Who is the Happy Warrior?

When I was a kid, I liked the following poem although I only read the first 9 lines from a book of quotations. I loved it so much I wrote it out in calligraphy. I was quite happy recently to discover that the poem is actually longer! I'm glad to share it with you here.

Character of the Happy Warrior William Wordsworth (1770-1850) WHO is the happy Warrior? Who is he
What every man in arms should wish to be?
—It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought:	5
Whose high endeavours are an inward light
That makes the path before him always bright:
Who, with a natural instinct to discern
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn,
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,	10
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power	15
Which is our human nature’s highest dower;
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives:
By objects, which might force the soul to abate
Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;	20
Is placable—because occasions rise
So often that demand such sacrifice;
More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure,
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;	25
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
—’Tis he whose law is reason; who depends
Upon that law as on the best of friends;
Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
To evil for a guard against worse ill,	30
And what in quality or act is best
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
He labours good on good to fix, and owes
To virtue every triumph that he knows:
—Who, if he rise to station of command,	35
Rises by open means; and there will stand
On honourable terms, or else retire,
And in himself possess his own desire;
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;	40
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state,
Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall,
Like showers of manna, if they come at all:
Whose power shed round him in the common strife,	45
Or mild concerns of ordinary life,
A constant influence, a peculiar grace;
But who, if he be called upon to face
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad for human kind,	50
Is happy as a Lover; and attired
With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw:
Or if an unexpected call succeed,	55
Come when it will, is equal to the need:
—He who, though thus endued as with a sense
And faculty for storm and turbulence,
Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans
To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes;	60
Sweet images! which, whereso’er he be,
Are at his heart; and such fidelity
It is his darling passion to approve;
More brave for this, that he hath much to love:—
’Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high,	65
Conspicuous object in a Nation’s eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity,—
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not,
Plays, in the many games of life, that one	70
Where what he most doth value must be won.
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,	75
From well to better, daily self-surpast:
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name,	80
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven’s applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is he
Whom every Man in arms should wish to be.

Would you wage a war for independence?

If you look at history, one fact will become obvious when it comes to nations seeking independence: it is not possible to achieve independence without successfully waging a war against established powers, such as a colonial empire.

Only India, under the amazing leadership of Gandhi, has been able to achieve independence without having to go to war.

Similarly, it is very unlikely that a man can achieve financial independence (also called financial freedom) without waging a war. This war, however, is not waged with guns and bullets, but with words, ideas and thoughts.

If you look at the men in your life, you will immediately see who is engaged in a war to attain financial independence, and who is just seeking security and wants to absolutely avoid war.

The men who are not willing to fight, will have plenty of reasons (excuses, really) for not fighting. But nobody can judge them. They are responsible for their own lives, and what they do with the limited time they have on Earth is their own business and nobody should interfere.

However, this portal was created for men who are willing to fight. I know they are in the minority, and I also know they need tools and weapons to wage this war.

This is why I decided, two days ago, to launch information and training sessions every Monday, from 7 to 9 PM, in order to share as much of what I know as possible with these valiant men. I will record all the sessions so the valuable information and knowledge becomes available to all users of this portal.

Can a man be a winner if he doesn't know business?

Since 1989, democracy has won over communism. Francis Fukuyama calls it "the end of history," in his book of the same title. He meant that liberal democracy has won over communism.

However, that's at the political level. At the economic level, capitalism is still in need of reformation so it can respond better to people's real needs, as well as reduce the damage inflicted on the environment.

But concretely speaking, capitalism is now the only game in town. Capitalism is an economic system characterized by ownership of the means of production and private property.

If you live in a democratic political system such as Canada or the United States, it's great. You enjoy a certain measure of economic freedom that many people in developing nations do not enjoy. You also enjoy a certain level of social peace and harmony.

However, even within such a democratic system, you might be a "loser" in the sense that if you don't operate according to the rules of capitalism, then you are not fully actualizing your economic and entrepreneurial potential.

In plain English, it means you might be earning only a FRACTION of what you COULD be earning.

If you understood capitalism and business, you could be making 20 to 100 times what you are currently making. Making that much more money has little to do with how smart you are; it is simply a matter of mathematical leverage (the secrets are explained in Richard Koch's book The 80/20 Individual).

The question is, "Can a man be a winner if he doesn't know business?"

I can't say that a working man is a loser. He is definitely a responsible person who works hard every day to fulfill his financial obligations, and is contributing to the government's funding.

But I also can't say that such a man is a winner. To be a winner in any game, one must be able to score points.

Take a game like basketball, or tennis, or even golf. There are rules, and one must play by the rules in order to win.

If capitalism is the only game in town, then you have no choice but to know its rules. That is, you have to know business. If you don't know the rules of business, then you cannot possibly win.

You might be doing, on a daily basis, "what you're supposed to do and what others expect you to do," but you are definitely not winning the game.

I will write more about this, but the game of business is not about money. It's about creating life and realizing freedom. A good businessman can set up a business, hire the right managers to run it, and go away to do things he really enjoys doing. Of course, he would require that all his managers email him the vital business stats and key performance indicators so that he can make sure his businesses are operating as planned and are producing healthy cashflows.

Is this all there is to Life?

The following is a great passage from John O'Keeffe's book, Business Beyond the Box - Applying your mind for breakthrough results.

It takes as much effort and energy to work at a boring, mundane improvement to any part of our work and lives – which any one of a hundred people could have done – as it does to deploy our minds and talent trying to do something substantially more meaningful. The problem is that we never take five minutes out to realize this.

How often do we become involved in relatively petty arguments about realtively petty things? Why not put all that energy and commitment into going after something worthwhile?

How often do we just get stuck in a rut, without realizing it, believing that a minor improvement on where we are is a cause for celebration?

How often do we, almost subconsciously, accept the status quo and happily work within it?

Are we living or are we dying? Will there be anything to write on our gravestone that makes us anymore distinctive, memorable or contributing more than millions of others living this very minute? Are we destined simply to come into the world, perhaps mate with another and spend our lives going through the humdrum activity of producing and raising two new humans to replace the two mates? Talk about going round in circles.

At work, are we simply to live out a commmonplace existence, going for mediocre improvements, just like millions of others in hundreds of other corporations, all in their own little boxes just like us, earning a wage to keep us alive until we're dead?

Next month, even if it is March, starts a new year. March to next February. Is there any real point in us living that year or might we just as well go into a coma? Are we merely going to aim for this year being a little bit better than last year – and accept it if it's not? Will the world be any different for us having lived his year? Wil we ourselves be any different, for the better, after the year is over?

How about next month, or next week? Are we really aiming to make a big difference – or are we just continuing to exist as before, perhaps a little better, stuck in the box of incrementalism, imprisoned by old habits and routines, without knowing it, concentrated on the scraps of work and life?

If we were seen from Mars, wouldn't we be just like one ant in a colony of ants at our feet in a wood – focused on things that to us are minutia and trivia? You lie in a box called a house – is it really so different from all the other boxes? You travel in a box on wheels – is it really so different from all the other boxes? You go to an office block to work in a cubbyhole – is it really so different from all the other blocks? And when we make minor improvements to our boxes, we're still in the box of incrementalism.

Are you dressed in a box called a suit, perhaps the same color as all the other boxes, with perhaps an incremental difference of a wider stripe, or perhaps choosing a slightly different tie or a brightly colored blouse – an incremental difference that you celebrate as a major distinctiveness?

Is what you do during a work day really just existing in a box of routines and habits established by others before you or around you – celebrating incremental changes or improvements as being significant?

Are things really, in the big scheme of things, going to be that much better for you acting out your life this day, this week, this month, this year?

Do you want to stay stuck in a rut? Accepting your state in life? Accepting where you are, what you have, what you do as being “given” and looking at a modest change or improvement you make as being a cause for celebration?

Whatever job you do, whatever role you play, whatever life you lead, you can aim for step-change results within that job, that role, that life, rather than being content with just making it marginally better.

Capitalism is a manly tool

If you've never read Ayn Rand's stuff, here's a crash course that could (no, WILL!) change your life. View the slides at www.capitalism.org.

Men who don't understand capitalism are destined to lose economically their entire lives.

Gods in the chrysalis

I often have to tell myself, "Stop fooling around with the little details and make that move already! Make the ONE move that will irreversibly plunge you into the Path of Greatness!"

This is one reason why I created this portal: so that I could stop thinking and acting like an ordinary man, and start thinking and acting like a superman.

I believe that men are not just men. They are gods in the chrysalis. They are magnificent, colorful, winged creatures trapped, often for a lifetime, in the hard-shelled pupa of a butterfly.

But unlike butterflies that emerge naturally from the chrysalis, men must blast through the mental walls around them. The superman mentality precedes the superman powers. No man can become a superman unless he first believes he has the innate capability within himself to self-transform and courageously struggle toward supermanhood.

This, of course, means war. War against the past. War against other men. War against society.

Men will remain weak and fail to live up to their full potential until they face this super-reality within themselves, and give it full expression in the form of an irrepressible desire to excel in their chosen field.

Do you understand capitalism?

"He is not born for glory who doesn't know the value of time."

It's great if you use your time productively. What's strange is that after 5 PM, your time is worth zero dollars. This is a sure sign that you are not operating according to capitalism and, therefore, cannot become rich in this life. Don't worry, you're not alone. Most people find themselves in this strange, unprofitable situation where they can only make money 9 to 5.

Why can't people make money AFTER 5 PM or even during week-ends? Because they don't own the means of production. Today, however, the "means of production" is basically what you have in your head. So if you can't make money after 5 PM or during week-ends, it's because there is something about intellectual capitalism that you don't understand.

More about this later.

Make money burning DVDs

A "jobiz" is a job that was designed like a business, with Profit and Loss responsibility. To be considered for the above jobiz, please forward cover letter and resume to Peter at omnidigitalbrain@yahoo.com. Thank you.