109 – Case for Earning

Children must earn whatever they have. It begins in the earliest stages of waking childhood, but reaches through to the end of life. If we have without earning, we become brats incapable of survival.

The overall problem among bad, fake, theatrical leaders is that they only manage momentum as it decays, long after the engine has shut off. Drilling, tapping, digging, tilling, sowing, building, beginning, initiating, sparking—to the fraudulent leader, these are “someone else’s role, because everyone has a different role”, when actually, fraudulent leaders don’t understand those things because they were never taught them in childhood.

Learning to fuel the engine and drive momentum is not any kind of inborn talent; it is a learned skill every bit as common as walking, eating, and the basics of human language. Using chopsticks and speaking with an accent have nothing at all to do with genetics. So it is with farming, kindling a campfire, and building roads. Commerce exists in every economy, just as economics and trade are universal.

People know how to initiate profitability only if they are taught through constant exposure and trial, just like walking and talking.

The parent who gives to children beyond what the children work has little difference from the parent who keels the child in the baby walker or leaves the training wheels on the bicycle and says, “See, you’re riding.”

Good looks, a naturally strong body, and a well-mannered temperament can also harm a person’s progress, making friends easy to make—and just as easy to lose. Natural talent and socially-favored genetics open doors automatically without having to learn to use a doorknob. It is the parents’ responsibility to curb the natural favors of life so that children learn that they still must work to earn what they have.

All the while, whatever we work for, we must learn to take advantage of our own, individual unfair advantages. Selling something, dressing presentably, getting a business balanced and profitable are all learned skill; art, taste, flair, style, manner—these are genetic and make each person unique. One artist in Hong Kong paints Chinese script with his mouth because lost his arms, but he has style and earns money.