“Oh, it was about 850 feet,” she said.
“What?!” I replied.
“Yeah, it was a little shorter than three football fields.”
“And you were in charge of the whole thing?” I asked.
“Well, yeah. I would basically instruct the ship to turn left or right, or to accelerate or stop. I mean, I had a whole team that would carry out my orders.”
“That’s incredible,” I said, “And you’re not even thirty now? Sounds like you’ve already accomplished a lot. I can’t wait to see what you do next.”
“Yeah… we’ll see… that’s one of the reasons why I’m down here now.”
–
That was one of the conversations I had in Puerto Rico with one of our newest Explorer Partnership members.
To say that this woman is accomplished is an understatement. She grew up in South Korea before going to university at the United States Naval Academy. After she graduated, she became a high ranking Naval officer and was deployed all over the world. Then, after she left the Navy, she started her own fitness company.
And she’s still in her twenties.
We talked for a while about going out into the world and making a big impact. We talked about why most people are too afraid to pursue what they want, and more importantly, why most people don’t actually follow through with a plan to achieve their goals.
It’s tempting to say that it’s tougher to ‘make it big’ now-a-days. Taxes are higher, regulations are stricter, and there is more competition. But, deep down inside, we know that it’s all relative.
The problems of today – expensive housing, competitive job markets, and high living costs – are all relative to challenges that those faced 50 years ago. But, of course, we’ll always hear the excuse, “It’s different this time!”
Well, if you’re living in the UK, you might get some sympathy with your “it’s different this time” claim.
“The Resolution Foundation’s intergenerational commission, which has been researching ways to plug the generation gap between millennials and baby boomers for the past two years, suggested the grant – dubbed ‘citizen inheritance’ – should be given to Britain’s young people once they hit the age of 25.”-RT
That amount? About $13,000 USD.
Seriously.
Instead of lowering taxes, deregulating their business environment, incentivizing entrepreneurs, or building out community infrastructure, their genius answer is to just give money away.
Oh… and guess where that money would be coming from? “The grant would be funded by an inheritance tax on what older people pass on to their children.”
So, let me get this straight… Free money would be given to young people, which would be funded by taxes from older people, who were going to be giving money to young people?
Are you f*$king kidding me!? Who comes up with this stuff!?
But it doesn’t end there. What problem do they think they’re solving?
“Younger generations are bearing more risks and holding fewer assets than their predecessors,” the report states. “We need to redress that imbalance if we are to maintain the promise of an asset-owning democracy.”
Asset-owning democracy? You mean those same leveraged assets that require citizens to make a life-long commitment to working for a paycheck so they can service their debt?
And the answer to all of this is to give a 25 year old a bucket money… so they can spend it on something that puts them into debt.
Wow.
So, I go back and think about our new E/P member. A woman who grew up in Asia, graduated from a top ranked university, served in the military while commanding a massive ship, and who now owns her own successful business.
I’m glad that we have people like her in our network. And I hope that you are including people like her in yours. Because, that is what is going to move you forward, not some ‘citizen’ inheritance’ grant.
