So, you want my take on the market. You want to know whether I believe market forces are what is remaking the globe, or if it’s something else, something that is distinct and separate from the market. OK, the way I see it, the market is an extension of our own selves. It is a machine of almost organic complexity and intricacy that human beings have somehow put together one piece at a time. Billions of lives over thousands of years were needed to get the market to where it is today. I guess that, in a way, the market is the machine, of which all other machines are simply sub-structures. And as with all machines, its purpose is to allow consciousness to more forcefully enter the material world. Now, the interesting thing here is that consciousness, whatever you may believe constitutes it, evolves in response to the input it receives. And as the world is remade by the market, the reality in which we all find ourselves is changing, providing our respective consciousnesses with ever new and varied input to respond to. So, while we use the market to bring the abstractions of consciousness into the material world, to give them form and mass, these abstractions, once materially realized, are, in turn, reshaping the very thing that bore them. Does that answer your question? I didn’t think so.Look, you can’t make any difference if you’re spread too thin. There’s a point past which you go from being a mover and a shaker to being yesterday’s news. There’s only so much of a person to go around. There are a lot of people out there who forget this very basic fact of life. I really don’t know what they’re thinking. Anyone can find one thing, focus on it and do it well. Many can find two things and accomplish them both with equal ability. There are some who can focus on even more and do them all well, but these people are rare, and everyone, I don’t care who you are, conks out at some point. You begin forgetting, leaving things out. Holes start to appear. Before you know it your whole world’s crashed down around you. Look, I know what I’m talking about, alright?
You know, when you look back into time, at the way the world was, it seems like everything has changed. But when you think about it, the jobs we do have stayed the same. Oh sure, there’s a modification here, an alteration there. Eliminations and additions do, certainly, take place, but most jobs are pretty much the same as they’ve always been. A job is just there. It’s like a job is a part of time, it doesn’t itself move, people move through it . A person fills a job and then moves on, letting someone else fill the position. A job is a bit like the Platonic ideal in that way. Y’know, the job description is a perfect, heavenly, ideal abstraction which the person filling it can only approximate in an earthly manner, to a greater or lesser degree.
OK, look, farmers have always been farmers, right? No matter how big and advanced a farm is, the people working on it are still farming. Ship builders still build ships. Sure, most of them are a lot bigger than they used to be, and some of them are for traveling through the air-- or the vacuum of space-- instead of the water, but they’re still used to carry people and things from one place to another, they’re still ships, and people still build them. The tools and methods have changed, but not the essence. Writers still write, it’s just that the help-wanted ad has changed from, “Must be able to transcribe the word of God,” to, “Must be able to sell a car in ten words or less.”
Wait, wait, I’m coming to that! You’re right, my job hasn’t changed at all. A banker is a banker is a banker. We take money in and we lend money out. I don’t know about you, but I think that banking is the profession that most closely approximates the ideal. Why? Because it is the least subject to change. Think about it. It’s never going to change. Sure, money as we now know it is certainly going to disappear. But not banking. Banking is all about keeping people connected to one another, keeping the whole thing from falling apart. Banking is the bedrock of civilization. Money is just the way we’ve done it up til now.
Hey, it’s true. Sometimes you gotta lose. But people just don’t want to hear that It’s not too hard to understand. Who like’s being a loser? It’s just that it shouldn’t take a genius to figure out that no one always wins, let alone everyone. I mean, c’mon people, let’s just use our brains for a second here. Every time there’s a winner, there’s got to be a loser. This is on the level of two plus two equals four, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’ll find someone everyday that doesn’t want to believe it. The things people put themselves through just to escape from having to admit to themselves that they’ve lost. It boggles the mind! What a waste of time and energy, not to mention money! Learning to lose is a skill you’re supposed to learn as a child. I’m thinking of going on late-night television and hawking a complete twelve-step, “Learn To Lose” program, whattaya think? I will tell you one thing, though. Learning to lose is best done in business, because in the long run financial loss is easier to bear than personal and emotional loss. So I say, go ahead! Lose money, learn, and be happy!