"Be a leader, not a follower" is a phrase my mother repeated often to myself and my siblings while growing up. I am very thankful that she did so because she successfully embedded that guiding principle into my being and I believe it is a big part of the reason I've gotten to a point in my life where I have a degree of individual autonomy that allows me to lead the life I want to lead. To be clear, I'm not trying to say that I'm some leader worth following. The phrase has many meanings.

To me, the phrase can be articulated in other ways, "think for yourself. trust your instincts. don't do something just because someone tells you to do something." I don't want to come off too preachy, but I think the world would be a much better place if more individuals had this ethos embedded into their souls. Nothing makes this clearer to me than what we've watch unfold in Afghanistan over the last two weeks and the despicable response from our "leaders" here in the US. Two decades of a drawn out war and we have absolutely nothing to show for it.

We were all conned. Conned by our government, which promised us that the erosion of our civil liberties and privacy were necessary to defeat the terrorists. And conned by ourselves for agreeing to this erosion of our freedoms because the government said it was necessary. The end results of trusting the War Machine was the construction of a digital panopticon at home and the direct arming of the enemies we were told we were being protected from. This is absolutely unacceptable and the time to take personal responsibility for things is right now. No more depending on the government to act in our best interests. Time to get off our asses and ensure our best interests are respected by taking it upon ourselves to ensure them. No more abdicating responsibility. No more abdicating blame. Own it. Own your domain and protect your freedoms.

If a critical mass of individuals employ this strategy and exhibit extreme ownership over their lives, the world will be a much better place. We can sit here and cry and whine about the terrible outcome of the war in Afghanistan, but that won't solve anything. The time for grassroots action is now.

This is why we Bitcoin, freaks. It provides individuals an avenue through which they can exhibit extreme ownership over their wealth. Once enough individuals have extreme ownership over their wealth and an extreme ownership mentality that extends beyond protecting their wealth, we can make better individual decisions that, collectively, will make society better off as a result. More individuals seriously thinking things through, weighing costs and tradeoffs, and making decisions in their best interest is the way we break free from the dystopia forming around us.

Be a leader, not a follower.

Final thought...

Hotel gyms need to get dumbbells heavier than 45 lbs.

Enjoy your weekend, freaks.