Lucky Sperm Club

#luckysperm

“The richest one percent of this country owns half our country’s wealth, five trillion; I create nothing. I own.” – Gordon Gecko – Wall Street

I have empathy and affinity for those trying to figure out the mysteries. Recently several of these brave intellectuals have called to tell me about a new hypothesis being discussed these days. It’s called “The New Physics”.

They believe at the center of this philosophy is the notion that anything we think we can do; that just by the power of positive thinking we can achieve any desire, master any discipline. They liken this mind over matter idea to quantum mechanics; a branch of physics describing the behavior of energy and matter at the atomic and subatomic levels.

This sounds a lot more like hope than truth and perhaps they’ve misconstrued the conclusion but it’s also inaccurate to think that this axiom is anything new. A more accurate description of the so-called new physics is the concept that anything we think we will eventually do; but this doesn’t mean we are qualified to do it.

An example on the macro level: We looked at the moon and thought that someday we’d go there and then we did. But it took a couple of decades for us to be qualified to go. An example on the micro level: We see everything we do before we do it; pick up a glass of water and you’ll realize that you saw yourself doing it a nano second before you actually did it.

The brilliant twit Malcolm Gladwell, in his best-selling book; “Outliers” The Story of Success, among many grand revelations about why some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impact lives while so many more never reach their potential, he challenges our cherished belief of the self-made man. He makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: but that they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.

Warren Buffet subscribes to this notion and has consistently emphasized the role of chance in getting rich. “A member of the lucky sperm club” as he described himself to Charlie Rose. He happened to be born in the right country, to the right parents, at precisely the right moment, to absurdly reward his special talent at asset allocation. Warren’s a rare bird. Few successful businessmen truly believe they owe their rewards to luck. Nothing makes a mammal more delusional than money.

Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, Gladwell builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky. He also asserts that it takes twenty years to become really good or great at anything and anyone who’s gotten good or great at anything will likely agree with this hypothesis.

It’s a theory I happen to agree with as well. I met hundreds of salesmen over the years but only two maybe three who I considered great and they all had spent a lifetime honing their craft. Salesmanship is the ability to influence the opinion of others through education; an achievement that requires a variety of talents that can only be mastered by doing, over and over again. Yet without the inherent skills and talents for whatever particular quest for productive achievement we select, we may become good at it, but we’ll never be great at it. The talent is in the choice; success comes from focus and repetition.

Yet it is revelatory to acknowledge that success, at art or business or life, is an evolutionary and progressive process. Once we take the first step toward a worthy ideal, once we try, we are already a success. Success and joy result immediately in the journey and never occur at the destination; since the things we have mean less to us than the things we want.

There’s another side to this coin of course; that pesky Buddhist riddle that has driven many a Monk to sit astride a mountain top contemplating his navel; wanting, they muse; is the source of all pain. #newphysics #warrenbuffet #billgates #malcolmgladwell #luckyspermclub