Answering the Critics: Need Is Not an Excuse

The Whining

Hi, everyone. Look, I'm here to complain. Yes, I know. But before you judge me, hear me out: I recently shared a draft with my inner circle, friends and family, of a post about the man who tried to give part of his empire away to his employees.

I told them I'd met Roger, one of this guy's stepsons. Roger, this isn't personal. You know I like you, but your story is a brutal lesson, and I'm not going to waste it. Over lunch, I cracked a joke: "The best deal of all went to your mom, the 21-year-old who married the old man." Understand, I didn't say it to be nasty. I'm not judging. If anything, I'm begging: God, put it on my wish list! When I'm old, I want one just like her.

But what blew my mind was my friends' feedback. Their reactions were a symptom of the mental illness that keeps the masses broke.

1. "They Were in Need"

The first comment was: "You don't know what money problems they had. Maybe they were sick." Hunger is the best engine there is, but for the mediocre, it's the best excuse! If you're in debt and someone hands you a fortune in stock, trading it for 40% of one month's pay to "chip away at it" isn't need. It's mathematical stupidity.

Whoever sells his future to buy an aspirin today deserves to die in pain tomorrow. You don't pay off debt with crumbs. You wipe it out with the capital these people threw in the trash for a couple of crumpled bills.

2. "They Didn't Understand"

Another comment: "A lot of them didn't understand the model." The old man brought in speakers and paid for financial education. Saying they "didn't understand" is a fancy name for intellectual laziness. The masses don't want to understand. They want to be told what to do and get their reward on Friday.

"In the 21st century, ignorance is an aesthetic choice. Whoever chooses not to understand chooses to remain a slave."

3. The "Young Visionary"

My friends were scandalized by the 21-year-old wife. But let's break it down: she didn't apply for a job at the front desk. She went straight for the center of power. That isn't a lack of morals. It's individual sovereignty. She understood that capital is won by positioning yourself where the flow of wealth is greatest. She is the 5% in its purest form.

The PRAXMA mindset:
Excusing other people's failure with "need" is the fastest way to guarantee your own stagnation. Need is a fact; how you respond to it is what separates the king from the beggar.
Sympathy for the failure is the poison that eats away at a man's potential. Excuse other people's weakness, and you're laying the groundwork for your own fall.

I don't give a damn if they were in debt. If someone hands you the keys to the castle and you trade them for a hamburger, you're a waste of DNA.

Stop crying over people's "needs." Need is what makes the world run, but only a damn genius turns it into an empire, while the idiot uses it as an excuse to stay a slave.

To explore further

• Honesty without dumping the cost on others Spanish only: explored in depth in Unfiltered, free or for a symbolic price.
• The mistakes that sink a business Spanish only: explored in depth in One Step from the Abyss, free or for a symbolic price.

Read also

• The Truth About "The Boss"
• Damn the Rich
• The Day I Learned to Swallow My Own Stupidity