Application of the Wisdom

Now that you have acquired this wisdom and understand it intellectually, you need to learn how to apply it in your day-to-day life. Without proper and regular application, all the knowledge and wisdom offered in this book will serve merely as intellectual entertainment and nothing more.

The first step is to begin observing your actions and becoming totally aware of your thoughts and actions. Observe yourself carefully, question your every decision and habit, and check whether you are normally operating as a friend or an enemy to yourself.

I know that after reading thus far, you understand the need to operate in a state of truth, love, compassion, humility, and kindness; but more difficult is figuring out how to do so.

In your daily life, you spend most of your time interacting with others, right? So it's important that you know how to behave in relation to others while operating as your own friend. There will be instances that will challenge you, and there will be times that you are caught up in life's busyness. No matter how challenging the interpersonal situation, or how busy you become, always remember to follow two practical rules in your life.

What I mean by “others” is every individual you encounter—from the homeless person begging on the road to the wealthy gentleman you met at some high-end social event; from the barber who cuts your hair to the CEO of a multinational company. Irrespective of race, caste, or creed of the person you meet, you need to operate exactly the same. You need to be balanced and respect everyone the same. In all, just be yourself. Do not develop a bias or favoritism toward any person or group of people based upon wealth, title, or importance they hold in society.

If you follow these two simple rules of action while interacting with others in this world, you will find it easier to operate from a state of truth, love, compassion, humility, and kindness.

The second step is to keep a very close eye on your enemies. Let me show you how you can do that.

Ego

Ego is a falsely created personality that fears death. It lives in survival mode and is fulfilled by stories of the past or desires for the future. The best way to keep a check on your ego is to remind yourself regularly of the fact that life is a short journey that will end on your deathbed. Everything that you have acquired will be left behind. Name, fame, power, success, family, friends, enemies, memories—all your worldly desires which you need to satisfy your ego—will be of no use to you in the end. So why build up your ego in the first place?

Once you can tackle this biggest enemy of all, your other enemies become very weak. You still need to keep a close watch over them, though. Let me show you how you can use your enemies for your own benefit.

Fear

Overcome fear to make progress and grow. Fear is the ego’s reaction to growth and change. It is a way of self-preservation, often arising irrationally in situations where there is no immediate physical danger. Constant fear in our lives stops us from moving forward and acting in our best interest. It keeps us small. Do not allow fear to hold you back or cause you to take the path of least resistance. See and act past it. That is called courage. Have the courage to be yourself, to act on your truth, and do the right thing.

Greed

Greed is nothing but the craving of your mind and ego. Understand this nature of greed to learn the mechanics of your mind and develop an equanimous and balanced mind which neither craves nor rejects life's experiences. This will help you to enjoy your life's precious moments by being present in the now and by being grateful for whatever you have. Always be centered in who you are and in your heart's true desires.

Ignorance

Never let ignorance overpower you. Always be curious and excited to learn from life. Be aware that there are things you don't know you don't know. Be humble, open, and remain teachable. Continue to be a lifelong student of life. Remember, there is always a better way to do things, and there is still something new to learn from the ever-changing life experiences and the people that surround you.

There is this big misconception in our artificial world: that you will be happy if you are successful and powerful. Ask anyone for the metric of success and power, and you will hear a smorgasbord of different reasons. Some common ones are:

• Getting a promotion
• Getting a title of senior, VP, CEO
• Starting your own business
• Getting six-pack abs
• Earning a college or graduate degree
• Buying a nice house and car
• Having a fat bank account
• Being “free,” or living life on one’s own terms

Let me make this clear once and for all: happiness has nothing to do with success and power.

Ask a homeless person; he will see the person with a house and car as successful. Ask a person with a house and car; he will see the person with two houses and two cars as successful. Ask the person with two cars and two houses; he will see the person with a mansion and a luxury car as successful. Ask a millionaire; he wants to be a billionaire. Ask a billionaire; he wants to be a trillionaire.

This same principle can be applied to any success metric above. The chase is never-ending; at any stage of your life, there will always be something more out there that could increase your success or power.

That being the case, we can see that there is no end or limit to being successful. Now, if being happy is related to being successful, then no one is happy in this world, because no one considers themselves to be successful. They compare themselves to someone one step higher on the ladder. In doing so, they make their life miserable. They work hard for long hours, always in a state of stress. They have made this a norm in their life: work hard to be successful. Even if they do achieve success (not in their eyes, but in the eyes of others), they continue to slog and work hard to achieve even more success. There’s no simple understanding of where this madness ends—the truth is in the grave. The main reason for this madness is greed. People have made greed their primary modus operandi, not knowing that all the time they were chasing success, they were operating as an enemy and not as a friend to themselves.

So the most logical question you will ask is, How can I be successful and powerful, and at the same time be happy?

You are a smart kid, aren't you?

Success

Success should be the byproduct of your hard work, not the other way around. Understand this concept very clearly: success should not be the goal. Don't work hard to be successful, but work hard because you want to. Work hard at your dreams and passion. Don't work hard to prove anything to anyone else or to achieve something like power, name, or fame. The only person you need to prove anything to is yourself and no one else.

The definition of success should be tailored to you; there’s no one-size-fits-all version. It can be anything that you define as success for yourself and not what this world has defined for you.

Say you want to learn how to code and become a great software engineer. Don't spend your time and money getting a college degree simply to be able to prove to others that you are now a software engineer. That is a success as defined by this artificial world. You can be the best software engineer out there without any college degree at all. If you work hard and you know it in your heart that you are the best and you have a true passion for your craft, you should feel successful, you don’t need any validation for it. Now, if you genuinely believe that going to college and learning this craft will be of great benefit for you and your life purpose, go ahead and enroll. But your success is not dependent on any certificates, it only relies on your ability and willingness to learn and dedicate energy towards what you are passionate about.

Power

People associate power with the worldly title they hold. They flaunt their clout by asserting, “I am a senior partner,” or “I am a director over hundreds of employees,” or “I am a millionaire.” But this is not power; it is a mere title with no real substance.

True power does not lie in displaying or boasting of your power, but rather in knowing your level of capability in relation to the work that needs to be done or that you want to do. It is about knowing that you are capable, that you understand yourself, and that you use your passion in tandem with the will of nature to forward your life purpose. That’s true power. True power lies in your heart and in your self-confidence, not in what the outside world assumes about you.

Let me explain further what I mean by “true power.”

You might be a millionaire who drives an expensive car and lives in a mansion. But deep inside, you know the truth: that you are in debt by thousands of millions of dollars which you owe to banks, lenders, and others.

Or, you might be a “common person” (by the definition of this world) who lives in a small apartment and knows deep in your heart that you can buy anything—whenever and whatever you wish—but you choose not to. You have the choice of having things, and you use it wisely and with love rather than with greed. In this case, you have true power.

Let me reiterate: true power lies in your heart and in your self-confidence, not in titles and appearances and others’ beliefs about you.

How can I develop such self-confidence?

Well, self-confidence is the natural state of human beings. You were born with it. Yes! That’s right, you already have self-confidence built into you since the time you were born. While you were a child exploring your environment, you were fearless and full of self-confidence—until this world started pushing its rules to interfere and reprogram you. Because of external influences and the artificial world we live in, you somehow lost your self-confidence. So, truth be told, you do not need to develop your self-confidence; you need to figure out the reason why you lost it.

The main reasons people lose their self-confidence are competition and comparison. The world is designed in such a way that it promotes these two problems within almost all its established systems. From kindergarten through university, children are graded and taught to be competitive through constant comparison of their achievements with their peers’. The same is true when they enter the workforce. Due to the competitive nature of this world, people compare themselves to others and consequently desire to be like others. When they are not able to reach the level they perceive their peers to have achieved, they slowly start to lose self-confidence. They don't realize the simple fact that their only competition and their only competitors are they themselves and no one else.

Life is the only game in which, after reaching the finish line, people realize that they were the sole player in the game and had no competition whatsoever other than themselves. I earnestly wish that you won’t find yourself making this realization later in your life. Don’t wait until you reach the finish line to realize this simple truth.

So, what is the ideal way to achieve success, power, and happiness in this world?

Remember the lessons learned earlier in this book about the law of nature and life’s purpose. Nothing happens against the will of nature. Your only job is to make yourself capable enough that life can grant you the right powers. As long as you keep operating as your own friend in this world, nature will make sure you are given the proper powers at the right time. It will be your duty to use them well. You can use them in the service of others, or you can use them to satisfy your own self-need.

If you use them in the service of others, you will act with your “friend faculties” of love, compassion, kindness, and humility. If you use your powers and capabilities for your selfish needs, you will help your enemies—ego, greed, fear, and ignorance. Depending upon how you keep using your current power, your future power is decided by nature.

Make sure you keep a close watch on how you operate in your daily life. Life is simple, but people make it complicated. Work hard on things that you love doing, things you are most passionate about. If you keep following this simple rule, happiness will be the byproduct of your day-to-day actions, and success will be the byproduct of your day-to-day work. Now go play and have fun out there!