Part Four: Life’s Reward: Concepts of Self-Esteem
“If you done it, it ain’t bragging.” —John Wayne
Earned Greatness.The fourth cognitive element, the concept of validation, has many faces. The effect of so many causes, it first stands for justice. In this regard, the words rewardand consequenceare synonymous. For the slothful, validation is the hell on Earth they bring about by their own default. For Self-made Man, it is the glory of his existence. We are the men who see and hear, and trust those perceptions. We are the men who think and feel, and are totally honest about the conclusions we draw and the actions we take. We never, never, neverdrop our minds. We produce and therefore earn the stunning luxuries our freedom makes possible. Beautiful homes, exotic cars, sun-soaked vacations, a life with the mate of our dreams—it’s all possible in this land of opportunity. The disciplined focus of our efforts, the intelligent choices and dedicated hours provides a steady climb to heights of our own. We know what we’ve earned and our work should berewarded, and in America, it is; yet the most important reward is internal. The reward is self-esteem. It is our own ruthless sense of justice, knowing our own value and looking outward; ready to accept and give value for value in love and respect for existence and for others; with our greatest human bond reserved for those who live up to our standards. This is the spiritual stature of a Self-made Man.
In any field you choose, you must care enough to want to operate at the top. You can go straight there in the privacy of your own mind with projection and try to think at their level, beginning with the end in mind. There is only one type of person safe to gain advice from: those who have taken your field the farthest. Whomever has obtained what you desire by private effort, is the one to ask or study. Those who have tried, erred and tried again are the primary source for sound, practical, experiential understanding, where one can learn the specialty as well as its proper method of development. The problem is finding them.
Heroes do not travel in herds. The training of sound practice can be all consuming, and most are so focused on their task that they have little time to spare for social interaction. That is why they leave most behind as they venture forth into their light. But by virtue of our respect for progress, fame for such a man is inevitable, and our exposure to them is made possible through what they have documented. Honing the skills of interaction with their science is their methodical process of advancement—the result of the steady pressure of application. Tenacityis this steady pressure. He sees the goal and learning what it requires of him, storms every angle until it is achieved. The consciousness most capable of satisfying its own ends is not mass-produced, but tailor-made, asking the self-made questions throughout life of “What am I living for? What do I want to be? What do I want to experience? What is most important for me to accomplish?”, and letting nothing stand in the way of oneself and its achievement.
The most extreme feel they were chosen—that there is something they need to do, something the world must see, which only they understand and only they can bring. They have been ridiculed, thought to be crazy and tortured for their truth, but they all say the same thing—that it was worth whatever men made them pay. It was worth it. Horrendous obstacles are here for a reason: a test to see us grow past such challenges, to make insurmountable barriers look irrelevant, to challenge precedent and ultimately to cut our own path. They must be overcome to see our best prevail and determine higher standards. We prove our worth by facing a torrent of opposition—braving the storm to see our vision through to the end—an accomplishment that lived and triumphed due to the power of our will alone. We all need someone to believe in, and weare that someone. Legends don’t die like a man dies. We have to accept the final stress of the decision to go forward—the contemplation before eternity—to embrace the point of no return. And we must go. Whatever is going to happen, will happen. The message must be heard in our words, and these words will live for us when we are no longer. They will live for all time.
There is no need to fear choosing the wrong purpose. Rational endeavors all share the correct fundamental premises: the preservation of life by civil means as its primary, the exaltation of its master as reward. There are so many endeavors to expand one’s fulfillment that they can never be exhausted. Self-made Men search until they find the perfect fit. Even if you never find it, you’ll have a hell of a lot better time looking than if you weren’t. My first career was automotive design, the second was real estate, the third was the stock market and now I am a writer. In between, I gorged myself on philosophy, law, economics, business acquisitions and even considered founding a bank. I try whatever sparks my interest on this planet because I love being alive, but the pursuit of purpose certainly grows more refined as we gather experience. As we see farther, we can look back and understand why a previous goal suited our level at the time, and what made us move on. For example in my teens I could have trained to become a professional bicycle freestylist as some of my riding acquaintances went on to be. What stopped me was that I could not dedicate my life to it. My life’s pursuit was still to be discovered and I knew if I tried to make my mark in freestyle, I would die inside. Likewise, if they tried to do what I do, it would be the same for them. They would feel trapped where I feel freed. Freestyle gives them a feeling about their lives which I could only experience through writing, and vice-versa. They could appreciate what I’ve done, but could not make it their purpose. So freestyle remained a sideline, while I kept searching. You must be able to say, “This is what I want to do with my life, or at least what I want to do right now.” Take the first steps into purpose and further steps will be revealed. Reflecting back, I tried this and that, responding with, “No, that’s not it,” time and time again, but investigated each correctly. I had a serious interest to learn all I could about a subject, enjoyed it thoroughly, and worked hard to make it pay.
Outside of one’s living purpose, other goals appear to be ends in themselves, but often prove to have significant value. Some such goals are not lifelong and just have to run their course. Starting out poor in youth, all I wanted was my dream car, a Lamborghini Countach. That dream led me to become a business owner, to study law, economics and finance—all knowledge I constantly draw from, long after the car has gone. With that experience, I realized my working hours should give me as much pleasure as the car did. Self-made Men watch their well-rounded educations take form through their passions. We do things because they excite us, and when the thrill subsides, we move on to a different challenge. It’s that simple. Discarding old endeavors is not failure; we simply close chapters in our lives, and with greater vision, open new ones. If we enjoyed the way we spent our time, we need regret nothing. This is life; the knowledge and experience from every venture is carried forward into bigger plans and deeper exaltation until the time comes for us to let go.
Self-made Man’s life holds one main certainty—his direction. Subjects change often, particular interests and activities may appear random and are, only to the extent that they do not detract from his direction. That direction is his continued happiness and the furtherance of his life, physically and mentally. In essence, Self-made Man is after a ceaseless flow of new data to integrate. Learning to him is a warm, stimulating pleasure, because hechooses the subjects, and sees an immediate boost in the enjoyment of his pursuits as a result. That is what he lives for, not just the pridefully-earned byproducts of productivity, such as money and luxuries. He doesn’t consider his education complete after four years; it’s a lifelong commitment.
As an honest man, he looks openly, using his strengths to bolster his weaknesses. He rebuilds them, tearing down to the appropriate levels to ensure firm foundations, purifying his life by advancing his competence to live it. In facing and solving new problems, it is he that is built, day by day, step by step. Every day he becomes the master of a new skill, or master of one facet of a greater skill. He branches off at random to complete ideas and answer questions that form during other studies, all which serve one central purpose. He often forms a private library to minethe best minds. Our confidence exudes from knowing what we know, as we are able to walk our chains and revalidate any part of them, and often do. We maintain a willingness for reintegration long after our concepts are accepted as fixed and eternal, always interested to discover how new elements fit in. We stay open to new directions in the midst of valuable evidence and take the time to restructure if necessary. The purpose of an efficient flow of life never being far from our own specialties, we stay on the cutting edge. Why do we do all this? To see clearer. To live better. To save time—time to be spent on the unlimited discovery of our own joys.
Ultimately, Self-made Man’s inner world revolves around just a handful of sacred subjects; his alone and his primary energy—his very life-force—goes to satisfy these endeavors. Limited to a lifetime, Self-made Man identifies all the key possibilities of life he wishes to experience, and then seeks to discover the means by which he can most effectively achieve and enjoy each one. His career, sports interests, hobbies, romantic involvement and parenting all require different traits and skills, and he makes a habit of accumulating and improving them. As his own view of himself is paramount, he looks deeply into the character of heroes, and works to acquire the attributes he wishes to represent. He is aware of the moral worth of his every action, so his esteem affords him to be fully conscious of his true ability in every context in which he lives. It is then easy to see where he is for any goal at any time, where he wants to be, and to move forward in their order of importance to him.
Training becomes as vital a part of his life as production. He knows that consonant with the flow of life, his abilities are in constant flux, and to stay sharp he must practice his skills. At times, he must accept back-pedaling in areas that need to wait while others take priority. The pleasure of a context that has advanced beyond the others need not be spoiled by one that languishes behind. He can grow by leaps and bounds in his work, be quietly tortured by a lack of intimacy and friends, yet still preserve the feeling that life is worth living. Joy from one activity cannot stretch to cover another; such radiance can only be reflective. But as his hierarchy is in place to control all of his actions, all values will be addressed at the right time. To stay up, he rewards himself regularly for practicing so sound a pattern of moral action. Scaled to particular actions, the reward may be just a candy bar, but one cannot wait until the final triumph to enjoy the elation of any consciously wholesome pursuit.
He may see inefficiencies in other areas of human life, but he cannot do everything. With respect for his time, he stays focused on his own interests, yet monitors advancements in the other fields that affect him to stay on the cutting edge there, too.
Our proper evolution as volitional entities drives a moral imperative: to ceaselessly investigate the efficiency and impact of our fulfillment in every aspect of our lives; to be self-sustaining at the highest level, physically and spiritually. The level of goals we choose—family, business, political or historic—is the longest-range moralcontemplation and action open to us. What level of impact do you want to have?
In my case, I wanted to have a global effect. The range of my endeavors had to involve the environment I considered my realm, my home—the whole of the world. Primary metals were my first industrial interest, because they are in everything. After reviewing businesses to purchase, I realized something would still be missing. I felt that it was more important to discover and name this attribute, than any other benefit that I could bring to civilization, and to myself. I found it. It turned out to be the primary behind the discovery of primary metals, and of every other human concern. I look forward to helping people through this book, but first and foremost, writing itwas what I wanted to do more than anything in the world. I gave up values which others could not fathom letting go of to see this through, but it was nota sacrifice. I valued Moral Armorhigher than the money I could make in the interim, the women I could date, the trips I could take and even the Lamborghini I owned. My lifestyle was an aggregate of dreams itself, attained triumphantly, but they were the dreams of a younger man. After a while, my enthusiasm for past accomplishment waned, and I became hungry for more. I was no longer of the same dimension. I had grown in stature and vision and needed a more elaborate vent to channel my energy.
I gave so much to every past endeavor that prosperity in my new venture was a forgone conclusion. Having come so far in philosophy and in wealth, I knew my next attempt would be pointless if it didn’t make the greatest self-impact. As our vision evolves, so do our goals. Our passion is an investment that must show the highest return possible, and I was finally free to concentrate on what I alone, found most exhilarating. Fed up with the weaklings considered by intellectuals to be the giants of thought, I want to show the world a philosopher who can reallylean into it. That is my dream.
As ninety-five percent of all blessings are self-made, our lives must be adventures of our own design. One individual can change the whole course of mankind, and with the right cognitive guidance, there is no telling what you could bring to the rest of us. But there is one caveat; your purpose must be chosen alone. Every part of you has a wonderful potency just waiting to be discovered, but you have to find your own way; your unique approach to experiencing your own highest view of yourself. There is no point in learning what you do not intend to use. If you are sitting in Geography class learning about European border laws, you’ll have little incentive for retaining it. If you are crossing from Germany into Czechoslovakia on a near trip, you do. Use determines retention and therefore value, and the desire for use is the moral province of the individual. You don’t have to know everything, and you don’t have to consider everyone. The stimulus to elicit the energy necessary to establish order and coherently build our chain is found only through what draws our individual fascination, and men of purpose will tell you they can be aroused by nothing less.
True moral action is to work for our own self-interest and spend its bounty on our own sustenance and happiness. As we grow and expand by this means, we bring the greatest growth and expansion to the lives of others; but it must begin within, just as every flower must bloom before revealing its beauty. By learning your own endeavor, you form specialized knowledge, and bring its benefits to all you encounter. That you are the one to choose is truly a matter of spiritual life and death. The third cognitive element—creative action, demands that purpose be derived by the second, identification. There is no external controller in regard to this; full control resides in your consciousness. Purpose is a product of cognition, and can be nothing else. It is defined exclusively by the integrating capacity to be called upon for its completion—which alone knows its own sensitivities and loyalties. You alone know your physical and mental strengths and weaknesses; you alone know the true distance to your full capacity in all respects and your willingness to reach it. If you feel your own purpose is crucially important, you won’t interrupt it for anything. The opinions of others may be weighed, but must never be allowed to override your own. A specialization is an independent derivation; unique and self-generated, as is its pride. Purpose is a road to travel where one should not look for a companion or a shepherd; nature allows no collusion. Like it or not, you are on your own. What we give our time freely too, or what we run to and immerse ourselves in during difficult times—given they are constructive—is the road to our passions. On this road, we will find what we wish to bring into existence: our purpose.
A purpose, to be valid, must obey three rules: Rule 1:All Purposes must be self-defined.Our portal to creative action must be defined by our cognitive tools. It is not only an epistemological derivation, but a physiological one, determining not only what we will do, but where we must start and at what speed we can travel. Rule 2:Purpose must be existentially based.As it is an abstract concept derived from the biological need for cognitive integration, its subject must also be existential, exercising human thought and action applicable in our universe. Rule 3:The central focus must be ourselves.As the very architect of our capacities, purpose mustrevolve around us. A proper purpose does not require others or their agreement, or any specific outside cognitive power. As we move, we remain its constant center. Though we may employ others to see its facets to fruition, no one man is irreplaceable beyond ourselves. We are its essential contributor—the prime mover—without whom it cannot continue. Our purpose is a product of our consciousness and therefore dies with us, though our legacy may remain.
As the Moral Warrior first fought for his freedom, then set out to satisfy the basic necessities of life before he could pursue other interests, we must do the same. Purpose can no more be separated from spiritual preservation than profit can be separated from physical preservation. Each is responsible for the other. The primary purpose of every human being is life itself. No further values are possible without life’s needs first served. But beyond the sub-elements of food and shelter, there must be a reason for such effort’s continuance: life’s enjoyment.
There is natural resistance to life, and the most effective means of accumulating and spending the energy necessary to overcome it is found by selecting a reason to live—a purpose. Purpose itself has a purpose, serving a crucial role within a volitional being. First, overcoming this resistance sets a hierarchy of goals driven by personal interest for the individual to spend his lifetime accomplishing. Second, it steers the individual to embark on a path of self-development, inspiring commitment toward gathering the knowledge and ability needed to live and to satisfy his desires. Third, it lengthens his range and depth of thought, allowing him to see and consider the entire span of his life and set his goals according to the investment of time and energy necessary for the attainment of each. This assures the most productive and efficient use of his tools of cognition (cognitive steps 1 and 2), as a map for his creative action (cognitive step 3), and opens the door to the highest levels of spiritual accomplishment: the true maturation of his intellect. Purpose exists as foreman in the construction of our whole tree of knowledge.
At the top of the pyramid, our purpose guides and oversees all integration below, sorting what will help or hinder its attainment. All that lies beneath it is similar for every man—just existential data—yet without a central purpose, a human being is rudderless. Without a main intention there are no chains to run up or down, to set priorities, establishing order in hierarchies of importance. Without a central purpose, one floats disconnected to the whole of one’s life and is unable to tell day by day, issue by issue, what is moral or immoral; what furthers or threatens one’s goals and desires. We can be swept in any adverse direction by the ceaseless flow of data streaming into our senses every moment if we don’t take conscious control. It must be gleaned of essentials by our ultimate volitional filter: our purpose, so the stream carries us closer to where we want to go. We have no choice in building a knowledge tree, but its value to us—what it will contain, its effectiveness and the purposes it will serve—is up to us. Having lifelong goals breeds cognizance of the long-range effects of any circumstance, to assure we don’t end up in the wrong place.
If men obeyed accountants, there would be no internal combustion engine, no airplane, and no light bulb; no steps taken on the untried and the new. A visionary is a man who holds his own view as paramount, motivationally equating the concept of investment with the concept of breakthrough, sensing the inherent risk in predictability. He is only at ease when he is safely out in front. He may weigh the ideas of others, but he never substitutes those ideas for his own cognitive process. If a visionary alters his course, it is by conviction; he learns the new facet as thoroughly as its creator, and accepts full responsibility for its use and result.
At any time, the effort necessary to reach spiritual fulfillment is dictated by the limit of our personal vision, which is also in a state of expansion over the course of our lives. As we mature, our undertakings must evolve to reflect our depth. The pinnacles of men embark on endeavors that encompass the whole of the world. They address the universal problems of existence and arrive at the next summit of questions to be answered. The most extreme of the pinnacles takes actions in life—runs errands, dines, works—oblivious to the world around him. People and the rest of the world are often just background. He has blinders on, seeing only the quickest route between two points; the issues of his mind and their solution. Self-made Man has instilled an automatic preoccupation that steals away the focus of his consciousness from others during all idle time. Confronted by people asking questions, he answers as he moves, not breaking stride when possible.
Like most people, I began my career in the pattern of a painful grind and cherished weekends, with torturous years and precious vacations. It was all backwards! Now, when I think of vacation, I think “To escape from what?” I love everything I do. There is no such thing as forever in human terms. Each second that goes by cannot be recalled, as it is ruthlessly subtracted from the span of our lives. No matter what happens—good or bad—we must enjoy our time here to our fullest capacity. No matter what we accumulate—money, fame, enlightenment—nothing compares to the satisfaction of squeezing every ounce of joy, passion and adventure out of our conscious hours. The goals of a Self-made Man are fully obtainable—even the long-range goals of his philosophers—and he expects to be rewarded without unnecessary delay. He accepts no undefinable gap between cause and effect; between required action and reward, as his time is too precious to be wasted. He expects both to be proven within a reasonable and determinableinterval, and sets his hierarchy of pursuits accordingly. He shows as much concern for the expense of time as for the expense of money, and manages both in a businesslike manner.
All men have dreams, but their nature varies in regard to personal integrity. They all include riches and glamour, but his dreams differ from others in that Self-made Man exalts the effortnecessary to achieve them. He knows that this is the source of his self-worth; not the havingalone, but the earning. The capacity to deserveis the glory of any human being, in wealth, in love and in honor. He reveres the elements of the complete process—the chosen ideal, the training, the battle and the victory. His respect for time is a result of the crucial undertakings for which he wishes to spend every waking moment. When he does pause to look at the world, his glance is not that of a stranger, but of an appreciation beyond any depth the others could reach. When he looks upon men, he sees the same potential he feels about his own life, imagining their pursuits to be as profoundly important to them as his own, and his living eyes reflect the acceptance he feels in looking upon his own creations. His primary focus is his conscious purpose; his secondary is all other communication and action. Men are not a part of his inner world—they are not needed to achieve his goals—and consequently there is a total absence of fear. It is a world where no form of submission or violence need be accounted for, as there are no external authorities to undermine his course. There is only what he will do. And when he does take a break, he astonishes most with the untroubled lightness of his manner.
The men who were driven by an overwhelming need to take responsibility and do something about evil—the leaders—are now answering the overwhelming need they fought for: their own fulfillment on Earth. The Moral Warrior lays down his arms and looks at the world. He sees ferrous elements glittering in the rock and thinks of the metal that can be extracted. He sees the violent flow of a river and thinks of the power to be generated. He sees the bounty of the forest, part of which is to be transformed as beams to become his home and the homes of others. His children can grow safely here.
Before long, thanks to those who have met the needs of civilization in these endeavors, individuals need not make the basic necessities their primary concern. Their purpose can exist far along Man’s chain into abstract territory, furthering pleasurable concepts such as style, where an honest living can be made in as many creative ways as there are people. The vantage point of morality in action is often as witness to the pioneers of our past and present, following the structure of their course to define the motives, means and ends of the actual good. To the limits of their vision, they create and further our great industries and set the best examples for the whole world to follow. These are the men of purpose. They have a calling; a desire to see some specific end achieved, and the whole of their being is poured into its accomplishment. When they are finished, they find another. They spend their lives on growing, each concern more sophisticated than the one before, as a constant answer to why they live. With their every moment drenched in meaning as a result, they are the happiest, deepest, most devoted, and most genuine people on Earth. Their essential purpose acts as the highest abstraction in their epistemological chain, and all actions in life and all knowledge accumulated takes place within its framework. As a result, they acquire the longest intellectual range; knowing how every step they take will affect their lives, and are able to project their activities to the end of their days. With their purpose as motivator for every action, no energy is wasted. Their neurobiological development is streamlined and as a result, their chains of knowledge grow much faster and much longer than usual. These are the men who utilize the human mind as it was meant to be, and can show the rest how to actualize their greatest potential. Our appreciation for these men isour respect for life itself, as the axiomatic reason for purpose islife.
