Someone's Pitch

Money making boils down to solving problems. If you genuinely want to create compounding momentum, you must repeatedly make yourself redundant. To confidently do that, you need a sense of ownership. To feel part of a solving container. Otherwise, once you have a solution, why ask you again? There are 7.8 Billion people on the planet. As Warren Buffett says, “You don’t have to swing at every pitch.” You do not want to be someone’s pitch.

The other more cynical path is to make yourself irreplaceable. Create problems only you can (pretend to) solve.

I do not like that path. I like the path of genuine and honest problem solving. That requires trust, ownership, and inclusion in the containers we build. A strong enough commitment in a relationship to share the truth. One of the reasons we do not talk about what we earn, our real weaknesses, and what we do not know, is it can solidify internal waves of anxiety about inadequacy.

Which means there is a level of darkness about what opportunities are available. Which clogs up realistic paths of skill and knowledge development, and leaves solvable problems scabbing our eyes closed.

You are not the problem. The problem is the problem. Treating people like pitches, turns them into problems.

In Motion

Where You Are

Stilling the waves of money anxiety is not about having more. In the same way, competitive yoga makes no sense. Although, being people, we have created ways to weigh and measure people in conspicuous progress there too. You are as “advanced a yogi” on day one, as you will be after years of practice. The starting point, is always the same. Where you are. It is also the destination. You are already enough. Despite feelings of inadequacy and manufactured discontent. That realisation does not absolve you of action. It just means the key is not in comparison. Deal with the cards you are dealt. Money anxiety stills through the relationship between what comes in (however big) and what goes out (smaller than the in). Through building a buffer for the unexpected (however big) and an Engine of reserves to reduce your reduction to being a productive asset. Letting go of your judgement of yourself. Letting go of others judgement of you. Price is not value. Salary is not worth. You are not your job. Life is not a competition.

Discovering Fire

A foundation of our superiority challenges is a core belief in Second Class Citizens. It is hard to separate out some of the complex problems around sexism, xenophobia, racism and classism from things we hold to be true. One of those is that we get taught preferences from a young age. We overhear stories about successful people and unsuccessful people. The voices of people we admire soak into the voices in our head. We question if we are good enough. Then we start seeing the strengths of others through this view. Engineers hire Engineers. Accountants hire Accountants. South Africans hire South Africans. Oxbridge graduates hire Oxbridge graduates. Even when we superficially break from these categories, seeing the strengths that don’t resonate is challenging. Wealth creation is a team sport. But if you have a God Complex thinking you are the source of value, and everyone else is there to support you, then clearly you are not going to see the strengths of mortals. Till they discover their fire and topple you.