrome), but those in and of themselves will do absolutely nothing to further your financial situation. And although this may offend a few people out there, just remember - I will never tell you what you want to know; I will always tell you what you need to know. I guess this means I will never be a preacher, pundit, politician, or Internet guru but what the hell.

      1. Two thoughts come to mind: First is I think Silicon Valley would be quite surprised to find out it is predominantly white, because it's not. And they and would be the first to share your concerns about the housing situation in the Bay area because they face the same situation. There are many extenuating factors such as limited inventory and poor government decisions.

        Secondly, on the issue of winning in a rigged game, I would suggest everyone watch my Prosperity TV episode on that very subject. See it here: https://youtu.be/A_ohlKi6cjY

        -RG

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