The 99 Percent and the Occupy Movement

I live in Seattle, pretty close to downtown, and over the last couple of months I’ve had to endure the annoying as hell Occupy protesters on a regular basis. The more I see them, in-person and on TV, the more I think to myself “these people have no clue how to improve their lives.”

If the people involved in the occupy protests spent half of that effort on trying to get a job (or even better, creating their own jobs), they wouldn’t have anything to complain about. The 1% didn’t become the 1% by sitting around complaining about how unfair life happens to be (well, some might have, but most did not.) They busted their asses to get there.

The concept of income inequality is nothing new, and in fact it goes back for thousands of years. The 1% are the modern equivalent of the aristocracy of old, and the only thing that’s changed are the titles.

But, and this is a big but…who gives a shit? I don’t want to do away with the 1%…I want to be a part of it 🙂

5 years ago I was in the 15th percentile of household income in the US, today I am in the 85th percentile, and in 5 more years I fully expect to be in the 99th percentile, the coveted 1%.

How, you might ask, did I pull that off?

By refusing to play by the rules, by reading a ton of books, by talking to and observing a ton of wealthy people, and by experimenting and testing things in my own life. I’ve learned to operate outside the “reality” that most people live in, and the grass is WAY greener on this side of the fence.

Reality is all about perception, and once you learn to change your perception you can start down a path that leads to a life more incredible than you ever thought possible.

That said, getting to where I am (and to where I want to be) isn’t an easy thing. It has been incredibly difficult, I’ve worked my ass off to get here, and I’ll keep working my ass off until I reach my end goals. It’s been 2 steps forward, one step back, over and over and over.

I’ve definitely had my pity party moments along the way, but not once have I EVER considered blaming the wealthy for my problems. They aren’t to blame.

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is responsible for your life situation except for you. If you think someone is going to come along and just hand you everything you want, you are mistaken. The successful people of the world (and those who will someday be successful) carve their own paths, and create their own wealth.

That doesn’t mean that the actions of others can’t have a negative impact on our lives. They can, and the corruption in our government is a clear example of that. But, and this is another important but…blaming others for our problems and behaving like unruly children isn’t going to fix anything.

That doesn’t mean things don’t need fixing, but in most cases we need to fix ourselves before we’ll have the capacity to fix others.

You may not be able to prevent some bad things from happening, but how you respond to those negative life events will define who you are. If you learn and adapt and grow from those experiences, then perhaps you have what it takes to truly succeed. If you say “woe is me, pity, pity, so and so is to blame”, then you need to change yourself before you try to change anything else.

I’m in the process of writing a book that outlines step-by-step how to change your mindset, set yourself free and improve your life for the better. No tricks, no gimmicks, just principles I’ve observed and tested in my own life, and that I’ve seen work in the lives of numerous other people. I’ll keep you updated on the progress 🙂

In the meantime, to all the occupy protesters out there…STOP.

What you are doing, and the way you are doing it, does nothing but decrease your credibility. If you want to improve this country, you need to start by improving yourselves.

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