One of the reasons for this blog is to document my journey on becoming a professional investor and business owner. My hope is that maybe this will help other people become more aware of the process. That way they can make a more informed decision on whether they want to put in the time to learn to do this for themselves. You have to actually it and your brain literally has to change. The mental switch that is flipped when you truly comprehend you purpose is the most fundamental decision you could ever make in your life. It take some years to find this Mental Switch, it can take others decades, but you must start looking for it if you are ever going to have hope in finding it.
I apologize in advance if this post seems as if there was not plan. That is on purpose. I am just writing this as it comes to me . I think that I will make a separate category that will contain these raw posts of just how the journey is going and my thoughts.
As with this entire blog. I am not tailoring it to find a specific group of people. With a lot of blogs, they are trying to attract a certain niche. They are looking for a specific group of people based on an interest, experience, dream, or whatever.
That is not my intention with this website. If you don’t like what a certain post is about, then it wasn’t for you. I don’t see how that would be a major problem as this is basically just a platform for me to nerd out about my interests in financial history and learning how investing works.
Small detour
Since this category of posts is more of a diary of how the journey is going, this will be the only time I bring up how I feel and what I am thinking about everything. For the people who do not know me personally, I am 21 years old as of this writing on August 6th, 2021. I have one semester left before I graduate with a bachelor’s in physics and a minor in mathematics.
People who see me as of right now always think I am a total meathead. I am in a way. I absolutely love powerlifting and bodybuilding. I wake up before 5 am everyday so that I can train and get all my meals made for the day before I have classes and work. My training is my sanctuary. I believe that it is truly a form of meditation for me. It is the only time that my mind can be completely shut off, and I am in a kind of flow state. It is sort of euphoric. I think everyone needs something like that. It doesn’t have to be physical training, but it needs to be something.
The Suffocation: finding the mental switch
Now, with school, the training, trying to get this blog up and running, I am also trying to start a small business with my significant other. We are selling home-made decorations on Etsy under the shop Fireflylights Co if you are interested. Lots of bottle lights, lanterns, and stuff.
I have been straight out dumb founded at how much I can do. The fall semester of my junior year of undergrad was beyond difficult. I had the most difficult schedule that could have been made for a physics major at my university. I was taking the highest math classes as well as taking Quantum mechanics, Classical mechanics, and other research-oriented classes. I got up at 4 am every day, Monday through Sunday and I literally did not stop working on schoolwork until 10 pm every day.
I have always had a lot going on in my life. With school, sports, eventually working two jobs during the summer amongst other things. However, that fall semester pushed me to my breaking point. I have played viola in Carnegie Hall. I have competed with professionals in other activities, but I had never reached my breaking point. I had never had anxiety. But that fall semester, I started having panic attacks, and a lot of them. Almost daily. I was so stressed that I started having heart palpitations. I am extremely health conscious, and I rarely eat something that is unhealthy, and I exercise daily. So that experience really opened my eyes. I also almost completely stopped sleeping. I would go for 3 to 4 days on only 5 hours of sleep total.
Why
Now, something like this would cause anyone to break down. It sure made me. However, I found something that change everything. It changed the way I fundamentally looked at everything I was doing. Through listening to Mark Bell’s Power Project, I found Robert Kiyosaki. By reading his books as well as studying the people that he works with, I found what I needed.
I found a reason why.
Before I had no idea why I was doing all of this. I just thought it was expected of me, so I did it. But afterwards it gave me a reason why. And knowing the reason why I do all of this changed how I looked at everything. Suddenly all the stress and pressure that suffocates me didn’t feel like it was going to kill me.
I realized that all the stress and pressure was forcing me to grow. I was able to see the growth. It was if I was climbing a mountain and all I could see was the peak miles and miles away, but now I was able to look back and see how far I was from where I started. That little win of realizing how much you have grown changes your mentality.
There is a concept that I think about when I started to feel suffocated again. I forgot who said it, probably someone on Mark Bell’s Power Project, but he has so much amazing content that it would almost be impossible to find the one line. It is counter to the saying of “Don’t bite off more than you can chew”. You need to bite off more than you can chew. To paraphrase the concept, “ You bit off more than you can chew, NOW CHEW IT”.
That is the only way you grow.
Ethics side note
I believe that everyone is selfish to the core. I believe that it is human nature to be selfish. However, the context of the selfishness means everything. For example, I believe heavily in philanthropy. Because of this, I believe that to be selfless is the be selfish.
The word selfish has be given a bad connotation. Words are just words; their meanings change based on their CONTEXT. Context is everything. A nice pretty house means nothing if there is a bomb falling on top of it. To be selfish for only your own sake I think is immoral. However, to act in a selfless manner to please a selfish desire I think is a person’s moral duty.
This is something that really needs examples because it is easy to take this the wrong way. There are still some things that are accepted as morally bad (i.e., murder, assault, etc.). To please these desires is immoral. However, if you desire is to give food to children or animals, give others shelter, make other’s lives better or something similar. To please this desire is your moral duty. You are pleasing yourself (being selfish) BY being selfless. That is the context that makes all the difference.
Conclusions
This is the end of the first official rant on the blog. It started out as a sort of journal entry and progressed into a rant for some reason. That is kind of the point of this thread. I am not trying to follow a specific topic or anything, just rant a little and talk about how everything is going. I hope that some of it is helpful to someone, or at least is found entertaining.
To your wealth and future,
James Forsythe
For more of The Grind Diary
https://jamesdforsythe.com/category/the-grind-diary/
The book that initially sparked my idea on ethics above, in case you are interested.
https://www.amazon.com/10X-Rule-Difference-Between-Success/dp/0470627603
