One of my current interest in passions, actually for a long time, is regarding stoicism, philosophy, etc.

Why? I think in the realm of philosophy, stoicism may be the only school of thought which actually is useful in every day living. For example, conquering fear doubt and hesitation, how to advance through setbacks, how to deal with other people etc.

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EK WORKSHOPS

Conquer it all:

1. CONQUER DOWNTOWN LA PHOTO AND LIFE
2. CONQUER SAIGON VIETNAM
3. CONQUER THE STREETS OF PHILLY

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Stoicism 2.0?

I think ever since Nassim Taleb, stoicism has gained a new renaissance. Stoicism is now quite mainstream, and interesting to a lot of people.

First and foremost, we must interact with other people. No no no, even if you were a monk in the mountains, you will still make friends with villagers etc. No man has his own island.

I think it is a good idea to be honest here — and we love people. Everybody loves people. The new ones is which types of people we like and we don’t like.

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Why?

Having the courage to ask why I can be one of the most courageous things we can ask in modern day times. Why? I think in modern-day times, to ask people why is seen as a threat. Or like you’re being critical or judging them in a negative way.

However for me, I am simply curious. I’m curious why people engage in certain behaviors and activities, and it really isn’t from a space of judging, it is more my personal curiosity about human nature, society, sociology etc.

Even in Vietnamese, one thing I learned which was insightful was that the question, “Tại sao?“, (在牢?) is seen as an affront.

tại (“because of; for; to blame”) +‎ sao (“why; how”)

Therefore, when you ask somebody “Why?” You’re seeking someone to blame?

Also in Korean, the funny thing, when a parent calls upon their child, and the kid is slightly annoyed, they respond by saying, “왜?” Weh (왜) means “why?” or “what do you want?” When I was in college, and I would teach English to kids in Korea over the summer, I remember finding it so striking that when I will try to call the attention of a Korean kid, they would respond by saying, “Why?” Instead of the standard English, “What?”

Tai can also mean “…because”.

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Why is to exist?

I think sooner or later, a lot of people, once they retire, achieve all these accolades in life, etc., will often meditate on the meaning of their existence, why they exist, the purpose of their life, etc.

However, to meditate on the purpose of your life is simply a steppingstone. It is not the final goal. The final goal is to gain some sort of deeper clarity about the purpose and why of your life, and then, dedicating all of your strength, balls, chutzpah, audacity and courage to attain those goals.

“For the man who knows the why of his life, he will easily discover the how.” – Nietzsche

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Being disliked or hated?

The funny thing is in life, it seems that everyone desires to be liked. Yet, what if actually, the opposite word to be desired? To become more heated, fear, or disliked?

For example, I might be one of the most hated photographers, street photographers, or photography personalities on the internet. Why? People are befuddled by me. People ask me, “what is up with all of these flexing videos?”

The funny thing is people become indignant when you publish things which are not to their liking. However, this is a funny thing,

It is all free. Also, you have the power to unsubscribe, or just not click on it or look at it.

This is this bizarre sense of entitlement people have with the internet:

“How dare you do things which are against my own personal interests!”

The simple strategy is to stoutly proceed, and keep marching on, just imagine like juggernaut from the X-Men movie, busting through the walls.

Or, another visual is imagine the spartan 300, in the movie 300, pushing the Persians off the cliff.

Why is this all so critical?

A lot of people follow me and look up to me. A lot of creators look up to me. I feel like it is my duty, my mission, my missionary duty to empower other people and creators.

I was randomly musing this morning, currently I am 35 years old, born in 1988. When I started traveling the world and doing all this street photography stuff, back in 2010, 2011, I was only 21/22 years old. This means if I do the math, I’ve been in the game for almost 14 or 15 years. Soon this will be 20 years plus.

Also funny enough, I am lucky enough to see the Internet change and evolve. For example when I was just in high school, a sophomore junior in high school, it was all about Xanga in my space. Then I saw the rise and fall of Flickr, and now, The Fall of Facebook, and the overshadowing of TikTok over Instagram.

I was in the car with Cindy, and I was randomly thinking, besides Facebook and Instagram, where else can people share their photos?

arsbeta.com was my first grand mission—

Creating a proof of concept, a double blind experiment in the realm of photography, that is, if the poster of the photo is anonymous, and the commentator is also anonymous, what type of behavior will this facilitate?

What I discovered is that it actually promotes good behavior. Why? People are more genuine and honest.

For example ARS COIN, and ARS BETA RELEASE.

WHY BECOME A MISSIONARY?

One of the great ideas that I got from Peter Thiel from “zero to one” — this notion, missionary or mercenary?

A mercenary mean somebody who works, fights, or labors for some sort of market-determined price for labor. A missionary is somebody who is on a mission, it doesn’t have to be religious. And you don’t have to be some sort of Friar monk with a bald shaved head.

One of the things which is really inspiring of watching Sergey Nazarov when it comes to his lectures and interviews and presentations is he really doesn’t seem to care for money, he really does care to create something that will change the world for the better.

Compare Sergey with a lot of these other fake entrepreneurs, who simply want to cash out, buy a Lamborghini, and retire on some sort of desert island.

My mission?

Life goals I have had, and done did —

1. My curiosity ever since I was a teenage kid, not to “work for the man“, become “my own boss“, and earn $100 an hour… and just work a few hours a week (my desire as a 16 year old kid)
2. When I was around 20, 21 years old: would it even be possible for me to transform my passion, street photography, into a living?
3. Gain financial independence — FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE RETIRE EARLY, also, gain location independence, becoming a digital nomad. Traveling the world, becoming famous, having solo exhibitions and books etc. Purchasing your freedom. Life post-retirement?
4. Make money through bitcoin and crypto — three Lamborghinis in the bank.
5. Have a kid
6. Atlas lift 935 pounds — 9 plates and a 35 on each side, and rack pull 815 pounds — eight plates and two tens. For reference, I am certain within a short period of time I shall be able to atlas lift at least 10 plates. Can you imagine seeing somebody on the squat rack, getting ready to squat 10 plates on each side? Also, my mythical rack pool; can you imagine seeing somebody about to deadlift eight plates, and 210s on each side of the barbell? I am certain within a year, I will be able to successfully rock pull over nine plates.
7. Now what?

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ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS

WHAT CAN YOU BECOME?

1. DOWNTOWN LA — CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE
2. CONQUER SAIGON VIETNAM
3. CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IN PHILLY

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Stoic training

1. For the next month, only take icy cold showers. The best way to do this is start off by taking a really really hot shower, until you get really really hot, and then finish cold. Slowly overtime adjust the duration and tempo, until you go only go cold full-time. I’ve been doing this religiously for the last seven or eight years, ever since the cold Michigan winters in East Lansing.
2. Whenever something bad happens to you in life or you gaining some sort of setback, just say to yourself, “Fuck it!”, then hit the gym, and churn out a new one rep max for your atlas lift or rack pull
3. For an entire month, whenever you randomly cross paths with somebody in the street or sidewalk, make eye contact, smile and just wave at them.
4. Don’t use headphones, AirPods, air buds for a month. This includes the gym.
5. Practice driving without any music, radio, podcast, on. Drive mute.
6. As a nighttime routine, don’t read nothing but stoic philosophy. Read the meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and also the letters of Seneca.

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Stoic Consulting?

Email eric [at] erickim.com

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EK PHOTO SUPPLY

1. HENRI NECK MARK IV: DOMINATE.
2. EK NECK STRAP MARK II: KILL IT
3. ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II: BECOME THE NEW RULER OF THE STREETS

Shop >

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Stoic Films?

1. The godfather
2. John Wick
3. The movie 300

Cinema >

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A stoic platform?

Perhaps my next enterprise.

In the meanwhile, Stoicism 101 >

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Thoughts, ideas, random stuff on my mind

1. What does it mean to gain more power? Is feeling more powerful the same as actually being more powerful?
2. How to deal with bullshit: just ignore?
3. The market is stupid. Otherwise, how does Pepsi sell Mountain Dew?
4. To improve your website, disable bullshit
5. An upgrade means having less
6. Don’t do anything to “benefit others“, rather, only do things to benefit yourself.
7. People want to murder out their cars, but instead, better to just murder out yourself.
8. Real masculinity versus fake masculinity?
9. Just do as you please, deal with the consequences later.
10. Just buy a cop car: for example, the Ford explorer ST?
11. A good reason to wear all black clothing; let’s distracting to yourself when you drive?
12. Visibility is critical in cars
13. Patience.
14. Always anticipate the worst case scenario traffic.

Always new thoughts on the EK BLOG >

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START HERE, BOOKS, SHOP, WORKSHOPS, NEWS

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ERIC KIM MIRRORS

1. www.Erickim.com
2. www.Erickimphilosophy.com

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Forward the power

Feeling a little bit more stoic and motivated? If so, feel free to forward this to a philosophical friend!

EK NEWS >

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Philosophy 101

ZEN OF ERIC PDF

1. Masters of philosophy
2. Stoicism
3. Zen

To learn more, start here >

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Dear friend,

I wanted to give you some practical ideas, and thoughts on how you can make money with your street photography:

First of all, consider why you want to make money with street photography. Do you want to make money with street photography because you want to make it a full-time living? Do you think that only doing things with street photography will bring you happiness? Or do you just want some extra side-cash from doing your passion, which is street photography?

Some articles to refer to:

• Should I Make Money From My Photography?
• Why Make Money With Photography?
• The 3 Principles of Making Money With Photography
• How To Make a Living From Photography

Do you want to make street photography your full-time living?

To be honest, I don’t know many other people who are making a full-time living from street photography. However I know that street photography has helped a lot of photographers promote their commercial photography, and has also helped them make a living in other ways.

For example, I teach street photography workshops for a living, and as of now (2017) am making a pretty sizable passive income with Haptic Industries (tools for street photographers, led by my partner, Cindy).

I make 80% of my income from teaching workshops, and around 20% off Haptic Industries (selling Street Notes, Photo Journal, the Henri Strap), as well as Amazon Affiliate links.

I also know some other street photographers who have got a lot of commercial work from their talent and passion in street photography — Matt Stuart and Nick Turpin (being two photographers who come to mind).

Practical ways how to make money in street photography

So I want to use this article to share some potential ways you can make money from your street photography:

1. Teaching street photography workshops

I think education is the biggest field for entrepreneurship in photography. I don’t think there is a huge market for selling prints anymore, but a huge market for teaching people how to make better photos.

For example, the focus of my workshops tend to be on how to conquer your fear of shooting street photography — one of the biggest barriers I had in my street photography, and something that many other photographers deal with.

Another example of a workshop — teaching travel street photography workshops. That means, doing a week-long street photography workshop in an interesting or exotic city (Tokyo, New York City, Hanoi) — and giving photographers a chance to travel, have an unforgettable experience, and of course— improve their street photography.

Here are some articles on how to teach a street photography workshop:

• How to Teach a Street Photography Class
• How to Become a Photography Teacher
• Why I Teach Street Photography Workshops

2. Selling prints

You can make money from selling street photography prints, but I honestly don’t think you can make a full-time living purely off prints.

The issue is that most people don’t want to pay for photos anymore. With social media, most photographers prefer to get images for free. There are some photographers who have built up a strong enough following, that they can sell their photos as fine art. However, I don’t necessarily think this is the best way to make a living. It can be a good side-income, however.

The photographer Daniel Arnold sold 4×6 prints for $100 on his Instagram account, and made some good side-cash from it, which also helped him find commercial work.

3. Commercial work

You can shoot a ‘street photography aesthetic’ for commercial work. For example, I see a lot of ‘street style’ photos being shot for fashion magazines, for lifestyle magazines, as well as product companies.

Or I see a lot of wedding photographers shooting in a ‘documentary style’ — candid photos of memorable moments. Essentially shooting a wedding in the style of a street photographer. Capturing ‘decisive moments’, unposed and candid moments, and more ‘authentic’ photos than simply posed wedding photos.

4. Selling books

I see a huge potential opportunity in selling books — information-educated based books, or photo books.

Cindy and I worked on creating ‘Street Notes’ — a handbook on how to shoot street photography on the streets. It includes inspirational and motivation assignments, that help encourage street photographers to step outside of their comfort zone. These have been doing pretty well, as well as our new product: “Photo Journal” (which is a personal photography journal, very similar to Street Notes, but more about personal reflections, rather than shooting assignments).

I also have personally spent thousands of dollars on photo books (art books) over the last few years, mostly on Amazon:

Photo Book Reviews Â»

• Magnum Contact Sheets
• Josef Koudelka: Exiles
• Trent Parke: Minutes to Midnight

Recommended Photo Books Â»

• Robert Frank: The Americans
• Alex Webb: The Suffering Of Light
• Josef Koudelka: Gypsies

I prefer looking at photo books of photographers I admire. I love the texture of the paper, the weight, the feeling of the cover, and the ability to simply enjoy a cup of coffee, and looking at images— uninterrupted. A far more zen and tranquil experience than just looking at photos on my phone.

Furthermore, I also see a huge market for educational ‘how to’ photography books. People still prefer physical books, because they are easier to carry with you, you can write in them, and (of course) they look nicer for Instagram/Cappuccino/Camera photos.

I personally believe that photo books are the best bang-for-the-buck in terms of your personal growth and development in photography. This is because gear and cameras will always get outdated. But when you learn some sort of new photographic technique, insight, or philosophy — it will stick with you forever.

A photo book tends to get better with time, and also the prices of photo books often go up. For example, I bought William Eggleston’s “Chromes” for $300 — now it goes second-hand for $1,000+. The same goes for Jason Esekanazi’s “Wonderland” book (I bought it for $30, and it is going for $300+ used).

When in doubt, buy books, not gear.

So in a practical sense — you can sell your street photos in a book. Or perhaps you can do a ‘how to’ street photography book — sharing your secrets and techniques on how to shoot street photography. You can sell your books digitally (selling PDF, or on Kindle), or you can print them and sell them via PayPal, Amazon, Etsy, or any other online commerce platform.

I know a lot of photographers who have also been publishing ‘zines’ (small-batch, photo magazines) of their work, and making a few bucks as well.

5. Photography consulting

Other potential ways you can make money from street photography — perhaps figuring out a way you can be a consultant, for camera companies, or being a personal consultant for a street photographer trying to learn.

You can partner up with a photography company, and advise them (for money) on how to improve their cameras for street photographers.

Or you can offer 1:1 consulting/teaching/mentorship for other aspiring street photographers, who want to improve their work. You can do this in-person, or perhaps online via Skype.

6. Marketing campaigns

A strange way I’ve been able to monetize my street photography is doing marketing campaigns for companies like Samsung.

A marketing agency contacted me concerning one of Samsung’s new digital cameras— and asked me to shoot street photography to promote the camera. I ended up uploading these Chicago GoPro POV videos on YouTube, showing others how to approach strangers, and shoot street portraits.

If companies like your street photography style, they might also contact you for doing marketing campaigns for them.

How to find clients

The hardest thing is to find clients, aka — people who are willing to pay you for your street photography, either directly, or in-directly.

I know a lot of street photographers being contacted via social media, by including their email addresses in their biographies. And some of them get contacted by companies, to do marketing or advertising campaigns.

For myself personally, because I have blogged heavily on street photography, many people find this blog through Google searches, read my articles, books, and watch my YouTube videos, end up trusting me, and signing up for one of my workshops, or purchasing one of my photo books or camera straps.

Probably the most important thing about finding clients in your street photography is this — make yourself visible. Put yourself out there. Don’t be shy to market yourself. Because if you don’t share your work, if you’re not active on social media — nobody will ever find you.

Also, an important thing is to build your personal brand. You can build your personal brand through long-term trust-building. For example, I blogged heavily on street photography for at least 1-2 years before I was able to make any ripples. And now, I’ve had this blog for around 6-7 years — and finally I feel like I’m starting to build a name for myself.

Similarly, you want to make sure to have good work. I have faith in my street photos, my insight and teaching abilities, as well as my blogging abilities. Your skills will improve over time. So make it a point to put out the best quality product you can, in terms of your street photos, your blog posts on street photography, your street photography books, or any street-photography-related products or services.

Below are some in-depth guides that can help you:

Entrepreneurial Principles

• How to Do What You Love for a Living
• How to Create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• How to Fail Big
• How to Invest in Yourself
• How to Be Bold in Photography and Life
• Mission: Cover Your Rent and Food
• 1,000 True Fans
• The “10x Principle”: The Only Difference Between “Success” and “Failure”
• Make More Value Not Money
• We Live in a Photo Utopia

How to be a Full-time Photographer

• How to Make a Living From Photography
• The 3 Principles of Making Money With Photography
• Advice for Aspiring Full-Time Photographers
• Don’t Go Into Debt For Your Photography
• How to Brand Yourself as a Photographer
• Trust: The Most Important Thing You Need to Succeed as a Photographer

How to Start a Blog

• How to Make a Living with Blogging
• 50 Blogging Tips For Beginners
• How to Start Your Own Photography Blog
• A Photographer’s Guide to SEO, Blogging, and Social Media

How to market yourself

The wrong way to market yourself is to spam people on social media with tons of #hashtags and annoying people.

I rather encourage you to make the best product you can, and share it with others, without being spammy.

But how do you not be spammy? Just treat others how you would like to be treated.

For example, I get annoyed on social media when people share too many photos, too frequently. I personally like to share my photos, but less regularly, and only my best work. Of course, I fall victim to over-sharing like everybody, but just remember the golden rule:

Don’t do unto others as you don’t want others to do unto you.

And similarly, if you want to figure out how to make money in street photography, figure out what personal problems you had in street photography, and what kind of solutions you could offer.

For example, when I started shooting street photography, I was scared shitless, and it took me a long time to build my confidence. I learned practical tips, techniques, and approaches— and taught these things in my street photography workshops.

I also wish in street photography, I had practical street photography assignments, to motivate myself (when I was lacking inspiration). I therefore collaborated with Cindy to make ‘Street Notes’ — a pocketable ‘workshop in a book’ that fits in your back pocket. I made the product I wish I had.

The same happened when I started to get frustrated in my photography — when I was living in the suburbs, and I couldn’t shoot ‘street photography.’ I soon discovered the beauty of Personal Photography, and ended up making ‘Photo Journal’ as a way to personally reflect more on my photography, in terms of why I shot street photography, as well as the more philosophical side behind photography.

Some social media guides below:

• The Social Media Blackbook for Photographers
• Why Do You Need More Likes or Followers?
• Instagram is Going to Be the Next Facebook
• Don’t Trust “Free” Photography Social Networks

Be true to yourself

Ultimately, don’t copy what others are doing in street photography. Find inspiration from them, but follow your own unique voice.

You need to find your strength in your street photography.

For example, I know my strength is teaching. I am a natural extrovert, and my passion (ever since I was young) was to teach. I actually wanted to become a Sociology professor when I was in college.

Other photographers are more introverted— so if you’re more introverted, perhaps you can teach your own street photography workshops 1:1. Or you can teach them online.

If you have a passion for wedding photography, you can brand yourself as a ‘street style’ wedding photographer. Or ‘personal documentary’ wedding photographer, or whatever suits your style.

If you prefer doing commercial work for big companies, find inspiration from guys like Matt Stuart and Nick Turpin — who have a distinct street photography style, which can be incorporated into marketing brochures and practical marketing material for big companies.

If you have a passion for books and printing, perhaps start printing and publishing your own books on street photography. Print your own work, print the work of others. I know my friend Brian Milo started his own photo printing studio, because he was frustrated by other printers. His tag line is brilliant: “I give a fuck about your photos.”

Find your inner-entrepreneur

Of course all this advice I’m sharing with you is based on my personal experiences, thoughts, and perspective. I also write this being an American, with certain access to Amazon Fulfillment and Etsy services.

No matter what your position in life, I think you can make some money in your street photography. And if you really work hard enough, are passionate enough, skilled enough, and lucky enough — maybe make street photography into a living.

Remember, fortune favors the brave.

Never lack faith in yourself,
Eric

Make a living from your passion

To learn more, read all Entrepreneurship Articles >

It seems that the modern day desideratum (thing to be desired) is to become more “productive“. I know this is one of my passions. For me, pure, undiluted productivity is what I desire and lust after and desire.

Something I’ve discovered:

When I am indoors, in the dark, without any natural light or exposure to the elements, and without direct UV exposure, I feel uninspired.

Outdoor man

The funny thing is nowadays I think the whole outdoors notion is such a weak marketed idea. Essentially, being outdoors is seen as the new commodity; anybody who owns Patagonia, or spends too much time at REI knows this.

My personal thought is that perhaps, there is this intrinsic link between sun exposure, and your body’s direct access to ultraviolet light, the real one from the sun not the fake one inside a fake tanning bed, is one of the best natural stimuluses is to us.

When I was in Vietnam, some random musings that I had was thinking about a spaceship sociology of the future— essentially, how could you spend 20 to 30 years on the spaceship without going crazy?

Spaceship earth.

Also,

What is the purpose of life?

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Buckminster Fuller wrote this interesting book called ‘Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth’ (written 1969)— using the Earth as a metaphor for a spaceship:

Here are some ideas:

1. What is human drive?

Our drive is to understand and be understood.

2. Specialization is slavery

But specialization is in fact only a fancy form of slavery wherein the “expert” is fooled into accepting his slavery by making him feel that in return he is in a socially and culturally preferred, ergo, highly secure, lifelong position. But only the king’s son received the Kingdom- wide scope of training.

3. Specialization will make you weak

Also the problem of specialization; it is like in-breeding.

To breed faster race horses, you get the fastest race horses (with the best genes), and constantly breed them together. More often than not, they are of the family family. So you keep in-breeding them, and each generation becomes more specialized, but less adaptable. And consider the genetic flaws of in-breeding.

4. Man is more than a muscle and reflex machine

We need to have creative control over our lives; to express our creative faculties and abilities.

5. The earth is only 8,000 miles in diameter

Imagine us living on a spaceship. Except that spaceship is planet earth:

Our little Spaceship Earth is only eight thousand miles in diameter, which is almost a negligible dimension in the great vastness of space. Our nearest star our energy-supplying mother-ship, the Sun‹is ninety-two million miles away, and the nearest star is one hundred thousand times further away. It takes approximately four and one third years for light to get to us from the next nearest energy supply ship star. That is the kind of space-distanced pattern we are flying. Our little Spaceship Earth is right now traveling at sixty thousand miles an hour around the around the sun and is also spinning axially, which, at the latitude of Washington, D. C., adds approximately one thousand miles per hour to our motion. Each minute we both spin at one hundred miles and zip in orbit at one thousand miles. That is a whole lot of spin and zip. When we launch our rocketed space capsules at fifteen thousand miles an hour, that additional acceleration speed we give the rocket to attain its own orbit around our speeding Spaceship Earth is only one-fourth greater than the speed of our big planetary spaceship.

What will happen when we run out of fuel, or food, or pollute our spaceship to death?

6. We have unlimited potential

We have unlimited potential to change the environment; to bend it to our will:

Once man comprehended that any tree would serve as a lever his intellectual advantages accelerated. Man freed of special-case superstition by intellect has had his survival potentials multiplied millions fold. By virtue of the leverage principles in gears, pulleys, transistors, and so forth, it is literally possible to do more with less in a multitude of physio-chemical ways. Possibly it was this intellectual augmentation of humanity’s survival and success through the metaphysical perception of generalized principles which may be objectively employed that Christ was trying to teach in the obscurely told story of the loaves and the fishes.

Know that the human mind has the ability to infinitely multiply inventions, new ideas, new thoughts, new inventions— for the betterment of all of humankind.

7. The mind

We need to use our intellectual capability for the highest advantage of all of humankind.

Our muscles are very weak compared to other animals. But we can build tools; that is what makes us human.

And what really makes us human? Our use of our minds.

8. We will run out of natural resources

If we are living on a spaceship, even if we have organic material to make more organic compounds, at the rate we are consuming, we will eventually run out.

9. What is money/gold/wealth?

Money used to be tied to the gold standard; but no longer does. Buckminster Fuller wrote in 1969, that he estimated around 70 billion dollars worth of mined gold:

At present there is about seventy billion dollars of mined gold known to exist on board our Spaceship Earth. A little more than half of it-about forty billion-is classified as being “monetary”; that is, it exists in the forms of various national coinages or in the form of officially banked gold bullion bars. The remaining thirty billion is in private metallic hordes, jewelry, gold teeth, etc.

Banks don’t earn wealth. Buckminster Fuller says that the world’s annual gross product can be in excess of a quadrillion dollars (1969 estimate):

Since banks have no money of their own and only our deposits on which they earn “interest,” bank wealth or money consists only of accrued bank income. Income represents an average return of 5 per cent on capital invested. We may assume therefore from an estimate of the world’s annual gross product that the capital assets, in the form of industrial production, on board our Spaceship Earth are at present worth in excess of a quadrillion dollars. The world’s total of seventy billion dollars in gold represents only three one-thousandths of I per cent of the value of the world’s organized industrial production resources. The gold supply is so negligible as to make it pure voodoo to attempt to valve the world’s economic evolution traffic through the gold-sized needle’s “eye.”

What is wealth anyways?

No matter how much wealth we have, we cannot alter the past. Nor can we use wealth to live forever.

First, I say, “No matter what you think wealth may be and no matter how much you have of it, you cannot alter one iota of yesterday.” No protest? We’ve learned some lessons. We can say that wealth is irreversible in evolutionary processes. Is there anyone who disagrees with any of my statements thus far about what wealth is or is not? Good-no disagreement-we will go on.

Buckminster Fuller uses the analogy — how can we use wealth if we were shipwrecked, on an island by ourselves?

Now, I’m going to have a man in a shipwreck. He’s rated as a very rich man, worth over a billion dollars by all of society’s accredited conceptions of real wealth. He has taken with him on his voyage all his stocks and bonds, all his property deeds, all his checkbooks, and, to play it safe, has brought along a lot of diamonds and gold bullion. The ship burns and sinks, and there are no lifeboats, for they, too, have burned. If our billionaire holds on to his gold, he’s going to sink a little faster than the others. So I would say he hadn’t much left either of now or tomorrow in which to articulate his wealth, and since wealth cannot work backwardly his kind of wealth is vitally powerless.

Money, wealth, is just like poker chips at the casino— it represents wealth; but isn’t real wealth:

(Wealth) is really a worthless pile of chips of an arbitrary game which we are playing and does not correspond to the accounting processes of our real universe’s evolutionary transactions. Obviously the catastrophied billionaire’s kind of wealth has no control over either yesterday, now, or tomorrow. He can’t extend his life with that kind of wealth unless he can persuade the one passenger who has a life-jacket to yield that only means of extending one life in exchange for one crazy moment’s sense of possession of all the billionaire’s sovereign-powers-backed legal tender, all of which the catastrophy-disillusioned and only moments earlier “powerfully rich” and now desperately helpless man would thankfully trade for the physical means of extending the years of his life; or of his wife.

According to Buckminster Fuller, real wealth is the Earth itself:

It is obvious that the real wealth of life aboard our planet is a forwardly-operative, metabolic, and intellectual regenerating system.

To have more wealth is to have more time, to have more freedom of our schedules, of our creative minds. We need to use money to free our minds, to explore the mysteries of the world:

Freeing his time for its more effective exploratory investment is to give man increased wealth.

To me, wealth is just having the freedom to pursue what is interesting to you. To seek mastery of your own mind.

10. The world is great

We complain about today’s world, but consider how far we’ve come. We have increased human life spans, eliminated almost all diseases, increased travel distances, and invented the internet:

Our most reliable, visionary, and well-informed great-grandfathers of I8IO could not have foreseen that in the meager century and one-half of all the billionsfold greater reaches of known universal time that human life-span would be trebled, that the yearly real income of the individual would be “enfolded, that the majority of diseases would be banished, and human freedom of realized travel one-hundred-folded; that humans would be able to whisper effortlessly in one another’s ear from anywhere around the world apart and at a speed of seven hundred million miles an hour.

Billion-fold increase of our human capability.

We can communicate instantly; to anyone in the world.

11. What is success?

In the past, only ‘divinely ordained kings and nobles were entailed to eat fairly regularly.’ To eat regularly was the sign of success back then.

But now, we have ‘vastly higher performance per pound tools’ — which can unlock our human potential.

To me, success is just pursuing what you are passionate about, and developing the fullest extent of your inner-capabilities.

12. Empower all of humankind

Let us seek to increase the ‘per pound performance’ of the world’s resources— to provide all of humanity a higher standard of living.

That means— how can we use the finite/limited resources we have on planet earth, and figure out how to make more effective/efficient/productive use of it?

To produce more, with using less?

Or, to gain more performance and output, with less fuel or intake?

13. Stop buying stuff

“I owned 54 cars, but will never own another. I have not given up driving. I began to leave my cars at airports.” – Buckminster Fuller

Buckminster Fuller says how he is progressing to cease to own things. That possessing stuff is often more burdensome to us. And also consider:

• Our beds are empty 2/3 of the time
• Our living room are empty 7/8ths of the time

And how little are we actually at home?

For me, I love to buy stuff. But I know that by buying more stuff, I am just cluttering up my home, my mind, and continuing to deplete resources.

How can I live a lifestyle where I consume less, but share more?

• To ride more Uber, instead of driving, or owning a car.
• To rent cameras when I need them for commercial work, rather than buying them.
• To not feel the need to build new homes, but to rent, share, Airbnb, or live in another house.
• To stop buying new clothes; to learn how to buy second-hand.

14. Unlimited potential

Realize that I have unlimited potential; never stop developing my skills, my knowledge of the world, and sharing.

Learn more about Buckminster Fuller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUWDRti422k

Learn more: 53 Lessons Buckminster Fuller Has Taught Me About Life

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