Becoming successful is easy. You only have to be able to count to three: 1) Create an enemy; 2) Make yourself \u2018needed\u2019 to fight this enemy; 3) Simply go for it.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s too bad that in all this, the word \u2018simply\u2019 is crucial. It means that people with a relevant level of intelligence have a big disadvantage. They don\u2019t just \u2018simply\u2019 go for it with disregard to anything else. They think.<\/p>\n
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Take medicine. Diseases are \u2018the enemy\u2019. Medicine is \u2018needed\u2019 to fight this enemy. 1, 2\u20263. Just like that. Does it matter whether diseases do not exist as natural-kind-phenomena, but only as conventions? Does it matter whether most of these conventions nowadays do not fit at all the concept of \u2018enemy\u2019 in any case because they are\u2026 the people themselves?<\/p>\n
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Take world politics. The other side is \u2018the enemy\u2019. But who is the enemy? Well, the enemy is the other side of course. Rather circular. Be it communists or capitalists, terrorists, jewists, simply-not-my-religionists, simply-not-my-colorists, non-democratists, anti-democratists, pseudo-democratists, nuclear weaponists, alienists, I-do-not-know-anymore-but-will-find-something-ists, or etc. And lo! Some success-seeker is \u2018needed\u2019 to fight this enemy! 1, 2\u20263. Boring, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
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Take cigarettes. Take juvenile delinquency. Take \u2018the boss\u2019. Take parents in some you-know-when stage of most children\u2019s development\u2026 Take anything. The simplest ladder towards success is always very simple indeed. But seldom or never does it lead to human dignity, happiness, inner strength, growth of potential or anything positive. It leads to ego-power, but at the expense of human beings, including the ones with the heightened ego-power. In other words, it\u2019s just not good.<\/p>\n
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Or should I say: it\u2019s bad?<\/p>\n
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I think so, in many cases (except where it has a function as transitory stage). I really do. And I don\u2019t mean it in a relative way (as \u2018this\u2019 being worse than \u2018that\u2019). I mean it in an absolute way: it is what badness is about. It\u2019s the definition itself of badness. Someone\/thing somewhere gave us humans the freedom of choice. That\u2019s OK. Despite everything, I think we should always remain grateful for that. But it\u2019s a choice with a sting. In order to be able to choose, an \u2018ego\u2019 is needed. Of course, this ego can choose to always choose for itself. And so, in many cases it does. And it chooses power. Ego-power. 1, 2\u20263.<\/p>\n
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Fighting the ego is no solution. In fact, it would come down to the same thing. The ego is not \u2018the enemy\u2019, except that of an ego. In a number of cases, both are even the same ego. Then what is the solution?<\/p>\n
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I think the solution is a flower.<\/p>\n
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I used this image before. The ego is the top of the flower bud. If the flower opens, the top of the bud doesn\u2019t disappear, but \u2018transcends\u2019 into a beautiful whole. However, if the bud is too sticky, the flower never opens and rots in the bud.<\/p>\n
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That<\/em>\u2019s quite a choice, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n \u25ca\u25ca\u25ca<\/p>\n