For those who follow this platform, you already know this year I joined a Hiking & Long walks group. Early this month, the destination was Mt. Longonot -this is not easy terrain.
As is custom for good students of money and wealth, I wondered what lessons could I take from the grueling experience. Here are my reflections:
1. Never be in a rush because the journey to real wealth is a long one – I was returning to Mt. Longonot for the second time, the first been in 2012. I thought I understood the terrain well. A big mistake was to attempt to join a group of experienced hikers on this terrain in the hope of making it to the bottom of the Crater. They burned all my energy long before I could even climb to the summit at about 3 km up – the end result is that I really struggled to go round the crater, let alone attempt the bottom of the crater. Lesson: choose your pace carefully when in this game.
2. Prepare for a lonely walk most times on the journey of money – circuiting the 7km Longonot Crater can burn anyone to smithereens. It is not uncommon to find lonely hikers along the single Longonot circuit. When it comes to wealth and money, majority of the people remain at the bottom of the pyramid, few others only manage an average level of money; so, if your goal is to get to the top of the pyramid on money and wealth, you’ll endure a very lonely trail up there at the top.
3. Keep walking no matter what – one of the unique features of the Longonot peak is that there is no reverse gear once you engage to go round the crater. This is because going forward or returning to the starting point along the 7 km crater peak is the same. Thus, after you’ve made sacrifices to gain money and wealth, it does not make sense to drop the ball and revert to old ways. Such sacrifices would have been a wasted effort!
4. Do not worry much about the end, just make the small steps at whatever stage you are in – on the Longonot circuit at the peak, you cannot tell exactly how far you are from the start or to the end, unless you know the route on the palms of your hands. This allows you freedom to keep moving, even when the body doesn’t feel like it. That is exactly how the journey to real money and wealth feels.
5. The final outcome is soothing – it is always a great experience when you complete Mt. Longonot summit. Majority of the people who go there never circuit it, they camp at the peak and climb down. Going round the crater enjoins you to the privileged few who get to make it. So is the summit to money and wealth -1% at the top in each society control close to 50% of the wealth in each economy.
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