Self-Improvement, Success
3 Hacks to Go Broke
The best way to become powerful is to know how to become powerless.
I just submitted my final thesis yesterday, and I’m glad. I wrote about philosophical projection: analyze the utopian world and the death of power through Michel Foucault’s genealogy. Power and human are always my favorite topics, so bring it on. It is raining now in Jakarta. The grey sky is crying like a two-year-old baby girl bullied by her brother.
Last week, I talked to someone in my office. He is a type of humourous man, but he has a capability above the average human, which I can’t mention. Don’t worry; he is not a shaman, by the way. He is a logical man. A typical I.T. guy who can edit the nominal numbers in your bank account with his phone. My first impression of him was, fuck, watch dogs really exist in the real world. I admired him a lot, honestly. It was a blessing for me to be able to meet him.
In that conversation, I asked him how to succeed in running a digital marketing campaign for a brand. His answer is unique; you will succeed if only you know how to fail. It makes sense because average people only do things positively rather than negatively. It’s not false, but if we only consider the positive things, we still tend to do negative things because we never thought about it before. If we think about the negative things, about how this shit can drown us, make us fail, and have other consequences, we have a bigger sense and awareness of not doing it.
Therefore, I got the idea to write about this topic; a simple way to get one step closer to becoming wealthy is knowing how to become broke. Acknowledging something that potentially becomes a disaster will give us a higher chance to avoid and prevent it. I may not be wealthy yet, but for almost 24 years of living on this planet, the rise and the fall of myself, my personal experiences, and my journey, I can conclude which things would make us broke.
I Love My Bed
Do you love to stay in your bed? So did I. Interrupt it and let the magic happen.
At the end of 2021, I was still jobless and didn’t produce money. I was still asked for money from my parents. At that time, I think the age of 21 is not the right time to think about producing money. My priority was gaining as much knowledge as possible from college and graduating. Maybe some people do the same thing as me. However, once upon a time, I had a paradigm shift in the middle of the night. I remember that moment. The moment when I only had 2k rupiah in my pocket while sucking my last cigar.
Knowledge is essential for everyone. I agree with that. But I think that sentence is not finished yet. Indeed, knowledge is vital for everyone, but it is not in the top-tier priorities of the lower-middle-class. I dare to say it because I also came from the lower-middle class. My monthly allowance is just 500k rupiah from my mother while I live in the biggest city in Indonesia (Jakarta). I have to admit that sometimes great ideas come from a critical moment. The depletion of cigars is my critical moment (you can judge me if you want), but it also awakes me step up and rebuild my priorities.
Back to knowledge and education. My point is, how can I study when my belly is screaming? How can I go to college without fuel? How can I access the sources without the internet I used to pay for? Every aspect of human life is always involving money. Don’t blame the system; blame yourself if you don’t wake up as soon as possible. Sometimes being realistic can save you, am I right?
Before entering 2022, I have to admit that I only do things that I like; studying philosophy, playing mobile games, hanging out with my friends, wasting my time surfing social media, and so on. Doing such things made me happy but didn’t erase my problem. I’m grateful that I came from a lower-middle-class family. If my life is already filled with things that I love, food that I like, and love that I want, can I still call it life?
“True happiness comes from the process, not the results.” — unknown
Do you like cigars? So did I. Interrupt it, and I will fuck the world. The depletion of money, which means that I can’t buy cigars, is one of the critical moments in my life. It is funny to realize how that moment can lead me to my current circumstances: financially stable, allowing me to set up my businesses and build my network. I’m not saying that we must erase everything we like, such as playing video games, chilling out, etc. I’m trying to say that we have to interrupt it sometimes to wake our ass up. Therefore, stay in your comfort zone, don’t go out of the box, keep doing things you like every day, and stay broke, mate.
Butterflies and Fish
If you spend your time chasing butterflies, they’ll fly away. However, if you build a beautiful garden where all flowers and trees are growing very fertile, the butterflies will come to you alone. If they don’t come, then you still have that garden.
If you go fishing with your uncle and give spaghetti bolognese or cheeseburger as your bait, your uncle will hit you hard in the face. Fish don’t come for your favorite meal. Instead, they will come for their favorite meal.
I’m not talking about butterflies and fish. Don’t change your mindset, and stay broke, mate.
The Sun
What the most patient thing is? Well, I would say it is the sun. He saw humans destroying his friend named earth every day, he had the power to annihilate us within a second, but he kept patient and hoped for a miracle that someday humans would recognize what have they done. Besides patience, I think the sun is the most consistent thing of all time; he always rises at 6 am and sets at 6 pm every day. He is slow, but he is consistent.
The bad news is we are not the sun. We can’t have patience and consistent characteristic like the sun. As Elon Musk says, stop being patient and ask yourself, “how do I accomplish my 10-year plan in 6 months?” you’ll probably fail, but you’ll be a lot further along than the person who accepted it was going to take ten years.
We are not the sun. Our life is limited by age. We probably will die tomorrow, but we act as if we are immortal. Keep doing it, and stay broke, mate.
Well, my background is not an economics or business student. But philosophy also had values that were relevant to other majors. My point is that wealth is come from within, not from the outside. Knowing things that potentially make us broke is a wise step to embody our wealth.
“Yesterday, I was clever. So I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise. So I am changing myself.” — Jalaluddin Rumi
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Cheers,
Katakurik
