Tag: alternative financial planning

Bear Market Extremes Equals Bull Market Wealth

by Jeff Clark – Hard Assets Alliance:

I want to congratulate you.

Gold and silver have been in a downtrend for over three years. And yet you’ve held on.

In spite of violent selloffs and a prolonged bear turn in the market, you’ve been patient. You see the big picture. You’ve steeled your emotions and rebuffed the negative mantra from the mainstream. You get it. You understand that sooner or later the fiscal and monetary path the world has embraced and praised won’t work.

And you will soon be rewarded. I can’t give you a date, but I can tell you it’s a question of when, not if.

How can I make such a claim?

History.

The Gold Market at Extremes

I measured the duration and degree of every bear market in gold and silver in modern history and compared them to our current situation. It’s quite revealing.

In each chart, the black line represents our current bear market. Here are the data for gold since the early 1970s:

gold

Gold has endured deeper selloffs, but as you can see, it’s one of the longest on record. And if the price were to slip further and close below $1,142 (on a fix basis), it would officially be the longest bear market in modern history. I’ll also point out that gold declined 1.8% last year, making 2013/2014 the first back-to-back annual loss since 1997/1998.

Silver’s performance is even more dramatic. Since the 1960s, only one bear market has registered a bigger price decline, and only two were longer (assuming the bottom was $15.28 on November 6 last year).

SilverBearMarketatRecordTimeSpan

These data all point to a bear market that has reached an extreme level.

That’s not to say prices can’t go lower, but history suggests that the end to the downtrend is close, if not already behind us. Your patience will soon get a vacation.

But does that mean the price is ready to take off again?

Gold Is Insurance, Not an Investment

While you can sell gold for a profit or a loss like any other investment, the most accurate way to view gold is as an alternate currency—the only one history has shown to provide monetary protection during a major currency devaluation. And the ongoing currency dilution around the globe today is comparable to some of the most notorious in history.

Yes, I think we’ll all make a lot of money in our HAA accounts. But gold’s primary role as insurance is more important right now.

Consider the risks we investors and consumers face:

• What if banks begin lending out the money the Fed has loaned them?

• What if the Fed decides it needs another round of QE, regardless of what they call it?

• What if interest rates rise, whether initiated by the Fed or pushed higher by the markets?

• What happens when—not if—the stock market enters a correction and mainstream investors begin losing money? What if the average investor remembers 2008 and decides to bail? How will the Fed react?

• What will be the mainstream reaction if the real estate market goes flat or reverses? How would the Fed respond?

• What happens if the economy legitimately grows—and kickstarts inflation?

• What happens if the debt load overwhelms the Fed’s printing efforts? Will they give up or double down?

• What if a developed country selectively or fully defaults on its debt?

• What if we reach a tipping point where other countries tire of the nonstop currency dilution and slow or reverse their treasury purchases?

• What happens if the markets lose confidence in the Fed or other central banks’ ability to manage their respective economies and markets?

• What if politicians don’t institute serious fiscal reforms, and Fed interventions are reduced to nothing more than monetizing deficit spending by causing inflation?

• How would global central bankers respond if deflation takes root?

• What happens if the geopolitical conflicts deteriorate and lead to war?

• What happens when—not if—control of the gold market shifts to China, away from North America?

The point is that we face increased systemic risk. Central bankers have painted themselves into a corner, and there is no easy exit from their policy mistakes. Since these issues have not been dealt with effectively, and political leaders show no sign of doing so, systemic risk has greatly increased. Sooner or later there must be a reckoning—the math doesn’t work, and history has demonstrated the outcome of such fiscal setups numerous times. Certainly, more caution is warranted than what most mainstream commentators suggest.

This is a major reason why I continue to buy gold and silver, and why I recommend you do, too. It’s not a speculation on rapid gains, but essential wealth insurance. In fact, the next bull market in gold will likely be spurred by one or more of the above risks materializing.

So instead of wondering if the gold price has bottomed, I recommend asking these questions:

• How much have you personally allocated to precious metals to offset the risk of a currency or similar crisis of major proportion? The need for monetary insurance against those risks is high, and rising. Given the elevated risk, a commensurate level of insurance is necessary. Fire insurance is designed to provide enough funds to rebuild your entire home, not just the basement. So one ounce of gold or one tube of silver won’t cut it.

• Does your portfolio stand on a foundation of mostly paper assets? If stocks and bonds comprise the lion’s share of your investments, your overall investment risk is very high.

• How correlated are your investments to the stock market? If mainstream investments decline, how will your overall portfolio be impacted? Gold and the S&P are typically negatively correlated; with both at extremes, now is a good time to make sure you strike the right balance.

• Have you stored some assets outside your political jurisdiction? The prospect of capital controls has grown.

In other words, it is less about the exact price and date of the bottom for this market and more about how you will protect yourself against the risks outlined above—they are real, in spite of what we read in mainstream headlines. If any transpire, they will wreak havoc on your investment portfolio and your ability to maintain your current lifestyle. That’s worth insuring.

In the meantime, the extreme nature of the current bear market means that current prices are a potentially life-changing opportunity.

Join me in creating bull market wealth—by taking advantage of current bear market prices.

Article originally posted in the January issue of Smart Metals Investor at HardAssetsAlliance.com.

Brighter Days Ahead for Gold

by Hard Assets Alliance:gold

“It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day.” —Nina Simone

Those lyrics from the timeless Nina Simone song Feeling Good certainly draw a parallel to the present state of gold.

After a rough couple of years, gold begins 2015 with a clean state. It will take time to shake off its hangover, but the yellow metal is looking good early into the new year.

Of course, gold still has its fair share of critics. Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citigroup, recently referred to gold as a “shiny bitcoin.” Refuting such a ludicrous statement isn’t worth the digital ink. Instead, we’ll keep it short and simply say: Such a statement ignores 6,000 years of human history.

Not all gold bears are as controversial. Most analysts pessimistic about gold’s near-term outlook cite the strong dollar, rising interest rates, and deflated energy prices as headwinds, though we would argue that each of these factors actually reinforces the need to hold gold… but that’s a discussion for another day.

Rather, let’s take a look at what some of the sharpest financial minds are saying about gold:

• In terms of gold price expectations, it appears that the repair of technical picture is now behind us and that a stable bottom has formed. The next 12-month price target is the USD 1,500 level. Longer term, a parabolic trend acceleration, with a long-term target of USD 2,300 by the end of the cycle.—Ron Stoferle, Incrementum Lichtenstein

• In the long term, however, I am more bullish on the gold price than I have ever been. All central bankers want inflation, and one day they will get it. Betting on inflation is the surest thing I have ever bet on in my life.—Pierre Lassonde, Chairman of Franco-Nevada (FNV)

• The lengthy bottoming process in gold seems to be nearing its close. The conditions that led to a decade-long rise in the gold price in 1999 are quite similar to today. Gold is not just ignored but hated by mainstream investors—it’s the Rodney Dangerfield of investment concepts.—John Hathway, Comanager of Tocqueville Gold Fund

Optimism about gold is also showing up where it matters most: the spot price. Gold has climbed nearly 12% since its November low and is off to its hottest start since 2008. Last week’s surprise announcement by the Swiss government to sever its peg to the euro provided the latest boost. It’s yet another reminder to own gold, the only asset that isn’t somebody else’s liability. We see this as a recurring theme in 2015.

Article originally posted in the January issue of Smart Metals Investor at HardAssetsAlliance.com.

What We Forgot About Free Market Capitalism Part 1

submitted by jwithrow.Rothbard Capitalism

One of the most important elements of free market capitalism is the price system. The capitalist price system provides information on supply and demand in the marketplace and individuals make business and investment decisions based on this information.

The economic system that America now employs is not free market capitalism and there are legions of regulations in place that distort the market pricing system every step of the way.

The most insidious price distortion is the suppression of interest rates.

Interest rates are simply the price of money. Like everything else in the market economy, interest rates are self-regulated by the forces of supply and demand. If there is a high quantity of capital in the system available for lending then interest rates will naturally be low. Low interest rates will entice borrowers to engage in long term financing – purchasing homes, expanding businesses, etc. Interest rates will then naturally rise as the capital available for lending diminishes. High interest rates are not attractive to borrowers so individuals and businesses will focus more on short term projects. This will lead to increased capital formation within the system which will gradually trigger falling interest rates.

But what happens when a central bank suppresses interest rates and keeps them near zero for an extended period of time? Well, this destroys the entire pricing system and distorts the entire market system.

Artificially suppressed interest rates send a false signal – which is exactly why they were suppressed in the first place. Artificially suppressed rates still entice borrowers to take engage in long term financing but this is a Keynesian trap. The problem is that there is not sufficient capital formation in the economy to warrant the low interest rates and thus there is not a true demand for all of the long term projects undertaken.

This is called mal-investment.

“If you build it, they will come” is a great catch phrase in the movies but it’s just not how the real world works.

Despite what the economics textbook says, there is no such thing as a ‘mixed economic system’. There is simply no room for the suppression of interest rates or the distortion of prices in a capitalist system.

There are only two choices:

  1. Free markets
  2. Central planning

Free market capitalism presumes an honest and functional price system that is not manipulated by a central bank.

Oh, we should probably mention how interest rates are suppressed.

The Federal Reserve creates currency units out of thin air and uses them to buy long term Treasury bonds at low rates. What could possibly go wrong?

By the way, you can read more on this topic here, here, and here.

Forget the Interest Rate – It’s the Quantity of Interest That Matters

submitted by jwithrow.Mastering Interest

Financial success is all about understanding and mastering interest. You see, there are only three choices when it comes to financial matters:

  • Pay interest
  • Receive interest
  • Forego interest

That’s it.

All you must do to get ahead financially is to arrange your financial affairs such that more interest is coming in than going out.

It is the quantity of interest that’s important. This concept is not often discussed so most folks focus exclusively on the rate of interest instead.

3.5% for a mortgage? This is a great rate!

2.87% for a vehicle loan? We’ll take two!

.05% on a savings account? Well, we suppose something is better than nothing.

So the average person pays interest for their house and their cars and they forego interest when they buy their groceries and pursue entertainment. The interest that they do receive is negligible in comparison because they offer whatever capital they have leftover after expenses for a pittance.

So what’s the common man to do?

CNBC will say that the stock market is the only way to go.

What they will not tell you is that the stock market is ripe with risk. Getting into the stock market requires you to give up control of your capital and place it 100% at risk. All the while you have the hedge fund high frequency trading machines and the Wall Street insiders chomping at the bit to take your capital from you.

These forces are focused on the stock market every minute of every day, not just during business hours.
If you have the same amount of time and energy as well as access to the same amount of information as the insiders then you may be able to play the stock market and come out ahead in real terms.

We think that it is much more likely that you will only come out ahead in nominal terms at best if you come out ahead at all.

We think it a far better strategy to capitalize an IBC policy and then focus on employing that capital to develop sustainable sources of income.

The IBC policy ensures that your capital is generating a little bit of interest no matter what happens and your employment of that capital can be used to significantly increase the amount of interest coming in.

After all, what good is a 3.5% mortgage if you are not generating at least 3.6% in interest income consistently?

You see, interest rates are not terribly important – it is mastering the control of interest in vs. interest out that is truly the name of the game.

Distinguishing Wealth from Money

submitted by jwithrow.Wealthy Life

At Zenconomics we feel like it is extremely important to differentiate wealth from money.  Pop culture and mainstream personal finance relentlessly tell us that the two are one in the same but they are mistaken.

The key to differentiating wealth from money is to understand the difference between exchange value and use value.  You already implicitly understand this difference but it is not immediately apparent in our culture today.

Money, by nature, holds an exchange value.  You can exchange money for goods and services and the quantity of goods and services for which you can exchange money is determined by the value of your money.  But this is all that money is good for – serving as a medium of exchange.

Wealth, on the other hand, holds both exchange value and use value.

You can exchange wealth for goods and services and the quantity of goods and services for which you can exchange wealth is determined by the accepted value of your wealth.  Wealth in most forms, however, is not as easily exchanged for goods and services and this is precisely why money plays a vital role in a developed economy.

Unlike money, wealth also holds a use value.  You can ‘use’ wealth in some capacity. Take real estate for example.

If you own residential real estate then you can either live in the home or you can rent the home out to a tenant to generate income.  These actions both utilize use value.  Of course, you can also sell real estate for money which utilizes exchange value.

Maybe your real estate consists of farm land which could be used to produce food.  Now your real estate, which is wealth if owned outright, can be utilized to produce additional wealth in the form of food.  Now your food has both an exchange value and a use value.  You can take your fruits and vegetables down to the farmers market and exchange them for money if you want to utilize the exchange value.  Or you can eat your fruits and vegetables if you want to utilize their use value.

It is important to point out that an asset must be owned free and clear of an attached debt in order for it to be considered personal wealth.

If you own a home with a big mortgage on it then you are one financial emergency away from losing the home and thus the case could be made that you do not truly own the home yet.  This is not to say that taking out a mortgage to buy a property is a bad idea, but be cognizant of the fact that you will need to satisfy the mortgage before the property can truly be considered wealth.

It is also important to point out that some forms of wealth may hold better exchange value than others.  A classic car collection may be extremely valuable to the owner but it may be difficult to find a willing buyer if the owner wished to exchange the collection for money in the future.

To reiterate, money is not wealth.

In fact, the only reason to hold money is to use it to purchase desired goods and services.  There is no other use for money.

And if you want to maximize your own wealth, you must wisely use money as a tool to acquire wealth.

**For more of Joe’s thoughts on the “Great Reset” and personalized asset allocation please read “The Individual is Rising: 2nd edition” which will be available later this year. Please sign up for the notifications mailing list at http://www.theindividualisrising.com/.

The Stock Market Deception

submitted by jwithrow.GW Paper Money

The stock market is comprised of numerous exchanges through which buyers and sellers can trade securities. The New York Stock Exchange is the world’s largest stock exchange followed by the NASDAQ. The Tokyo Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange are third and fourth in terms of market capitalization.

As we mentioned, the exchanges enable buyers and sellers to trade securities with one another.

We repeat this statement to emphasize the next one:

The exchanges are not where businesses raise capital unless an initial public offering (IPO) is taking place.

We think it is important to recognize this fact.

The vast majority of trades on a stock exchange are simply speculative – there is very little productive activity taking place. Even IPOs are usually not terribly productive as the intent is often not to raise capital for business operation but rather to enrich the owners and private investors.

So if most trades are just speculation then why do we view the stock market as a gauge of economic health? Why do we assume that the underlying economy is good when stock prices go up?

We do not assume that the economy is good when corn or oil prices go up. But corn and oil contracts are also traded on futures exchanges and there are speculators who profit when their price rises.

Conversely, why do we assume that the underlying economy is bad when stock prices go down?

Nothing real is destroyed when stock prices fall. Buildings don’t collapse. Equipment doesn’t break. Goods don’t go up in smoke. Engineers don’t lose their knowledge.

Maybe there was a time when stock prices somewhat reflected the financial health of individual companies, but those days are long gone. With mark to unicorn accounting, leveraged stock buy-backs, and all other manner of financial wizardry, CEO’s can and do manipulate stock prices regularly.

Additionally, the Federal Reserve has spent the past three decades ensuring that liquidity flows directly into the stock market so that equity prices continuously rise in unison over time.

The point is that there is a huge disconnect between the stock market and the productive sector that mainstream finance pays no attention to. In fact, mainstream finance has convinced most people that speculating in the stock market is the _only_ way to invest for retirement.

There may be a place for stocks within your asset allocation model, but it is important to recognize the stock market deception for what it is and understand the game you are playing if you do delve into the market. I would highly recommend enlisting the services of independent financial analysts if you do allocate some of your capital to the financial markets.

As we have touched on in a number of other essays here at Zenconomics, financial planning should be comprehensive and diversified according to your own unique circumstances. Simply amassing paper equities denominated in fiat currency is a very fragile plan.

As Nelson Nash says: “If you know what’s going on, you’ll know what to do.”

Be wary of the stock market deception and plan accordingly.

**Want more information on how to build a sustainable financial plan? Are you ready to turbo-charge your retirement portfolio? Do you yearn to exit the rat-race? Is financial freedom calling to your spirit?

Do not take a backseat when it comes to your own finances. Learn everything you need to know to master your finances in 30 days by enrolling in Finance for Freedom today!

Investing in Gold and Silver Bullion

submitted by jwithrow.Sound Money

Investing in gold and silver bullion is, believe it or not, much easier than investing in stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or bonds.

If the concept of investing in gold and silver seems strange to you, it is only because the financial media has marginalized the precious metals in order to sell more paper equities and the mainstream media has associated the precious metals with paranoid dooms-dayers. And apparently you haven’t been reading our little blog here.

You see, gold is money. It has been for all of recorded history.

You can’t pay your taxes with gold because your government knows that no one would want government currency if you could. And then your government would be in big trouble.

We talk about the ‘why’ in more detail here and here so now let’s look at the ‘how’.

Gold and silver bullion is available in the form of coins and bars of varying weights and measures and purchases can be made either in person at a reputable coin dealer or online through an internet dealer.

The advantage of buying from a local coin dealer is that you can pay in cash anonymously and you can potentially develop a working relationship with the dealer. The downside is that you will have to pay your state sales tax on all bullion purchases made at a local dealer.

The advantage of buying online is that you don’t have to leave your home and you can avoid the state sales tax (for the time being, anyway). The downside is that you cannot purchase anonymously and there is a delay between purchase and delivery.

Gold and silver bullion can also be sold back to the same dealers – be sure to research their individual policy.

The IRS currently classifies precious metal bullion as a collectible and thus taxes the gain on sale at the collectible rate which is 28%. Keep this in mind if you choose to invest in gold and silver bullion, especially if you sacrifice anonymity and purchase online. Also, be sure to stay updated on the current tax laws regarding gold and silver bullion as they could change at any given time.

There are many strategies when it comes to investing in gold and silver but a general rule of thumb is to stay away from unique collectibles (numismatics) unless you are very knowledgeable in the field. The reason being is that numismatics carry a much higher premium than standard bullion from well-known mints but there is a much smaller market for these rare coins and thus they are much less liquid.

Our favorite strategy is to dollar-cost-average into both gold and silver periodically at the ratio of one American Gold Eagle to twenty American Silver Eagles.

Buy Gold Online

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out – A Modern Interpretation by Paul Rosenberg

 By Paul Rosenberg, FreemansPerspective.com

This was a big phrase in the 1960s, as young people turned away from
the corporate conformity of the 1950s and decided that they wanted more
out of life than being an adequately-fed cog in a big machine.

Let’s be honest and admit that the modern corporate script involves
selling your own wishes and dreams for paychecks. I know that a lot of us have played along with it because of necessity, but this is not a way of life to cling to, it’s a way of life to escape.

You are meant to live your life. Yes, I know it can seem hard, but
it’s the only life that’s really worth living. You have to give meaning
to your life, and you’ll never get it by following the televised script and hoping for pats on the back from the people who are playing along with you.

This life you have is precious. Human beings are engines of creation;
we are able to imagine and to turn our imaginations into reality. And we
are capable of supercharging our creative abilities by sharing our lives
and loves with other people. We are astonishingly capable creatures.

Don’t waste all your life’s abilities in a corporate cubicle. You’ve
already seen how that goes: Work excessive hours, go home tired, watch
TV, sleep, and start over. Your kids end up in mini corporate worlds
called “schools,” where they are taught to sit, be quiet, obey, and turn
off their internal desires and loves. If you play that game you’ll miss
most of your life in the process, as well as most of your children’s
lives.

Once you get some corporate inertia going, it is all too easy to get
sucked into it permanently. Don’t let that happen to you.

So, here’s my modern (and slightly adjusted) interpretation –
Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out:

Tune In

Wake up and see the world as it is. Turn off the
talking heads on TV and get to know the real world. Stop spending all
your brain cycles on celebrities, sports heroes and gossip hounds – get
to know your neighbor and the old woman who lives around the corner,
strike up a friendship with someone on the other side of the world. Travel. Spend your time with real people; get to know them, and reveal yourself to them. It only seems weird because the people who programmed you didn’t want you to think freely.

Do you think I am being dramatic by referring to “the people who
programmed you”? If so, read this:

Education should aim at destroying free will so that
after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished.

That was from the highly esteemed Bertrand Russel, by the way, and
I’ve got plenty more of them. Take this seriously, because your
programmers have been.

Tune in to yourself rather than your programming: What do you really
want? Most people can list a dozen things that bother them, but not a
single thing that they really want. This is a problem. Find out what you
want. What do you love? What do you want to work for?

Do you remember all those times in the Bible where Jesus berates
people for being “hypocrites”? Well, the real word he used was actors –
as in stage actors. And whether you are religious or not, this is
crucial: Stop acting in someone else’s play. Take off all the masks and
find yourself.

Turn On

Start doing what you love. Don’t wait for someone else, do it
yourself. Start helping your friends and neighbors, spend serious time
with your children – not at a game or a party, but just you and them,
talking. Find out what they love. Tell them what you love, what you are
proud of, what you regret. Tell them you love them. Tell them things you
don’t tell your friends. Let them know you.

Start living, not merely existing. DO the things you feel an urge to
do. And don’t fall into the usual trap of “what if I make a mistake?”
That’s simply fear-based conditioning. Resist it. Do what you love, and
in so doing, you will turn yourself on.

Are you going to go through your whole life and never follow your own
wishes, always sacrificing them to the tyranny of other peoples’
opinions? Please don’t do that to yourself – you’ll suffer greatly for
it when you’re old.

Screw all the expectations and turn on – act on your own will.

Drop Out

Stop wasting your time and energy on governments and arguments and
politics. Drop out of their mindset and start reclaiming all those
wasted hours. Lying politicians are simply not worth your devotion. Drop
the endless party fights and stop arguing about them. Politics is ugly,
and politics on the brain makes us ugly.

Stop paying attention to the hundreds of ads you see every day – they
are scientifically designed to grab your thoughts. Turn away. Stop
buying trendy things, and definitely stop buying things for the purpose
of impressing other people.

Stop trying to fit in, and stop living according to other people’s
expectations. Let them call you weird. Let them talk about you. Stop
caring about it. If they were real friends, they wouldn’t treat you like
that. So if they are willing to call you names, you’re better off
dropping them now.

Don’t fight the system – that just keeps all of your energy and
attention focused on them. Forsake the system and start creating a
better life for yourself, the people you love and the people you
respect. Stop giving all your life’s energy to a barbaric system of
force and manipulation.

Let the system go; all of it. Move on and let it rot where it sits.

But We Need A Plan!

No, you don’t. You need a life!

Let go of the plan addiction. Life is organic, not mechanical.

First of all, you need to identify what you want to create with the
precious life you’ve been given. Not what you want to stop, but what you
want to make.

If you’ve never been told to do this before it may seem hard, but you
can do it if you try.

Don’t sit and wait. Stop talking and start doing.

ACT! NOW!

[Editor’s Note: Paul Rosenberg is the
outside-the-Matrix author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and privacy. He is also the
author of The Great Calendar, a report that breaks down our
complex world into an easy-to-understand model. Visit his site to get your free copy.]

Avoiding the Identity Trap

submitted by jwithrow.Identity Trap

The identity trap is the belief that you need to conform to what others think that you should be. It is when you feel the need to speak or act a certain way because other people think that you should speak or act that way. It is when you participate in an event or join an organization because others expect you to do so.

While these other people who expect you to conform to certain expectations are typically well-intentioned, you are doing yourself a disservice if you allow yourself to be pressured into the identity trap. Your life will not be harmonious if you are not true to your own inner self.

People, often subconsciously, do not see others as individuals but rather they see others as members of a particular group. They then assume that the other person holds all of the associated group’s beliefs and traits and thus they expect the other person to speak and act accordingly. But everyone is a unique individual and groups are comprised of individuals.

Individuals have a responsibility to themselves to do what they think is right at all times. Individuals have a responsibility to stay true to their beliefs and principles. Individuals do not have a responsibility to put on a façade because other people expect them to be something other than themselves. Falling into and remaining stuck in the identity trap is an impediment to your personal freedom. You can never be free if you must pretend to be something that you are not.

Harry Browne, in How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World, laid out four specific principles to recognize in order to avoid the identity trap. They are as follows:

1. You are a unique individual — different from all other human beings. No one else has the exact same nature that you have; no one else reacts to things in exactly the way you do. No one else sees the world exactly as you do. No one can dictate what your identity should be; you are the best qualified person to discover what it is.

2. Each individual is acting from his own knowledge in ways he believes will bring him happiness. He acts to produce the consequences he thinks will make him feel better.

3. You have to treat things and people in accordance with their own identities in order to get what you want from them. You don’t expect a stone to be a fish. And it’s just as unrealistic to expect one person to act as someone else does. You don’t control the identities of people, but you can control how you deal with them.

4. You view the world subjectively — colored by your own experience, interpretation, and limits of perception. It isn’t essential that you know the final truth about everything in the world; and you don’t have the resources to discover it.

Avoid the identity trap and realize your true individual potential.