Chapter 2. Balance is for the meek
from Azizi Ali's latest book "mXe! five keys to become an Extreme Millionaire"
Balance.
Now that's a word that everyone would nod their heads to.
Everyone--rich, poor, young, old, black, brown, white, tall, short and
all around the world--would agree that balance is a magical word.
"We must strive for balance," shouts the politician. "Man must have
balance in his life," echoes the religious leaders. "We must all lead
a balanced life," come yet another agreement from the health gurus.
"Balance is the key to life," write authors from different shores.
In other words, we must all eat moderately, dress moderately, work
moderately, party moderately, sleep moderately, exercise moderately
and in short, live moderately. To which I will say, "What a load of
crap!"
Folks, nobody ever achieved anything significant in this world by
being moderate. Anyone who has rocked the world did so by doing
something to an extreme. Tiger Woods became the youngest number one
golfer in the world at the age of twenty one. But he did not start
playing golf at twenty; he's been playing golf since he was three
years old. That's not moderate, that's extreme. Genghis Khan did not
conquer half the world by being moderate; he slaughtered all who got
in his way. So did Alexander the Great. (Alexander was not called
Great by being moderate.) These people did things to an extreme,
that's why they're the stuff legends are made of. The Prophet Muhammad
was not balanced; he was extreme in his view of a single God when
everyone else was praying to idols. Jesus was not balanced; he was
extreme in his view of forgiveness even when the Roman soldiers were
putting him on the cross. (I will give more example of extremists in
this book as we go along.)
In other words, balance is for the average folks. Balance is for the
meek. If you want to have an average job, average house, average life
and be a part of the background, then do everything moderately. A
little bit of this and a little bit of that. Blend in with the balanced crowd,
don't stick out your neck and never, ever be different from the rest.
I assure you that you will be balanced. And average.
But if you want to be a winner (in anything), folks, you have to be an
extremist. If you want to achieve something significant in your life,
you have to be an extremist. To truly live life, you cannot be balanced,
you have to do things to an extreme degree. To be a world champion
in any sport or anything, you have to practice extremely. And to build
serious wealth, you have to go all the way. You cannot do things half-
heartedly, half measure or half way. You have to pull out all the stops
and go all the way.
A short look at history
For a long time, like most people, I too assumed that everything had
been the same since time immemorial. Sure, there were inventions and
technological advances but people had thought pretty much the same
thoughts as their forefathers. Boy, was I wrong!
The more I studied history, the more I learnt that man has changed
significantly from his forefathers. And not only in the physical sense
but more importantly, in his thinking.
Today, the idea of improving oneself is but a given. You are expected
to do all you can to improve your station in life. But would you be
surprised if I told you that this is a new idea?
For thousands of years, mankind had been doing things for the
community. You work hard yes, not to move ahead, but to maintain your
place in life and therefore society. If your grandfather was a farmer,
you and your children will spend your lives down at the farms. If they
were ironmongers instead, that's what you and your children will be
doing. This is how it was to the ancient Greeks, Romans, Arabs,
Egyptians, and even to the majority of Eastern civilizations. So the
concept of "bettering yourself" or "getting ahead" was as alien as,
well, an alien from a different planet. Folks would stare at you in
disbelief if you ever raised such radical thoughts.
While running a business was as old as mankind, to do so for profit,
gain and self advancement was a sure way of getting yourself branded
as a disciple of the Devil. You'd be kicked out of the community in a
hurry. Banking, charging interest and lending money were pretty much
X-rated activities and people only did them behind shadowy curtains.
Even in the Middle Ages, the Church taught that no self respecting
Christians ought to be merchants because merchants were a blight to
society.
Only in the late 1700s, views began to change. This was kick started
by the publication of The Wealth of Nations by the Scottish
economist Adam Smith in 1776. (If the year sounds familiar, it is the
year when America gained independence from the British.) The world
opened up for businesses, markets cropped up and trade between nations
was brisk. Merchants started to make real money while bankers came out
of the closet to lend us money and charge us interest.
Today, the world revolves around money. Banking is a world wide
phenomenon and bankers are esteemed members of society. Few would
start a business without having profit as the driving motive. In fact,
extremely successful businessmen are treated like celebrities, rock
stars and world leaders. Just look at Bill Gates. He is treated like a
world leader everywhere he goes. Even Presidents and Prime Ministers
want to meet him! All the guy does is sell software (by the
gazillions)!
Box - Banking
The model for the first bank and saving institution was developed by
Reverend Henry Duncan when he established the Parish Bank Friendly
Society of Ruthwell in Scotland in 1810.
Though men had been saving and investing their money throughout the
centuries, it had always been done for the community. The banking
operation was based on the principle of charity; to help out a
neighbour in distress or for the benefit of the community as a whole.
However, Dr. Duncan's bank was different. It was the first bank to
provide the means for an individual to save money for his own benefit.
Dr. Duncan wanted to encourage self-reliance, independence, individual
pride and also dignity. And his bank provided the means for an
individual to do exactly that--save money for one's own future.
So as you can imagine, the idea of saving money for one's own future
and gain was something totally radical. The thought back then was the
collapse of society if everybody was allowed to make personal gains.
The infamous question of "what would happen if everyone did the same
thing?" must have been raised over and over again.
As it turned out, it was precisely because everyone did the same
thing--worked hard for personal gain--that the world exploded as it
did in the early 1800s.
Bankers have certainly come very far in such a short time. Today, they
rule the world.
But some things remain the same. Like a hard habit to break, the big
no-no word today is "extreme". Despite the glaring signs and clues
that prove otherwise (like the ones mentioned earlier), a lot of
people are still touting the benefits of being balanced. Despite the
thousands of people rocking the world by being extreme, a lot of
people are sticking with balance. So much so that if you mention that
you are an extremist, most people would stare at you with their mouths
wide open. A few would think that you have gone off your rockers while
some others would have been long gone, bolting through the door as
soon as you mention the dreaded E word. You'd be branded a lunatic or
something even worse.
The definition problem
The problem with the word "extreme" is that it is being defined and
used mostly in the negative sense. An extremist is someone who is off
the wall, not all there, dangerous and yes, someone who is to be
feared. The current obvious poster (and fall) guy is a Muslim
extremist. If there is one thing that strikes fear into western
hearts, it is a Muslim extremist, who is pictured as a guy who would
think nothing of blowing himself up.
The reality is that the guys who are blowing themselves up are doing
it for revenge, for hatred, for anger and for a thousand other
reasons, but certainly not for Islam. Islam doesn't dictate true
believers to blow themselves and others up.
But of course, it is a convenient attack. It is so much easier to
blame everything on extremists. Instead of trying to find the reasons
why young men are blowing themselves up, they push it all aside with
one word--extremist. Clean, easy and convenient.
Which is a tragedy in more ways than one.
SIDEBAR
"Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for
fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don't wish for less of a
challenge, wish for more wisdom."
Jim Rohn
A short history of flying
In the early days of flight, the authorities discovered that many of
the air crashes were due to design or mechanical faults. This was not
surprising considering the industry was in the beginning stages.
However, all these were quickly addressed and rectified. Now while the
number of crashes dropped, it did not go down as many as expected. The
investigators soon found another major reason for the crashes--the
pilots themselves. A crash that was attributed to a mistake by the
pilot was termed as "pilot error" and the case was closed. Perhaps the
thinking back then was, "pilot error" was human error and was
therefore unavoidable. So the moment the words "pilot error" came up,
the case would be closed.
Easy work for the authorities, investigators, airlines, management,
air traffic control and the flight crew themselves. Label it "pilot
error", case closed and we can all go back to our daily existence.
While it did make things easy, it did not solve the problem.
It took some years before someone realised that hey, maybe we should
look more into "pilot error". For the first time, questions were being
asked: what led to the pilot making the error? Was he having personal
problems? Was he tired? Or was he having financial problems? And most
important of all, what can we do to reduce and eliminate pilot errors?
From then onwards, the whole concept changed.
And the moment the aviation industry began to address this, the number
of crashes, near crashes and incidents dropped again. As a result,
today, flying is one of the safest, if not the safest, mode of
transportation in the world.
Likewise, a similar result would arise if we start to use the word
extreme for what it really is instead of lumping it with all the
negative things on this planet. Instead of thinking it as something
bad, evil and negative, we could re-brand it as something positive,
which it is. We could use it to spur us to greater heights and lead
extraordinary lives.
When extreme is the only solution
As mentioned in the beginning of this book, the definition of extreme
is "far from what is usual or conventional" or "an excessive degree;
immoderate". This means that extreme does not have to be negative. In
fact, as you can see, there is no negative connotation in the
definition at all.
In other words, extreme can be, well, extremely positive!
Now some of you may be surprised but despite the unanimous echo the
world over for moderation, there are areas where you want it to
be taken to the extreme.
"What do you mean, Azizi?"
Well, would you want your kids to be truthful only moderately? Would
you want to have anything to do with folks who are moderately honest?
Would you do business with people who are moderately fair? Would you
want to be on the operating table of a surgeon who is moderately
successful? Would you want the air traffic controllers to be only
moderate in doing their job?
In the last question alone, a 99.9% success rate would still mean an
air crash with catastrophic loss of lives every day. For example,
O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, which is one the busiest
airports in the world, handled over 920,000 aircraft movements in 2002
alone. A 0.1% failure rate will still see 920 crashes per year or 2.5
crashes a day! Would you be happy with that? Remember that is a 0.1%
failure rate, which is well above what most people would term as
moderation. The obvious answer is no. You want everyone in the
aviation industry--air traffic controllers, pilots, engineers,
everyone--to maintain a 100% success rate. All the time.
So the answer to all of the above questions is "no". You do not want
moderation in any of the above situation. You want them to be extreme.
You want your children to tell the truth all the time, not some of the
time and not in moderation. You want to do business with people who
are fair and honest all the time, not some of the time. You want
surgeons who are successful in all their operations and you certainly
want a hundred percent success rate in air traffic control. Only
extreme counts and there is no other acceptable answer.
So while moderation is a fine way to live life, don't take moderation
to an extreme! In other words, you have to be an extremist in some
areas, preferable the ones that make a major difference in your
life--happiness, health, wealth and family being just four of them.
The good news is that if you are still reading these pages, then you
are halfway through to become an extremist yourself!
Edited for clarity by Azlan Adnan.
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