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Part Two
 A Universe of
Exquisite Fulfillment

Chapter Nine
Ascending Beyond the Ordinary

To turn bad times into good times, one needs to learn from one's negative experiences. In times of suffering, failure, or loss, one needs to explicitly identify—in conceptual terms—the reasons for one's failure. Then one needs to identify crucial principles one can use to convert a specific failure into success. Lastly, one needs to act on these principles in order to switch a negative situation into a positive situation.

For example, say one currently is broke. One needs to become fully conscious of the reasons for this situation. Perhaps one spends more than one earns. Thus, over time, one ended up broke. One can then apply the following principle: make sure one earns a lot more money than one spends. One can also use one's negative experience to develop a healthy respect, but not a neurotic obsession, for money. Thus, one can become wealthy via a principled approach to money, along with one's newfound respect for money.

Every human being is born without knowledge. The intense drive to compete for survival motivates everyone to acquire various levels of knowledge. But because of the Plato-disease of mysticism, everyone's mind has been hindered in its capacity to develop knowledge. By explicitly removing all the mysticism from one's mind, however, one quickly discovers the clean, healthy integrating mind. One is then able to develop knowledge without limits.

One's mystic-free thinking invariably culminates in success puzzles. Those success puzzles point one in the direction of evermore knowledge and success puzzles, which can be integrated into vast units of super-knowledge and success pictures that are unknown to others. This process continues in an upward spiral, forever revealing new knowledge and success pictures.

Upon discovering integrated thinking, one will experience electrifying excitement and great fun. Why? The entire universe—not just a tiny corner of planet Earth—becomes one's source for boundless success and riches.

Decision making skills are a crucial part of a person's ability to deal with reality. Knowing one's convictions and values greatly enhances one's ability to make decisions. Also, having an explicit method of thinking enables one to make competent and confident decisions.

A conceptual conscious being has to make countless decisions throughout life. But a crucial time to avoid making decisions—especially important decisions—is when one feels like everything is futile. This is because decisions need to be guided by clear thinking, not by emotional states. Thus, when one feels that things are hopeless, one should postpone making decisions until one puts all the facts into full context. Once one sees the full context of a situation, one can make much better decisions.

Whenever one is confronted with adversity, one should avoid asking oneself disempowering questions such as, "Why does this always happen to me?" or "What have I done to deserve such misery?" Instead, in times of adversity, one can ask oneself empowering questions such as, "What can I do to convert this negative into a positive?" or "How can I use this problem to gain more success than was possible without this problem?"

By repeatedly asking empowering questions during times of adversity, this action will become habituated in one's mind. One's subconscious will automatically feed one's conscious mind productive questions rather than destructive questions. And as one answers these productive questions, one will begin to turn many adversities into surprising benefits.

Incalculable power accrues to those who endure when things do not go their way. Why? Anyone can advance when things are going one's way. The feelings of success and achievement fuel one's sustained efforts. But unparalleled excellence comes from enduring difficult situations and surmounting adversity.

By developing the ability to endure even when things are not going according to one's plan, such as in times of personal or financial loss, one separates oneself from mediocrity. One becomes an unstoppable force of excellence in one's endeavors. Nothing can stop the man or woman who endures even when things do not go his or her way. And if one continues to persevere, a new world of opportunity opens up to one's self. That world of opportunity is beyond the reach of those who give up during difficult times. As Spinoza said, "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare."

Does this sound paradoxical? Perhaps. But one can put oneself in the path of serendipitous events. And one can do this for the rest of one's life. First, however, a one needs a concise definition of serendipity. Serendipity is the unexpected occurrence of a surprisingly appropriate situation.

For instance, a woman gets lost while on vacation. Then she sees an old friend she has not seen in years. Her friend happens to know the vacation resort like he knows his childhood neighborhood. Thus, he gladly helps her find the way to her destination. This is one example of a serendipitous experience.

What would one's life be like if one could increase these pleasant surprises? Well, one can do this. Here is how: one needs to choose a specific medium-range or long-range goal that one truly wants to achieve in life, such as getting a college degree, building a business, or finding an ideal romantic love partner.

Next, one has to formulate the steps needed to fulfill this goal. And one has to take action to complete each step. Lastly, and most important, one needs to persevere through every obstacle until one achieves one's goal. If one continues to strive toward the fulfillment of one's goal no matter who or what stands in front of oneself, one will begin to experience serendipitous events. The amount of serendipity one experiences will be in exact proportion to the degree of one's perseverance.

Due to the nature of serendipity, one cannot predict which appropriate events will occur or when they will occur. But if one concentrates one's mind on a goal and keeps it focused until one achieves that goal, one will discover all kinds of pleasant surprises. This is confirmed through (1) many people's life experiences, (2) the teachings of remarkably successful people, and (3) the fact that goal-directed consciousness controls the force fields of existence.

When adults are learning a new skill or striving toward a goal, oftentimes they think the principles of success will not work in their case. They believe that somehow they will experience a breach in success principles. This belief, whether held consciously or subconsciously, becomes their rationalization for not attempting a rewarding challenge or not following through on a goal. But success principles reign supreme at all times and in all places.

What are the principles of success? They are (1) a clearly defined purpose, (2) rational thought, (3) goal-directed action, and (4) effort-based consistency.

Goal-oriented people can unintentionally suffer from a lack of short-term pleasures. Striving to achieve long-range goals can consume all of one's time—leaving one longing for short-term pleasures. Many high-achievers learned how to set and achieve long-term goals and delay gratification. But they also need to learn how to achieve short-term pleasures that do not impede their long-range goals. Such short-term pleasures might include a weekend camping trip, a boat cruise, buying oneself a gift, dating someone special, dining at one's favorite restaurant, seeing a movie at the theatre, attending a concert or opera, watching a play, going to an amusement park or museum, and so on.

The key here is balance. Maintaining a healthy balance between work and pleasure is valuable for one's work and well-being. One can work consistently and also experience short-term pleasures. This enables one to refuel one's soul for endless value-and-wealth creation.

Succeeding in an endeavor is thrilling. The rewards of a successful venture can be intoxicating. But while success is a universal desire, it can and does lead to the complacency trap. That trap is insidious.

When one is succeeding on a large scale, one sometimes has the feeling, "I can't do anything wrong." All such feelings eventually lull one into the complacency trap. That is when one thinks or feels one cannot fail. Thus, one gives up the constant, hard-driving effort that was responsible for one's initial success. One becomes complacent with one's status in life. The subconscious equivalent to this feeling is, "I'm going to take it easy now; I deserve it." When that happens, one has fallen into the complacency trap. What is the result? One can easily fall behind in life—way behind—to the point where catching up with one's previous level of success seems impossible.

The only alternative to falling into complacency or "resting on laurels" is exerting continuous high effort, which is the route to abiding prosperity and happiness. And the key to exerting continuous high effort consists of doing work that one enjoys.

This technique is a major value for productive people. The industrial giants of yesteryear such as John D. Rockefeller explicitly recognized this technique. When put into action, however, this might appear to be a good-sounding rationalization for laziness. After all, when one is lazily passing the day on the couch or in bed one can easily blurt out, "I'm conserving energy." One needs to exercise consistent self-honesty to prevent this technique from becoming a rationalization for laziness.

This technique works best when one knows what one will accomplish and how one will accomplish it. One can then extrapolate the necessary actions and estimate their energy requirements. This provides one with an objective base to determine which activities will receive high energy and which ones will receive low energy. In short, one has a rational method to prioritize one's energy expenditures.

Routine tasks such as stretching, showering, and eating do not require a high level of energy. Important, value-building tasks such as aerobic exercise and productive work do require a high level of energy. By conserving energy during routine tasks, one will have maximum energy to use during value-building tasks.

There is a paradox about learning something new. That paradox is the slow/fast approach to learning. When a person practices something slowly, he or she learns it fast. Conversely, when a person practices something fast, he or she learns it slowly. Why does this happen?

Human beings are conscious organisms. They have a faculty of consciousness that functions in a specific manner. When learning and practicing something new, a person has to explicitly learn all the steps by consciously working through each step. As one works through each step of a new subject, one eventually "gets it". That is, one eventually understands the step. At this point, the understanding becomes habituated in one's subconscious. Once the step is habituated in one's subconscious, it can be performed almost effortlessly.

If a man practices slowly enough to learn and master each step, the steps will become habituated in his subconscious. When that happens, he will have learned the subject thoroughly. And he will appear to have gained mastery within a short period of time.

However, if a man practices something fast, he will not learn and master each step. The man will "gloss over" the steps while appearing to be an instant expert. If he does not master the steps, he will not habituate the steps. The end result is that he will not exhibit a mastery of the subject; nor can he perform it effortlessly. This is because the steps are not habituated in his subconscious.

One example of this slow/fast approach can be seen in typing. If one rushes through practice sessions and does not master the basics of typing, one will not be a fast and accurate typist. But if one practices slowly enough to master each key on the keyboard, one will begin to type fast and accurate. One will have mastered typing in a relatively short period of time.

Being honest is a moral way of dealing with other people. Also, honest thoughts and actions culminate in values for one's self and others. But these are not the primary reasons why people will be honest. What is the main reason why people will be honest?

The answer to the above question is straightforward. Honest thinking, communicating, and action deliver unbeatable advantages to anyone who applies these consistently. This is the main reason why people will use undivided honesty.

Most people will not use honesty because it is moral to do so. At least this will not be their primary motive for using it. They will use it because it is profoundly practical; it delivers unbeatable short-term and long-term advantages to oneself. Lofty ideals, good-sounding principles, and squeaky-clean appearances vanish in the heat of survival. To survive, a person will use the most economical and advantageous techniques available. And undivided honesty is the most economical and advantageous technique available to conscious beings.

Now, to clarify the above, undivided honesty is also profoundly moral. Thus, all those who use it will advance human life. But people will use undivided honesty primarily because it delivers unbeatable power and advantages rather than because it is moral.

If undivided honesty was impractical yet moral, and people used it because it was moral, they would be sacrificing themselves. This would mean that honesty would contradict reality and, thus, be useless. But undivided honesty does not contradict reality; it is practical and moral—profoundly practical and profoundly moral.

A person usually advances in life with the help of other people. Most people do not originate new knowledge and use it to advance their own lives. Thus, nearly everyone uses the work or assistance of other people to get ahead in life.

People often avoid giving credit to those individuals who are responsible for assisting them to success and prosperity. But such actions always hurt one's self in the long run. One looses contact with the source of success and then one becomes stunted. How can one remedy this situation?

One needs to continuously integrate with the roots of one's success. This means openly acknowledging those people who are most responsible for one's own success. However, this does not mean that one has to promote such people. It simply means that one needs to give credit to those who deserve it.

By doing this—by remaining integrated with one's roots—one will always advance in new knowledge, personal growth, success, and prosperity. This is a powerful way to advance one's success in life.

Romantic stories of overnight success abound in modern literature. These stories tell how men and women emerged from obscurity and end up in the limelight. They are often inspirational, but they are often out of context.

Overnight successes do happen. However, they usually take fifteen years to occur. That's right. In order to experience "overnight success", one probably has to put in ten, fifteen, or twenty years of focused effort with little or no return. Then, after one has laid the foundation for abiding success and prosperity—success and prosperity that can last the rest of one's life—one will wake up one morning to discover that one is a worldly success. That is to say, the world recognizes one's success, rewards one for one's efforts, and benefits from one's developed knowledge, skills, and talents.

This, of course, is a less-romantic view of overnight success. Yet, it is an honest, in-context look at how most people become overnight successes. Becoming an overnight success is extremely difficult; it requires enormous persistence and courage across many years and perhaps decades. But the rewards are greater than the effort invested: one accrues "interest" on all one's unrewarded efforts that led to one's overnight success.

Everyone has heard about the role persistence plays in success. Most people know that persistence is one crucial ingredient for success. But what specifically are the mechanics of persistence? How and why does persistence bring success?

To answer the above questions, one needs to understand how the mind works. The mind builds knowledge puzzles, one piece at a time. At any given time during this puzzle-building process, the mind does not hold a complete picture of the knowledge puzzle. The mind can, however, retain incomplete knowledge puzzles. The mind does not have to complete the knowledge puzzle right away; it can perform other tasks while a knowledge puzzle awaits its missing pieces. Sometimes knowledge puzzles take years—even decades—to complete.

So, where does persistence fit in? If one worked on building a knowledge puzzle, but could not complete it within the timeframe one wanted to, one has a choice. One can give up striving to complete the puzzle, like most people do. Or one can apply persistence. That is, one can temporarily suspend one's puzzle-building effort to deal with other things that may be urgent. But one never gives up on the knowledge puzzle. Instead, one persistently thinks about it and lets the subconscious make any necessary connections it can. Then, as soon as one can return one's full attention to completing the knowledge puzzle, one does—with a renewed enthusiasm and vigor.

If one persists, one will eventually complete the knowledge puzzles one starts. And those completed knowledge puzzles can reveal the steps one needs to take to capture stunning success.

Henry Ford did integrated thinking. He integrated the assembly-line concept to the production of automobiles. The result was that Henry Ford rocketed ahead of the competition. He held tremendous competitive advantages. Thus, he was able to produce more cars and sell them for less money than the competition. He also raised the wages for his workers to an astounding level—unparalleled at that time.

But Henry Ford offered his Model T in only one color: black. Henry Ford's competition scrambled to duplicate his assembly-line application. And when the competition offered color choices to consumers, some competitors surpassed Ford's competitive advantages. For example, General Motors surpassed Ford in sales and profitability.

The point here is that one has to constantly be aware of one's business and its competition in order to retain one's competitive advantages. One has to monitor consumer behavior and what the competition is doing to make sure one is retaining or increasing one's competitive advantages, not losing them.

The first step to retain competitive advantages consists of listing them. For example, one's competitive advantages might include:

These might be the most important competitive advantages one has right now. Most others are unaware of these, or at least have not yet integrated with these. But holding competitive advantages is not enough to stay ahead of the competition. Thus, if all one did was keep telling oneself that one is far ahead of the competition and one can take it easy, one will fall behind. This is because the competition never rests as Henry Ford learned.

So, the second step to retain competitive advantages consists of monitoring the activities of consumers and competitors. One needs to learn where potential customers are and why they are there. One also needs to know how the competition serves consumers and what the competition plans to do to gain new customers.

By becoming fully aware of one's own competitive advantages and knowing what the consumers and competition are doing, one can retain one's competitive advantages. This allows one to stay ahead of the competition for abiding prosperity.

The distinction between goals and rewards is a valuable one. The following reveals the difference between these two.

A goal is something one wants to achieve or a situation one wants to occur. For example, one might set a goal to earn one million dollars per year. Or, one might set a goal to develop a romantic-love relationship with a compatible partner.

A reward is something one gives to oneself or others for achieving goals. For example, one might give oneself an awesome car for achieving the goal of earning a million dollars per year. Or, one might go to a paradise island to reward oneself for successfully developing a romantic-love relationship.

The point of this is that goals are something one strives to achieve while rewards are something one gives oneself for achieving goals. The table below lists some goals and rewards to clarify the difference between these two.

A bizarre situation occurs in the anticivilization. That situation is this: success equals failure. And failure equals success. This might seem strange. However, when one understands the dynamics of the anticivilization, one realizes that no contradiction exists here.

In the anticivilization, essentially everything is upside-down. This means that morality, power, and law are backwards, reversed, or upside-down. For example, criminals get away with murder—such as those who killed Socrates, Jesus, Boethius, Joan of Arc, Giordano Bruno, Algernon Sidney, and others. And, heroic individuals, such as Leona Helmsley, Michael Milken, and Stew Leonard are marched off to prison—not for committing objective crimes, but for being super successful.

Upon close examination, one sees that being a miserable failure as a human being in the anticivilization gets rewarded. One can rise to the pinnacle of the anticivilization by being a tremendous failure. For example, those who do not produce genuine values for others shoot up through the ranks of society to become well-paid lawyers, judges, prosecutors, politicians. To be sure, there are noble and valuable lawyers and judges. But many of these "professionals" have removed the essence of human beings—i.e., honest effort—from their soul. Thus, they conjure up and enforce subjective laws and parasitical regulations in order to control, cripple, and drain the value producers. This way, harmful humanoids can glean money, power, esteem, and values from the producers. In short, such failures end up rising to the top of the anticivilization to not only control everyone, but to live off the efforts of everyone...by law.

Contrast this with honest, rational producers of goods and services. Such value producers must work day and night to produce and market values that keep everyone alive. These men and women live in accordance with the nature of human beings: they produce more values than they consume. They continuously grow into new realms of personal and professional growth, prosperity, and happiness. But look what happens to successful human beings in the anticivilization: valuable people are duped, controlled, and drained of their hard-earned wealth, property, and happiness. What is the result? Successful people increasingly lose the values of time, money, energy, incentive, prosperity, happiness, health, and life itself as the "leaders" of the anticivilization drain everyone. Successful people end up chained to a parasite-ruled civilization. Then they are left to die, all in the name of higher causes and altruism.

Many people have a negative attitude toward life. They hold in their conscious mind or subconscious the belief that everything will always turn out wrong. Their thoughts and actions usually work in harmony with their beliefs and they experience negative situations over and over throughout their lives. Such negative people reject positive thinking with cynicism.

Other people have a positive attitude toward life. These people believe either consciously or subconsciously that everything will always turn out just fine. Their thoughts and actions typically generate positive outcomes, which reinforces their positive attitude. Until disaster strikes. And, as everybody living in the anticivilization knows from personal experience, disaster always strikes. That disaster usually comes from the evil emanating from criminal-minded individuals.

There is a third, more balanced attitude toward life. That attitude incorporates both the negative and positive aspects of life. Such an attitude is neither based on cynicism or wishful thinking. It is an attitude based on the facts of reality and the rational use of one's consciousness. For example, a person with a balanced attitude will consider both the upside and the downside of a situation and then develop a rational outlook about the situation.

This person makes either a mental or written list to look at both sides of a situation. The person then looks at both sides objectively to determine the actual nature of the situation. The person might think, "Can I benefit from this situation or will I be harmed by it?" Then the person can answer the question based on a rational analysis of the facts. And as new information arises, the person can reevaluate the situation.

Having a balanced attitude toward life requires conscious effort. There is no escaping this fact. But the rewards for such effort is a reality-based attitude that enables one to make valid decisions and experience happiness far more often than those with a cynical or naively-optimistic attitude.

A valuable distinction to make is one between laziness and conserving energy. When a person is explicitly aware of the difference between these two, he or she can conserve maximum energy without being lazy.

In essence, laziness consists of not doing what one needs to do. Conserving energy consists of doing only what one needs to do.

For example, laziness is when a man asks someone else to look up an answer that he knows he should look up himself. Or, laziness is when a woman promises to do something for someone and later conjures up rationalizations to avoid doing what she said she was going to do.

Conserving energy is when a man has to walk a long distance to get somewhere, but he does so in a totally relaxed manner so he does not waste energy via tensed muscles. Or, conserving energy is when a woman consolidates her errands to one trip to the mall so she does not have to shop all over the city.

The following table reveals the difference between laziness and conserving energy in a concrete, black-and-white comparison.

Competence without persistence is fruitless. Persistence without competence is futile. But the combination of competence and persistence is invincible.

Competence comes through rational thought and careful effort. A person does not become competent by chance or birth. Basically, a person sets out to do something, such as to become an artist or businessperson. Then that person works hard and diligently to develop the skills necessary to become a success in his endeavor. Eventually, the person becomes competent in his venture. In short, competence is earned, not received.

Persistence comes through maturation. Children seek immediate gratification; nothing less will do. But as a person evolves into adulthood—as the person grows up—he or she needs to cultivate self-discipline, which is a requisite of persistence. Self-discipline comes through knowing oneself, knowing what one wants, working to get what one wants, and persevering until one gets it. The more one applies persistence, the more comfortable it feels, although it never becomes easy. To succeed on a really large scale—from creating a business empire to moving civilization into limitless freedom and prosperity—one has to cultivate persistence.

When one develops competence and persistence, one can have whatever one desires. The effort involved in developing these two virtues is quite high. But the reward is worth the effort. The reward is eventual success in many of the activities one undertakes.

Everyone has problems. Even in a rational civilization, problems will exist. Problems are inherent in life. The act of overcoming problems is called work. There are two fundamental approaches to problems. Those two approaches consist of (1) causing problems and (2) solving problems.

In essence, mystical and criminal minds cause problems where no problems exist. By contrast, the business mind solves problems where problems do exist. The mystical and criminal mind stirs up problems and then cashes in on the resulting confusion and chaos. The business mind identifies existing problems and then carries out solutions to cash in on those problems.

Inherent in every problem is an equivalent opportunity. But, in order to convert a problem into an opportunity, one has to deal with it rationally. This means acknowledging that a problem is real and explicitly identifying the full context of the situation. Using false power when dealing with problems might yield short-term advantages. But, it always delivers long-term losses. The only way to convert problems into opportunities for abiding success is to use genuine power.

Genuine power means acting in accordance with reality, not faking reality. The act of faking reality is false power. When one uses genuine power, one develops valid solutions to one's problems. And, one develops ways to not only solve all of one's problems, but one figures out how to gain maximum advantages from those problems. One asks oneself productive questions such as, "What can I do to turn this problem into an equivalent opportunity." One either heeds the answer one's subconscious provides or one consciously thinks of ways to overcome one's problems via lateral and vertical thinking.

Everyone knows from their own life experiences that problems never end. Yet, when one confronts one's problems rationally, dealing with problems ceases to be threatening. Moreover, as one's problem-solving skills improve through practice, one begins anticipating problems in advance and prevents them from occurring. This is an effective way to live. Anticipating and preventing problems is infinitely better than reacting to problems one has no power to foresee.

Everyone experiences failure. In the anticivilization, failure predominates. But failure is really just delayed success...if one does certain things. What are those things?

First, one needs to learn from one's mistakes. One needs to identify the source of one's failure. For example, perhaps one held an erroneous belief or one took an inappropriate action.

Second, one might need to increase one's knowledge in the area of one's failure. One can usually correct errors and failures by gaining the necessary knowledge.

Third, one needs to persist in one's chosen goal. This is crucial. No matter how difficult the goal is or how many obstacles one faces, one can achieve the goal if it is rational and one persists. Why? One will eventually figure out what needs to be done to achieve the goal. With persistence, one can turn failure into success. Then one will discover that one's failure was just delayed success.

One might assume that one's strengths are the key to one's success and one's weaknesses are the key to one's failure. Surface logic would justify such a conclusion. But after thinking about this, one will see a new perspective.

One's greatest strength can become one's greatest weakness in the long run. And, one's greatest weakness can become one's greatest strength.

If one is not careful, one will become comfortable with one's strengths. One will tend to rely on one's strengths and avoid developing different areas of oneself. One's strengths might prevent oneself from developing other areas that could boost one's success beyond anything previously known.

One's weaknesses can provide the motivation to convert those weaknesses into strengths. One may be so dissatisfied with oneself in certain areas that one sets goals to thoroughly develop oneself in those areas. If one did not have weaknesses in certain areas, one probably would never develop those areas very much.

A good example of the paradox of strengths is the Holyfield-Tyson boxing championship. Mike Tyson has a devastating knock-out punch. He usually defeats his opponents with his knock-out punch in the early rounds of a fight. The result? Tyson never experienced the intense pressure to develop great boxing skills such as superb jabbing, leg movements, body positioning, fight strategies, and endurance. Instead, Tyson built a career on his knock-out punch. In reality, he is a specialized fighter; he is a knock-out puncher.

Evander Holyfield developed great boxing skills. He had to, since he lacks the devastating knock-out punch that Mike Tyson has. Using his great boxing skills, Holyfield avoided Tyson's knock-out punch. Holyfield also out-boxed Tyson to win the World Boxing Association championship from Tyson and later retain his title against Tyson. Mike Tyson's greatest strength turned into his greatest weakness. By Holyfield avoiding Tyson's knock-out punch, Tyson became helpless. Mike Tyson, in a fit of desperation, bit off Holyfield's ear!

An example of the paradox of weaknesses is a person who cannot read very well. Such a person may lack the eye/brain coordination required to recognize words, grasp their meaning, put words together to form sentences, and understand what he is reading. This condition can easily discourage a person from reading.

But such a person might choose to develop his reading skills to gain the value from reading. He will have to work much harder and longer to read compared to most readers. He might have to develop word recognition skills, word meanings, context identification skills, spelling skills, reasoning skills, note taking skills, and patience. But if he does this, and if he practices reading every day for years, he will become a superb reader. He will greatly increase his comprehension skills, his vocabulary, his reasoning skills, his knowledge, and his confidence. In short, this person will switch from hating to read to loving to read. He will have converted his greatest weakness into a great strength.

What is the principle here? Actually, there are two principles. The first one is this: abiding success requires diligent effort. Even if a person was born with a great strength, he or she will have to work very hard to develop complementary strengths to stay ahead of the competition.

The second principle is this: every weakness contains an opportunity for outstanding greatness. If a person is motivated to find the opportunity in his or her weakness and works very hard to convert the weakness into a strength, this person will experience greatness.

Accomplishing something worthwhile leaves one with a great feeling—the feeling of achievement. One certainly can savor that feeling to get as much mileage out of it as one can. The feeling can range anywhere from good to electrifying.

But a problem arises when one chooses to rest on laurels. In other words, one creates unnecessary problems by trying to keep reliving past accomplishments rather than constantly building new values. Why do people rest on laurels? Laziness.

Continuously building values meets the needs of man's survival, both his physical and psychological needs. One is most satisfied, happy, fulfilled, prosperous, and in control while building values. The alternative to building values consists of faking self-esteem and being controlled by others or manipulating/draining others.

The long-term result of resting on laurels is unhappiness, poverty, and being out of control. Conversely, the long-term result of continuously building values is happiness, prosperity, and being in control of one's life. Moreover, continuously building values is the base upon which one can build an enduring romantic-love relationship.

The choice to rest on laurels or continuously build values has to be made by each person every day. But, when a person develops a critical mass of knowledge, that choice becomes easy to make. Why? One understands that happiness is the moral purpose of life. And one understands that continuously building values is the irreplaceable base from which abiding happiness flows.

People may complain that succeeding requires hard work, sometimes very hard work. They might want success to come easily. At times, everyone feels like this.

Yet, having to work very hard to achieve one's goals is a value, an immense value. In fact, over the long run, having to work extremely hard to achieve one's goals is a much greater value than having others give oneself everything one desires.

For example, if a person wants great wealth and he comes from a wealthy family, he might be able to receive wealth through inheritance or taking over the family business. This is not always easy to do. But, such a person loses a great value: starting from scratch and building an empire of success.

Now, if another person wants great wealth and he does not come from a wealthy family, he faces inordinate obstacles. He literally has to overcome the whole world—a world that does not even know he exists. This person has to combine his knowledge and experience, and then take actions no one before him has taken. In many cases, this person has to be a pioneer and a risk taker. He risks his resources, reputation, and future. And no one will come to his rescue. He is in a do-or-die situation—with no one else to blame but himself if he fails.

Many people would rather be the person in the first example. They inherently sense the easier, more certain route to riches in the first instance. Yet, the second route offers unparalleled excitement and fulfillment. Starting from scratch to bring new values and wealth into the world is extremely fulfilling. That is because one has to grow every day—even every hour—to build values and wealth from scratch. Time does not allow one to "take it easy." This constant hard work is painful at times. But, one inevitably evolves into a fully developed, valuable human being. And one can be proud of one's earned character and value—despite attacks from envious people.

In order to build anything really great from the ground up—from nothing to everything—one must and will experience a seemingly endless stream of rejection and disappointment. That is a natural part of bringing brand-new values into the anticivilization. Once one understands the inherent difficulty in bringing new values into the world, one learns to accept this. One prepares for it rather than fighting it or letting it cause needless suffering. Over time, one realizes that one has become a better, more competitive, and stronger human being as a result of going from nothing to everything through one's own diligent effort.

Persevering is hard work. Doing something in the face of obstacles can be very difficult. In such cases, the temptation to quit, "to throw in the towel", is sometimes irresistible. The thought, "I give up" is all too easy to utter in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

There are some obvious obstacles that can prevent one from achieving one's goals. Such obstacles include lack of money, inadequate knowledge, and superior competition. Each of these obstacles can be overcome or worked around to achieve one's goals and get what one wants. One probably has to exert tremendous discipline and effort. But these obstacles can become springboards to one's success if one uses them intelligently.

Now comes the worst impediment to one's success: losing interest in one's activity. This indifference or even dislike of what one is doing is the most fatal obstacle one will encounter. When one loses interest in one's goals, one's internal motivation evaporates. And no amount of external motivation—from other people, books, tapes, seminars, and so on—can carry one through to complete one's goal.

When one encounters external obstacles, such as a shortage of money or time, one can employ others to help oneself overcome these. But when one encounters the internal obstacle of losing interest in one's goal, no one else can help. And, external obstacles usually give advanced warning that they are approaching. This lets one modify one's plans accordingly. Yet, lost interest can creep up on oneself. Then one day one discovers that one cannot continue moving toward one's goal.

So, how can one avoid this worst impediment? One can do two things. First, one can think things through to their completion before deciding upon a goal. Second, one can make a commitment to oneself in writing that one will finish what one starts—regardless how one feels.

Through proper planning and commitment, one can avoid losing interest in one's goals and activities. If one applies these two keys, one will wake up one day to experience the joy that comes from achieving one's greatest goals. One will also become a stronger person who can persevere, no matter what obstacles one might face.

Continuous success is impossible for everyone living in an anticivilization. Thus, they encounter failure sooner or later. Everyone does. Even in the rational Civilization of the Universe, conscious beings encounter failure. The difference is that in a rational civilization, continuous failure is impossible.

At present, everyone on earth knowingly or unknowingly lives in an anticivilization. As such, everyone encounters failure. And the more people try to succeed, the more failure they must endure. Remember, the anticivilization penalizes success and life, while it fosters failure and death.

The key to surviving failure—in any civilization—is persistence. That's right. Persistence is the master key to overcoming failure and achieving success. With persistence, one will endure in one's work until one succeeds.

When one encounters problems or failure, one probably will feel bad, disappointed, etc. This is the point where unsuccessful people give up or "throw in the towel." The error here is failing to persevere. Time continues regardless what one does. So, one might as well continue striving for success and achievement. If one does, one probably will figure out how to succeed.

If one is feeling bad about a problem, failure, rejection, or loss, remember that this is natural. No one really wants to fail. But keep one's emotions in their proper perspective. Just because one feels bad does not mean the world is bad or one's future is doomed. Emotions are transient; they are here one minute and gone the next. One needs to acknowledge that what one is feeling is real. Then one needs to move forward despite one's feelings. This does not imply emotional repression or denial. This means that one does the best one can to continue moving forward toward one's goals, even in the face of failure.

If one does this, one will eventually succeed. This is the key to all great success stories. No outstanding success was achieved without surviving periods of failure or problems. And besides, the very process of enduring failure and problems makes oneself a stronger person. Such a person can overcome difficult situations that others consider impossible.

The primacy of existence philosophy really helps one survive failure and achieve limitless success. The primacy of existence philosophy says that facts are what they are, no matter what one feels. Even if a person feels like he cannot go on, the fact is that he probably can. Johann Sebastian Bach proved this; so did Ludwig van Beethoven, Helen Keller, Soichiro Honda, Thomas Edison, and others. If one's goals are in accord with reality and one persists despite negative situations, things probably will work out for oneself. And when they do, one will know that one has earned that success. One will not be beholden to anybody. One will have survived failure to capture success.

One's successes rarely teach oneself much. But one's failures can be a powerful teacher whose lessons last a long time. A problem with success is that one can become complacent; one feels like "resting on laurels." Even worse, one might believe that one can do no wrong. This is deadly. Why? Because the competition is never far behind. Even if one does not yet have any competition, when one becomes overtly successful, one will have competition. This is inherent in conscious life.

So, what can one do about this problem of becoming complacent with success? Simple. One needs to stay hungry. This means that one does not indulge in one's successes. Certainly, one needs to acknowledge, celebrate, and enjoy each success. But, one does not want to wallow in them; one cannot afford to remain stuck in previous successes. Yes, one might be tempted to give up the constant effort one exerted to reach success or victory. But the illusion is that one can ride off past efforts, no matter how great they were. In reality, the competition always advances; it never rests.

Perhaps the best way to stay hungry is to keep oneself and one's life lean. This does not imply that one has to deprive oneself of food or material goods. It means that one needs only those things that are necessary to keep oneself competitive, productive, and happy.

Truly successful people—those who succeed across many decades—never let themselves become complacent with past performance. They do not say to themselves, "Well, I wrote a best-selling book, or won a gold medal, or whatever; now I can take it easy." Instead, perennially successful people acknowledge their achievements, figure out how to overcome past failures, and work to produce ever greater values. This is the pattern super-successful people follow either implicitly or explicitly.

People are most vulnerable to failure after a major success. The awards and praise feel great, especially when juxtaposed with the continuous hard work that went into achieving the success. Again, the trap consists of avoiding the effort and pain that often accompany genuine success. The pleasurable feeling of victory can, if one is not careful, lead to the miserable experience of defeat.

By understanding that constant effort—and sometimes pain—precede genuine success, one can consciously avoid becoming complacent with past accomplishments. And if one does begin to fall into complacency or laziness, one needs to recall that success requires constant effort. If one is not aware of exerting effort, chances are that one is not going to succeed on a large scale...until one exerts continuous effort.

Losses in the anticivilization turn out to be gains in the Civilization of the Universe. The opposite is also true: gains in anticivilization the turn out to be losses in the Civilization of the Universe.

For example, one might be ostracized from the anticivilization like Spinoza was ostracized. From the anticivilization perspective, this would be terrible. But from the Civilization of the Universe perspective, this is a blessing. Why? One can use one's uninterrupted time to do what one needs to do to exit the anticivilization and enter the Civilization of the Universe. Instead of being chained to dishonest/criminal dynamics ranging from the job-killing INS, to the wealth-killing IRS, to the investment-killing SEC, to the mind-killing DEA, to the human-killing FDA, one is literally free to advance into the Civilization of the Universe.

An opposite example is when one uses the Establishment media to promote and market one's products. One can get wide exposure for little cost and effort. But, ultimately, this is a fatal move. By integrating with the Establishment media, one is at the mercy of Establishment journalists and their parasitical-elite masters. Establishment journalists disparage genuine values while promulgating spurious values. Thus, one gains "easy advantages" through the Establishment media, but one eventually loses control of one's promotions, marketing, business, and life.

In reality, a mathematical formula applies everywhere at all times. That formula is two negatives equal a positive. The first negative is living in an anticivilization. The second negative is being ostracized from the anticivilization. Those two negatives cancel each other out, which culminates in a positive. And that positive advances oneself straight into limitless prosperity and happiness now available throughout the Civilization of the Universe.

A negative (e.g., living in the anticivilization) multiplied by a positive (e.g., getting low-cost, widespread advertising) always equals a negative. Thus, one becomes further entangled in the anticivilization, which prevents one from advancing into limitless prosperity and happiness.

The principle never changes. Two negatives equal a positive: losses in the anticivilization convert into gains in the Civilization of the Universe.

There are countless ways anticivilization agents deliver losses to one's self. Those losses include loss of time, well-being, health, happiness, money, property, love, and life itself. Thus, to advance into boundless excitement and wealth, one needs to avoid benefiting from anticivilization dynamics. Better still, one can leave the entire anticivilization behind and become part of the Civilization of the Universe.

Chinese culture has a symbol for the positive/negative nature of problems and opportunities. That symbol is yin and yang. This means that crises and opportunity go hand in hand. One cannot have one without the other—problems and opportunities. The same holds true for risk and reward. Risk and reward are inseparable. Where there is risk, there is the potential for reward. Likewise, where there are problems there are potential opportunities.

Unfortunately, many people have learned to fear or avoid problems and risk. When people do encounter problems or risk, they automatically move away to be "safe." This does not mean that one should deal with problems or risk casually. Problems and risk can be harmful—even deadly. Instead, one needs to approach problems rationally to determine what needs to be done to convert the problem into an opportunity.

For example, in 1997, parasitical-elite leaders of China took over relatively free Hong Kong. As these "leaders" introduced force and fraud into Hong Kong's competitive marketplace, they created chaos in Hong Kong's financial markets. Soon after, Hong Kong's financial markets began to falter, then decline. This caused ripple effects throughout the world financial markets, which led to a huge drop in the stock market—over 500 points. The richest man in the world, Bill Gates, lost more than a billion dollars overnight. True, the market jumped back up a few hundred points, and percentage-wise, this was not the biggest loss in the history of the stock market. But it did send panic waves throughout the world.

Some stockowners, particularly high-tech stockowners, took a significant loss. Stock prices of certain companies dropped drastically. People could rightly conclude that investing in stocks is a risky, potentially devastating activity.

However, directly after the stock market lost 500 hundred points was the best time to buy stocks. Why? The age-old adage "buy low, sell high" answers that question. That was the best time to buy stocks, when they were at a dramatically reduced price. Then, when the market bounced back, one's net worth would have increased commensurate with the rise in the value of one's stocks.

This does require research to find out which stocks to buy. Yet, the potentially disastrous stock market crash could be, if approached rationally, a time of unprecedented opportunity for shrewd investors.

This does not imply that one has to wait around for disaster to strike—or worse, cause a disaster. That would be irrational and destructive. This simply means that one does not have to react like the general population reacts to problems. Instead, one can assess a problematic situation using one's own mind to determine the (1) overall situation, (2) specific problems, (3) potential opportunities, and (4) steps to take to convert the problems into opportunities.

Deepak Chopra describes the concept of spontaneous right action in some of his audiocassette programs. But he does so from a mystical base. The listener is left wondering how, practically speaking, he can achieve the state of spontaneous right action. Deepak Chopra reveals—in abstract terms—how to attain spontaneous right action. But the listener feels frustrated because the abstract description is not concretized. In other words, the method to achieve spontaneous right action is not anchored to reality.

Now, by striping the mysticism away from this concept, one discovers that spontaneous right action is real and natural for conscious beings. The key is this: one needs to develop the honest integrating mind—the perfect mind—in order to experience spontaneous right action.

Consider this: everything in existence is interconnected. From an epistemological standpoint, existence allows no breach in knowledge. And from a metaphysical standpoint, existence allows no breach in reality. In fact, everything is interrelated—not physically, but through cause and effect. Nothing can escape the steadfast dynamics of cause and effect.

Things appear disconnected when one uses the conscious mind irrationally. Then, in the presence of irrationality, illusions rise that let people think they can get away with violating the laws of nature. They cannot. Reality simply destroys those who try to violate the universal laws of nature.

By removing irrationality and developing the perfect mind, one automatically puts oneself in harmony with the laws of nature. Without exaggeration, one becomes the controller of existence. This occurs as one accurately perceives, integrates, and acts on objective reality.

With the perfect mind, one integrates all knowledge. Such vast interrelations of knowledge enables oneself to understand exactly what is going on around oneself and take action that delivers maximum benefits to self. This is the easiest way to profit from both good and bad situations. And as one performs integrated thinking for awhile, it begins to feel natural. Honest integrated thinking eventually feels normal, especially when compared to specialized, mystical, or criminal thinking.

One wakes up one day to discover that one's integrated knowledge has reached a critical mass. That critical mass propels oneself beyond the realm of endless losses—i.e., the anticivilization. One is able to figure out how to prosper in every situation. Moreover, by operating in harmony with existence, one no longer wastes resources trying to maintain illusions and hoaxes. All one's resources go toward increasing one's profitable control of existence.

Francis Bacon's maxim "Nature to be commanded must be obeyed" describes the foundation of spontaneous right action. Why? With the perfect mind, one's honest integrated thinking lets one understand reality—from the micro level to the macro level. That understanding, in turn, provides oneself with the ability to predict the outcome of events with certainty. And, equally important, such prescience delivers a competitive edge: one can see farther than the competition...and then peer still farther to see what is around the next bend. That competitive edge enables one to shape the future to benefit oneself and everyone else.

Certain people throughout history did have spontaneous right action. They implicitly used the above dynamics. But no one in history has explicitly understood how to achieve the state of spontaneous right action. Thus, no one has ever consciously used it to benefit self and everybody else. Examples of individuals who implicitly used spontaneous right action include Confucius, Archimedes, Kepler, Handel, Washington, Franklin, Rockefeller, Edison, Walton, Gates, and Berners-Lee.

Today, oneself can achieve the state of spontaneous right action. And one can use such action to live exactly the way one always wanted to live since one was an excitement-filled child.

What is the purpose of Establishment intellectuals? The sole purpose of such intellectuals is to advance the anticivilization. Establishment intellectuals—from news-media journalists to tax-supported professors to God-promulgating theologians to high-profile politicians—get paid to propagate the anticivilization. These people receive money, values, praise, esteem, and prestige for supporting and spreading the upside-down world. That upside-down world is nothing more than a collection of rickety illusions.

Why do such people invest their one-and-only life advancing the anticivilization? They do this to survive without exerting the constant hard effort required to produce genuine values for other people. By promulgating misinformation that traps everyone in the anticivilization, Establishment intellectuals garner wealth and power from the parasitical-elite class.

However, Establishment intellectuals unknowingly provide unpolished gems of information for everyone. The key is to know how to polish these gems.

One can convert such misinformation into valuable gems by reversing nearly all of the Establishment intellectuals' assertions. In some cases, reversing their assertions can lead to physical and financial prosperity.

The following are some Establishment intellectuals' assertions and the reverse of those assertions. This comparison demonstrates the value of reversing such assertions.

Everyone is coming from the anticivilization and moving into the Civilization of the Universe. Because of this, everyone has anticivilization damage.

Damage? What kind of damage? Everyone—from children to the elderly—has sustained physical and psychological damage. Such damage is inherent in the anticivilization.

Religious mysticism harms essentially everyone with its malevolent view of man and its linking guilt and shame with pleasure—especially the most pleasurable of all human acts: sex. Religious mysticism gets into everyone's psyche and blocks everyone from guiltlessly enjoying his or her life to the fullest.

Anticivilization governments harm everyone by attempting to control every area of human life. Such parasitical control prevents individuals from exercising their free will in order to achieve their self-chosen values. If happiness comes from the achievement of one's values, then anticivilization governments block the majority of people from experiencing abiding happiness.

Bogus leaders and well-camouflaged criminal minds subvert Citizens of Earth by promulgating evil notions. Such notions include altruism, socialism, communism, collectivism, and fat-free high-carbohydrate diets. Also, linking guilt with money leaves everyone confused about the true nature of money.

Such destructive acts leave people with stunted minds and unfit bodies. But perhaps the worst aspect of the anticivilization is the forceful suppression of valid ideas and actions. For example, leaders and intellectuals of the anticivilization scramble to distort, smear, and bury life-lifting concepts and ideas such as reason, self-interest, capitalism, honesty, objectivity, and justice. By blocking people from understanding beneficial concepts and ideas, people are left floundering in the anticivilization. They are never able to discover total freedom, boundless prosperity, and intense fulfillment.

That's the bad news. The good news is that most, if not all, personal destruction can be reversed. And the best news is that all negatives from the anticivilization convert into positives in the Civilization of the Universe.

By abandoning the traditional mind, developing the perfect mind, and entering the Civilization of the Universe, one will heal oneself. One will then boom into limitless health, wealth, and happiness.

A child comes into the world. He opens his eyes and begins to see. This child becomes aware of other people—mother, father, and siblings. Many months later, this child becomes aware of himself. He puts together various experiences to understand the world. This results in a simple understanding of life. But before this child can figure out the full nature of life, he is bombarded with mind-and-body toxins, fraud, and force.

First, people feed the child endless forms of body toxins: cookies, pies, cake, ice cream, candy, chocolate, and pop. Then people feed the child endless forms of mind toxins: Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, angels, devils, saviors, God, and the supernatural. These toxins desensitize the child for what is about to come.

The child learns a government-mandated educational curriculum. The sugar-and-mysticism sedatives soften the damage from this compulsory education. Teachers use a good/bad combination of phonics and whole-language, which prevents the child from fully unlocking the code of language. Instead of being able to identify new words, he memorizes words and their definitions. This is fine when reading Dick and Jane, but it is disastrous when reading Crime and Punishment.

The child concludes his grade-school education without mastering reading, writing, and thinking skills. Then society sends him the message: "You can't get anywhere in today's world without a college degree." Thus, he goes off to college. At college, some professors jumble his thinking even more with mind-crippling ideas.

After college, this man enters the world of work. "Oh boy! Finally I get to make money," he says to himself after being ensconced in a specialized field of study. With a lifelong accumulation of mind-and-body damage—and an inability to read, write, and think clearly—he enters the world of professional work. But he quickly discovers that he is trapped in a specialized routine and not able to generate wealth through his own effort. Dependent on superiors for income and survival, he does what they say. And they tell him to do dead-end tasks, not wealth-generating work.

He knows something is wrong, but he continues. Now he has a wife, family, house, car, and lifestyle to support. Thus, he decides to advance in his career. He notices that the more he advances, the more he is removed from the essence of the work. Rather than doing the hands-on work required for new products, he gets more money to keep his hands off the work. Enjoying bigger paychecks, he keeps quiet.

Now a middle-aged man, he settles in his routine. But he is not happy; something from within—some unspoken and undefined urge—impels him to seek more. Perhaps he needs more from life; perhaps this is the best life has to offer. He does not know. But he does know that he is bored with his family life, lacks genuine control in his work, and is stagnating financially. In short, he feels powerless.

His life continues for a few more decades, which culminates in old age and ill health. Then he dies, never experiencing boundless freedom, power, riches, romance, well-being, and happiness. What happened to this child with so much potential? How could this child go from pristine beauty and immense potential into a quagmire of confusion, stagnation, old age, and death?

That child, like everyone else on earth, was born into a natural world of beauty and happiness. But within five years, that child was brought into an unnatural world—an irrational anticivilization. And everyone who lives in an anticivilization experiences its tripartite products: unrelenting losses, inescapable sickness, and guaranteed death.

In the anticivilization, no one can live a magnificent life. How, then, can one live a magnificent life? One can live a magnificent life by exiting the anticivilization and entering the rational Civilization of the Universe. In the Civilization of the Universe, everyone advances into eternal power, prosperity, and fulfillment. Mind-and-body toxins, whole-language learning, illiteracy, irrationality, compulsory education, mind-crippling professors, specialized jobs, schizophrenic work, boredom, financial stagnation, aging, crime, and death cannot survive in the Civilization of the Universe.

Only genuine power, opulence, health, romance, and happiness succeed in the Civilization of the Universe. In other words, only magnificent lives reign supreme among the Civilization of the Universe.

Nearly anyone can prosper in every area of life: mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially. That can happen in a short period of time. How can one do this? One can make the jump from Traditional Man to Advanced Man.

Advanced Man? What is that? Advanced Man is man at his highest evolution—his mystic-free beautiful self with a perfect mind and body.

The first key to jumping into limitless fulfillment is to be aware that mankind is making a monumental evolutionary jump, just as he did three thousand years ago. As described by Princeton University professor Julian Jaynes in his 1976 treatise, that first jump radically changed human life. It ushered in conscious man, which completely separated man from all other animals. And, that jump occurred swiftly, regardless of what anyone said or did. The development of the alphabet—along with business, mass migration, and crumbling societies—triggered the discovery and spreading of consciousness.

Today, with The Perfect Mind/Perfect Body Breakthrough, individuals in all countries will evolve into Advanced Man—at their own pace and through their own motivation. Those who evolve will prosper beyond belief. Those who do not evolve will become increasingly unfit for survival.

The following chart reveals the nature of Traditional Man versus the nature of Advanced Man. It reveals life before and after the jump. Moreover, it shows the limitless fulfillment that is available to Advanced Man.

What is an unreal man? This is a man who uses deception, fraud, coercion, or initiatory force to extract power, wealth, prestige, and esteem from the productive class. Such a man uses false power to usurp—rather than earn—his survival. He fakes reality, self-esteem, self-worth, happiness, compassion, and love. The unreal man is not grounded in reality; he is grounded in look-good illusions.

What is a real man? This is a man who uses rational thinking, uncompromised honesty, productive effort, and competitive business to create values, jobs, wealth, and happiness for self and other people. Such a man uses genuine power to earn a livelihood and, often, tremendous prosperity. He identifies, integrates, and acts on reality. His value-producing actions beget genuine self-esteem, self-worth, happiness, compassion, and love. The real man is fully anchored in reality; he dismisses illusions.

So, how can one tell these two men apart in daily life? Looking directly at each man rarely indicates which one is real and which one is unreal. Remember, the real man has nothing to hide; he appears real because he is real. But the unreal man must hide his nature from himself and others. Therefore, he puts on an act to convince himself and others that he is real.

Perhaps the quickest way to identify who is a real man and who is an unreal man is to look at specific examples. For instance, most politicians and lawyers are unreal men while most entrepreneurs and businessmen are real men. Men such as Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and Rudolph Giuliani are unreal men. They are unevolved people who do not produce objective values that other people voluntarily purchase in the free market. Thus, they survive by wangling values from the productive class. But men such as Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Michael Milken are real men. They are evolved people who produce a stunning array of objective values that other people voluntarily purchase in the free market. Thus, they survive by producing far more values than they consume.

Take Donald Trump: he created eighteen thousand jobs, plus apartments, offices, entertainment, restaurants, and great wealth for society. His prosperity is real and he is real. And Bill Gates probably created more jobs, values, wealth, millionaires, and billionaires than anyone else in history. Gates, like Trump and Milken, is a real man.

Anyone who can differentiate real men from unreal men will gain two invaluable advantages. The first advantage is protection. One can end the constant harm of unreal men by quickly eliminating those men from one's life. The second advantage is opulence. Such a person can identify who are the real men and then purchase their products and services to gain outstanding values.

What is an unreal woman? This is a woman who uses deception, fraud, coercion, or initiatory force to extract power, wealth, prestige, and esteem from the productive class. Such a woman uses false power to usurp—rather than earn—her survival. She fakes reality, self-esteem, self-worth, happiness, compassion, and love. The unreal woman is not grounded in reality; she is grounded in mystical illusions.

What is a real woman? This is a woman who uses unyielding honesty, rational thinking, productive effort, and competitive business to create values, jobs, wealth, and happiness for self and other people. Such a woman uses genuine power to earn a livelihood and great prosperity. She identifies, integrates, and acts on reality. Her value-producing actions beget genuine self-esteem, self-worth, happiness, compassion, and love. The real woman is fully anchored in reality; she dismisses mystical illusions.

So, how can one tell these two women apart in daily life? Looking directly at each woman rarely indicates which one is real and which one is unreal. The real woman has nothing to hide. She appears real because she is real. But the unreal woman must hide her secret nature from herself and others. Thus, she puts on an act to convince herself and other people that she is real.

Many politicians and lawyers are unreal women while most entrepreneurs and businesswomen are real women. Women such as Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, and Carol Browner are unreal women. They are unevolved people who do not produce objective values that other people voluntarily purchase in the free market. Thus, they survive by wangling values from the productive class. But women such as Lillian Vernon, Liz Claiborne, and Madonna are real women. They are evolved people who produce a stunning array of objective values that other people voluntarily purchase in the free market. Thus, they survive by producing far more values than they consume.

Take Lillian Vernon: she created genuine opportunities, jobs, values, and wealth for society. Her prosperity is real and she is real. Liz Claiborne also created a tremendous array of values and wealth for herself and society. Claiborne, like Vernon and Madonna, is a real woman.

Differentiating real women from unreal women delivers two invaluable advantages. The first advantage is protection. One can end the constant harm of unreal women by quickly eliminating them from one's life. The second advantage is opulence. One can identify who are the real women and then purchase their products and services to gain superb values.

A person's implicit or explicit philosophy determines that person's value orientation. The three orientations to values include (1) value production, (2) value consumption, and (3) value destruction.

In the anticivilization, a lot of people orient around value consumption. This is an orientation where a person feels worthy because he or she possesses and consumes a large quantity of values. For example, a person with a value-consumption orientation might brag about how many vehicles, houses, and other goods he or she owns and uses. Such a person attempts to boost self-worth and self-esteem by consuming more values than other people consume.

Some people orient around value destruction. These are criminal-minded people who simply seek to gain unearned power, wealth, and prestige by destroying values, which is a lot easier than producing values. For example, armed IRS agents intentionally block, drain, and smash values. Value-destroying people experience temporary unnatural highs from destroying values. But in the long run, such people experience a deadening of mind and emotions. They have a dying spirit.

Some people have a value-production orientation. This type of person seeks to produce far more values than he or she consumes. As a result, he or she grows in genuine power, wealth, self-esteem, and happiness. The goal of this type of person is not to consume or destroy maximum values, but to produce maximum values.

In a rational civilization—the forthcoming Civilization of the Universe—everyone orients around value production. They do this not because of guilt, threats, or force, but to compete for survival, prosperity, love, and happiness. In fact, guilt, threats, and force are uncompetitive and thus obsolete in a rational civilization.

Anyone at any time can change his or her value orientation. Those who consume more values than they produce are drains on other people and society. Those who purposely destroy values are harmful and immoral. But those who produce more values than they consume make possible everyone's life and happiness. In turn, such productive people prosper in every area of life—far beyond the wildest dreams of people with a value consumption or value destruction orientation.

The key to abiding riches and happiness is value production. Sustained value production—competitively producing and marketing values that other people voluntarily purchase—brings oneself:

1. Mental and physical well-being


2. Financial and material prosperity


3. The base for lasting romantic love


4. A soaring spirit

Essentially anyone can create a window of opportunity—an opportunity for limitless success and prosperity. How?

First of all, in the anticivilization with its liberal media, many people have a negative outlook on life and a deep-seated belief about what is really possible for self. They acknowledge the fact that some people are successful, rich, and happy. But, many people believe either consciously or subconsciously that great success is impossible for them. This negativity abounds in the anticivilization.

But in reality, one can create a window of opportunity for oneself, open that window, and climb through it to a much better life. One can lift one's own life into abundant riches even if one comes from a poor, uneducated background. In fact, most opportunities to rise to a better life come from the individual creating opportunities for self rather than waiting for luck, good fortune, a winning lottery ticket, an inheritance, and so on.

The basic key to creating a window of opportunity for oneself is constant productive effort. Yes, this is the common denominator of all truly successful people. Of course, one has to know what one wants to do in life, e.g., be an actor, artist, writer, scientist, businessperson, director, or whatever. But once one knows what one wants to do—and no one else can dictate what one should do in life; this is a personal decision—one needs to exert constant productive effort in one's chosen direction. In most cases, one will have to work very hard for many years, sometimes with little or no recognition. Then, suddenly, one begins to see opportunities all around oneself. Some of those opportunities even pursue one's self. It all seems like magic. But magic has nothing to do with it.

One has created a window of opportunity, a chance to rise to the next level of living. One's productive effort—not magic—is the cause of one's opportunities. And the beautiful thing is that this is all in accord with the natural dynamics of personal growth and reality. There are no contradictions, illusions, or hoaxes one has to deal with. One simply needs to determine the course of one's life and constantly exert productive effort toward becoming what one wants to become. Then, after a while, opportunities will unfold right in front of oneself. This is when one can open up the window of opportunity and step into a better life.

The amount of time required to create a window of opportunity in one's life depends on one's skills, talent, knowledge, experience, and goals. Generally, the greater one's talent and knowledge, the less time one will need to create a window of opportunity. Also, the bigger one's goals, the more time one will need to create a window of opportunity. The average "overnight success" takes about fifteen years. Depending on one's circumstances, opportunities for success and prosperity can take as little as a few months to several decades. But the principle remains the same. One can create a window of opportunity to capture rich success by constantly exerting productive effort toward one's self-chosen goals. A delightful—and exciting—surprise awaits those who do this.

In a rational civilization, this idea would be superfluous. But an anticivilization pervades planet Earth; thus, this idea is useful.

Essentially everybody operates in—and is integrated with—the anticivilization. In order for people to gain high-quality survival and permanent prosperity, they need to cross the line from anti-life to pro-life: from an irrational mode to a rational mode.

How does one cross over from an anti-life existence to a pro-life existence? Through a two step process consisting of: (1) dismissing irrational notions and ideas in one's head, and (2) engaging in constant productive work.

In fact, switching from anti-life to pro-life is not very difficult. This two step process comprises unbreached rationality and productivity. Let's look at each step.

The first step to crossing the line from anti-life to pro-life consists of being rational one hundred percent of the time. It means that one rejects—on principle—ludicrous notions, false premises, non sequiturs, mysticism, and dishonesty. Being rational requires keeping one's consciousness attached to the facts of reality. This implies the dismissal of the God concept, religion, dishonest politicians, much of what the liberal media promulgates, the Creation concept, whole language, violating individual rights, and all other irrational and dishonest ideas & actions.

One can make mistakes, be creative, and assert hypotheses while being rational. Rationality does not exclude errors, theories, or creative discoveries. Man's mind is volitional, which implies that mistakes are possible; the rational man will discover and correct his mistakes. Theories are subject to testing for validation or refutation; the rational man will not accept or reject a theory until it has been proven or falsified. Creativity requires stepping out of the known to make new discoveries; the rational man will use reason to check a creative idea's validity and worth.

The second step to crossing the line from anti-life to pro-life consists of being productive throughout one's entire life. In theory, this means that one produces far more values than one consumes. In practice, this means that one continuously exerts effort to produce goods or services that other people voluntarily purchase. Independent productivity means that one relies on one's own mind to create values that other people need or want.

What happens after one exercises unbreached rationality and productivity across time? One senses a major shift taking place within oneself. Desire for the irrational, the unreal, and the negative disappears. The anti-life, which is constantly inculcated in everyone from his or her earliest days, fades away. In its place arises the pro-life—the desire for the rational, the real, the positive. Struggles between good & bad and right & wrong become no struggle at all. Thoughts of harming oneself or other people vanish; one increasingly respects self, other people, and all life. Prosperity, joy, and happiness become the dominant experience in one's life.

Wildly rich and powerful people inherently apply the success principle of turning negatives into positives. This lets the one gain maximum leverage from every event that occurs in one's life—both good and bad events.

Of course, one has to first acknowledge that a negative event actually exists. Then one can use creative thinking to determine how to turn it into a positive situation. This process begins with simple questions like, "how can I turn this negative situation into a positive situation?" One can then list all the ways that come to mind, regardless if they are workable. Then one can rank the ideas in order of effectiveness and implement the best ideas.

Everyone experiences negatives in their life. The goal is not to avoid every negative; this would be impossible. Instead, the goal is to turn every negative into a positive. Millions of people experience the death of loved ones, divorce, financial losses, health problems, and so on. And, everyone alive experiences one all-encompassing negative: the anticivilization, which is the fountainhead of human suffering, misery, and death.

Say, for example, that a man gets caught up in a harmful situation. That man can sulk about his misfortune and never overcome it. Or, that man can invert the negative into a positive by using the negative to discover a brand new positive. The man can examine his negative situation and then use it as a contradistinction to formulate a new positive. By identifying the opposite of his negative situation, he could clarify a positive situation. He can then abandon the negative situation and implement the positive situation.

Astounding discoveries sometimes come from the practice of turning negatives into positives. In fact, some of the world's greatest breakthroughs did not come from an intentional decision to move the world. In certain cases, history-making breakthroughs came about by converting negatives into positives. The printing press, the telephone, and Post-It Pads, for example, came about as a result of converting negative situations into positive situations.

The bottom line is that most negative situations contain enormous potential for success—if one applies rational thought and action to turn negatives into positives. In most cases, this is not easy. But turning a negative situation into a positive situation can offer tremendous leverage from one's effort.

The two primary realms of a person's life are business and personal. Neither can be ignored. If a person sacrifices one of these realms in order to nurture the other realm, the person will become unbalanced. Both of these realms are interdependent on each other. Thus, they are both indispensable to a happy, successful life.

For example, the business realm lets one express creativity and produce values that make one's survival and wealth possible. One can then benefit from one's earned survival and wealth by enjoying a personal realm filled with material prosperity, comfort, security, romance, and happiness. The goal, in this context, is to achieve a balanced life. By doing this, one can work effectively, replenish oneself, come up with new ideas, and return to work with even greater effectiveness. This dynamic of moving from the business realm to the personal realm and back to the business realm over and over results in a spiral of increasing effectiveness, prosperity, and fulfillment.

The following chart reveals the essence of the two realms of life that constitute a balanced life.

Both of the above realms are vital to a full, rewarding life. The percentage of time one spends in each of these realms will differ according to one's work. For example, entrepreneurs or architects usually spend more time in the business realm than in the personal realm. And salaried employees can often spend more time in the personal realm than in the business realm. But, in essence, both are crucial and neither one should be sacrificed for the other.

Positives and negatives are a normal part of conscious life; neither can be totally avoided. However, one can be happy and fulfilled despite the negatives in one's life. Anyone can do this by learning how to successfully deal with negatives.

Using the methods of Neuro Linguistic Programming and Nathaniel Branden's work in psychology, one can consciously process negative situations in a favorable manner. First, one always needs to acknowledge the facts of reality. Then, one needs to acknowledge any negative situations in one's life; evading negatives is self-destructive in the long run. Now, once one is aware of negative situations—such as work, financial, health, or relationship problems—one can figure out how to reduce or eliminate their effects. Lastly, one can put these in their appropriate place in consciousness. And that place is at the back of one's mind, behind one's positive thoughts and images.

This means that one puts the positives in the forefront of one's mind while relegating the negatives to the back of one's mind. One can enlarge and dwell on the positives in order to feel good about them. But one does not enlarge and dwell on the negatives.

A crucial point is this: one needs to identify the negatives in one's life. This is fairly obvious. But passively focusing on negatives is destructive; it leaves one feeling depressed, anxious, or hopeless. Instead of merely focusing on a negative and then feeling bad, one needs to figure out how to convert the negative into a positive or at least minimize the destruction that might result from the negative. Then one can "shrink" the size and intensity of the negative situation and put it in the back of one's mind. One can then move on to new experiences with one's capacity to enjoy life fully intact.

In short, one identifies and acknowledges the negatives in one's life. Then one does not dwell on the negatives; one turns them into positives or minimizes their harmful effects. One can then shift them from the forefront of one's mind to the back of one's mind. In this way, one will remain aware of the negatives in one's life and know exactly what one is going to do about them. But one will retain the positives—the good things in one's life—at the forefront of one's consciousness.

This does not imply that one will never feel hopeless or depressed. Everyone feels these and similar emotions in varying degrees at different times. This, too, is normal. The key here is to process reality in a way that lets one experience pleasure and happiness most of the time—far more often than one experiences pain and sadness.

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