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This is a reply to a comment left on
one of my xombytes.
One of the readers sent me a message
asking me to make it available as
its own xombyte.

Here is a link to the original Xombyte

http://www.xomba.com/casey_serin the_more_positive_take

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Ill start by saying that - if you have dreams that are independent (do not involve) becoming rich, That is great. But i do believe that a great number of people in the world, including in US, find themselves in a position of having their dreams so far on the back burner that to pursue them becomes unrealistic (at least for them at that moment). Meaning, family obligations, defeatist attitude, being physically removed from opportunity to pursue the said dream – a kid in Kansas dreaming of becoming a surfer (and many of these people think this would change only if they made enough money)….

Id like to state that its my opinion – after studying the bios of extremely successful, people – that if you don't have a well defined, clear cut, goal by age of 15 or 16, you may as well as focus on the money, because whatever else you decide to do chances are against you becoming someone really outstanding.

To answer your question – “where did we take dreams and associate them with being rich”. Lets not concentrate on the fact that – anyone who’s old enough to understand what money is – wants it, for a moment. This question assumes that dreams are in some way associated with being rich. That may not necessarily be the case. Becoming rich like becoming powerful is too vague and falls more under category of ambition. A dream is something more specific. Now to answer how those concepts are relate. I think the phenomena starts very early in a persons life. Either a person has no truly strong preference for things, or her or parents do not pay close enough attention to cultivate a ‘dream’ in that person. No one is born and grows up dreaming of becoming a drug addict, or a low level criminal, and hardly if ever do kids dream of becoming plumbers or menial laborers. And this is just in this country. Even if a person does have a dream – especially at a young age – its easy to be distracted, even if the dream is quite strong. Here’s an example – when I was a kid I wanted to become a pilot. A military fighter pilot to be precise. My parents being who they are didn’t really know this, didn’t really care. And I was kind of shy about the whole thing out of fear of sounding ridiculous. Looking back at it of course I know it was silly (to by shy that is) but what can I do that’s how my personality formed. In a big part due to the fact that unrealistic dreams are (sometimes subtly sometimes less so) are discouraged in favor practicality, and some ambiguous ‘hard work’ ethic. Fast forward a few years I graduated HS and went to college, here I was less shy and got myself into programs that could make this dream (of flying fighter jets) come true. Of course because of my “previous life” the odds were already starting to get stacked against me , or at least not in my favor. So now im playing catch up. But not only am I playing catch up – a lot more things are added to equation, now I have to work and have a job, worry about money, and there are suddenly distractions like partying and girls. So I find myself trying to keep all these balls in the air, without any training in juggling so to speak. Eventually Air Force wants its flight school hopefuls to make increasingly commitment oriented decisions, and this point someone like myself – who despite having a dream – decides to realistically asses the situation and weigh the options. Of course Air Force – knows that main attraction it presents is providing one with ability to fly the best hardware in the world, but it also knows that number of applicants will exceed number of available positions, and clearly USAF has more needs than just for pilots and theres a very good chance that if you don't get into flight school, or even worse, fail in flight school and get washed out, youll be flying a desk in Washington DC, and that’s a good case scenario. So now im put in a position where im suggested to take a gamble with odds not stacked in my favor. Of course all this depends on ones attitude to risk, but I chose to not continue with AF. This doesn’t mean the dream died. I still learned how to fly, and even learned how the fun part of flying - aerobatics. At this point the critics could say – well you can go on and become an airline pilot – very prestigious, very cool. Only im not really interested in being a bus driver in the sky. So now I have a 9-5 and a very VERY expensive hobby. And at this point I can tell you that id rather fly for fun, and id also rather not really work. So were I to make a ton a cash mad fast – my dream would come true. Oh and one more thing – I still want to fly jets, and guess what I can, its just even more expensive than doing rolls and loops in a basic trainer, about x10 more expensive.

Of course that’s not the only issue here, another interesting phenomena is the loss of US manufacturing sector, and increasing disparity between poorest and richest. Before I go on on this theme – I have to state that I live in a major coastal city, so things look more pronounced to me than to someone lets say – in Atlanta GA, because of things like real estate prices, and general composition of economy around here. To afford an average house in the 30mile radius around this city one needs to have an income of $200k and a down payment of about $150k. So this is yet another thing that lays pressure on people to strive to become independently rich.

About happiness – this is largely individual. What makes one happy? If I consider myself in comparison to worlds 6 billion population – I really have nothing to complain about. I mean there are groups of people (in the world) living in and around garbage dumps (the size of towns) – their entire lives. So am I happy? it would be extremely obnoxious to whine in my position (that – by the way – goes for about 90% of US citizens). So I cant argue with you on the point of happiness – if you live in US and theres something you want to do – you really have no excuse. In US happiness is a choice, if youre not happy its because you choose not to be.

About goals – we could talk about this one in circles as well, but everyone knows that if your goal is really to work for a nonprofit, you can drop everything and work for nonprofit – end of story. But everyone also knows that there are other pressing needs. And for the 3rd time we all know that were you all of a sudden to become rich it would be much easier for you to go and work for the said non profit.

I feel like your reply was somewhat sidetracking the theme of my original post. My post was to address Caseys haters, and that it was lame to hate on a guy for trying something alternative, especially when almost everyone would wish to be able to pull of what he tried and couldn’t. Also to point out that were Casey to succeed at his little adventure I doubt anyone would be hating on him quite as much.

Another major point that perhaps I failed to emphasize –is that school, as it is today, fails when it comes to economic realities. Basically saying work hard, find something you like, and youll be OK. Of course the world is much more complex than this, and school does nothing to address this. Casey addressed this point by basically stating that he doesn’t think school is the best way and that there are alternatives to working 9-5, and that is what most impresses me about Casey, of course instead of trying to support his points, the haters lashed out and made of him, which I think is unfortunate, that people trying to justify their own lifestyle choices by kicking a kid while he is down.

Also id like to argue that what Casey is attempting is not badabing badaboom instant riches. I really think he is trying to use a creative way to generate wealth which will free him from the ‘grind’. I don't think casey is looking for easy way out hence – the 30k spent on education. Listen – its clear casey is misguided in so many ways, but the effort, and the thought is very very good, further more his effort was in innovative direction, no school or college can teach someone what casey learned – both in seminars –and hard way in practice.

Also an historical aside to this argument – its pretty well documented that the middle class is constantly ‘vying’ for the position of the upper class. The revolution in Russia was called the proletariate, and workers revolution, but the brains behind the operation were all upper middle class. Same goes for Cuba, and Iraq, these are the immediate examples that come to mind im sure theres moe (also to support my theory Id like to point your attention to orwells 1984, describes more or less the same situation).