Myth of security

Recently I started putting my books away and came across Dan Kennedy's marketing course.

I came across one of the things that I have never forgotten and that has made me always seek to improve, no matter how badly or well things are going.

I reread one of those parts which for me has become a belief since then and lasts to this day.

It talked about the security fallacy.

Personal security, financial security, business security, in short, security.

Security does not exist.

It spoke of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the world wars and reminded me of the fall of great empires, like the Greek with Alexander the Great, the Roman, the Byzantine and so many others that collapsed throughout history.

He then reports to the business world:

One day people feel safe with their investments in a particular company or group of companies... and the next day (thanks to Enron, Global, Adelphia etc) they have nothing.

I kept thinking here of a parallel in people who invested in banks that went bust like Nacional, Bamerindus, Santos and others.

It's a situation we think will never happen, but it does.

Even though history shows that nothing is safe, people still look for that "there, now I'm safe" feeling. Who remembers the bank confiscation of 1990, the Collor plan? Life savings were confiscated. Everyone's.

Could these people imagine that a recently democratically elected president would act in this way? Could they imagine that gigantic companies, which are in the media every day as examples of management and strength, in which they invest their savings, are run by unscrupulous people? They would never imagine, even if the events of history say so, that they should imagine that this would be possible. Not probable, but possible.

Do you remember Mappin, Mesbla, Lojas Centro and so many others... more recently group X of businessman Eike Batista, who only a few years ago was the 7th richest man in the world according to Forbes?

Nobody starts a company thinking of breaking up. It's not something that's in the plan. You undertake it and you try to establish yourself. In reality, you control very little of the course of your future, because it depends on so many factors that nothing can interfere with.

You open a bakery in a busy street. You grow and hire people. You invest in new restaurants. You buy machinery. You negotiate supply contracts. Then in just one day it all comes crashing down: The pavement in front of your main shop will be closed to pedestrians for structural repairs to the sewage system. A work that will last 6 months, besides the rotten smell that will leave in the surroundings. His business with pasties is over.

This "catastrophic" event happened to me in my first company, which processed wool. My main supplier decided to invest in the same processing I was doing, and stopped shipping the leftovers to my company. I went bankrupt instantly.

I recently saw a company selling vitamin supplements online get banned from Facebook ads and go broke overnight as they relied solely on this channel to generate customer traffic to their online shop.

Anyway, the point is:

There is no "security" and never has been in any human activity and in any aspect of life.

Empires collapsed. Companies considered to be "islands of excellence" have gone under. Untouchable" jobs disappear in a few minutes.

There is no security and there never will be.

The only security you can count on, is your ability to produce.

If God keeps you with your mental faculties intact, then consider this, as your main producing asset.

The commandment I believe is:

"You must set up your life around a very serious commitment to maintaining, improving and strengthening your own ability to produce, because, in reality, that's all you have and can count on. Everything else that's around you, everything you've accumulated, invested, relied on, can disappear in the blink of an eye."

There are countless examples of people who have turned themselves around, literally leaving the ground where they were standing, to resume their lives and the path to happiness, using only this one skill: Producing.

I mentioned happiness, yes. It exists.

In a study conducted by Harvard, scientists observed people from adolescence until death (the study began in 1938) and came to surprising conclusions about happiness.

In short, what counts are experiences, human affection and a simple philosophy of life (Search for "Daniel Kahneman" and Harvard's "Good genes are nice, but joy is better")

But that's a subject for another day.

My point here is: let's believe in our productive capacity.

It is the only asset that does not perish, nobody takes. Only God.

Stavros Frangoulidis
Stavros Frangoulidis
CEO of PaP Solutions ⚡ Let's connect on Linkedin too

If you found it interesting, please share it :-)

LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Email
WhatsApp